First Gun

[freightdoggie]

Hello, I know this is off the wall, like a lot of posts are on here...
Anyways, I am looking to purchase my first handgun and wondered if anyone had any suggestions as to a good weapon to start out with.
I have experience with various handguns and shotguns, I just have never purchased one for myself. I want something bigger than a .22. Right now im leaning towards a walther.

Thanks for the advice

 

[LuvMyJob]

Your not off the wall, I'm a gun person myself. (Maybe we're both off the wall) My first handgun was a S&W model 686 .357 revolver. I thought it was a good first gun and taught me how to be proficient at the range. Of course like anything else I had to move up to a glitzier model and bought a S&W model 6506 9 mm. The semi-auto is nice, I even have a permit to carry so it's more concealable than the .357. It's like anything else though everyone is different so "that's all I have to say about that."

 

[blott]

I carry a Sig P239 9mm. Have had no problems with it, and I put about 200 rounds thru it every other weekend. I have not had to use it, yet. but, I've had to pull it officially three times to save my ass. I'm looking at getting another, but this time it will be a .40S&W/.357Sig. Would like a little more stopping power. I also would like an even smaller frame-more comfortable/options to conceal.

I also carry a Benchmade Striker auto-folder, BT2 teflon coated blade-tanto style. would recomend the "combo" edge though.

B

 

[Airpiraterob]

(rephrased and reposted an old old response I made on this)

so, gettin a gun eh? make sure you do it right!

Why just get a sig-sauer .380, why just stop at a .40? you could be Mr. Fashionable this fall with a Walther PPK and a nice brushed wool sport jacket. But you need to know if it might stop a guy right there? (the gun not the sport jacket)...well look at the total powers involved. And then think to yourself...

"Say, is this availiable power acceptable for my purposes? Can I effectively do what I need to get done with the total inspiring affect that I really desire?"
Well the answer?
"Of course not. You could have a .40 any day of the week but can you honestly live without the stopping power of a fully automatic machine pistol? Certinly not. Yes you too can drop hundreds of brass shells on the floor as pounds of hollow points are sprayed into the body of your agressor as he weilds his immensely powerful little razor taped to a stick in extreme violence. All of this with the preferred economical weapon of choice...the 'micro uzi' yessir. what a deterrent!"

http://world.guns.ru/smg/smg17-e.htm

really a nice trick little gun. dis is PIMP yo! 1250 rounds per minute! what a supprise! That Perp certainly wont try criminal acts again after seeing you bust out your shiit.

 

[h25b]

First of all, what's the intended use ? For personal protection go with a .40 cal. I personally love the Glocks and have the 22. Shoots well no matter what or I'd recommend getting a 1911. Great weapon that's been around forever. I favor it because it's not trying to reinvent the wheel. If you just going to the range and plinking around I'd start out with a 9 mm.

Like the other guy said, whatever you personally prefer is the best... Go to a good range and ask to try out different guns and find out what you'd like to own...

 

[acaTerry]

Ruger Super Blackhawk, 7&1/2" barrel. 45 cal. Will stop anything. But for a beginner, get a .22. Learn to shoot well and learn gun safety before buying something big.

 

[CRJ puppy]

(rephrased and reposted an old old response I made on this)


really a nice trick little gun. dis is PIMP yo! 1250 rounds per minute! what a supprise! That Perp certainly wont try criminal acts again after seeing you bust out your shiit.

Thanks Airpiraterob. You read my mind. You da man!

 

[Dash8]

if you really wana fuk sheeet up

why not go for the General Electric XM214 Microgun?

Up to 10k rounds per minute, you could use it for point defense, and mowing your lawn or trimming that pesky shrubbery.

 

[ILLINI]

My own personal recomendation would be a Glock. They are simply constructed, VERY easy to field strip and clean, and extremely reliable. They are also not as expensive as some other brands out there. After all how could so many law enforcement agencies and the FBI be wrong??? It depends on what you will be using yours for, but the G22 (.40 cal) is a great all round Glock. It is a high pressure round with great stopping power and it is cheap enough to shoot off a few hundred rounds at the range. If you are going to conceal carry, then you could go with a compact or sub-compact frame. The G21 (.45 cal) is nice, but the frame is larger and you may have a hard time wrapping your hand around it, but there will soon be a .45 in the slimer frame coming out. Obviously .45 ammo is more expensive.

I could go on and on about Glocks, but you should check out the Glock website to see their products. Also check out Glock Talk.com. It is a message board similar to this where you can ask questions about different Glock models and get some more recommendations as to which one would suit your needs.

 

[WrightAvia]

First Gun
Hello, I know this is off the wall, like a lot of posts are on here...
Anyways, I am looking to purchase my first handgun and wondered if anyone had any suggestions as to a good weapon to start out with.
I have experience with various handguns and shotguns, I just have never purchased one for myself. I want something bigger than a .22. Right now im leaning towards a walther.

Thanks for the advice

How experienced are you with handguns?

