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So I'm looking for a pistol for target shooting and home defense. (NO frazzled i won't shoot before i ask them to leave)... what would be an affordable, reliable, low maintenance/easy maintenance starter firearm?

I've heard glocks are pretty affordable these days. Somewhere in the 500-800 range. I personally hate glocks, and am more drawn to USGI things, but that's just me. I have less of an interest in shooting and protecting myself and more about owning something that looks nice and makes me feel like I'm owning something special.

What kind of ammo are you expecting to use? Pistols shoot all kinds of small bullets, from 22s to 45s, most commonly.

http://us.glock.com/products/model/g19gen4

About 450$

http://www.coltsmfg.com/Catalog/ColtPistols/Colt1991Series.aspx

Varies, but around 700-900$ This will probably be my first gun, for some reason.

If you want a decent home defense gun, they make a cheap sigma .45 (?) that you could look into. In terms of sports shooting it's god awful. 12 lb trigger pull. You can easily mod it to 8 ish lbs, but it's still crazy high for target range sort of gun.

I think it would be worth it to understand gun maintenance before you get a gun. If you don't know the basics you can ruin some very easily.

I hear the GAU-8 is a pretty good starter gun.

Yeah, totally good for starters. Doesn't even have a trigger to worry about~!

I was thinking about glocks... they do have a decent name behind them.

http://us.glock.com/products/model/g34

This one looked good. I'm looking for the $600-750 range

And any decent safe to keep it locked up when not with me at the range


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I can't believe there aren't more responses yet... not many gun owners on dakka?

Well, uh. Basically anything will work, but certain people like it to be called a "gun safe" or it isn't good enough for them

Staples sells pretty good sized locked, climate controlled boxed. Some of them have dual Combination+Key locks, which is pretty good if you have children, since there's always the possibility that they'll nab the key to see what's inside... Which wouldn't be good.

Also, look into sig sauers. A lot of special forces guys are pretty fond of them, although I don't know how much that appeals to regular folks.
http://www.sigsauer.com/CatalogProductDetails/p226.aspx

How large are your hands? From the base of the palm to finger tips.
What Caliber do you prefer?
What is your final price range after tax?
Have you shot before?
What and what did you or didnt you like about it.
How often will you be shooting?
Do you intend on getting a concealed carry permit?
If yes what body type do you have, if not, why not?

Depends. Go to a gun store and ask to see different ones. When it comes to handguns, one size does NOT fit all. It's all about what you are comfortable with.

Some say the Springfield XD is crap, personally I love it. Feels great, shoots great.

Some love 1911s. They're great weapons, others say they're horrible and prefer a revolver.

So it's all about what YOU like best. If you hate the way it feels and the way it shoots, it may not be a reliable gun.

A nice .357 Magnum is handy for home defense. A revolver is always good if you have to jump up, grab your piece and start blasting. None of that slide-racking and safety-switching business.

Ruger makes a nice .380 that you could look into as well. It's easily hidden and pretty accurate.

Is there any possibility of carrying concealed in your future?

If you think you might get a CC license at some point, keep that in consideration. There are tons of great home-defense guns, but many of them would not be good carrying guns.

Where are you going to buy from? A good gun store should have a range and many different guns you can rent. Try different makes, styles, and calibers. You might end up spending $50 in rentals and ammo, but it will be money well spend that will help you get a gun that is a good fit for you.

For pure home defense nothing says "Get the Feth out of my House" like the sound of a semiautomatic shotgun being pumped up for the first shot.

d-usa wrote:For pure home defense nothing says "Get the Feth out of my House" like the sound of a semiautomatic shotgun being pumped up for the first shot.

I have an 870 for just that purpose, but the man was asking about handguns.

Monster Rain wrote:A nice .357 Magnum is handy for home defense. A revolver is always good if you have to jump up, grab your piece and start blasting. None of that slide-racking and safety-switching business.

Ruger makes a nice .380 that you could look into as well. It's easily hidden and pretty accurate.

I do have the Ruger LCP (Little Compact Pistol) and I love it. Its about the size of my hand, great for concealed carry, easy maintenance, and all around fun gun. They also make a LCRevolver option.

Many think that .380 is not "enough gun" since it doesn't shoot people to pieces. I care less about "killing" people and I figure if you have 4 bullet holes (I'm gonna assume that I miss in the heat of the moment) you will worry enough about your pain and bleeding to not be a threat anymore.

