Best handgun under $100

[RyanM]

For some inexplicable reason, I've got an itch that can only be scratched by an incredibly cheap handgun. A hundred bucks is the absolute upper limit.

Pretend you're poor and destitute. You make just barely enough money to keep a shingle (and only one!) over your head, and food-like substance on your door-on-cinderblocks table. Saving up any additional cash at all is an impossibility. Your last living relative just died, and you inherited the princely sum of $100. But his will states that the money has to be spent on a handgun. What would you buy?

Or maybe pretend that your wife has allowed you to spend $800 on a gun, and you managed to find a place selling said gun for $700. But you have permission to spend $800, which means that, like Congress, you must spend that amount, or the remaining money dissapears into limbo (and you get less next time!). But the physical purchase also has to be small enough to sneak into the house in your pocket and hide in the back of the safe, which means a handgun. What would you buy?

Or maybe you won a $100 shopping spree that can be used in any gun store, anywhere, but can only be spent on a handgun. What would you buy?

Whatever scenario that results in a straight answer, rather than a suggestion to buy ammo (have enough), magazines (have enough), training (need badly, but can't travel to it), or something else. Has to be a handgun.

I've seen the FEG APs that Centerfire Systems has for $90, but I fondled a PA-63 at my local store today. It's about 3 miles from the backstrap to the trigger, in double action. I'd need to hold the gun in one hand and press the trigger with the other. That one's definitely out.

So what else is there?

Oh, and no pot metal. I have a hard enough time trusting firearms that involve aluminum, let alone zinc.

 

[MachIVshooter]

I'd keep after the used stuff. I've turned up a few decent handguns for under $100, like this Meriden top-break .38 for $75.



I have to say, though-for under $100, there really isn't much. Under $200 opens up 20 times the selection.

 

[MICHAEL T]

I bought a Iver Johnson top break in 38S&W for $80 its tight and a good little shooter. Not my first choice but if all I had I would carry Many a person did in years past.

 

[Goblin]

I haven't seen a $100 gun in years!!! Do they really exist??

 

[Seafarer12]

I have an old 1903 FN 32 acp I paid 100 bucks for. Thats about the cheapest next to the KT P32 I got for 200 for it and 120 rounds of federal hydra shock ammo. It would have been worth about 100 without the ammo.

 

[kentucky_smith]

Maybe a Heritage .22. I'd rather have half a case of ammo.

 

[19-3Ben]

Probably the Russian Nagant revolver. They can be had with cleaning kit and holster for $80.

I've never held one but by all accounts they have a horrific trigger, but are dead nuts reliable. From all reports I've read, I'd be willing to trust my life to one. If course I'd rather have my Gemini Customs SP101, but if a Nagant was all I could afford, that'd be my choice over all the Zinc stuff.

 

[jad0110]

19-3 beat me to it. The Nagant revolvers are fugly, but they do work.

 

[kingpin008]

Oh, and no pot metal.

You just cut a lot of your possibilities here.

 

[makarovnik]

You used to be able to find a new Hi-Point .380 for under $100. With price increases they probably go for $120 now. You can find a used Hi-Point in .380, 9mm, .40 or .45 for under $100. Buy a used one and send it in to Hi-Point and they will check it out and probably update it. They will at least put all new springs in it and maybe a new slide. Lifetime warranty whether or not you're the original owner.

 

[W.E.G.]

Unless you are a FFL, you gotta ship handguns "blue label."

What is that these days? -- something like $40 for one handgun?

I think I'd rather spend $20 on a shovel, and just bury a Hi-Point that has problems I can't fix myself.

 

[Quiet]

+1 on the Nagant revolver.

$80 for a reliable .30 cal revolver.

 

[Flash!]

I love my Nagant revolver......but if this person is so poor that he can only afford a $100 gun, he won't be able to afford the 7.62 nagant ammo....

 

[Heavy Metal Hero]

I am pretty sure I would just use the extra $100 on ammo or a nice holster for the said $700 gun.

 

[BigBlock]

Budsgunshop.com has .45 High Points for $160 shipped. They were only around $120 not very long ago.

You could probably whore yourself out for that extra 60 bucks.

