The Most Important Feature of a Firearm

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been looking at many different firearms lately: revolvers, pistols, rifles (lever action, bolt action) shotguns…

What do you look at when you are thinking about getting a gun? Different people have various preferences. One may be a cowboy-action revolver just for looks, another may be a rifle that can drive nails at 300 yards. Also, different firearms may have different preferences, that is, you may want to have great aesthetics in a shotgun, but want your pistol to fire every time.

So I submit this poll. Let me know what your priorities are!

2

I don’t have any longarms but for a pistol/revolver is how well it fits your hand, a good trigger is next.

3

I would put feel under Aesthetics and a trigger under Reliability.

4

Historic significance.

Now, I have a broad definition of ‘historic significance’. For example, my Ruger 1022s and Mk.II are significant because of their popularity. This popularity was brought about by such factors as listed in the other poll options. My Marlin 39A is significant because it is the longest-produced shoulder-fired firearms in the world. My Colt SP1 AR-15 isn’t made anymore. (They still make AR-15s, but the have different nomenclature now.) My Winchester Model 94 (also no longer made) is one of the most popular deer rifles ever made. My Winchester Model 1892 is 113 years old. My Henry Survival Rifle is significant because it’s the latest incarnation of the Charter Arms AR-7, which is just so cool because it breaks down, fits into its own stock, and floats. (As a firearm it leaves much to be desired, But that doesn’t matter to me.) My Armalite AR-180 is mentioned in a song. (Though The Police were no doubt thinking of the select-fire AR-180.) Colt 1911s, Beretta 92FS, Mauser C96, Webley Mk.VI, S&W M1917s… They’re either old, or exemplars of their types, or both.

Basically, I like the common, mundane examples of guns that are or were significant because of their innovations and design, how they were used, when they were used, etc.

5

I would say aesthetics is near or at the bottom of my list of priorities. Right now I only own one revolver but that’s only because my disposable income dried up. I can easily see myself owning a dozen or more, each selected for some desirable trait. Aesthetics barely enters the equation.

6

I visited Holland and Holland a few weeks ago. Can I vote for price? :eek:

7

I don’t hunt, so rifles and shotguns don’t interest me so much any more.
I still like to shoot pistols however.

For me, there are three primary things I look for in a revolver or pistol.

reliability - it must go bang every time I want it to.

safety - it must never go bang when I don’t want it to. In my case, being a predominately left-handed shooter, this means any safety features must be accessible and easy to use with either hand. I like safety levers on semiautos. I do not like hair triggers on revolvers, for instance.

accuracy - when I shoot at something, I really don’t want to hit something else. In my case, with my eyesight, if I can hit a paper plate at 50 feet every time, that’s sufficient. If I don’t feel confident that I can hit something, I don’t take the shot.

I currently own:
Ruger Gp100 in .357. I don’t really need this revolver any more, as I don’t go where there are bears these days, but I’ve owned it so long that I can’t part with it. Besides, I think it’s a beautiful piece of work.

CZ-85B - I like the .45 for self defense, but I’m accurate enough with this pistol that it is lethal enough for me in any self defense situation I might find myself in. It is also dead nuts reliable. It also fits my hand better than any other auto, except the Browning Hi-Power, which I didn’t shoot nearly as well.

I also have two .22 pistols, a revolver and a semi auto. But they are just for fun/practice, and don’t have to meet my criteria above quite as strictly. For instance, my Ruger single six is nearing it’s fortieth birthday, and is getting a little loose. I can’t always hit that paper plate at 50’, but I just like to shoot it. So I keep it

I have to admit that the way a pistol fits my hand, and the aesthetics of it also play a part, but there are some dead ugly pistols I’d like to have, for various reasons, and there are also some perfectly good pistols that I have sold because I didn’t like the way they felt in my hand.

Good luck with your search, and take everything you are told with a very large grain of salt.
The best way to pick out a pistol is to actually shoot it and see how you like it.

8

I picked reliability in all 3 categories. I’m assuming my caliber, range and ammo capacity is adequate for the application (I’m not hunting deer with a .22 pistol and I’m not using a deer rifle for home defense).

Having “died” several times in military exercises due to weapon malfunction or simple mishandling under stress (yeah, I’ll admit it–I ended up losing a quickdraw with opfor because my safety was on), ease of operation and reliability are the most important to me. If you ain’t spitting out the lead exactly when and were you want it you might as well just have a stick.

9

I still own no firearms. Every time I manage to get a couple, I end up having another tragic boating accident. Silly me.

But, if I did plan to acquire one or more firearms in the distant future…long after the current administration has been voted out, my first step would be to determine caliber/gauge. (Note to the OP: Shotguns come in gauges mostly…12, 16, and 20, being popular. 10 and 28 less so, but there are probably some of them out there. There is a smallish shotgun known as a .410, which I think may be a caliber rather than a gauge, but am not sure. .410s are often given to young boys as their first hunting weapon).

Once I know the caliber/gauge, then I consider ease of use/reliability, accuracy, weight, magazine capacity, etc.

