FAQ’s By TFL Members "I'm new to handguns and would like to get one for self defense"

G

glockcompact

New member
So here it is. There have been a lot of new people to guns asking questions on this forum so I thought it would be cool to create a general thread for "I'm new to handguns and would like my first defensive pistol". I want this to be a positive thread so no bashing other styles of weapons or cartridges. I also want to get more people involved so I would like each post to only have one specific FAQ and answer. If you have multiple FAQ's then create another post. The FAQ's can have anything to do with handguns and questions you are most likely asked when it comes to purchasing, practicing, training, storing, concerns for different living environments, cleaning, carrying concealed, carrying open, defensive ammunition, or anything else you can think of. A lot of these are going to be opinions so we may not agree on everything but I'm curious to see how this plays out. If you don’t agree on someone’s point then just create your own. Let’s try to keep it civil and make this a learning thread for Newbie’s. I myself learn something new every time I get on this forum and I’m sure I can learn from this thread too.
 
FAQ "Is a .38 Special good enough for home defense?"

Answer: I believe that .38 Special is good enough for home defense. Self defense ammunition has improved considerably over the last decade or so and with a properly placed round and a good defensive load it has good stopping capabilities.
 
Try before you buy

Ask your friends to let you try their guns, dont go out and spend your money on a .357 then find out your recoil sensitive and wished you bought a 9mm.
 
Ok Noob, the key thing here is that you can't just buy the pistol and be good to go. If you're a noob you probably need to build basic competency with pistol marksmanship. Which means you need to shoot a lot. Which means you need to spend money on a gun you can afford to shoot and possible somewhere to shoot it.

Seriously consider buying a pistol in .22 lr. Not a great defensive gun, but perhaps one of the most important training tools in your arsenal. The ammo is cheap. The guns are cheap, but a good one lasts forever. Buy a used Ruger .22 auto or a Browning Buckmark and shoot the hell out of it as often as you can. If you just can't see buying a 22 for defense, then take my next suggestion and buy a .22 as your second gun.

9mm service pistol. 9mm hits the sweet spot of performance, expense, and capacity. You can certainly kill someone with 9mm hollowpoints and unlike a lot of the bigger rounds, you can afford to go to the range and shoot through a box of regular ball ammo every week. 4" service pistols are great generalists. They don't carry as nice as a compact, but you can still carry them unlike a bigger gun. They shoot a lot nicer than a compact and they're generally more reliable and accurate. If you look for police trade-ins, you can pick up a gun for a song.

Which 9mm service pistol? That's the tricky part. Every hand is different so gun choices will be different. You basically have to try a wide variety of guns to see what you like. Do you have friends that shoot? See if you can go to the range with them and try their guns. Do you have a local range with a good rental selection? Buy a membership and shoot your way through their rental case. When you find a gun you like and shoot it well, make a note of it and buy one.

That is exactly what I did. When I was starting out, I bought a Gold membership at Targetmaster in Chadds Ford, PA. Every Sunday for a year, my brother and I shot a new gun out of their copious rental selection. I liked the hipower and picked one up from CDNN for below wholesale. Shortly thereafter I bought a used buckmark. Shortly after that I started shooting at a cheaper state range because I didn't need to pay for a rental selection I wasn't using anymore.

Also consider getting training from a decent instructor. Not mandatory, but always a good idea.
 
Price and Picking a Gun for Yourself

Prices are all over the board - easily from $ 300 to $3,000 for a lot of commonly available guns.

Know your budget / be honest with yourself - and figure out the guns that are available in your budget - and look at different platforms with different controls. Check and see what very good guns ( same guns / sell for used ) even if you don't think you know enough to buy used.

Stay with one caliber - like 9mm - and touch and feel and shoot - as many different 9mm's as you can ....Glocks, Sig, H&K, 1911's etc ....and in 3", 4" and 5 " guns ....and figure out what fits your hands. Figure out the differences -weight, grip angle, sights, controls ....and most importantly how the trigger feels. Educate yourself about strikers, hammers, DAK, SAO, SA/DA triggers - and how they're different.

