Is there a website, similar to Consumer Reports but free, that rates guns bt quality/price? Primarily handguns.
Peace,
mangeorge
As far as I know, there is not if you are talking about an even moderately comprehensive guide. Even new and used gun blue book values are very difficult to find online. I have always had to refer to printed resources.
Is there a question in particular that you wanted to know? Many of us on these boards may be able to help.
Nah, no specific question. I wondered mostly about defense weapons though. I just re-visited an old thread about saturday night specials and got to wondering.
Opinions and recommendations in threads I’ve read vary all over the place, and I was just curious if there was some sort of side-by-side comparison chart somewhere. Like CR does for tv’s, etc. 
Thanks
What Shagnasty wrote. Many magazines will test out handguns (G&A, American Handgunner, etc.), but most are subjective opinion pieces. And many aren’t going to trash a manufacturer’s product especially if they are part of the advertising budget. You may be able to get back issues and see what they were saying about this issue during that time frame.
Gun Tests magazine, http://www.gun-tests.com/ , is one of the few that will print a bad review when called for. The reviews can be useful but you won’t find more than three or four specific models compared to each other in a single test as you in Consumer Reports. Can you be more specific? “Handguns” is too broad a category. I have a subscription and I’ll do a search on something more focused if you want.
Ok, here’s the thread that piqued my interest.
dropzone disavows any real interest in actually owning a gun, but I got to wondering what if someone really did want to buy a gun (revolver or auto) for home/self defense. Not to carry, but to keep at home, etc. She/he would be pretty hard-pressed to choose one. I guess you could put yourself at the mercy of a dealer, but they’re in business just like any other seller of things.
I guess a Defender 12ga would do the trick. That’s what a cop told me many years ago
There was a thread on the subject a long time ago, but it got kinda over-ran by gun fanciers. Of course that’s to be expected. You can’t expect them to be purely practical about something so dear to their hearts.
I should have asked this in IMHO, huh?
Kim du Toit is a gun enthusiast and seems knowledgeable.
Uh huh. Well I can safely say that I have never seen a test of “Saturday night specials.” I don’t suggest using them, even for boat anchors, as the potmetal alloy is insufficently dense and corrodes easily.
The answer to your question may well belong in IMHO but I’ll give you a few things to chew on. Gun tests and reviews in magazines may tell you many pieces of information used to choose a defensive weapon but without experience you won’t have a context to put the information in. Short version is if you don’t have any shooting experience the correct gun for self defense is none. If you really want the answer to the question do not take someone else’s advice, even mine. Take firearms safety training and learn to shoot a vareity of guns. You will then be able to make a choice based on what gun you can use safely and effectively. That is the only opinion that matters.
FWIW I think the cop’s advice to you was reasonably sound for reasons that have been discussed in multiple IMHO threads.
Safety training is a given IMO, Padeye. And required most places. Same for practice.
Can different guns be rented at shooting ranges, once you’ve had the training?
mangeorge, every indoor shooting range I’ve been to rents guns. I live in Arizona and YMMV in other states with different gun laws. Here you can even rent machine guns. Most ranges have the stipulation that you use only factory ammunition purchesed from them but it’s a good way to try different guns at your own pace. The restriction is a reasonable one because guns can be damaged by faulty handload ammunition and some, such as Glocks, should not be used with non-jacketed lead bullets. It’s more costly than borrowing from friends who shoot but doesn’t come with the baggage of their prejudices. “Yeah, what you need is a Czechoslovakian 10.2mm Hwgbrno, can’t go wrong with one of those.” Not everyone realizes that what works well for him may not be the best choice for someone else.
What I will advise is buying a gun you can afford to shoot - a lot - in .22 LR caliber regardless of what your ultimate goals are. You can get a quality .22 handgun for a modest price and if you wait for Big 5 to have a sale you can get more than a thousand rounds of ammunition for $20. Competence comes with training and practice and you won’t get there in a few hundred rounds.
Something else you may look at, discreetly though, is what kind of guns do LEOs use where you live? Police depend on guns for their lives so for the most part they don’t screw around unless there is a kickback on the contract. Their requirements are the same as yours should be; reliability, effectiveness, durability and ease of training. Without a cite I feel pretty safe in saying that Glock is by far the most common cop gun followed in no particular order by Sig, Berretta, S&W and some others.