Don't be affraid to look at some of the really nice double action revolvers out there. Less levers, buttons and gizmo's to work with and a revolver can be made safe and secure by opening the cylinder and putting a good quality pad lock around the top strap.

I currently have a USP .40 cal. It produces very little recoil and unlike the Glock...it has a real saftey and decocking lever. It also has an exposed hammer, so you can tell when it is cocked. It's also not ugly like a glock.

I like semi auto handguns and revolvers, but I always recomend revolvers to people that are looking for self defense guns and don't shoot that much or are not that familiar with firearms. A good revolver is hundreds of dollars less in price than most good autoloaders.

Revolvers can be quickly loaded/reloaded with speed loaders and they are quite simple and reliable. I qualified with revolvers and autos on the Police Practical Pistol Course (PPC), during state certification as a police officer and the one thing I noticed about 9MM, was the fact that we were training to "double tap" or shoot twice, to make up for lack of stopping power the 9MM has. "Double tapping" to increase stoping power, effectively reduces your "fire power" (rounds available) to about the same as a 5 shot revolver.

I recommend a good quality revolver such as the .357 Ruger or Smith and Wesson, in stainless, with a medium frame and with a barrel longer than 2" but not longer than 6". Highly recommended would be adjustable sights and good quality rubber grips, such as Houge or Pachmyer. No matter what gun you get, get some kind of trigger lock.

Keep in mind that the .45 ACP in hollow point is a waste of money. They don't expand. Keep in mind that .357 revolvers can shoot .38 Special. Keep in mind that there are a lot of good semi autos out there but they are more complicated( when you are on the road...is your wife going to be able to operate a gun with a lot of levers and buttons and a slide that is hard to pull back? HMMMMM! I'm not saying YOU are going to have a problem with autos). Keep in mind .45 ACP and 9MM parabellum have been around more than a hundred years. Keep in mind that stopping power is the power of a cartridge to stop a man. That firing power is the ammount of bullets in your magazine or cylinder and that having to double tap to make up for stopping power, reduces your fire power in half.

Find someone in your town that is an avid shooter. Shoot their guns. Find out what works best for you. Buy it. Lock it up with a safety device, when not in use. Shoot it often. Keep it clean. Know your operators manual, inside and out. Join the NRA.

 

[Airpiraterob]

currious, is anyone making the exact same gun they made a hundred+ years ago? you know that good old wild west gun, is anyone still making that same exact thing or have they even evolved?

 

[Dash8]

well with the exception of materials and the way it's manufactured, many firearms today are essentially the same as a century ago, ie double barreled shotguns, the winchester lever actions, along with many styles of revolvers

within a matter of years, the original version of good ol 'ma deuce' (browning .50cal machine gun) and the venerable colt 1911 will be celebrating their centenials.

 

[WrightAvia]

Robert Philip Hanssen ...FBI turned SPY!!

After all how could so many law enforcement agencies and the FBI be wrong???

Yea...how could they be wrong? Buncha fuggups.
Ruby Ridge. Waco Texas. Rodney King. The O.J. Simpson case. The Atlanta Olympic bombing. The fact that cops had confiscated guns from the two guys that did the Los Angeles bank robbery shootout...that were actually ILLEGALLY CONVERTED MACHINE GUNS and then gave them back to the two guys prior to the bank robbery. (the stupid cops couldn't tell the difference between a full auto AK and one you buy at Walmart).

I searched "high profile FBI mistakes" and got 15,000 returns on www.google.com and "FBI blunders" came back with 7,000 returns.

Here's just one of the API articles I derived from this...

http://www.seacoastonline.com/2001news/5_13_w1.htm

Blunders plague FBI

By Deb Riechmann, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — It's happened before, the FBI fumbling high-profile cases.

Now, it turns out that the FBI also dropped the ball on the Oklahoma City bombing, the largest terrorist attack in U.S. history, by failing to turn over files and physical evidence to Timothy McVeigh's attorneys.

That disclosure prompted Attorney General John Ashcroft on Friday to delay the convicted bomber's execution, which was scheduled for Wednesday, until June 11.

In recent years, the bureau failed to notice a Russian spy within its ranks, accused the wrong man in the bombing at the Atlanta Olympics and botched its investigation of a government scientist who handled nuclear weapons secrets.

With word of the new misstep, President Bush and Ashcroft were evasive when asked whether they still had confidence in the FBI. "I'm obviously concerned about an incident where documents have been misplaced. But I withhold judgment until I find out the full facts," Bush said at a news conference Friday.

Less circumspect was Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa: "We must change the FBI culture that has caused these colossal mistakes," Grassley, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.

The committee will review nominees to replace FBI Director Louis Freeh, who is retiring in June.

"I want to know that the next FBI director is committed to sweeping changes," Grassley said.

Danny Coulson, a lead investigator with the FBI's hostage rescue team who took McVeigh into federal custody, said the incident creates a perception problem for the bureau. But, he added, "I'm sure there's nothing (in the documents) that changes the outcome of the case."