Also, a .380 was enough gun to start World War One.


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Monster Rain wrote:

d-usa wrote:For pure home defense nothing says "Get the Feth out of my House" like the sound of a semiautomatic shotgun being pumped up for the first shot.

I have an 870 for just that purpose, but the man was asking about handguns.

I know I know, just figured I would throw it out there in case he had not considered it as an option

d-usa wrote:Also, a .380 was enough gun to start World War One.

James Bond had a PPK. Just saying.

Here's some advise, don't buy a gun, and if you have children and a wife, all I can say is ...dude?

If the man wants to buy a gun, then his mind is already made up. No need to come in here with anti-gun posts, or anything that may lead into it.

That being said, the poster's who suggested trying several pistols out before going and buying one is the best idea. I favor a Springfield XD .45 and 9mm. One stays at home and I just grab one when I leave the house. Both are dandy calibers to have for carry and home defense, and abundant enough to not break the bank when it comes to practice at the range.

CrashUSAR wrote:If the man wants to buy a gun, then his mind is already made up. No need to come in here with anti-gun posts, or anything that may lead into it.

I wouldn't have even acknowledged it, personally.

Honestly OP, the more I think about it the more I'd like to suggest just getting a shotgun with a pistol grip for home defense.

Also, the "I won't shoot first" statement is a bit odd. Sometimes robbers have guns. Who would you want to shoot first, you or them?

A simple shotgun has just about every quality your looking for besides being a pistol.

Would an antigun pull bullets towards it? Or is an antigun just armour?

Well, it wouldn't be out of line to ask if he has kids to suggest methods of securing it. As a self-professed first time gun buyer, it's pretty relevant to his interests, especially if he will need to budget for a safe\lockbox.

An antigun is a gun owned by your parent's sister.

Ahh my comment was sort of silly. I just dont like guns if their not for hunting... animals. I just get really miffed if people say "Its the person who kills the person and not the gun". What a load of horse crap.

Doklunggraba wrote:Ahh my comment was sort of silly. I just dont like guns if their not for hunting... animals. I just get really miffed if people say "Its the person who kills the person and not the gun". What a load of horse crap.

Well...it is the person. If they don't use a gun they'll use a kitchen knife. No matter what they end up using that kills someone, the common factor is always the wielder.

I stand by "guns don't kill people, people kill people". A gun is merely a tool and nothing more, a tool in the hands of someone with intention to act.

Cool Story Bro: My wife has a decent relationship with her ex. He lives nearby, and knows useful things they don't teach you in school (how to fix a leaking pipe). Having a modern education, I know all sorts of substantially less useful things (how to remove malware). As a result, we interact every so often, amicably. His brother is a handyman sort who is not averse to hard work. He mows our lawn once a week or so; as I'd rather pay to do it than do it myself. He also is addicted to painkillers.

Anyway, a while back he apparently came in the house and stole all the painkillers my wife had leftover from a surgery. Having moved here from NYC, I was shocked and horrified by my wife's midwestern predilection for not locking doors, a habit which I had long exhorted her to do and now had finally drilled home. In any event, as we don't know it was him (but it almost certainly was since nothing else was stolen at all) we talked about home defense. After looking at various guns, we decided that the chances of actually shooting an intruder vs shooting a resident were not favorable, and since the intruder would be almost certainly someone I'd prefer not to actually kill... we went with a taser. Was around $300 or so, shoots darts, laser sight, acts as a stun-gun after deploying darts. Seemed like a good compromise for my unique situation.

She also started locking the damn doors.

My suggestion would be to try and get your hand around a used police trade-in glock. 17, 19, or one of the .40 varieties (Seen these dip under the 400 dollar mark fairly often last I looked.).....Then get a .22 conversion kit and a small pistol safe (For when it is not under your immediate direct control.) for it. Then go buy several thousand rounds of .22 to practice along with several big boxes of the 9mm/40/45/whatever the gun usually fires, and buy a whole <CENSORED> load of range time and/or training classes. If you are serious about using it as a defensive weapon, I do hope you take that bit of advice about a training class to heart unless you come from a Killin-<CENSORED> butcher/ranchhand/hunter background, for mindset if nothing else.

