Are you thinking about buying your first gun?

I got an early start handling firearms and then I worked in a gun store and a gun factory. I have been a bit of firearms enthusiast for a long time, after decades of being around firearms I have spent a lot of time answering peoples questions of about guns. I figured it only made sense to write down the questions and answers in some form so more people could share the information. I am going to try and focus on the answers where my opinions depart from the traditional or more popular answers. There is plenty of other people out there that write and teach about these subjects and I don’t want to spend too much time saying what has already been said many times over.

I would say the most common question I have been asked is “What gun should I buy?”. There is no perfect answer of course but two of the biggest problems is that there is no end to individual opinions and style/brand loyalty. If you start doing homework you find that there is also no end to the technical minutia. You could spend the rest of your days weighing the details and never really find the ‘Best’ weapon.

To best answer the question of what is the best gun to buy you have to know what you want it for. Typically most people want something for home defense,plinking at the range and something to take with camping and what not. Often a pump shotgun is the first recommendation for home defense but we will get to that later. Most of the time people want a handgun or a handgun makes more sense for their needs so I will start with that.

In times past the discussion would have gone to revolvers vs Semi Automatic pistols. [inset pictures of a revolver and a semi auto.] These days revolvers are less of a contender if for any reason that the price of revolvers has gotten rather high and so has the price of the rounds they fire. The longer I have been discussing firearms with people the more important price has become. Maybe I don’t need to say this but if you have a large budget by all means ignore my low cost bias.

Let me explain that when I talk about keeping costs down I don’t want anyone to do it at the expense of reliability. But here is why cost is important. First of all no matter what you own in the way of a firearm the only way it is of any practical use to you is if can use it well. The only way you will be able to use it well is if you are confident, comfortable and well practiced. In order to get to this place of being proficient you need to shoot quite a bit. When you add the cost of buying a firearm to the cost of buying ammunition you can be looking at a sizable sum for most of us. In general I would say you are better off buying a $500 handgun and $300 worth of ammo rather than a $700 handgun and $100 worth of ammo.

Another reason not to spend too much money on your first handgun is that you can’t really develop a taste for what you like or what suits you until you have had spent some time shooting. I would hate to see someone spend $1000 on a nice Sig Sauer or HK USP and decide they don’t really care for it. While quality handguns often go up in value it could take some time before you could come close to breaking even when you factor in the fact that it is now a used weapon, sales tax, registration fees and the loss you are likely to take on accessories.

Even though 22lr is not a traditional self defense round it still has a lot of upside especially for a new shooter. I think people should consider starting with a quality 22lr handgun because of the lower cost. Currently there are several 22lr handguns around or under $400 and while you will pay around $25-$30 for 50 rnds of 45acp, that same $25-$30 will buy you 500 rnds or more of 22lr.

This is a picture of Ruger MKI 22LR

It is much easier to learn to shoot with a 22lr as well, it is far less intimidating and that helps a new shooter focus and builds confidence in aiming and operating a weapon.
list of American Pistol Manufactures
More later