Thinking about Buying Your First Gun Part 4

Now that I have brought up the issue of size you might be wondering what is a good size?
Like a lot of things there is not just one answer, just about every model of handgun is at least a little different in size.

Often pistols are categorized into size classes like Large, Full Size, Mid Sized, Compact and Subcompact, but these terms are used not really standardize like they are with cars. I tend to steer new shooters towards the middle sizes.

In the picture above you can see 3 pistols, the top one is a Smith and Wesson 4506 (45acp)which is on the larger side of standard handguns.
The middle pistol is a Ruger P95 (9mm)which is pretty typical of your average current production 9mm or 40cal.
The Bottoms pistol is a Glock model 27 (40sw)which is consider a compact or subcompact pistol.

New shooters are often concerned about the weight and these days most pistols have frames made out of polymer which has cut down on the heft and the cost. Pistols in general do seem to be a bit on the heavy side to people in the beginning, but it is what it is. If you do choose a 22lr like the Ruger SR22 or the Walther P22 the weight is only 15-17 ounces. Most of your 9mm and 40SW handguns will be 24-30 ounces. There are plenty of compact pistols that start around 17 ounces but as I stated before a compact pistol is probably not the place to start for a new shooter. It seems as though once a new shooter starts practicing and spends some time shooting they don’t really seem to think about the weight much anymore.

This picture is of a Ruger SR22

The other concern some new shooters have is the grip size, people with small hands or short fingers are often wondering if they will have a hard time pulling the trigger. In my experience this tends to not be that much of a problem. For the most part many of the handguns on the market today are well sized for just about all full grown adults. More and more handguns are coming with grips that have changeable parts to make the fit more customizable. If you start out with a 22LR pistol you will find that they tend to have smaller grips then the 9mm/40SW weapons as well.

Here is a little explanation of Calibers or sizes of the bullets. 22LR is the common name for a type of round or bullet formally know as 22 Long Rifle. In spite of its name it is a small round commonly used in handguns as well as rifles. It belongs to a category or bullets known as Rim Fire. The projectile is usually made of lead and measure about 0.22 inches across.

1. .22 LR shot
2. .22 Winchester Magnum Rimmed
3. .25 Automatic Colt Pistol
4. .38 Smith & Wesson
5. .357 Magnum - budprop
6. .357 Maximum - budprop
7. 9mm Luger
8. 9mm Japanese Revolver
9. .40 Smith & Wesson
10. .45 Automatic Colt Pistol - budprop
11. .44 Special - cycle61
12. .44 Magnum
13. .45 Long Colt - budprop
14. .454 Casull - budprop
15. 5.7x33 Johnson Spitfire
16. .25-20 Winchester - budprop
17. 4.6x36mm Hk
18. .223 Remington
19. 5.56x45 NATO
20. .300 Blackout
21. 7.62x39 - budprop
22. 6.5 Grendel
23. .338 Spectre
24. .30-30 Winchester
25. .308 Winchester Accelerator
26. .270 Winchester
27. .416 Barrett
28. .410
29. 20ga
30. 12ga