EDIT:

And any decent safe to keep it locked up when not with me at the range

Any metal box with a lock on it that will fit the pistol will be about as good as any other, unless you are going to go full on half ton or heavier bolt to the floor solid unobtanium monster like I have. The others are basically only useful for keeping honest people honest and keeping any children away from things that go bang. If you are not home, and someone wants that gun, they will rip the whole safe out of the wall with a crowbar and pick it apart later at a more discreet location. Even the half ton WTFSafes get yanked/rammed by vehicles, cut open with O/A torches, plasma cutters or good ol saws, etc. They buy you time, nothing more.


....And on the defensive weapon thing, if you're REALLY serious about it, I'd suggest getting a lshotgun or appropriate rifle ASAP. Pistols in a firefight is about like bringing a switchblade to the ClaymoreFest 9001.

Shoot whatever you're planning to buy first. As much as you can, in fact. I was convinced I'd end up buying a Glock someday, but I just can't shoot them comfortably. Something about their grip angle is just off for me.

Figure out what caliber you're comfortable with. My personal advice would be to go with the largest round you can shoot comfortably. Either way, plenty of people have been killed by .22s, so it's not as big a deal as most gun forumites would make it out to be.

Off the top of my head, guns I've shot recently that I could see myself buying if I hadn't been sold on the Heckler & Koch HK45C:

Smith & Wesson M&P. You can pick it up chambered for 9mm, .40, or .45. It has three different sizes of palmswells, so fitting a comfortable grip is pretty easy.

Walther P99. Same deal as the M&P with the palmswells. A very, very comfortable gun to shoot for me. It has some wonky trigger options, though, so know what you're buying with this one. I'd go with the Double Action Only trigger configuration, personally.

SIG P226. I did not think I would like this one, as I'm apparently a wuss who's gotten used to polymer pistols, but I loved it, despite the DA/SA action.

As for the HK45...can't say enough good about it. It's the most expensive on the list, unfortunately, but you get what you pay for with it. I would (and did) get the Compact (C) version. It's not exactly going to be comfortable if you ever decide to concealed carry, but it can do it.

Necroshea wrote:If you want a decent home defense gun, they make a cheap sigma .45 (?) that you could look into. In terms of sports shooting it's god awful. 12 lb trigger pull. You can easily mod it to 8 ish lbs, but it's still crazy high for target range sort of gun.

I think it would be worth it to understand gun maintenance before you get a gun. If you don't know the basics you can ruin some very easily.

Sigma triggers make baby Jebus cry, but they are inexpensive.


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Necroshea wrote:Honestly OP, the more I think about it the more I'd like to suggest just getting a shotgun with a pistol grip for home defense.

Also, the "I won't shoot first" statement is a bit odd. Sometimes robbers have guns. Who would you want to shoot first, you or them?

A simple shotgun has just about every quality your looking for besides being a pistol.

Well he also said target shooting, so the pistol is out.


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Seaward wrote:Shoot whatever you're planning to buy first. As much as you can, in fact. I was convinced I'd end up buying a Glock someday, but I just can't shoot them comfortably. Something about their grip angle is just off for me.

Figure out what caliber you're comfortable with. My personal advice would be to go with the largest round you can shoot comfortably. Either way, plenty of people have been killed by .22s, so it's not as big a deal as most gun forumites would make it out to be.

Off the top of my head, guns I've shot recently that I could see myself buying if I hadn't been sold on the Heckler & Koch HK45C:

Smith & Wesson M&P. You can pick it up chambered for 9mm, .40, or .45. It has three different sizes of palmswells, so fitting a comfortable grip is pretty easy.

Walther P99. Same deal as the M&P with the palmswells. A very, very comfortable gun to shoot for me. It has some wonky trigger options, though, so know what you're buying with this one. I'd go with the Double Action Only trigger configuration, personally.

SIG P226. I did not think I would like this one, as I'm apparently a wuss who's gotten used to polymer pistols, but I loved it, despite the DA/SA action.

As for the HK45...can't say enough good about it. It's the most expensive on the list, unfortunately, but you get what you pay for with it. I would (and did) get the Compact (C) version. It's not exactly going to be comfortable if you ever decide to concealed carry, but it can do it.

