Buying A Gun - Tips and Advice

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve decided to take the plunge and pick up shooting as a hobby. This wont be my first time shooting but the last time I shot was 10 years ago. My background in shooting consist of two years in the military.

I wanted something similar to what I fired in the military, an M9 9MM, as it was very nice and comfortable to shoot. After a bit of research I decided on the Taurus PT92 9MM. It seemed to be the best bang for my buck (no pun intended) and seems to have a strong following. I’ve read that the customer service for the company sucks but the weapon itself is good and sturdy.

Of course now after further research I start getting into the whole 9MM vs. .45 debate. You think Mac vs. PC is bad? It’s got nothing on these guys. So my questions are as follows; Anyone here have any opinions on the Taurus? My budget is about $700 and at $430 the Taurus is very attractive plus it is basically a clone of what I shot in the Army. Also I am just going to be using this for hobby, not home or self defense. I think a 9MM is sufficient and the cost of ammo is cheaper for the range but if I did decide to get my CCW would it behoove me to start off with a .45? Taurus also makes a 1911 in .45 that is still in my budget but it is almost $200 more than the PT92. Thanks in advance guys.

2

[QUOTE=Amp]
I’ve decided to take the plunge and pick up shooting as a hobby. This wont be my first time shooting but the last time I shot was 10 years ago. My background in shooting consist of two years in the military.

I wanted something similar to what I fired in the military, an M9 9MM, as it was very nice and comfortable to shoot. After a bit of research I decided on the Taurus PT92 9MM. It seemed to be the best bang for my buck (no pun intended) and seems to have a strong following. I’ve read that the customer service for the company sucks but the weapon itself is good and sturdy.

Of course now after further research I start getting into the whole 9MM vs. .45 debate. You think Mac vs. PC is bad? It’s got nothing on these guys. So my questions are as follows; Anyone here have any opinions on the Taurus? My budget is about $700 and at $430 the Taurus is very attractive plus it is basically a clone of what I shot in the Army. Also I am just going to be using this for hobby, not home or self defense. I think a 9MM is sufficient and the cost of ammo is cheaper for the range but if I did decide to get my CCW would it behoove me to start off with a .45? Taurus also makes a 1911 in .45 that is still in my budget but it is almost $200 more than the PT92. Thanks in advance guys.
[/QUOTE]

I got a Taurus PT-99 (same as PT-92, but with adjustable rear sight) as my first gun about 15 years ago, and I’m quite happy with it. I did have to send it back once because the slide wasn’t reliably locking open after the final round, but I had no problem with customer service. Reliable gun, probably 4-5k rounds without a misfire. If it’s just a hobby gun, the .45 vs 9mm debate doesn’t really apply, does it? The PT-92 isn’t really small enough for daily carry (especially in Florida), so if you’re going to go that route later you’d probably wind up buying another gun anyway.

3

Nothing to add on which gun to get. You seem to have already picked one. There’s nothing wrong with the Taurus pistol that isn’t also wrong on the Beretta. So you might as well save a few bucks.

Anyway, just wanted to say that if you do decide to get your CCW, don’t waste a single penny on those stupid classes. Your DD-214 or old weapon qualification scorecard from 10 years ago is “proof of training” and good enough to get your permit. So don’t waste 20-50 dollars on a class. You can get an application online at http://licgweb.doacs.state.fl.us/license/forms.html or stop by 1313 N Tampa St (7th Floor) and go pick one up.

4

I’ve been a rifle shooter for many years. But earlier this year I decided to purchase my first handgun. I got a S&W M&P compact in 9 mm. The primary reason I got a 9 mm vs. a 45 ACP is because 9 mm is much cheaper to practice with. (Since I’m new to handguns, I figure I needed to practice. A lot.)

Once I get proficient with my handgun - which may take a few years - I will think about upgrading to a 45 ACP.

5

If you are mainly looking into a handgun in a hobby/shooting at the range sense I might suggest a nice .357 revolver with a good weight and is comfortable in your hand. You can use .38 rounds in this weapon and reload wad cutters at the local range are very inexpensive but affords the firepower of a .357 if you decide to expand it’s use to home protection.
I have the S&W Model 686 stainless and everyone I have taken to the range has loved firing this pistol. Smooth and balanced. Some ranges “rent” a weapon for use on their range and if you have one like that near you I would strongly suggest you take this beauty for a test drive.

