No, not an illegal one. Just one of those cheap, cheesy, usually Italian revolvers and automatics that used to arm gang members and worried housewives across the country. All the gun shops around me carry only GOOD guns and they cost too much to leave stashed under a car seat. Even Chicago’s gangstas seem to have moved upscale with their Glocks and Tauruses (Tauri?).
none of the local gunshops have any? I had to check about 10 before i could find a new gun in my price range, a .380 semi auto for $99.
You can always try auctionarms.com and buy one there and have it shipped to a gun shop.
Check your local pawnshops. Or a gun show. I was at one on Saturday and there were several Autopistols in 9mm for around $150.
Yeah! What my wife would call “a nice little purse gun.” (She carries a big purse and laughs at the stopping power of the old-fashioned lady’s .25.) Of course, now that her dad is dead he probably wouldn’t miss his ol’ .38 and it wouldn’t be the first time she’s “borrowed” it.
Jeeze, I gotta stay away from that auctionarms.com. A Martini-Henry rebarrelled for .303! I could relive the Battle of Rourke’s Drift in my own backyard!
There are reasons I don’t own a gun. :eek:
I reckon you already know this, but you get what you pay for. Be very careful of those inexpensive small handguns. If you are going to stake your personal protection on the reliability of a gun like a Jennings, Raven, Lorcin, or similar make, I strongly recommend that you shoot every kind of ammo available until you find the type that will absolutely, positively work every single time. Don’t go cheap on ammo that may be needed to save your life. As a matter of fact, my advice would be, “Don’t go cheap on a handgun that may be needed to save your life.” But that’s just me… A compact semi-auto handgun that throws a .45 caliber slug will give you the warm fuzzies when the excrement contacts the rotating element. Take a look at the Springfield Armory Champion and start saving your Starbucks change.
About the only gun in that price range I’d trust would be a Makarov. I recently bought a new Bulgarian one for $130.
9mm Makarov (9x18) is considerably less powerful, and typically uses smaller bullets than 9mm parabellum (9x19), but I believe its pretty close to .380
For such a weak caliber you’d better get the best self-defense ammo available.
jeez where do you people live where you believe you need a gun for protection, or a gun period.
I understand if you need a gun for your farm whatever.
But in no way shape or form have i ever felt unsafe enough to say “i wish i had a gun” what has society come to?
I know that I can safely walk around my suburb, most of the city at any time of night or day here in Australia and feel absolutely safe and not worried.
It just never even crosses my mind, we have had increased gun crime here in sydney australia recently but i am still not worried or scared. It comes with our Aussie attitude though of whatever happens happens, we are too laid back to worry for long.
Yes, yes, we all know Australia is a paradise, blah blah yak yak. Does there have to be one of you in EVERY gun thread?
You may want to try your local Penny Saver/Penny Pincher/whatever. I seem to recall people selling firearms in there, though that was in a pretty rural area. Agree with the pawn shops and gun shows. And I like Makarovs, too.
But if it was something I was staking my life on, I’d get something a little better.
Yessir, you’re on the right track - the bullet used for .380ACP and 9mm Luger/Parabellum/NATO, etc. is the same caliber (.355 inch), but the .380 load is usually a lighter bullet in weight than the 9mm. For special loadings, you may sometimes see a heavier (147 grains) bullet in .380, but for the most part, a .380 will throw a 90 grain (or thereabouts) bullet.
When buying a handgun, I always recommend that the buyer consider the purchase of some basic handloading equipment. This is so the shooter can perform the three essential basic needs for accurate shooting: practice, practice, and practice. The Makarov (and .380 ACP, too) ammo reloading process can be problematic for shooters new to the “roll yer own” concept because of the small components involved, but the cost savings will allow the shooter to get to the practice range more often. One of my biggest time-consuming chores at the reloading bench is to separate the brass that I reload. I have handguns in the following calibers: .380 ACP (also known as 9mm Kruz and 9mm Corto - 9 X 17mm), 9mm Makarov (9 X 18mm), 9mm Luger (9 X19mm), 9 mm IPSC (9 X 21mm) and 9mm Largo (9 X23mm). At least I don’t shoot 9mm Dillon (9 X25mm).