The FBI blames the problem on a computer glitch. Grassley is not so sure.

"We saw documents suddenly disappear in the Waco, TWA Flight 800 and Wen Ho Lee cases," Grassley said. "FBI careers are made in high-profile cases, and this is the fourth time in recent years where evidence has belatedly appeared. We have to be careful that withholding evidence is not done simply to win a case."

Kris Kolesnik, director of the National Whistleblower Center, a Washington-based nonprofit public interest organization, said the recent blunders reflect what he contended was the FBI's tendency to emphasize public relations over pure science or good investigative technique.

"The culture is driven by image — don't embarrass the bureau; make the bureau look good," he said.

On the positive side, State Department officials are praising the way the FBI was able to penetrate a spy ring that Cuba had operated in Florida. Five alleged spies are on trial in Miami on charges of espionage and of involvement in the 1996 MiG attack on a Miami-based unarmed plane north of Cuba. Four Cuban-Americans were killed in the incident.

But success stories like this have been overshadowed by a series of missteps:

• In February, Robert Philip Hanssen, a 20-year agent at the FBI, was accused of selling national secrets to Moscow. Hanssen carried on his alleged spying activities for 15 years without being detected by his bosses.

• Joseph Salvati of Boston spent 30 years in prison for a murder he did not commit even though the FBI had evidence of his innocence. Salvati was freed in January after a judge concluded that FBI agents hid testimony that would have cleared Salvati because they wanted to protect an informant.

• Last year, the FBI botched an investigation of Wen Ho Lee, the Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist who was indicted on 59 criminal counts of mishandling nuclear weapons secrets. Lee spent nine months in solitary confinement. All but one count was eventually dropped.

• In 1999, the General Accounting Office said an early report by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, which pointed to an explosion in the center fuel tank as the cause of the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800, was never forwarded to the National Transportation Safety Board. The ATF provided the report to the FBI, but the FBI never sent it the safety board, the GAO said.

• The FBI targeted Richard Jewell in the bombing at the 1996 Summer Games that killed one person and injured more than 100 others. Jewell was cleared three months later.

• In the mid-1990s, the FBI suffered an embarrassing investigation of its world-renowned crime lab. Justice Inspector General Michael Bromwich criticized the lab for flawed scientific work and inaccurate, pro-prosecution testimony in major cases, including the Oklahoma City bombing.

• In July, former Missouri Sen. John Danforth said an FBI lawyer "goofed" in not telling superiors in 1996 that federal agents fired pyrotechnic tear gas canisters into David Koresh's Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Four agents and more than 80 Davidians died during a 51-day standoff with federal officials.

• During a 1992 standoff in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, an FBI agent fatally shot white separatist Randy Weaver's wife, Vicki, while she held her 10-month-old baby.

On the Net:

FBI: http://www.fbi.gov

 

[WrightAvia]

currious, is anyone making the exact same gun they made a hundred+ years ago? you know that good old wild west gun, is anyone still making that same exact thing or have they even evolved?

.45 ACP was a cartridge developed for use in the 1911 colt. That means the round and the gun are almost 100 years old. And you can buy a brand new, just made 1911 Colt. Which means YES you can buy a gun that has been marketed for almost 100 years.

Do your own search on the 9MM parabellum. I believe it was about 1909 that came out.

Other than the fact that smokeless powders and primers have evolved...guns made a hundred years ago, will chamber 9MM and 45ACP ammo... right off the shelf of your local walmart.

 

[Dash8]

never get out of the boat....

 

[JimNtexas]

I may have a requirement to carry a concealed weapon in the future.

The only handgun that I have much experience with is the M9 Berretta that I used in the service.

I've seen a small version of the M9 at the local Oshman's that looked kind of cool, is that a decent weapon? It was around $500 IIRC.

 

[WrightAvia]

I don't think you could ever go wrong with a Beretta.

The design is so good, that even this brazillian knock off has been given good reviews....

http://www.taurususa.com/products/product-details.cfm?model=100B&category=Pistol

 

[WrightAvia]

I did a quick search over at www.gunsamerica.com and found this... looks like 500.00 is as cheap as your going to get that Berreta M9.

http://www.gunsamerica.com/fast.cgi?guncat=1170

Click that link to find 8 pages of Beretta pistols for sale by gun dealers and private citizens...just see if your guy is offering a good price. (500.00 for a NEW Beretta...sounds good)

Another thing that I think is good, is that you are sticking with something that you trained on in the service.

 

[Corbon]

I like Glocks but I'm not sure about it being a good first gun since the only external safety is on the trigger. I started out with a Colt .45 compact and it is a great little gun with a big punch. If price is an issue, Ruger makes some pretty good autos. A Makarov is also an excellent, reliable gun and usually under $200.

 

[TheDogsBollocks]

How about a M249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) .223 Cal 200 round box magazine, great for plinking, target shooting, spray and pray and all other manners of extermination- YEAH BABY!