New Which handgun is the best for target/protection

coupesix

Hi, I'm new to handguns and I'm going to purchase one here soon and would like your opinions on the best 9mm handgun or any type but I prefer a 9mm. I'm going to use it for target shooting and personal protection. My price range is about $650 or less. Thanks to all replies.

ndbilly

Also, with a $650.00 budget your choices will not be too limited. If you have a knowledgable friend or relative to accompany you, you might want to consider something from the "Used" rack. There are often some good buys there.

roundball

I think there have been enough studies out now that show the 9mm to be a minimal defense handgun...a lot of initial thinking about the 9mm was really based upon the notion of high capacity magazines BECAUSE THE SHELLS ARE SO SMALL;I would urge you to consder a larger caliber, like the .45ACP in either a .45ACP S&W revolver or a semi-auto;PS: In the dark, awoken from a sound sleep, there are a lot of advantages to the basic simple operation of a revolver.

Blokey

Consider a Witness or CZ75. They are well within your $650 budget, they're well made and well respected and for a novice the DA/SA operation is a plus. If later you want to carry the piece cocked & locked, you can do so as well. With the money left over you can get a lot of shooting practice done, too.

He Dog

You are really looking for two different pistols. A revolver is clearly the best choice for "personal defense." But that same pistol is not necessarily the best choice for target shooting.In a defense situation, if you pull the trigger on a semi-auto and it goes click, you start taking the weapon apart. If a revolver goes click, you pull the trigger again. You are not likely (I hope!)to be in a firefight with Jamiacan drug dealers, so in a household defense situation 5 or 6 rounds should be enough.If you must use the same pistol for both purposes, which is understandable if not perfect, then I too urge you to consider .40 or .45 caliber. In .45 look hard at the Kimber models.Remember too, that you will want different ammunition for the two purposes. In home defense you do not want a bullet to blow through the walls and hit the child next door.

CA Blue

Many pistols are good for target shooting or carrying/defense, but IMHO, the only one that fits both your requirements is a Sig P226 (If the Navy SEALs prefer this pistol as their carry gun then if must be good). However, if you have a small hand, then I would choose a Sig P225 or P239 because both are single column thus have a thinner grip. Later, when you are no longer restricted by the $650 spending limit, a HK P7M8 or P7M13 is a must if you want the ultimate 9mm pistol.

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Resistance is futile in California, but I still refuse to be assimilated.

apsanford

Like others have commented:Two differant issues,a handgun for personal protection I would recomend no smaller than .40 cal.Target would be a long barrel revolver,but this is not all that easy to hide for personal protection.I assume the personal protection handgun would be carried concealed?9mm is just enough to anger a attacker.I would recomend a Glock with a .40 calI find my Glock 27,.40 cal,not too difficult to conceal but accurate and with good knockdown power with Speer Gold Dots.There is many excellant handguns in the price range you have given,but finding one for both applications will be a job.Forget the 9mm and go bigger!for sure...

Robin

All of the above is good advice, one other option is either the Ruger P-90 or P-97. Both are well built, reliable .45 ACP autos. A little on the large size but good at the range and for home protection. Both are a great value. I agree with the prior posts, stick with the .45 if possible. Both of the Ruger .45's come in different models. The Rugers are a great alternative if you want a well built gun for a bargain price. Accurate also. I like the KP-90DC myself. LOL

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Worry is the interest humans pay on the debt of miscalculation.

Myjack

What a Question! (A good one but prone to long answers)I have to agree 9mm is not a prime choice for defense. (Sorry to the Police and military guys) My vote is 45 ACP and I would recommend 38 Super, and could acknowledge 40 S&W as good choice.Most Combat and practical shooters feel especially, with 9MM it is advisable to "tap em twice" or thrice! - Sounds easy, but stumbling up from a sound sleep to a rude awaking - ya gotta hit em the first time before you can try for the second whereas the larger calibers offer stopping power 2 to 3 times higher than the 9MMAs to the gun choice, a 1911 design from Colt, Kimber, Springfield etc, I choose a Colt Gold Cup Series 70 - a tad big but again this is choose one! I might also recommend a 22 conversion for your new toy, The Colt Ace conversion is capable of 2-inch groups or better at 75 feet and retains the grip, trigger, and hammer you want to be really accustomed to which leads to better accuracy with both calibers.I have purchased a series 70 Gold Cup and an Ace conversion separately for a little less than $1000 fairly recently if you were to look around and shop I'm thinking you might not have to stretch the budget much at all!Happy hunting!

JudgeColt

While I love the larger calibers, there is nothing wrong with the 9mm, and it is a lot easier to shoot than some of the larger calibers, especially for a novice shooter. The street stops with premium 9mm ammunition are right up there with the king, the .357 125 grain JHP. When you say you want a gun that can be used as both a defense gun and a target gun, it does not appear that paper-punching target grade accuracy is a requirement for you. Most quality handguns are sufficiently accurate to give enjoyment in casual paper punching or plinking. The self defense role is more important.For a novice, a revolver is perhaps the best, because it is easy to operate, and easy to check to see if it is loaded. The down size is that anyone who picks it up can fire it just by pulling the trigger. Everyone, even small children, know that you make it go bang by pulling the trigger.Therefore, for a house gun, there is a lot to be said for a semi-automatic with a manual safety and a magazine safety. Many unauthorized people who would pick up such a pistol would not know how to operate it. Such a person could be a curious house guest, a visiting child or an intruder. If you forget to clear the chamber when unloading, the magazine safety will still prevent the pistol from being fired if the magazine is out. Ayoob wrote an article years ago about all the cops who were saved by having a safety on their duty pistol. He found no proof that difficulty in operating a safety ever caused harm to an officer, or that a magazine safety ever caused harm to an officer from a lost magazine. As a test, he took a Smith & Wesson M39/M59 type handgun to a commercial range, where there were all kinds of shooters. (For those who may not know, these Smith autos have both a manual safety and a magazine safety, which means when the magazine is out of the pistol, it cannot be fired.) He loaded the pistol, placed it on safety, and placed it in front of a cross-section of shooters and asked them to send a round down range. Keep in mind that the test subjects were familiar enough with guns to be at a shooting range. It took from about 30 seconds to several minutes for the shooters to do that. One never did. Think of the time that gives the officer to get away from a bad guy who has snatched the officer's gun, or to take some other action. Think of the safety to the house guest, the child, or you, if the house guest, the child or the intruder has your Smith auto, and the same inability to operate it comes into play. If you want to spend all of your budget, there are some Performance Center Smiths available that are really something. If you want to save about half your budget for practice ammunition and training, buy a used Smith auto. High capacity magazines are inexpensive and readily availabe too.None of the guns mentioned have the safety features of the Smith autos. For your purposes, I think they are the best choice because of the safety factor mentioned.