All good choices and I will follow on to that:

frgsinwntr wrote:So I'm looking for a pistol for target shooting and home defense. (NO frazzled i won't shoot before i ask them to leave)... what would be an affordable, reliable, low maintenance/easy maintenance starter firearm?

Are we talking the same pistol (often those are different)?

Whats your price range?
$600 – 750 range is a wide array of plasticy guns, all of which will meet your needs. In fact it’s the most competitive segments. Sounds like you’re thinking about a Glock 34 which also includes target shooting cpapacity (many winning shooters use them). That’s an excellent choice.
Here’s a few sample comparables.

http://gunsgunsguns.net/smith-wesson-mp9l/
Smith and Wesson. Now there are more tactical and night shooting versions, including with night sights, so look around. They are the closest US made version, indeed lost a lawsuit concerning the trigger action. DAO as well, with the same palm swell stuff, but with stainless steel and nice competitive sights. Made in America HURR!
http://gunsgunsguns.net/smith-wesson-mp9l/

Springfield XDM. This pistol is made to compete in the same class. Has a grips safety and the DAO trigger is more SA than DAO (lighter and less pull distance-aka less mushy). Frazzled likey this gun.
http://gunsgunsguns.net/springfield-armory-xdm-5-25-competition/

Walther. This is the pistol Glock was trying to make. Incredibly good quality and smooth trigger pull. IIRC it invented the multiple palm swells. These are less competition guns than field guns, but people do definitely compete in IDPA with them.
http://gunsgunsguns.net/walther-ppq/
http://gunsgunsguns.net/walther-p99/

Sig Sauer (pronounced SIG SAUER!). Again made in the USA (German company). This is more of a tactical pistol but I’ve included because its SA/DA and has an absolutely sweet trigger.
http://gunsgunsguns.net/sig-sauer-p226-uspsa/

There are others, these are just some. Also step up a little and you get into competition levels sigs, H&Ks (now there is a pistol) and the wonderful world of the perfect firearm, the 1911 frame.

Safes:
Here you go. You can open these in about 3 seconds if necessary, but otherwise fine. Depending on size they hold 2-4 pistols and can be found at Academy and a plethora of places. There are similar items, again all good.
http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_10051_29454_-1?ICID=CRT:0340-03031-0055

We have these two and are very satisfied:
http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_10051_29489_-1?N=626381016+10001&Ntt=safe&Ntk=All

http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_10051_29459_-1?N=626381016+10001&Ntt=safe&Ntk=All




Other questions or notes:
-You need to practice a hanger queen is just a good way to die.
-You need to seriously think about what your plan of action is going to be. Roaming the house when you hear a noise is exactly what you don’t want to do. There are a plethora of training videos and courses, including from the NRA.
-Other family members? If so you need to consider that both for above and for defense purposes. You definitely need a safe at that point.

Don't buy anything out of the back of a van from some guy wearing a ski mask.

I myself am getting a Springfield XD 4" service model when my tax return comes in. I have smaller hands, but it fit me like a glove. comes in 9mm, .40S&W, and .45 (I'm getting the .40 personally). Comes with a grip safety, striker and loaded chamber indicators so you can tell if its loaded and cocked by just looking at the back of the gun, ambidextrous mag release (I'm a lefty, and the wife is a righty), and they all come with an accessory rail, for less then $600. After renting it and putting around 100 rounds through it, I defiantly recommend it.

List of all the XD features here

Relapse wrote:Whenever possible, buy it out of the back of a van from some guy wearing a ski mask.

Corrected your typo.


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Inquisitor Lord Bane wrote:I myself am getting a Springfield XD 4" service model when my tax return comes in. I have smaller hands, but it fit me like a glove. comes in 9mm, .40S&W, and .45 (I'm getting the .40 personally). Comes with a grip safety, striker and loaded chamber indicators so you can tell if its loaded and cocked by just looking at the back of the gun, ambidextrous mag release (I'm a lefty, and the wife is a righty), and they all come with an accessory rail, for less then $600. After renting it and putting around 100 rounds through it, I defiantly recommend it.

List of all the XD features here

Have you tried the "americanized" XDM series? If so, how do you find the two?

I've shot the full size XDM in 9mm. I liked the grips. It was less mushy than a glock (shot about an inch low at 7 yards with stock sights).
Someone said the grips remind him of motorcycle grips. Maybe thats why I like them so much, they surely do.