10

I’d say put another category in for ergonomics and functionality.

To me, this is the most important thing, all else being equal. That being said, the most ergonomic and functional shotgun in the world isn’t too useful if it’s only in .410.

But… if I were in the handgun market, the priority would go in this order: caliber, ergonomics, reliability, accuracy. If the pistol is in some weird-ass caliber like 38 Super or 9mm Largo, I’d probably pass, regardless of how great the gun was. If it’s available in the standard 9mm/45/40/380 automatic calibers or the 38/357/44/45 revolver calibers, then the deciding factor would be the ergonomics. If the pistol was in multiple calibers, then it would probably be price.

I suppose that overall

11

As did I. Reliability speaks to workmanship, which speaks to quality, which speaks to design, which speaks to the #1 most important thing: Safety. Any firearm that could possibly be referred to as “unreliable” should have the bolt welded shut and the barrel plugged for use as a wall hanger. I don’t care if it’s the most attractive, ergonomic, sex in wood and steel thing I’ve ever seen, unreliable is unacceptable in every instance. It’s either going to go bang when I don’t want it to or not go bang when I do, and that’s horribly dangerous.

12

Every gun is unreliable if you abuse it enough. The question is, how much abuse can it take before it becomes unreliable?

13

I would have to add ergonomics / fit to hand / feel for handguns for me.

Shooting the double stack polymer 9’s was just another unusal outing for me: ok, been there done that, got the target paper souvenir… until I tried a .45 1911, almost as an afterthought, because my Dad had carried one he aquired in wwII, and I wanted to see what that gun was like for him.

It was like shooting with my index finger, it felt so natural. That first experience with a 1911 resulted in me becoming a target and IDPA* shooter.
*
WIsh me luck, I’m off to the Alberta provincials on Sunday…*

14

For semiautos, reliability is most important.

Guns that are *not *semiautos usually do not have a reliability problem. In which case accuracy is most important. IMO, of course…

15

I put down “something else”.

I have three guns.

The first is a .22 rifle that belonged to my father. I like it because it was my father’s, and also because ammo is dirt cheap for it. You can plink away all day long and not spend much money, so it’s great for target practice.

The second is a replica 1853 Enfield rifle-musket. I got this just because I like old fashioned black powder rifles, and for this one, period accuracy was very important. You could swap parts off of an original Enfield with this if you wanted to. This is my favorite rifle to shoot because, as far as old black powder weapons go, this one is very accurate for its time and because it is a percussion cap it is very reliable as well. I wanted a percussion cap and a rifled barrel, and the choice came down to this or an 1861 Springfield replica, and the Enfield has better sights on it.

The third is a replica 1756 British Long Land infantry musket (one of several versions of muskets that all get the nickname “Brown Bess”). This is a smooth bore flintlock, so its reliability is horrible. There’s a reason many flintlocks were converted to caplocks in the mid 1800s, the caplock is much more reliable. Even though it has a 46 inch long barrel, its accuracy is horrible as well. It’s a smooth bore and it shoots round balls, which are basically always curve balls. They’ll go straight for about 50 to 75 yards, but after that where they go is anyone’s guess. They didn’t even bother putting a sight on this one (you can use the bayonet lug as a sight of sorts though). Again, though, the most important thing about this was its period accuracy. I don’t like shooting this as much as the Enfield because it isn’t as accurate and (more importantly) it is harder to clean. But it is still a lot of fun. When I bought this one, I was looking at replica French Charleville muskets, but I found this one which is a 1756 pattern (longer than the later Brown Bess models) and it was cheaper than the Charleville I was looking at as well. And it happens to be a larger caliber (.75 compared to .69).

Both black powder guns end up being about a dollar per shot, by the time you add up the powder and the lead and the flint and the caps and all of that. It ends up being fairly cheap for an afternoon of shooting though because they take so long to load that you can’t get that many shots off in an hour.

Most shooters don’t like black powder weapons because they are so slow to load and they are a royal pain to clean, but I just like doing things the old fashioned way. I don’t mind the cleaning either. That’s part of the black powder experience, IMHO.

16

Weight and accuracy.

I am not strong and if I have a gun, I won’t to know I can aim it reliably.

17

They’re actually very easy to clean. But very, very messy.

I have about a dozen black powder handguns.

18

Nothing else matters if it is not reliable.

19

In any firearm, my number one priority is reliability. I pull the trigger, it goes bang.

An extremely close second is accuracy. I pull the trigger, it goes bang and puts the round where I intended.

After that is ergonomics. When I was buying my first handgun, I’d decided I wanted either a Glock or a Beretta in 9mm. They have comparable reliability, accuracy and ammo capacity. I went to the gun store, picked them both up, put the Glock back down and told the owner to start the paperwork on the Beretta. The Beretta fit my hand beautifully and aligned naturally. The Glock, while a fine firearm, felt like a brick.

20

Pistol, reliability; Rifle, reliability… and for a shotgun, aesthetics; I never intend to own one, so I don’t care how they preform, I’ll pick the pretty but pointless object over an ugly and pointless 9 times out of 10.