On the trigger - understand how it breaks, what is slack, what is creep - and how it resets. Understand that "hinged triggers" feel different than 1911 triggers - that move straight back and forth in the frame. Some trigger shoes feel different / some wobble, some don't ...

Understand why some guns have external safeties, some have decockers, some have internal safeties ....and why / and which one you like and why ...

Then complete the circle - back to price. By doing this - you'll understand what your money buys ....not just what your buddy told you was cool, what the store had in stock ...
 
Don't think you can get by with the cheap ebay holster and your 1" Sunday go to meeting belt. That is how most of us ended up with a drawer full of them. Look at spending $100+ MINIMUM for holster AND belt. You do have to pay for quality in this case.
 
A gun is a tool with potential huge penalities for misuse

What you've learned from TV and movies is hazardous to your health, wealth and freedom. Do it like they do on TV and you go to jail while your attacker goes free, or sues you for all you're worth. It's not fair. Better you know now than find out in court afterwards.

If you haven't read several serious books about firearms defense (or taken classes) and the legal issues involved then you aren't fully informed on the topic.

Having a gun when you need it is better than not having one.
Folks who like guns endlessly debate which gun is better and enjoy the topic.
If you enjoy the learning and testing and discussion, great.
If not, find an instructor or book writer you trust and see what they recommend for a sufficiently useful, reliable and simple firearm. Then get another opinion to cross-check answers with.

Then plan on spending some time and money to learn how to use and maintain it.

As a previously anti-gun friend of mine said after taking the NRA Basic Pistol course - "The experience was a LOT bigger than I expected when we started." Right on.
 
Handgun FAQ for beginners.

1. Starting off with a .22lr handgun is ideal. Otherwise get a 9mm semi-auto: Glock, S&W M&P, Beretta 92FS, H&K USP/P2000/P30, SIGSauer P226/P229/P239, Ruger SR9, SA XD, Walther P99, or Browning High Power. Or a DA revolver from Ruger or S&W. Know how they are different from each other not just price and looks. Pay particular attention to type of trigger and whether you want certain safeties. Try to asses what you'll be comfortable with.

2. Take a basic handgun training course from a reputable instructor/school (not whoever's teaching at your local range) and learn how to properly and safely use and manipulate your specific defensive handgun. Then continue to practice and take more classes if you can afford it. You'll be ahead of the curve from most shooters you see at the public range. The type of handgun you own is secondary to your training.

3. Stay away from internet gun boards which discuss which is the "best", "better", and which "sucks" for as long as you can. Worry about that when you built up your fundamentals. Usually that means you are one of the better shooters at your range. It doesn't matter what you're shooting as a beginner as long as its a quality pistol thats reliable, durable, and reasonably accurate up to 25 yards. That includes all the handguns listed above.
 
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Try before you buy II

Ranges often rent pistols. This is especially true of public indoor ranges. Renting will give you an opportunity to try a variety of pistols of different designs and calibers.
 
Man guns are being sold all over the place, gun shows get the asking price even if it is too much. Folks not doing their homework just want a gun now. or want the kewlest gun in the rags.

Go to a range that offers training and get you some :) try as many as you can, like a car purchase. Test drive em, they are not all the same. Start out small and move up to larger calibers.
 
Hook up with friends and shoot thier handguns. Most people that have handguns are looking for any excuse to go shoot them. Ask them what they have and what ammo to buy. Go buy a couple boxes of ammo and go have fun for a day.
 
Picking a handgun out for your significant other.

You don't do it! Get your Girlfriend/Boyfriend, Wife/Husband out to pick there own weapon out. They need to get on the forums and read. They need to go to the gun stores and handle the weapons themselves. They need to rent/borrow others and try them out. In short, they need to pick out thier weapon not you. The more informed they are the more fun the both of you will have. Plus they will feel like it truly is thier handgun.
 
