Advice on First Caliber

.22s are great for learning/practicing sight picture, sight alignment, and trigger control. Past that, they don't replicate most center-fire pistols very well. The conversion kits do a little better in getting used to the controls of the center-fire pistol. Recoil management pretty much requires a center-fire pistol to practice with.

I learned on 9mm and .45ACP pistols. It can certainly be done effectively. However, I also like the ability to practice on the cheap! Four cent .22 allows a lot more practicing of the fundamentals than forty cent .45 rounds. (That said, I tend to do both! :D)
 
9mm. Sounds like you are a new shooter and the 9 is low recoil. You don't want to develop bad habits if you end up being recoil sensitive. besides that the 9mm is a very capable round. I have .45's and 9's and am every bit as confident in the 9 as I am the .45. I would strongly encourage you to get a .22 also though. 0 recoil and cheap rounds so you can get plenty of practice in.
 
Agree with Skans. No reason to start with a .22, especially if all you want is an HD gun that you probably won't shoot very often.

I mean be realistic, how often are you going to go to the range? Are you going to actually pay for training and practice your skills? Probably not.

Get a 9mm or .45, they're relatively cheap to shoot and you'll do just fine yanking the trigger four or five times at 5-15 feet from somebody breaking into your house while you're home, which is highly unlikely anyway.

Flinching? Either you do or you don't, it has little if anything to do with the caliber. I've never seen somebody who fliches when they shoot .45, but not when they shoot 9mm, and shooting .22 helped them solve it. Dry fire, dummy rounds, and not being a __?__ solves it.

Recoil? Who cares.. anything less than 10mm or .44mag doesn't have enough recoil to significantly affect a normal adult male. If it does, you need to take a long hard honest look at the shooter, not the gun or cartridge. Seriously, this pervasive phobia about recoil, obsession over recoil management, needs to go away.
 
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Get the 45 ACP

Get a 45 ACP, 1911 style.

Buy a .22 Upper.

You're done.

Good Luck and Practice, Practice, Practice!

If you need good quality 45 ACP ammo for practice, I can get you 45 ACP 185 grain or 200 grain, SWC for $200.00 per 1,000 rounds.
 
The single most important factor in whether a firearm is effective at stopping someone is SHOT PLACEMENT.

So it seems to me the question is:

1. Which firearm can you shoot better naturally?
2. Which one will you actually go out and practice shooting with?

If your answers to both of the above are virtually equal, then I would suggest 9mm, simply for the reason that you can get self-defense ammo in 9mm that meets the FBI criteria for defensive ammo but 9mm is about half the cost of .45ACP, meaning you can practice twice the amount of shot placement for the same cost. At the end of the day, that will make a bigger difference than what caliber.
 
I'm with jroth

"Consider the 4" .38Spl/.357 revolver,
for first time and only purchase."

Bought my only handgun on the advice of a experienced shooter and mechanical engineer back in the mid 90's
it was a low use King Cobra, haven't regretted spending that $175
 
Barrel conversion capability is great when selecting a pistol.

For instance, I purchased a Glock 23, which is chambered in .40. I'm going to be getting a Lone Wolf barrel conversion kit and Glock 19 mags very soon, which will allow me to practice with the cheaper 9mm ammo as well.
 
My first handgun caliber was a 9mm but I went 5 years without a 9mm. I just bought a P7 and forgot how much I love to shoot 9mm. Follow up shots are a lot easier, and no recoil. It may be the gun aswell, because I just bought a PF9 and it kicked worst than any of my .40's
 
My first handgun was .44 mag., then .22 lr, then 45 ACP, then 40 SW. I now plan on getting a 9mm compact for CC. If you start big, you'll never notice the recoil from the smaller calibers. So, if you plan on eventually carrying a 45, just go with it right off.
 
I'm a revolver guy --

but I think you would do pretty well with a 9mm in the Beretta platform. My son loves his M9.
 
Anthony - It is a big trade off on what you can afford.

You should buy all the guns people have recommended. They are all usually right. The problem some of us have is that we can't own every caliber right off the bat.
22 - lowest practice cost. Probably about 6 cents per shot. Lower if you buy in bulk.
My choice? A 9mm. Lowest cost and very comparable to 38. 380 auto and such.
If your situation is PTC, I would go with a 357 mag.
You have to define your priorities and choose what might fit your budget. A 45 is cool, but can you afford the ammo? A 22 is cheap to shoot, but will it fulfill your gun needs?

If we all had a bunch of bucks, we would all own every caliber made. You really need to define you needs in a spread sheet and figure out where you want to be.

Maybe your needs are a wall of pistols, goals are just goals. One at a time. If you want a self defense gun, don't buy a 22 for practice.
 
+1 for the .38/.357 idea.

But between the two choices, I would go with 9mm.

Only because practice ammo is roughly half the cost of .45s.
 
Go get training in how to shoot a pistol from a "Certified NRA Trainer" and get to the range on a weekly basis. Then graduate up to one of the CCW Gun Classes that are out there on the web to take things to the next level. There are lots of opportunities to move from newby to Confident CCW out in the market. This does cost $$$ and time, but these issues are not free and require repetitive practice. Me at age 63, I have fired more than 40,000 rounds in competetion and training courses in the last 20 years. I shot just over 1800 rounds in two Gun Fighting courses last year not counting range practice. This year I have already shot more than 600 rounds in a "Gun Fighting" course and will do another 1000 rounds next month. Train, train, and get more training to become the best you can be. The courses are out there, you need to go find them and take them. Yes, the 9MM is the cheapest to shoot when buying Factory ammo. I reload and take the benefits from that practice. I carry a high capacity 9MM gun every day CCW. I have confidence in it and my training that I have taken and will continue to update yearly.
 
This is more about the OP's choice of gun rather than any specific training or tactics in its use. As such, it's more appropriate for the general handguns forum.

Moving.
 
I learned rifle shooting on a .22. I learned handgun shooting on a .357 mag revolver but of course shooting target .38,s. Get the 9mm if you must have an auto loader or in my opinion better yet get a revolver chambered in .357 mag and shoot 38,s first. From their you can do a transition to a higher caliber or different platform once you have mastered shooting fundamentals and handling a firearm for defense. Or you can keep the weapon and have a very versatile gun capable of different power levels.
 
You think you're gonna get one gun but you can easily get 2 for less money. How you ask? Buy a .22 and with the money you save learning to shoot you'll be able to buy a second gun in no time. Less than 4 - 6 bricks of ammo and by then you'll should be to handle the gun "ok" and you will have saved a MINIMUM of $300-$400. Then you can step up to the bigger boys and still have the .22 for cheap practice.

Five Fed 550 bulk packs = less than $100 (3.5 cent per), 2700 rounds of Tula 9mm from Cheaper than Dirt = $480 (18 cents per round) Right there is a savings of $380 and it's a DUH. .22 for a first gun is a no brainer.

LK
 
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