I am planning on getting my first handgun soon and was wondering what you guys thought would be a good choice. I know most of you are really into guns, so I thought why not ask you. I plan on applying for my carrying permit on Friday. I am basically going to use it for home defense (I don't want a shotgun) and for range time. Plus carry it around with me. I am looking at the Glock 30 as it seems like a great gun. I think I'll go to the range today and try one out just to see how it feels. Thanks in advance for any ideas or advice.
Any of the big names are fine, any of the popular calibers are fine, spend alot of time on the range renting your top 5 pics and narrow down from there.
Im with wrxboxer... It all comes down to what you feel most comfortable and best shooting for you. I'm not a big fan of the glock, because it feels rather top-heavy to me, and the grip doesn't fit my hand well. I wound up with a Taurus PT-140 that I truly loved for the money. If you're using it strictly for home defense, then you could be more flexible, caliber-wise. If you are going to do a LOT of range shooting, then price of ammo comes into play. The .40 is usually a bit pricier than the .45 or the 9mm. The smaller calibers I am less experienced with, so maybe one of the other guys can give you more info than I can. -Michael
Go rent and shot first. My wife has completely changed her mind and now wants a larger caliber than she first thought. It really depends on what you want the gun for. Home protection, carry, or fun. Personally I am planning on a compact .45 for carry...didn't like the pocket 380 much My thoughts are...go big or go home.
Just depends on what your using it for. I have one handgun 9mm and a 10 guage for the house but my play guns are rifles and shotguns .22 and 12 guages due to how inexpensive the rounds are and honestly the funest gun I have is a single shot 4-10.
Is this your first gun or your first handgun? If it is your first gun in general I would consider something with a full safety (not just the finger or grip safety) like on the Beretta PX4 Storm. Everyone has an opinion on safeties, so it comes down to personal preference. I just know when I got my first gun I really liked that it had a big "on/off" switch while I was getting used to loading and unloading drills. The full safety is not a feature I would look for when I look for another handgun BUT I did find it extremely reassuring as a beginner with little previous experience with firearms. Personally I also wouldn't buy another handgun with a composite lower like a glock or the PX4. After shooting some full metal handguns (1911's, ect) I think they are way easier to shoot accurately (though I don't really carry my gun so the extra weight is not an issue). I have never shot a Glock that felt right in my hands either, but I know many people that swear by them. Like everyone else says, you should really go and try out a bunch of stuff before you buy. If you are planning to use this for home defense, you should also figure out a light set up - weather that is a rail-mounted light on the gun or a small tactical flashlight. Either way you will want to be able to see what you are about to shoot if it is necessary. Budget to buy a few extra clips, a cleaning kit, some snap caps for practice and a holster if you are serious about carrying it. Good luck!
This is not my first gun, however it is my first handgun. I plan on carrying it along with some range time. I'm going to go to some ranges and shoot a bunch of different guns so I can see what feels best to me. Thanks for the input so far.
Ill very likely go to a range and rent some before I buy again, unless I come across anotheon deal on the taurus like I had before... I shot an XD .45 a while back, and really liked it, but would luke more trigger time. Im actually torn between an auto or a nice. 38spl revolver for my next carry/home defense handgun. I've run some rounds through my GF's Charter Arms Chic Lady lately, and am considering either the masculine version of her gun (Chic Lady is HOT pink, lol), or something smaller like the LCR. Chic Lady pic for reference: Just something else to consider -Im also a big contender with the "go big or go home" school of thought in a carry firearm. I want you to go down with the first round, not make me unload on you!
What time were you thinking? If I can make it, you can ride my membership to save monies and I can bring my handguns. You by ammo from walmart. Pm me.
hahah, its a pos pistol, the only thing that makes someone go down in the first round is shot placement, and all the popular calibers will do the job if you hit the right spot. either you hit a vital organ or you dont. If you want a one shot stop go grab a real long gun/shotgun. A pistol is back up gun for a reason. Cliff notes: one shot-one stop is the biggest joke in the hand gun world that all the noobies believe in. Go research some more please.
I alternate between a Gen 4 Glock 22 and a feather weight 38 smith revolver. Only thing I don't like about the Glock is that it seems to bulky to carry in the small of your back if you are considering concealment.
i will also be looking into my first firearm soon, ive narrowed it down to a springfield xd 40 or 45 like everyone else said, go to a range - rent a few that you like and go from there.
Just go out and try couple of the handguns, see what feels right to YOU. Everyone has different tastes. As for as performance, they will all shoot and take the target down, its a gun. I personally as caliber goes, started out with 9mm, and now own .45. My .45 seems to have less recoil then what my 9 and 40 had. So again, pick w.e. caliber feels right for you.
One shot stop. :rofl: S&W 625 JM .45 or Remington 870 Whatever you get, shoot the shit out of it at the range.
Is it for home defense? Pick something that is easy to kill someone with.......seriously.....thats what its for. Don't try and distance yourself from it find something that is easy to pick up and shoot. I keep my SIG GSR 1911 with night sights beside my night stand. If someone breaks into my house I can pick it up and put and entire clip in them. As long as you feel that comfortable with any gun you pick then its the right one. Go to the range and rent guns, what ever feels good to you is the right gun. The first two I would try would be the Glock and the Springfield XD, Almost everyone likes one of those two, if you do great buy one. If you have extra coin to spend try the H and K or the other the Sigs' all very nice guns. Sorry if this looks crazy one my phone laying in bed and I can't sleep.
