Handgun purchasing for newbies is backwards

Warbirds

Hopefully Im wrong and just seeing things as I notice them, not as they are.

I am not dead set in my opinion here.

It seems like 9 out of 10 people I meet that only own one handgun own a concealed carry size pistol - for my broad generalizations we will say 3? barrel or shorter.

Then they go to the local indoor range and rattle off one box of Walmart ammo every few months, and manage to put most of the holes somewhere on the man size silhouette from 5 -7 yards.


Whats worse is many shooters go their entire life doing this, never cognizant that they are not actually proficient with a pistol.

It turns out there is actually a scientific term for this-
The Dunning-Kruger Effect.
[media]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pOLmD_WVY-E[/media]

I of course have an opinion-

learn with a 22 pistol,
Then a full size handgun once a person can move and shoot -then they could consider a sub-compact/concealed carry type of gun & you might actually be capable of defending yourself with it it.

Hessian

IMO many think the process of learning how to shoot a pistol, is how many rounds you fire. Like if you shoot enough ammo, magic is going to happen.
Where in my opinion you train your brain to succeed, then try for speed. I start out every session slow fire one-handed, then I eventually switch to two hands which is a lot easier after firing one-handed.

An analogy, take a needle and thread, you can poke at the needle hole repeatedly hoping to get lucky or you can do it slowly and deliberately with fewer tries and more success.

The process is to perfect your aim with slow fire and then build speed while retaining accuracy. And to tell you the truth, it is like riding a bicycle, the basics stick with you if you learned correctly.

Most people don't train correctly IMO.

Smitty500mag

I mastered it all shooting the normal way so now I practice shooting backwards over my left shoulder. I think that'll come in handy someday when I'm running through the Walmart parking lot trying to get to my car with the natives in chase.

buschmaster

it costs time and money that a lot of people don't have.

and/or they just aren't interested in doing it.

mark christian

The price point of a decent .22 caliber handgun is so close to the cost of a centerfire that hardly anyone purchases a .22 pistol to learn with. The people buying .22 pistols these days are mostly serious shooters who are looking for low cost practice. Example: the MSR of a 9mm Walther PPQ M2 is $649 while its .22LR duplicate is MSR of $449. The .22 PPQ is a fine training aid, but go ahead and spend the extra $200 and get the centerfire pistol, which the new shooter will never "out grow", and can shoot for the rest of their life. If it was still possible to find a nice condition .22 pistol in good working order for under $100 then I could see a .22 being a practical purchase for teaching someone to shoot. As things stand, instead of having a new shooter work their way up from a .22, it is easier and cheaper to teach them how to handle the recoil of a 9mm.

jimdeere

Well said, Mike. I have witnessed many examples of your case in point at gun shows and shops.
By the way, that?s a very informative video in Warbirds post.

kidthatsirish

Cool and informative little video.

Unfortunately I think we all have met at least one "used car salesman" gun dealer in our lives.