just-shoot

I have to agree that a 40 or 45 cal. would be best for self protection, but a 9 will do the job, especially if you fire the whole clip. Shoot once and wound, your probably in civil court the rest of your life, fire the whole clip and only one side of the story to be heard, feared for your life/self defense. I got side tracked, what I wanted to say is when your target shoot, 9mm is about 1/2 the cost in ammo. You'll need to get both for now.

Gordian Blade

These are interesting and useful answers, now I have a newbie question relating to revolver versus semi-automatic. In one of the above comments, someone said that if you pull the trigger on a revolver and nothing happens, you simply pull again. On the other hand, with a semi-auto you would have to clear it. In a life-or-death situation this would be critical.But here's my question: If you pull the trigger and "nothing happens" that means one of three things: (1) a squib load, (2) a hangfire, or (3) a misfire. In a stress situation, I doubt that most people could easily distinguish among them. If it's (1), pulling the trigger again can fire a second shot into a blocked barrel. If it's (2), when quickly pulling the trigger again (revolver) the cartridge will fire when it's misaligned with the barrel. If (3), then you're OK. But how do you know it's a plain misfire? Are you just playing the odds that a cartridge malfunction will more likely be a misfire? It seems to me that I've read lots of stories of squib loads and hangfires.

Alerion

Gordon,Squib loads and hangfires are generally pretty rare. Especially with quality ammunition. Misfires are much more common in guns that are not fired and/or cleaned on a regular basis. Misfires are usually caused by a weak firing pin strike so there's little chance of that round firing when you pull the trigger again.BTW, when a revolver is fired on a regular basis you may start to get misfires at which time you'll recognize that the hammer spring is getting weak and replace it. Guns that sit for years without being cleaned/oiled can gum up, slowing the firing pin, also causing weak strikes. Since semi-autos are more difficult to clean and rely on more complex spring arrangements, misfires are more common in them. It's going to be pretty rare when you pull the trigger on a revolver and it doesn't go BANG!Finally, in a home defense situation, you shouldn't be trying to analyze the problem before pulling the trigger again. Do that after the bad guy is laying in a pool of his own blood.Tom

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Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool. [This message has been edited by Alerion (edited 12-27-2001).]

beachmaster73

Series 70 Colt Gold Cup....out of the box target accuracy and far more than capable combat defense weapon. Beach

He Dog

GBlade: Remember I said if the revolver goes click. With a squib load or a hang fire it will not go click, you have a misfire. With either of the others you have some level of detonation.

Xracer

Me too, Beachmaster.....Colt Gold Cup.

Gordian Blade

HeDog, If I'm at the range and firing calmly, I have no doubt I could distinguish among misfire, hangfire, and squib. But what I'm getting at with my question is what about under the stress of self-defense? In a lot of the cases I've read, the person firing loses track of the details and can even keep pulling the trigger on spent cartridges over and over -- click, click, click, until the person calms down or someone intervenes. I'm somewhat reassured by the notion that hangfires and squibs are far less likely with quality ammo than a plain misfire due to a poorly maintained gun. (So one can avoid a lot of trouble by using good ammo and keeping the firearm in good working order.) I've never had any of those things happen to me, but chalk that up to lack of experience. That's why I'm asking the questions. PS -- I belong to a shooting club and I enjoy practicing, so I'm not the kind of person who will put a gun under the mattress and not touch it for five years. I'm also too stingy to spend that kind of money and not have some fun with the darn thing!

He Dog

GBlade, (What is a Gordian Blade anyway? I know a Gordian knot, but I doubt it is the same) Your points are well taken. It comes down to probabilities. Most semi autos are not likely to misfire either, but they do it with somewhat more regularity than revolvers, and the fix is disassembly. Revolvers misfire much more than hangfire for squib, so you are looking for the greatest probability of the second shot going off if the first doesn't..357's (125gr jhp) have the best record of one shot "stops" of any ammo out there. Lots of guys love their .45's and others sware by many other calibers and pistols. I still say that the best home defense pistol (after a 12 guage with 00) is a .357 revolver of good quality. That is an informed opinion, but certianly not a law or an act of God. It saves a novice a lot of research time that I actually put in before I bought home defense handguns. I mostly shoot rifles. One of the swell things about guns is that there are lot's of good choices, even several great choices. That lets us all have an opinion, and in fact an informed opinion, and those opinions can differ and still be good. I will stand by what I wrote, but if you prefer a semi-auto you are not wrong. We can hope his first choice will be a good one and that it will be just the first of many well chosen firearms!