Hi everyone,
I'm looking to purchase a handgun for home defense and possibly another down the road for carry. My wife is taking me to the range for my birthday followed by a nice steak dinner. I have already had the opportunity to fire an AR prepared Modern Warfare Style, a big shiny S&W 686, Mustang 380, HK P2000 and a pricey Kimber TLE II. The only ones I could hit stuff with was the S&W and a scoped assault rifle. I need a list to try. I fell in love with Springfield Armory custom shop TLP compact so, it makes the list, Sig P229, Walther P99 and likely 4" ,barrel 686+7. Not looking into guns with no safeties and my wife will have lot be comfortable for me to bring it home. Anything I should add?
Thanks
I agree with others regarding taking a NRA course. If you are not able to hit a target with a variety of firearms, it is worth investing time developing marksmanship fundamentals. Simultaneously, you will develop safe practices, and you will likely have the chance to learn about
stress shooting, which is VERY important in regards to using a firearm for self defense. For example, a class I took a few years ago dedicated to using a handgun for self defense showed me just how different shooting a stationary paper target at a range is compared to shooting at a moving person who may be shooting back at you...it is night and day! This class also extensively covered laws relating to the use of a firearm for self defense.
Taking a class may also save you money. Quite often these courses come with the opportunity to shoot different firearms, where as standard range rental fees can be $5-15 per EACH firearm rented. It is also common for ranges to discount ammo for people in NRA sanctioned classes, and quite a few ranges even give sales discounts to those who have completed a sanctioned course at their facility. I got 10% off my first gun this way.
The firearm I learned on was an old Smith and Wesson Model 64 revolver shooting light .38 spl loads. IMHO, a 4+ inch revolver with regular .38 loads is golden when it comes to developing skill, refining skill, and just shooting for enjoyment (and that same revolver can double as one of the finest & most reliable home defense weapons around...in the case of a 686 or a GP100 for example, these guns can also shoot the venerable .357 magnum.)
The course will also go into the discussion of "safeties", which I think is important for your wife to experience. Virtually all modern autoloaders have "safeties" (kind of a lumped term), and it is practically impossible to make a modern firearm discharge a round without the trigger being pulled. Whether it is dropped, thrown, kicked, frozen, heated, boiled, etc., it will not "accidentally discharge". Most of the videos that use the term "accidental discharge" are not correct...these instances are called "negligent discharges" because the operator physically pulled the trigger, causing the gun to fire. With most of the modern LE-grade firearms, the safety mechanisms are internal. For example, Glock pistols have three "automatic safety mechanisms", none of which are external. It can also be argued that regardless of whether the firearm has an external safety or not, the degree of 'safe' depends 100% on the operator.