Feel free to drop me a line if you want anything more specific.
Thanks, Padeye, you make a lot of sense. For some reason I had envisioned buying one gun after another until you find one you really like.
Now that I think about it…
BTW; I’ve never been to a range.
And no gun owner should be without this reference.
While I’m not as technically versed as Padeye or Crafter_Man, their advice is spot-on. Any firearm you pick up for home defense should be selected for comfort, accuracy, and powerful enough for your situation (for instance, if you live in an apartment, you don’t want an exceedingly powerfull handgun, as overpenetration can cause a stray bullet to travel through walls and ruins your neighbor’s day).
Your ammunition selection for your handgun is just as important; Glazer Safety Slugs can offset overpenetration concerns without sacrificing stopping power.
And above all else: a handgun is only as good, as effective, as the person behind the trigger. If you buy a handgun for home defense, and never practice with it, become familiar with its feel and recoil, you’re not going to be as effective should you ever have to use it as someone who has.
Most good ranges have a variety of firearms for rent, and trying as many as possible before you purchase is wise; would you buy a car without a test-drive?
Other than that, you have to wade through lots of material to find objective, side-by-side comparisons of firearms; little tidbits about specific firearms (like Padeye’s tip about Glocks and non-jacketed ammo) is probably unkown to the casual, uninformed buyer, and objective critiques can be difficult to obtain as well, as firearms enthusiasts can be a partisan lot, making the whole Democrat/Republican issue seem tame by comparison.
But you came to the right place. I’ve never seen or heard of the real gun gurus here on the SDMB give bad advice, and they’re almost always scrupulous about separating their opinions from known fact.
Rather than start a new MPSIMS thread I thought I’d post here. A co-worker told me to schedule range time tomorrow over lunch break as several German and UK colleagues want to try shooting while they’re here in Scottsdale. Four people with absolutely no experience, one with only a few range sessions under his belt and two experienced people to keep things under control.
The only local range close enough for a lunchtime jaunt is the hoity-toity Scottsdale gun club where “Titanium” memberships go for $10K plus $200 monthly dues. Fortunately they allow non-members when the range isn’t full at $15 an hour which is pretty typical. The other ranges in phoenix are in the neighborhood of $90-150 per year for unlimited range time.
As a matter of fact, the company I work for maintains a recreation area in the far reachs of the property which includes a rod and gun club, which sports an indoor shooting range. I don’t know about outdoor, though. Membership costs something like $12/year.
That fee also entitles me to a bowling alley, a basketball court, an olympic swimming pool, a picnic area and some other stuff.
Hella cool, huh?
That’s a nice perq. I’m sure you’ll find several co-workers who can show you the ropes. It’s addictive though. I took a co-worker of mine shooting twice and he’s already bought his first gun and itching to try it tomorrow.
Thanks for the thumb’s up, ExTank, but it should be mentioned that I’m not in the same league as Padeye. Not even close. His technical knowledge on firearms is without equal on the SDMB. I’m just a guy who likes to shoot guns. 
mangeorge: I concur with everyone else, i.e. don’t give too much weight to what others have to say about their “favorite” handguns. This includes so-called “gun experts” in the gun rags. The most important this is for you like the gun.
I will have to say this, however: Do not buy junk. Price is a good indicator of quality, for the most part. Good revolvers start at $300, and good semi-autos start at $450. And no matter what the price, if it feels like junk, it probably is.
BTW: Here is an excellent article written Special Agent Urey W. Patrick of the FBI Academy. It is titled Handgun Wounding Factors and Effectiveness. It’s a must-read for anyone who depends on a handgun for self protection. He dispels a lot of myths about terminal ballistics, and says bullet penetration is one of the most important parameters when trying to stop a threat. Just something to think about.
Your welcome, and ditto as well. I just like to shoot; every now and then, the odd fact or bit of trivia sinks in and sticks.
And I liked the article, too. Told me what I pretty much figgered out back when: gimme my .45.
Sounds like Mr. Patrick might like the 500 S&W Magnum, even though many shooters don’t seem very impressed.
C’mon, some of you guys gotta secretly lust after that monster.
And he might not. I’ll read the entire article after I get some sleep.