6

I own several Tauruses (Tauri?) and am pleased with all of them. I think I shoot my .45 more than any other pistol I own. Although the High Power comes close.

7

If cost is a concern, you might want to consider a .22 pistol. It can teach you much of what you need to know and it’s a lot cheaper to shoot.

Another tactic would be to find a shooter who’s into your preferred centerfire caliber and has a serious reloading setup. He’d probably appreciate help and the chance to get a newbie started. Reloading is interesting and saves a bundle.

8

Not to cloud up the .45/9mm issue, but don’t ignore middle rounds like .40SW an d .357Sig. There’s also the .45GAP and the 10mm.

You might consider Glock if you’re balancing cost versus quality. SigSauer isn’t cheap, but it might be worth it to save more money for a higher cost ceiling.

In terms of concealed carry there are compact versions of the Glock (See G30 in .45ACP) and of the 1911-style Colt Models.

9

I’ve shot pistol for years and am quite comfortable with .45, indeed I don’t see much point in anything else, but I say the same thing I tell everyone that asks - Get the gun you’re most likely to enjoy practicing with. If you like your gun you’re probably going to shoot more and get good with it (and then you can get a .45)

Also, I’ve only heard good things about Taurus.

10

[QUOTE=Nic2004]
If you are mainly looking into a handgun in a hobby/shooting at the range sense I might suggest a nice .357 revolver with a good weight and is comfortable in your hand.
[/QUOTE]
Revolvers are dead-nuts reliable and simple to operate. But… they bore me. I just don’t get much enjoyment from shooting a revolver. I prefer semi-autos. I get the feeling a lot of other shooters are the same way.

11

OK, just got back from the range where I rented 5 guns and tried them out. I shot a total of 100 rounds. Two important things I found out; 1, I need freaking glasses. Damn! 2, I really liked the composites a lot. More than I thought I would. My favorite two guns were the Glock 17 and the Springfield XD.

With the regular guns I was all over the place. No shot grouping to speak of. With the composites I was always on target and my shot groups were tight. The only negatives with those two was the fact that the both of them stove piped once and the Springfield’s slide failed to lock back after the final round was extracted. That may just have been because they were rentals and maybe not maintained properly.

All the pistols I fired were 9 MM. I am going back sometime within the week and try to fire some .45’s. I think I’m being swayed over to the .45 camp. We’ll see.

12

[QUOTE=Amp]
OK, just got back from the range where I rented 5 guns and tried them out. I shot a total of 100 rounds. Two important things I found out; 1, I need freaking glasses. Damn! 2, I really liked the composites a lot. More than I thought I would. My favorite two guns were the Glock 17 and the Springfield XD.

With the regular guns I was all over the place. No shot grouping to speak of. With the composites I was always on target and my shot groups were tight. The only negatives with those two was the fact that the both of them stove piped once and the Springfield’s slide failed to lock back after the final round was extracted. That may just have been because they were rentals and maybe not maintained properly.

All the pistols I fired were 9 MM. I am going back sometime within the week and try to fire some .45’s. I think I’m being swayed over to the .45 camp. We’ll see.
[/QUOTE]

I would be willing to bet a dollar to your stale doughnut that it was none of the guns’ fault. You may have been limp-wristing them causing the stovepipes, and were doing a combination of other things if you had no groupings to speak of with the other shots.

My advice is to practice, practice, practice with a .22 pistol. Ammo is cheap and you can get the hang of it.

If you just want to plink, then a .22 would be all you ever need. If you wanted a pistol for concealed carry, then your location, how concealed it has to be, etc. would come into play.

A Glock 17 is huge…

13

[QUOTE=Amp]
OK, just got back from the range where I rented 5 guns and tried them out. I shot a total of 100 rounds. Two important things I found out; 1, I need freaking glasses. Damn! 2, I really liked the composites a lot. More than I thought I would. My favorite two guns were the Glock 17 and the Springfield XD.

