I have finally been given...

P

Pond James Pond

New member
... my permits to buy.

6 months of liasing with the aurthorities of 3 seperate countries, studying, practicing (the fun bit), various evaluations by professionals of the medical persuasion, 2 tests and one heated disussion on the linguistic consequences of badly translated exam papers.

All that and about €200 in charges and fees, and I've finally been given the stamped triplicate papers that mean I can walk into a shop and exchange money for hardware!!


Now all I need to do is decide what the heck to buy. :cool:
 
Well I would suggest,,,

After all that hassle,,,
You should buy yourself a beer!

A BIG one.

Then you can mull over all the attributes of the various fiery-arms out there.

Have fun.

Aarond
 
Good Goddess, Man! Where the heck do you live?

+1 to the beer, sounds like you need it

After all those hoops, they should just give you a gun to shoot.

But congrats anyways
 
Good luck, Pond. As I recall, most of the guns you are looking at are pretty well thought of, so I suspect you'll do just fine. Still, I'll be curious to see what you decide on, and how you like it once you've brought it (them) home.
 
@Stressfire

Living in Estonia.

To be fair half the hoops are due to me not being a citizen, but a resident. Had to get a few documents from home, then there are the translations etc, appointments for the psychiatrist etc...:rolleyes:

The things I do....
 
@ Nocturnus 31

Yep. I am still considering it. Thing is, that shop has that and a small selections of new Rugers. On top of that the prices are pretty good.

I asked about any discounts and the guy said I could have the used Jericho for €400 and a new GP100 4" for €550. €950 total. I could probably manage that. OK, neither is conceled carry material, but in any case I really am questioning the carry side of things, other than going to the forest.

A new Jericho retails at €840 and the GP100 from another shop retails at €890. The Sig Pro 2009 is still a contender but at the moment sits €640. Tomorrow, I'm off to the range again for an hour of fun, and they said they'd check if the seller would budge on price.

There is finally a 1500 round old G19 with a holster and two clips. It also has a lighter trigger, so I suspect it was an IPSC shooter... That is going for €450. A very practical choice, and great value but I hate to say it (as I know they are very capapble bits of kit) but it does not inspire me as much....:o
 
@Mleake

On the plus side, barring any last minute pendular changes in mind, I have at least whittled it down to those 3 models above...... I think....;)

EDIT: you posted as I was answering.

CZ: well, initially yes, mostly based on their attractive price, such as the P-07 Duty, and the 75B: there are plenty on sale here, but my range instructors warned me against them as they seem to have a tendency to snap their slide release bar and a couple of other failures that they witnessed first hand as well as read about in guns that have cycled 15k rounds, or less. In a nutshell, nice guns to shoot, but with questions over longevity and build, from people who have seen them in use. Also, I was told that in that unlikely panic situation where your pistol may get used in anger and your fight/fligth reponse makes fine muscular control harder the slim slide and slim slide grip of the CZ may not offer the purhcase of the nice wide grip of a Glock, say, and people end up trying to rack the frame that they've gripped instead of the slide....

FN. well the shop with the mega deal on Ruger GP100s has an Finnish partner outlet, and they stock FN HPs. Don't know if they'd import them over here for sale, and don't know much about them, but over there they retail at €950 so I'd expect around €1100+ over here, new. the only other FN i looked at was a used FN HP in a shop, alongside a FEG and Star. They're all sold, and I'd have probably avoided them as getting any spares would have been hell. The IWI Jericho is borderline in that respect

That same Finnish shop does stock a sexy looking Tanfoglio P19. No idea if its any good, but it looks foxy. €400
 
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What ...

... firearm to buy ?

Well, in the United States my advice is always to start with .22 caliber rimfire pistol. Excellent semi-automatics are available from around $240 and up.
I make that suggestion because pistol shooting requires a lot more practice, to reach a given level of familiarity/comfort/accuracy, than rifle shooting does
Hence, you will find youself shooting lots of bullets (of course that is also the fun part).
.22 rimfire ammo is probably cheaper by a factor of four to eight times than center fire ammo such as 9mm/.45caliber.
A .22 will allow you to practice all of the elements of pistiol shooting (trigger control, sight alignmnent, sight picture etc) except for adapting to recoil.
Also any .22 that is properly maintained will last through your lifetime and can be enjoyed by another generation or two of shooters.

I don't know anything about the avaialbility/cost of ammunition is Estonia, but I would recommend factoring the cost/availability of ammuntion into your decision.
.
 
I salute you, Sir, for your perseverance. I don't know if seeing more people persevere in the face of bureaucratic boondoggles would help reduce them or encourage those in "authority" to continue and even escalate them, but I nonetheless salute those who stay the course when necessary.
 
I fired a Hi-Power for the first time last night. An FEG made example.

I fired it 16 times. The first shot was a 10 ring. Then I loaded a full magazine. 14 of the 15 were 10 rings. Not shabby for pulling the trigger a grand total of 16 times. Points very well and is well balanced

I feel that this is a fine pistol and would recommend one
 
Don't buy just to be wanting a gun. Stick to what you've researched and you will be very happy. Good luck on your choice and have fun with it.
 
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