 

[19-3Ben]

I love my Nagant revolver......but if this person is so poor that he can only afford a $100 gun, he won't be able to afford the 7.62 nagant ammo....

Not that it's a huge bargain, but I thinj they also shoot .32H&R don't they?

 

[mejeepnut]

An old H&R.Top break or swing out cylinder,any caliber.

 

[zxcvbob]

How about a 8mm Label revolver, with a pitted bore? I'm pretty sure that would be classified as an antique, which relaxes the regulations quite a bit. Or a similar-condition Webley.

Not too long ago you could get a CZ-52 for that price.

 

[RyanM]

You just cut a lot of your possibilities here.

Making things easy takes all the fun out of them!

---------------

Budsgunshop.com has .45 High Points for $160 shipped. They were only around $120 not very long ago.

1, no pot metal. 2, local store has them for less.

---------------

A few votes for the Nagant. But how's the trigger reach on those? I have a freakishly short trigger finger, which sort of limits my choices. I cannot comfortably reach the DA trigger of a K-frame (with teeny factory grips), for instance, but a Ruger SP-101 is fine.

Extremely long trigger reach is the reason I'm passing on the FEG AP. Looks like the only decent sub-C-note guns out there are that, and old revolvers with looooong looking triggers.

I'm just trying to find a cheap "beater" gun that I wouldn't be particularly concerned about loaning to a friend, or sticking it in a glovebox, or taping it inside the door of a safe, or something. And that's not being concerned either way, neither about it getting lost or damaged, nor about whether it will work if needed. Plus, I don't buy crappy guns just on general principles. Hence, cheap but not pot metal.

Going to be making a pretty large gun purchase come Monday, so $100 is the limit. Pistol or a half case of ammo.

 

[Quiet]

You can safely use .32S&W Long out of a Nagant Revolver.
You can also get a .32ACP replacement cylinder for it, which some people have been boring out to take .32H&R Magnum.

 

[BigBlock]

1, no pot metal.

Do High Points even have any metal?

 

[chris in va]

It's sad when the single mother of two can't find anything to protect herself from the ex-whatever for $100.

If they can build the Liberator 45 for $2, surely something stamped could be made serviceable. Heck, look at AK's. We pay what...$350 for a semiauto version. How much does it cost the factory to make them, hmm?

 

[RyanM]

You know, I've actually played with the idea of designing a pistol with a stamped steel frame. Most of Glock's patents have expired, so I could rip off their internal parts design (which makes extensive use of stampings).

About the only parts that would need to be machined, with the right design, would be the slide, firing pin, and barrel. And the slide could be vastly simplified by using a bolt inside of a stamped receiver instead, sorta like the Ruger Mk.II.

Only real problem I can think of is that hammer-fired designs are probably more suited to straight-blowback pistols. The mainspring really helps slow down the slide/bolt from opening too soon.

Just doing a very basic cost analysis, once all the equipment is paid for, I figure pistols like that in .22 LR through .380 ACP could be produced for under $20 each, with an MSRP of about $125. And they'd be much better quality than the die-cast junk that occupies that price range now.

Anyone have about a million and a half they'd care to loan me?

 

[mr.trooper]

Do High Points even have any metal?

Dude...they weight 5 pounds. The slide alone on the 45 weighs as much as an entire 1911, and it has a steel frame to boot. When they jam, they make FINE clubs...or boat anchors.

 

[mejeepnut]

Today, 01:27 AM #22
chris in va





It's sad when the single mother of two can't find anything to protect herself from the ex-whatever for $100.

If they can build the Liberator 45 for $2, surely something stamped could be made serviceable. Heck, look at AK's. We pay what...$350 for a semiauto version. How much does it cost the factory to make them, hmm?

Just for fun!

OK,figure in inflation for the Liberator,call it $20 in todays money.Add in shipping,about $25.FFL transfer fee,another $25.Unless you can find one local a Liberator is now a $70 firearm,add in the price of enough ammo to get to know the gun and have a box on hand.Twigs are a no cost item(needed for reloading the gun!).
With the cost of ammo the Liberator is now out of the question because you are over the $100 limit!I know that the original question did not ask about ammo but I figured I would add it just to be a Richard Cranium!