With the regular guns I was all over the place. No shot grouping to speak of. With the composites I was always on target and my shot groups were tight. The only negatives with those two was the fact that the both of them stove piped once and the Springfield’s slide failed to lock back after the final round was extracted. That may just have been because they were rentals and maybe not maintained properly.

All the pistols I fired were 9 MM. I am going back sometime within the week and try to fire some .45’s. I think I’m being swayed over to the .45 camp. We’ll see.
[/QUOTE]
The XD has a good reputation and is pretty reasonably priced. I’m not a fan of the Glock, but that has more to do with the grip angle and some of the features I’m not personally enamored of; I think it’s a fine functional service arm with a substantial aftermarket accessories and modifications following, if you decide to get into that. In terms of accuracy, the best gun for you is the one that you shoot well; that being said, a skilled shooter should be able to pick up any reliable pistol and obtain reasonable groups. The fact that you are having problems with some probably indicates that you need to work on trigger technique. You should take a handgun class, if you have not already, and once you select your gun, buy a set of Snap Caps (dummy rounds) so that you can practice dry-firing (always pointing the gun in a safe direction when in battery, of course–all guns are always loaded) and refine trigger and grip technique.

I’ve had a couple of Taurus revolvers and one pistol. The revolvers were fine as knock-offs of Smith & Wesson wheel guns, though my preference (were I to go buy a revolver, which I won’t) would be an older Colt or a new Ruger. The pistol was, frankly, junk, with repeated breakages in the firing pin, firing pin spring, and extractor spring. This was over ten years ago and maybe they’ve improved–and I can’t complain about their customer service–but I wouldn’t care to rely on one for serious work. For real purposes, I’d shell out the dough for a Sig Sauer or Heckler & Koch, or maybe the EAA Witness. The Browning Hi-Power is an old standard, too.

With regard to the 9mmP vs .45 ACP (and other calibers) debate, I contend that it’s all a toolbox, and what is most important is being able to use the tools you have. I personally like the .45 ACP for its heft and size, but I don’t cart around the illusion that it’s going to knock someone over where a 9mmP would bounce off. The 9mm is certainly going to be easier to buy ammo for, though reloaders the straight wall case on the .45 ACP is preferred, and I seem to recall a lot fewer problems with reused cases splitting (which may come in part from reloaders trying to exceed SAAMI specs on the 9mm with thin-cased brass from mil surplus ammo). If you really want to do a lot of shooting cheap, the .22LR is the route to go, and you can buy aftermarket kits for a few guns to convert a full-bore to .22LR, but I’d just go ahead and shell out for a decent .22LR like the Ruger Mark III. You can put hundreds of thousands of rounds through it without wearing it out, and for the cost of a brick of .22LR you can do ten times the shooting compared to any centerfire round.

Stranger

14

Sometimes, if you’re not holding the pistol firmly enough, the slide won’t cycle properly. Then again, a shop gun with a bazillion rounds on it can get “tired”(or at least the springs can).

The .40SW and .357Sig are nice rounds that live between the .45ACP and the 9mm.

There’s also the 5.7mm, but that’s an odd little round.

The SigSauers are little pieces of art. Springfield, Kimber, Colt and S&W all do credible versions of the M1911A1 design.

As for H&K, They’re large, but good. The USP series are excellent, and there’s a reasonably compact version, called something like the H&K 2000.

The SigSauer P220 is simply one of the best .45ACP pistols out there. A variety of models support 9mm, but the P226 and P229 are the best known.

As for compact Glocks, they are surprisingly well-behaved.

15

[QUOTE=muldoonthief]
I got a Taurus PT-99 (same as PT-92, but with adjustable rear sight) as my first gun about 15 years ago, and I’m quite happy with it. I did have to send it back once because the slide wasn’t reliably locking open after the final round, but I had no problem with customer service. Reliable gun, probably 4-5k rounds without a misfire. If it’s just a hobby gun, the .45 vs 9mm debate doesn’t really apply, does it? The PT-92 isn’t really small enough for daily carry (especially in Florida), so if you’re going to go that route later you’d probably wind up buying another gun anyway.
[/QUOTE]

I too have a PT-99, which I got as my first pistol 18 years ago. Never, and I mean never have had any issues with it. The most reliable gun I own. So much so that I carried it as my service weapon when I worked for Loomis, rather than anything heavier (round wise) that might not be 100% guaranteed to work when I needed it to work. Some of my co-workers sneered at a 9mm, but hell, no one in that branch had fired a weapon on the job in living memory, so it’s not like any of them were looking down their nose out of actual experience or anything.