BTW, I work in Georgia, where I see a lot of firearms with your namesake. I have also seen some excellent samples of the Mak, along with other guns from former ComBloc nations.
Since nobody mentioned it, my personal favorite with is the Walther PPK. Probably not cheap enough to be considered a SNS though. Bond baby.
Makarov’s are great. Wasn’t there a flood of used Russian or Chinese made Makarov’s a few years back? Like all the SKS rifles and carbines that were packed in grease and then sold off?
I’ve fired thousands of rounds through Makarovs and can’t remember a single jam.
I just realized that I didn’t even come close to answering the original question. Sorry 'bout that - I sometimes have a tendency to ramble… As has been mentioned earlier, a pawn shop is a good place to look for an expensive handgun. Depending on your location, you may also find a good bargain in the want ads of your local newspaper.
DANG! I meant inexpensive handgun, of course.
You must not be using Wolf Ammo. I bought 1k rounds a while back for my Bulgarian Mak. Still trying to get rid of them, jam WAY too much. I like mine, but it does kick a bit.
I don’t mean to further hijack the thread but you need to appreciate just how utterly bizarre and foreign those threads seem to some of us who weren’t raised in the States. Still, not reason enough to hijack, I’ll give you that.
No worries! 
I’m not ACTUALLY planning to buy one; the question was as much “Whatever happened to the cheap handguns of my youth?” as anything, and the answer seems to be, “The market has been taken over by the ex-Warsaw Pact,” unsurprisingly. My suburban area is probably as safe as Zaphod’s, especially for me.
Me: “I’ve never been mugged and I don’t worry wherever I go. Why’s that?”
Wife: “You’re big. You frighten potential muggers.”
Me: “I’m a big, fat guy with asthma who’s in terrible shape. I couldn’t win a fistfight with anybody.”
Wife: “They don’t know that and aren’t going to stick around long enough to find out.”
But guns are fun and most are never used for bad things so we Merkins will continue to have our fun.
YEAH! And I suppose if I searched for an older one in good but used condition… I’d have fewer concerns about it blowing up in my hand.
But back to the topic at hand. Twenty, thirty years ago there seemed to be plenty of new guns around that were almost as dangerous to the person holding them as those in front of him. Off brands from Italy and Spain, IIRC, and they were priced in a “you get what you pay for” manner. Have the not-quite-as-crappy Commie guns driven them completely out of the market?
The Gun Control Act of 1968 made many of the items you’re looking for disappear. The Walther PPK mentioned above is one of them. Not because it is or was cheap, but because it was too small. The PPK available today is know as a PPK/S–it’s a PPK, but built on a shortened PP frame. The slide, as I recall, is the same size, but the grip is longer.
The GCA didn’t ban cheap guns outright but allowed guns “not particularly suitable for sporting purposes” to be banned from import. Uh huh. A definition as clear as mud as virtually any decent gun can be used in some sort of sanctioned competition including machine guns, assault rifles and pocket pistols.
The ban for handguns started with a miniumum size but itty bitty guns could redeem themselves with points added for specific features. Adding things like target grips and adjustable sights might make the difference. Look at one of the small glocks, they have an indentation at the top of the grip. Having a thumb rest changed it from a dangerous SNS into a target pistol, at least in the eyes of the law. Still you can buy a Raven/Lorcin/Jennings from one of the “ring of fire” manufacturers since it’s made in the good old USA. Poorly written laws make for bizarre results.
Are Tauruses considered to be good quality? (Specifically with respect to revolvers.) I was always under the impression that they were inferior S&W knockoffs. Is this incorrect?
Well, compared with the guns I’m talking about they are!