Clifford L. Hughes

Glockcompact:

After retirement from the Marine Corps I sold guns for a living for twenty years . During this time I helped hundreds of people with your problem. I agree that any gun that you buy shoud feel comfortable in your hand. However, this is not the only criteria. Let me explain by going to extreams of guns fitting the hand.

If you want to hunt large game with a pistol, a large pistol with large grips is called for. If you have small hands you either learn to shoot a large gripped pistol or you don't hunt large game. On the other hand, for concealed carry a small pistol with small grips is required. If you have large hands you either learn to shoot small gripped pistols or you don't carry.

What I'm saying is that you buy a pistol for the job that you want it to do and then learn to shoot it, the more comfortabe the better. This means many trips to the range. However, While I was shooting on a Marine Corps team I dry fired a lot. To develope my grip and to get the trigger to release without moving the sights I snapped in using a blank white wall with no target. Without the target I could concentrate solely on trigger release and sight alignment.

By all means, at each secession, practice with a box or two of .22 before tackling a 9mm and .38 special/357 mag.

Semper Fi.

Gunnery sergeant
Clifford L. Hughes
USMC Retired
Clifford L. Hughes
 
What should I Practice?

If you are buying a handgun for fun shooting at targets then all you need to practice is target shooting.

But if you are buying a handgun for concealed carry or home defense you need to practice defensive or combat shooting. After you know how to work your gun, reload, clear stoppages (static target shooting is a good way to practice that) then you can start worrying about all the really important stuff. Like a holster that fits and allows the gun to stay concealed yet allows you to draw with some speed. You can start training on getting that sight alignment and sight picture quickly and automatically. You can start training on delivering the first shot on target and the follow up shots in a good group. After you've mastered coming from the holster and engaging one target you can work on multiples. Then you can add multiples while moving. There are classes and shooting games for all of this but you can do some of it on your own.

At my range I like to watch what other shooters are doing. One of the things I see often is people shooting DA/SA guns exclusively in SA. They seem to be doing this because the SA trigger pull is crisper and allows them to punch targets closer to the X ring. If your gun has DA/SA practice both trigger pulls. You'll probably get your first shot in a crisis with a DA pull. You'll be glad you practiced.

The basic point is you've got to practice what you want to be able to do. And there is always a new thing to learn or an old thing to refine.

Enjoy
 
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FAQ: What SD ammunition should I use in my semiautomatic pistol?

Answer: Whatever feeds reliably. Yes, some rounds perform better in ballistics testing than others. None of that will mean diddly-doo if your gun jams. Go buy several different kinds for testing.
 
Newb FAQ:

Q: "What gun for my Girlfriend/Wife/Sister/Mom?"

A: "http://corneredcat.com/ .....Hie thee hence, and order Kathy's book for your GF/Wife/Sister/Mom....... "
 
Question: What's the difference between "Single Action" and "Double Action" and What's the best?

Answer:
Double Action: While pulling the trigger you are cocking the weapon till it breaks then you are releasing the firing pin. Thus it's called "Double Action." It's performing two actions. It's usually a longer and heavier pull on the trigger.

Single Action: The weapon is already cocked either through racking the slide to load a round in the chamber or manually cocking it with your thumb. So pulling the trigger only has to release the firing pin. So it has one action. Usually a shorter and lighter pull on the trigger.

OK so What's the best?
There is no "best." They both have there positives and negatives.

Some weapons are single action only (SA), some are double action only (DA), and some are double action for the first shot then single action after that (DA/SA). Most single action weapons have a safety since its generally an easy light pull of the trigger. Possibly very light depending on the weapon.

Double Action takes more trigger finger control then Single Action because you have to maintain sight alignment while pulling a longer heavier trigger. If the weapon has a smooth trigger you can learn a lot from a Double Action trigger. Infact, I would go as far to say, that a person who has learned on a Double Action trigger could shoot a Single Action with little problem but the opposite is not necessarily true. You would just have to get use to the safeties.
A Double Action only with no safeties is commonly recomended to new shooters for simplicity and ease of learning. i.e. revolvers (some semi auto's are double action only also.) However, with proper training you can learn to shoot just about anything.
 
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