It’s basically a Baretta clone, appearance wise.

The thing was, I got it first and went shooting several times with it. Along the way, I noticed that I was going through buckets of ammo. When you’ve got a 15 shot clip in a semi-, you tend to get tempted to rapid fire too much! If you go out with only 100, or even 200 rounds, you’re done in a big hurry. Whereas with a revolver, you’ll be shooting all day with 200 rounds.

As a regular shooting gun, 9mm is fairly cheap compared to other rounds. You need to consider that as a casual shooter. Rather like a co-worker who was talking about buying a particular rifle in an off-caliber I can’t quite recall at the moment (might have been 45-70 or something like that). Until, that is, he saw that a box of 20 rounds of the ammo was going for $104. So sure, you can go 10mm, or .357 sig, or 5.7mm…but what is it going to cost you to shoot?

My next gun was the Taurus 689, a .357 magnum with a 6" barrel. I love it! My favorite pistol to shoot. The one I have most often displayed in actual self-defense, just because it scares the shit out of people. I just wasn’t going to carry it on the job, because of the size and weight of it. I don’t think they’d have allowed me to wear it gunslinger style, with it tied off at my knee.

16

Well I went back to the range today and shot some more. I think the issues I experienced were more due to me than the weapons. This time I took my time, controlled my breathing and practiced my trigger control. My shots were way better as well as more controlled. Everything came rushing back to me. I had a way better time today.

Long story short I ended up buying the Springfield XD in the .45 ACP caliber. Such a great gun to shoot. The recoil wasn’t bad, more noticeable than the 9 MM but nothing I couldn’t handle. Target acquisition was slower but I figure that will come with practice. Damn this three day waiting period but seeing as the gun had to be ordered in, they did not have a new one in stock, I guess it doesn’t matter. Time to go to Wal-Mart and stock up on ammo.

Thanks to everyone who posted to this thread.

17

Congratulations Amp! The XD is pretty high on my list of future purchases, and I’m always a little pleased when someone doesn’t buy a Glock (it is perhaps an irrational prejudice, but I really don’t like those things).
Which color scheme did you choose? I usually prefer black, but I’m strangely tempted by the OD.

18

[QUOTE=Bobotheoptimist]
Congratulations Amp! The XD is pretty high on my list of future purchases, and I’m always a little pleased when someone doesn’t buy a Glock (it is perhaps an irrational prejudice, but I really don’t like those things).
Which color scheme did you choose? I usually prefer black, but I’m strangely tempted by the OD.
[/QUOTE]

Thanks Bobotheoptimist.

That’s funny, the only XD .45 they had was in OD. I wanted the basic black and had them order it in. It should arrive the same day the three day waiting period is over. If there is any delay in getting the gun in I’ll just get the OD when the waiting period is over.

I really liked the XD over the Glock because of the added safety features. The palm safety, loaded chamber indicator and striker status indicator make me feel more comfortable with this being my first weapon and all. Oh, and the XD comes with an XD Gear System which includes a few extras like a belt holster, magazine loader and double magazine pouch.

19

[QUOTE=Amp]
I really liked the XD over the Glock because of the added safety features. The palm safety, loaded chamber indicator and striker status indicator make me feel more comfortable with this being my first weapon and all.
[/QUOTE]
Not to pound the point home until you are insensate, but remember that the primary safety feature with any gun is the one between your ears. Don’t rely on any mechanical safety feature to render the gun non-hazardous, and regardless of what the loaded chamber indicator says, any gun that is in battery is loaded; some just go “click” when you pull the trigger.

I think the XD is a fine choice. Like Bobotheoptimist, I’m not really a fan of the Glock.

Stranger