I'd first ask how much you wish to spend. From my personal experience $500-800: Glock, Springfield XD $800+: Sig, Kimber Which caliber truly depends on which one is easiest for you to fire and perform follow up shots easily and accurately. Knockdown power in ft/lbs of a particular caliber is somewhat negligible. Internal ballistics is where you make your money if you're not a sure shot. Most home defense loads are made to fragment entirely in the body like a little grenade and they limit penetration so they don't go through you target and into other rooms of you house, possibly injuring someone else or into your new 72" LCD TV.
Every personel defense load ive ever seen tested mushrooms and does not fragment. In fact one of the primary purposes of the expanding hollowpoint bullet to retain as much weight of the original bullet as possible. They do make something called a frangible bullet, that does basically go to powder if it hits a steel plate. Not sure if the frangible bullets are just an over the top safety round or what. Search FPS Russia Frangible in google/youtube.
The copper jackets do fragment in soft tissue. Frangible rounds are for instances where over penetration is a danger. Such as an airplane or walls in a home. But for a soft target they're still plenty effective.
You do understand that fragmenting in a defense round is a "bad" thing though, right?(not withstanding saftey considerations)
Thanks for being a prick, dude... Which is a POS? I do understand that my Taurus, and the Charter aren't exactly the top echelon(sp) of firearms, but I've had little to no issue with reliability or accuracy with either of them. The Taurus was something I picked up cheap from someone in a bind, and the Charter Arms is by far a decent firearm for the price. I have seen and shot much worse. I've handled my share of firearms, and am well able to put a round where I need to, but that isn't always possible, given the circumstance. As far as long gun/shotgun, the OP is asking about handguns, genius. There's a reason most carry arms for a LEO aren't a .22 Ruger or a Kel-tec .32- its called STOPPING POWER. It isn't because it looks more masculine or more scary - it's because they want to do whatever they can to stop someone as efficiently as possible, not to mention that larger rounds are also better able to penetrate sheetmetal/some body armor/doors/whatever else. Before you go all other-end-of-the-spectrum here, the reason they don't all walk around carrying S&W 500's and Desert Eagle .50's is the fact that they are monstrously huge, and very heavy, which make it awfully hard to quickly draw or maintain a fixed shooting position, without hand/wrist fatigue. Please, tell me where I need to research - I'm all about learning something new. I've owned and shared and shot plenty in my short life, but am never above learning something I didn't know before. OP, sorry for muddying up your thread - I just have issue with folks who feel the need to crap on newbs of their favorite forum for no apparent reason. There's been some really solid advice given here, and you'd do well to follow it. -Michael
I wasnt calling any of your firearms a POS, i was calling ALL pistols a POS(obviously in relation to long guns). You can shoot and own whatever you like. Genius? Whats real genius is to remotely believe, that a ~380ftlb round 9mm and a ~450 ft-lb any other caliber bullet is going to be the difference in "unload on someone" and "one-shot one stop". My only real problem with your idea that a pistol has the capability to "one shot, one stop". It doesnt, atleast in any of the popular carry categories. You either shoot them in the head or heart and they die or you hit a vital and they die over a period of time. You can basically think of pistol rounds as different sized ice-pics. The first thing you have to ask is does each ice-pic have enough ft-lbs to penetrate to a reliable and effective lethal levels? The usual consensus is 9mm and higher all have the effective means to penetrate to the same depth in various hollow point bullet set-ups. So if they all penetrate to the same depth, what sets these rounds appart? The size of the hole they make. A whole .1 of an inch wider at most...what a game changer. The more ft-lbs your squeeze out of a gun, the more freedom you have to design a bullet to expand to a bigger diameter(you could design a 9mm to expand to the size of an expanded .45, but its current power offerings would leave you under penetrating). ^so there are the sizes of the ice pics you will be using, all penetrating to about the same depth. Pistol rounds only have the ability to affect tissue they physically touch, unlike a typical rifle round which will create a large wound cavity and effect tissue and organs around the are of the hit in a tramatic fassion. Please dont get caught up in the ft-lb arguement, when you compare the overall engergy to the weight of a human body and divide it by how far the bullet transfers its energy into that body, its splitting hairs at best. I personally chose my pistol based on ammo cost and manageable recoil. If i have to shoot them more then once, atleast i can afford to be very proeffecient in training, and have less recoil to follow up if i missed what i aimed for. Cars.
hey just let me say i dont care what fucking caliber you use, just dont expect the one shot one stop thing.
If I feel I need to pull the trigger why the hell would I stop at 1 anyway? I have a full clip right? Including a rifle or shotgun, if I'm pulling the trigger for self defense I'm firing more than once regardless. also, http://www.taurususa.com/video-theJudge.cfm oh, and CARS
the judge is a turd. .45LC is expensive to shoot (so you won't be practicing with it much) and 410 shells are hard to find in anything that matters (ie magnum)
I like my Judge, 6" barrel and a 3" cylinder. Hangs in a holster right beside the equally useless RenFest long sword. As for all the ballistic and caliber BS, it's a gun. Better than a stick, ask the Zulu's
Well said, sir. Perhaps I should have been more eloquent. I'm not talking about a one-shot-one-kill - I'm talking about the ability to stop an intruder/threat more efficiently. I do know that there is little size difference in the size of the "ice pick", lol. Not to argue, but you are also showing larger caliber rounds - I just didn't anyone to think that there would be the same stopping power with a much smaller round, like a .22 or .25 b reel, I am anxious to shoot a Judge... My GF is actually looking at the long-barreled equivalent - the Circuit Judge. Poor Zulus. -Michael