Helping a buddy get his first handgun. Would this be a good choice?

[rhead]

For a first handgun I would go with one of the better single action 22lrs. Ruger single six or equivalent.

[thx997303]

I'm going to not suggest any gun.

Take the man out, with a large variety of handguns, and have him shoot them.

Then he will be able to make an informed decision.

People do this "suggest a handgun for my wife" thing all the time.

The best thing is let the person who will own, shoot, and possibly carry it decide for themselves.

Just help them get the experience and information they need to make an informed decision.

[MtGun44]

If he needs a self defense handgun, then the key branch in the choices is whether he will
shoot enough to become totally familiar with the extra complexity of a semiauto. If not,
then he should have a revolver. The details beyond this fundamental choice can be
debated ad infinitum. The suggestion of shooting many different guns is a good one.
Unskilled folks with a semiauto are flat out dangerous and too many "forget which of
those buttons I push to make it work". Does that dohickey drop the "clip" or lock the
slide or is that the safety? . . . . . . A loaded revolver is absolutely usable by anyone
with 1-2 minutes of instruction. Used skillfully? No - but you could hit someone at
a range of a few feet for sure.

As to LEARNING to shoot well, the .22 LR Ruger standard auto is a superb and affordable
learning tool. Unless your friend is a high volume caster and reloader, he will never attain
any real skill with a handgun unless he shoots a .22 LR - this is purely an economic issue.

Today factory centerfire ammo is too expensive for most of us to afford to attain very much
skill at arms unless we are rich or handloaders.

Bill

[Crash_Corrigan]

The cost factor between .22 LR and hand cast 9mm's is a wash. I can make a box of 50 9's for less than that of a box of 50 22's.

Too bad that the grip did not fit your friend well. I have a Belgain made and assembled Browning circa 1985 and when I bought it was in NIB condition. Not a mark on it and probably less than 50 rounds though it. I paid over $700 for it and it was money well spent.

The trigger pull was beyond awful....it was tragic. I had my Gunny remove the disconnect and install an aftermarket trigger on it and now it is a crisp #3.5 and with the adjustible sights it shoots very well.

With a new set of Hougue grips on it I use it for my Barbeque Gun. It sits in an El Paso Floral Carved belt holster and everybody wants to see it.

However this is not a safe queen. It gets shot a lot and is treated with loving care. I make sure to have a thick towel on the concreate shooting bench when it resides thereat. It does require careful reloads as listed above. Dia must be .357 and the OAL is critical. Lubed with Lars White Label Carnuba Red it is a tack driver and will deliver 2 1/2" groups at 25 yds from a rest.

The fun is shooting steel in rapid fire. It really mows them down and is comfortable to shoot all day with mild reloads. Seeing as how I plan to pass it down to my grandson I seldom fire full house factory loads in it and I carry it very little for self defense. I have other guns that I am not afraid to nick up or wear off the finish on for that purpose.

My main CCW gun is a CA Bulldog .44 Special loaded with Hornady 180 GR XTP self defense rounds. They produce 1000 fps and 400 ft lbs of energy from a very tidy and easily concealed and carried wheelgun which always works. For my more serious social contacts expected CCW I carry my Taurus 1911 with 230 Gr Federal Hydra Shok JHP from a 7 round Colt mag with 10 round Mags as refills.

I learned how to shoot a pistol with a Colt Woodsman. It had suffered the indignity of having the barrel cut down and the front sight replaced with a finishing nail....it shot patterns not groups. However if I took my time and rested it well on something solid I could get it to shoot 3" at 25 yds. But I admit to mostly blasting tin cans and handy dirt clods at various ranges as fast as possible. Ammo was cheap in those days but the gun was so much fun to shoot.

Precision shooting was done with a Savage Model 23 Bolt Rifle in .22lr. It was heavy, ungainly and definetly not a modern rifle. Dad paid about $18 for it new when he was in High School during the depression. Most of my surplus funds went through the barrel of that gun over a 10 year period '51 to '61. It was big medicine for countless Racoons, Rabbits, Squirrels, Possums and Pole Cats.

When using those two guns we did not have ear plugs nor muffs. The rifle was not too bad but I suffered some hearing loss in spades from the Colt pistol.

Later on I graduated to a Baker 12 Gau Double and I finally got to shoot the most desired pistol of all. This was a genuine WWII spoils of war pistol. A good friend of my Mom's when she was growing up in the 30's in NYC was Bernie Racklin. During the war he volunteered and was selected to be a Paratrooper. He ended up making 5 combat jumps in Europe during the war and was decorated up the ying yang and received a Battlefield Commission and ended up a Captain by wars end. During the festivities he captured some Nazi brass and removed this Mauser .32 Auto Pistol from a German Officer. He told the story many times as when he accepted the surrender of this group of officers he made sure to tell them that he was a Jew and it really got under their skin.

Somehow he smuggled this pistol and some other trophies home in his duffle and got away with it. When he married his childhood sweetheart she wanted no part of any guns and he gave this gun to my Mom. It was kept in a wooden box wrapped in oiled paper for many years and one day Dad took me out with a box of .32 ACP rounds to shoot it. It was pristine and I doubt it had ever been fired. It came with a Nazi holster with the belt and silver buckle with the Swatsticka on it. It had a sheath on the front edge for an extra magazine. It only held 8 rounds of these tiny cartridges but it worked fine. It was a dissapointment as it was not very loud or powerful but it was the real deal with all the Nazi eagles and proofmarks etc. During the years gone by it dissapeared somewhere and I have never seen it since. I expect my sister got her hands on it and sold it off and kept the money.

[deltaenterprizes]

Revolver should be the first gun, the KISS principal.

[MtGun44]

Few people are going to buy their first gun AND take up handloading AND take up casting
at the same time. This is not realistic. Handloading is an advanced step that maybe 10%
ever do. Casting is another maybe 5%. The combination gives about 1 person in 200
gun owners, and that may be too high an estimate.

For the overwhelming majority, the .22 LR is the only viable training tool at a reasonable
price. You can learn a semiauto at the range in slow steps over months if you want to
practice and can afford it. The self defense handgun for the new or 'not so serious' person
needs to be a revolver. Fiddling with the safety and mag release at the range is OK, not
so much when you are half asleep and need to save your life.

[Echo]

I believe the OP was talking about a Smith 59, basically a large-capacity 9mm version of their 52 .38 target gun.

[grages]

I have a Smith model 59, I still like to shoot it. It is a big heavy gun by todays standards. It was my first handgun.

Shawn