Looking a buying my first pistol, Sig P320, Cz Shadow 1, Glock 19x, M&P 2.0 or range

jbroomie said:
I've seen the advice about getting a .22 to start but I am fairly comfortable with shooting and with a somewhat limited budget I don't really want to purchase a .22 and then want to move to a larger calibre shortly afterwords
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Fair enough. Of those you listed I have only owned the Shadow. I also had a Gen 4 and currently have a Gen 5 G17; while not identical they're pretty close to the 19X. Here are my thoughts.

Shadow Like's: Feels great in hand and has some weight, single action trigger breaks cleanly, good parts availability and aftermarket support, better than average service pistol accuracy.

Shadow Dis-like's: Bad sights (had trouble retaining definition), double action reach is long, double action pull not particularly smooth, DA/SA trigger transition, stiff safety, picky about reloads.

At the end of the day I sold the Shadow because I didn't like the DA/SA operation. The vast majority of my prior shooting was SAO (Hammerli, Pardini, 1911's, X5's) so the DA/SA transition for me was irritating and I wasn't willing to put in the time/training/ammo to learn it when I could opt for a different solution. I also have smaller hands and the long reach to the trigger in DA was an irritant.

Gen 5 G17 Likes: Grip angle, natural pointer for me, unparalleled aftermarket support (guess that happens with perfection?), good sights available from factory on Gen 5, eats anything and everything you feed it without complaint, consistent predictable trigger pull with fantastic reset.

Gen 5 G17 Dislikes: It's ugly plastic and the grip is a bit over-square. It's the typical striker trigger before the break = not a lot of feedback. Honestly, I don't have any big complaints so far. Gen 4 I could complain about for days; finger grooves, no lead bullets, finger grooves, crappy plastic sights, finger grooves. I really hated finger grooves.

I sold my Gen4 G17 because the finger grooves bugged me while shooting. Gen 5 was a game changer for me and I'm pleased to report I'm 100% satisfied. The trigger will never be up to an SAO target gun, but I've never seen a holster for a Pardini, so win some lose some.

Of the two I would say the Shadow is the more conservative option and has the greatest chance of keeping you happy. Glocks seem to be a love/hate affair whereas the Shadow has redeeming features even to those of us who choose not to own or use them. I enjoyed shooting the Shadow, but wasn't willing to put in the work to shoot it well. If you've got larger hands and are willing to adapt to the DA/SA operation then I suspect you can't go wrong with the SP-01. All the small things can be easily swapped out or cleaned up through the aftermarket and a little bit of time.
 
Those who have picked the perfect gun as their first gun are usually those who have lusted after their dream gun for a while. The gun may not be perfect in the literal sense but is perfect in their mind because it triggers a certain emotion and in the long haul, it will be one they will be proud to keep, display, use and pass on as a legacy gun. I know a few who thinks that the 92 is the $h:7s because it was in Lethal Weapon and I know other who rave over their Dirty Harry 44 magnum. For others it would be the first hand gun they have ever shot or used for work. For whatever reason, don't over think it, don't let the Glock and Sig guys get into your head and pick the one that you are most passionate about (you don't need a super reliable gun that will save your life because it won't, not in Canada anyways).
 
Sig P320 is a good firearm. I purchased a full size grip and a 9mm barrel. Very easy to clean and maintain. A lot a police forces are moving to the P320 from glocks.
 
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