Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Bought my First Handgun.
By Kirk Wachenheimer
We’ve all been there — that nervous, excited, but mostly nervous feeling of buying your first handgun. You’ve saved the money or decided to throw down the credit card, you’ve done some research, and you’re pretty sure you’re ready to buy a pistol. You’ve done the research, you know the process for the background check in your state, and you head to the gun store. Then, it hits you — this is an entirely new world, and the options are dizzying!
We’re going to walk through the top 10 things I wish I had known before I bought my first pistol. Before we kick off, none of these things are irrelevant — I’m simply arguing you should increase your expertise and experience level before committing to one weapon. If you feel you must buy now, the six options I would recommend are as follows: Glock 19, Sig 320, S&W M&P, Walther PPQ, Heckler and Koch VP9, and FN-Herstal 509, all in 9mm luger. None of these will do you wrong as an intro pistol.
“It feels good in the hand” is a meaningless statement.
This is something I hear all of the time from new shooters, and who can blame them? They haven’t shot the gun yet, so all they have to go on is the firearms equivalent of curb appeal in the housing market. They pick the gun up, hold the grip, feel the weight, and have zero frame of reference for what will perform well or not, so they go with the gun that ‘feels’ the best in their hand. The weapon is usually smooth to the touch, or at least not aggressively textured, so it won’t rub your hand raw. It’s lightweight, because heavy guns are hard to hold for a long time. It’s got a grip that is roughly the length of your hand, whatever that size is. The levers and buttons, if any, don’t touch your hand.
Here’s the problem: Everything I just listed makes the gun harder to shoot overall, and especially harder to shoot well. Smooth grips don’t maintain contact with your hands well under recoil (especially if your hands sweat, like they tend to do when people are nervous, excited, or experiencing adrenaline!). Lighter guns have less mass to soak up felt recoil, instead letting that energy go into the shooter’s hand and arm, so a super lightweight 9mm can, and often does, recoil harder than a full size .45 ACP, despite the fairly dramatic difference in size between the two rounds. Shorter grips hold less ammunition than longer grips, in addition to limiting the weight of the pistol. The slide release, magazine release, and safety (if present), all should be accessible without changing your grip, or at least with only minor movements. If you need to break your grip to reach your magazine release, that’s a major problem for reloading the weapon or fixing some malfunctions.
2. The salesman is there to make money for themselves and the business.
The first time I went into a gun store with a student that wanted to buy her first firearm, the salesman was VERY insistent on her buying two models that were similar only in that they had poor quality control records, and were overpriced for what you got. Interestingly, one was a striker-fired .40 S&W subcompact, and the other was an all-steel 1911 in .45 ACP. Somehow, those two options, and only those two, were the perfect solution for her as a new shooter. As they kept talking, I noted the intellectual gymnastics he was going through to justify why she needed either of them (or ideally, both), despite the wide gulf between markets each was designed to service. She ultimately wound up purchasing a Glock 19 (which I had a little influence on), but as we were leaving after her background check was approved, I asked the guy behind the counter what made him recommend such wildly different pistols to a brand new shooter. He shrugged and said “Both of those manufacturers are running really great incentive programs right now. If I sell enough of them, I get a $500 gift card I can put toward what I really want!” What he wanted happened to be a MUCH more expensive item from one of the manufacturers, but it was a valuable lesson — someone who’s there to make money on your purchase is not necessarily your advocate. Ask questions and think critically — and if possible, bring a friend who’s familiar with weapons (or even better, ask your friendly local firearms instructor, who should be invested in your personal development, as opposed to selling you a tool.)
3. Not all experiences are created equal
When you go to the gun store, the first human source of information that you have is the man or woman behind the counter. They have a difficult job, especially in the age of the firehose of information that is the Internet. However, what it boils down to is like any other high-end retail job — you’re there to sell customers a piece of expensive equipment, and your raises/promotions/standing in the office is based on sales per hour worked. Additionally, there is a level of personal preference when it comes to firearms, especially based on background and experience — so don’t be afraid to establish credentials from someone working in the gun store! At the end of the day, without additional information, their role may be the extent of their expertise — and the core task of their job is sales. Now, this is not a blanket statement on everyone who works at a gun store — some people are there to supplement their income, some are there because the employee discount offsets the cost of their competition shooting career or blossoming firearms instruction business, and some are there because they retired from somewhere else and just love the shooting sports and want to give back. However, it never hurts to ask what informs the opinion they’re offering on what you should buy. In fact, I would ask these questions of anyone who would give you advice in life — what makes you think you know what you’re talking about? The answers will sometimes surprise you.
4. What do I need vs. What do I think I need?
The reality of purchasing a gun is that the weapon, especially the first weapon, is most effective at teaching us what we didn’t really need to begin with. When I started driving, I absolutely knew that I needed racing stripes, a convertible top, and a great sound system. Turns out what I really needed was good seat belts and headlights, a functioning engine, and good tires. I just didn’t know what I didn’t know — which was fine. Time, training, and experience correct that. It’s very similar with a pistol — a lot of people think they need lightweight, an external safety, and a .40 S&W, because person X said so, or it ‘seems to make sense’. Those 3, especially, are the racing stripes, rag-top, and sound system on the car I wanted when I was 16. They all look cool, and add a lot of aesthetic appeal, but do absolutely nothing to improve the function of the car, and in fact, might detract from other important things if you’re on a budget.
