As a public service to our readers, I thought I’d take a moment to tell you what you should do when you’re out looking for your first pistol. The usual disclaimers apply - you may buy one of the pistols I recommend and wind up with a piece of crap built on Friday afternoon when all the builder wanted to do was go out and grab a beer. And, you and you alone are responsible for your behavior. Don't come here whining to us because you did somthing stupid.
But, if you take my advice, chances are you’re going to be in pretty good shape.
Now, to the good stuff.
In my opinion, if you’re carrying a pistol for personal defense, there’s a few characteristics to take into consideration:
- Reliability. Probably the most important quality in your new pistol. Buying a reliable pistol will cost you more than a Saturday night special but hey - how much is your life worth? Your pistol should reliably feed a variety of ammunition - including ball ammo (cheap to shoot) or self defense ammo (more expensive to shoot but again, how much is your life worth?) The pistol should function whether it’s clean or dirty, wet or dry, etc etc etc. It should also do so with no or a very minimum of reliability work done to it. A bare minimum of maintenance should be required so that if you were to leave your pistol sitting on your bed stand for a month or two, it would work the first time you picked it up.
- Ergonomics. You want a pistol that you can comfortably carry and shoot and one that fits your hands. You also want a pistol that has simple, easy to understand and use controls. The controls such as your slide release, mag release, and any safeties need to be where your fingers naturally fall without any second guessing on your part. Another ergonomic feature that is of vast importance to the performance of the pistol is the height of the bore over your hand. You want a pistol that doesn’t raise the bore (the barrel) high over your hand. Generally speaking, the higher the bore is over your hand, the more the muzzle will flip when you shoot making rapid aimed shots difficult.
- High magazine capacity. Let’s face it. More bullets are good. Make sure your first defensive pistol has the capacity to carry 14-17 rounds. Hollywood has created the mythology that one shot from a pistol will kill or debilitate an attacker immediately. Sadly, that’s just not true folks. Statistics show us that over 80% of all people shot with a handgun live. So, if you have the ability to put multiple rounds into an attacker, you’re going to be better off. Period. That’s why I rely on carbines for my main defensive weaponry.
- The ability to mount a light. If you’re using your new pistol to protect your house, chances are if you ever have to use it, it will be at night. Having the ability to mount a light directly onto your pistol is an option you don’t want to be without.
Ok, so I’ve listed a few characteristics here. To review, you want something that’s reliable, fits your hand, has a high mag capacity, and can mount a light. That cuts out a LOT of pistols that the gun shop commandos will recommend.
For starters:
Sigs. Sigs are extremely well engineered guns. Over engineered would be a better way to say it. While Sigs ARE reliable, their controls are not intuitive and the bore sits way high over your hand. You’ll hear a bunch of smack about how this group or that carries Sigs blah blah blah but I’ll ask you: when was the last time a shooter using a Sig has won a pistol competition of any kind? Out of decades of action pistol shooting, I can think of ONE. Extra credit for you if you know who and when.
H&K. H&K’s tend to be very reliable as well, but again - controls are in the wrong place and the bore sits high over your hand. Also, the bigger calibers (as in .40 and .45) are simply huge pistols that won’t fit most people’s hands.
Beretta. For one thing, Berettas tend to blow up fairly early in their service life; they are also big and bulky and have awkward controls. Yuck.
There are more that I would never spend any money on, but I don’t want to lose you here….
That leaves you with basically two choices that I would not hesitate to recommend to the first time pistol buyer:
Glocks and the newish Springfield XDs. I’ve shot thousands of rounds through Glocks and about 2000 (so far) through my XD. Both meet all the requirements I detailed above. If I were you, and were picking my first pistol, I’d go to a gun range and rent them both and see which one fits your hand the best.
Disclaimer: I love 1911’s. I carry and shoot 1911’s a LOT. Buy in my opinion they are not necessarily suited to the first time shooter and I would not recommend one to a newbie.
As to where to buy your new pistol. I would at all costs generally avoid gun shops unless you know someone at the shop, or you know that the owner is a shooter. That’s an important concept. Guys that are shooters and not just salesmen will know what works, what’s most likely to work for you, and won’t try and sell you the latest and greatest piece of shit to come down the pike. Your average gun store salesman will only know what he’s read in the gun rags, or what the salesmen have told him when they’re dropping off product. If you’re not sure, ask the guy (or gal) behind the counter if they shoot any competition. If they don’t shoot any uspsa, idpa, bianchi cup, steel challenge, etc - then that store’s not worth your time. If the guy behind the counter talks trash and says something like “I shoot a lot - last year I shot over 500 rounds!” (true story I actually overheard) 500 rounds a year is squat. There are some days on the range we’ll shoot that many rounds before lunch. So keep in mind that the average gun shop guy likely doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. Some DO, but it has been my experience that most DO NOT.
A cheaper option is to (generally) buy your new pistol at a gun show. Word of warning though - gun shows are great (usually) for buying a new gun at a discount - but only if you know what you want and what it would cost you at the gun store itself. There are deals to be had, but you need to find them and be an educated shopper.
After you buy your new gun I would run as fast as you could to the range and find an action shooting club to begin shooting with. Chances are that someone will be there to help you learn to shoot your new wundergun and help you from doing stupid things that you learned from TV. Or, you can always drop us a line here at the Tattler. We’re here to help folks.
Now, any questions?
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