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ragtown

Looking to buy a gun

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ragtown
, 12-23-2016 at 12:12 PM (3809 Views)
Quote Originally Posted by Stix View Post
I never owned a gun and I am looking for some advice on what would be a good gun.
The bad part of not knowing at lest a general idea of what to buy makes the challenge a big one. First off, take what the gun store salesman says with a grain of salt. They typically are after a good sell. Do go to several gun stores and ask a lot of questions. A good salesman will stick with you and answer all your questions with some truth. Do "dry fire" 100's of guns. Upon finding a few that feel good and are easy enough to cock or work the slide and pull the trigger, either rent (if you must) or borrow for some range time. Yes, a range that also sells guns is a good place to go. After many days/weeks you will have enough "practice" to be able to decide on which one to buy. One word of caution, though. Your first, second and maybe third gun will end up being not for you. It will take tons of looking, trying, thinking, asking, considering, before you find "your" gun. It took me about 6 years and 13 purchases. Now I have 3 of "my' Guns - one for 5:00 carry, one as a "New York Reload" on my ankle and a big brother to the carry guns. This allows me to have several magazines that work in all 3 and the ones for the big brother gives me 15 rounds for the 9 round guns

I hope this helps and doesn't scare you off.
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  1. HKS's Avatar
    This is an intricate question.
    It all depends on why you want or need the gun?
    For self defense, the ideal gun is a 45ACP pistol. You don't need anything more potent, and anything more potent shoots more slowly and has a higher risk of collateral damage.
    If you cannot take the recoil of a 45ACP then you can downgrade to a 9x19 which is a bit lighter.
    If you cannot handle the complexity of a semi auto pistol, then a 38 special revolver is the ticket.
    I would not recommend a mouse gun of a smaller caliber.
    Nor would I recommend a heavy cannon of a larger or longer caliber/cartridge.
    You need to go to an indoor shooting range which rents guns and which has instructors and sample several.
    Once you have settled on a choice, then you need to take many many many classes in shooting.
  2. rwrecords1's Avatar
    I think the first question you need to ask yourself is the purpose of the firearm. Are you going to carry daily? Is it going in the night stand for home defense? Think about what purpose it will serve. I would then go to a gun range that has guns you can rent. Explain to the gun range personnel that you need to shoot a few different types of guns to see what you like. I would shoot a polymer framed semi auto, a metal framed semi auto, and a revolver. I believe that the 9mm and the 38 special rounds are good "starter" rounds. I hope this helps.
  3. mike@familyfirstdefense's Avatar
    Discuss at length with a highly qualified instructor...
  4. ForceRecon67's Avatar
    I agree with Mike and most of the above. Ask for an instructor's help. Also consider some kind of actual training. It is your right to carry a weapon and your responsibility to become very familiar with the weapon you carry. Don't laugh, I have a BB gun in same size and model as my carry pistol. I use it to practice drawing, aiming and shooting out in the near by deserts around here. Then I also train using my actual carry weapon. I train with my shotgun and AR 15, too. And I'm an old man. It is just the responsible thing to do.
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