5. Lasers make you lazy
All the rage in the 1990’s and 2000’s, some companies still include lasers in their product line. At first blush, they seem to make a lot of sense, too — most brand new shooters perform a little better with the laser than with iron sights… mostly because they’ve not yet mastered the art of using sights. It feels like a really great short-cut to performance on the range, and who wouldn’t want that? However, lasers, in my opinion, are far more of a liability than an asset. It’s a device that is calibrated to hit at a specific spot in space, a specific distance from your muzzle. The laser is mounted either below or to the side of the barrel, so it necessarily has to have a different point of impact based on distance… for example, let’s say the laser is mounted under the barrel (perhaps attached to a flashlight?) and you have it zeroed to hit exactly where you put it at five yards. Where will it hit at three yards? Seven? Fifteen? Twenty-five? Is that a level of mental math that you want to do under stress? How much rise is there over distance? For that matter… how often do the batteries need to be replaced? How do you turn it on? Most ship with a small switch in either the grip of the pistol, or on the device itself. It adds a number of variables to an already complex equation. If you insist on a technical device to learn on, jump directly into the future and purchase a Trijicon RMR, Holosun 507, or a Leupold Delta Point Pro. They’re more expensive… but only because they’re worth it.
6. The myth of the custom shop (buying skill)
Ah, the custom shop. “If you just buy this widget, this incredible development, you don’t even NEED training.” Man, I wish that existed. Here’s the thing — marketing based on being the greatest thing ever, chosen by (insert your tactical celebrity here) for dynamic operations in (insert warzone here) over the course of the last 19 years of the War on Terror and/or the war on drugs or other… is completely ass-backward. Let me flip it around this way — Michael Jordan’s shorts didn’t set him up for a stellar NBA career. He worked his ass off at the gym and on the court and practiced constantly, and took advantage of considerable genetic gifts, to perform at a level that people paid him to wear their shorts on the court. If you start off with the best of the best of the best, you still need to pay for ammunition and training. I can’t stress this part enough — TRAINING, not blazing away at the range trying to self-diagnose and resolve your issues. Self-improvement is always to be lauded, but it’s a pretty tough way to learn how to swim, handle toxic chemicals, or fight.
It is, however, important to note the next question…
7. What is good enough, really?
The opposite side of the coin is just as important — much like I wouldn’t tell you to buy a Chambers Custom 1911 for your starter weapon (that said, if you want to buy one for your new favorite gun writer, I certainly wouldn’t complain!), I also don’t want you to buy garbage you won’t be able to rely on. If at any point in the sales pitch or description of the weapon they include the phrase “Just as good as a Glock at half the price”, the odds are it’s not what you want. Some critical features you won’t get below a certain price point (around $500 in non-catastrophic times):
Reliability: First and foremost, it has to go bang every. Single. Time. It has to eat a variety of factory ammunition, rather than having favorite loads and jamming on others.
Accuracy: Simply put, the gun needs to consistently hit where you aim it.
Secondary support: The $200 pawn shop wonder that you can’t find spare magazines, spare parts, or holsters for is pretty useless to you. Find a better option.
8. Stopping Power isn’t a Pistol Thing.
The sad truth of fighting with a pistol is that it’s entirely inappropriate for the task of causing a 150+ pound mammal to cease the behavior that prompted you to shoot them in the first place. It’s certainly better than harsh language or a hand to hand encounter, but there’s a reason pistols are called secondary weapons: None of them are particularly good at killing people. Their biggest advantage is that they’re compact enough to be kept on the body at all times while only adding two to four pounds between weapon, ammunition, holster, and magazine carrier, depending on what you carry and how many reloads you carry for it. If you know you’re going into a fight, you will (and should!) grab a shotgun or a carbine. So instead of buying the biggest pistol you can fire once (here’s looking at YOU, .44 Magnum, .50 AE, and .500 S&W Magnum), I recommend finding a pistol with which you can put three to five shots high into the chest of an adult quickly. There’s also a balancing concern — buy enough gun, too. The .22LR, .25, and .32 ACP are all far too small for practical use — they do not have enough power to reliably penetrate deep enough to reach vital organs and stop the person. For me, the choice is 9mm Luger, which is also the choice of a number of police departments and agencies throughout the world. Pistol bullets should travel in packs. Additionally, the cheaper the round (as long as it’s bigger than .380), the more you can afford to practice with it.
9. If you need more than X rounds, you shouldn’t be shooting
A favorite question of those not well-versed in firearms is “if you can’t hit them with that many chances, you shouldn’t have a gun!” And there’s a kernel of truth to that — specifically the fundamentals of marksmanship are critically important, and you really ought to get trained. However, this comment also reveals a deeper ignorance of just how robust the human body is, and just how ineffective at stopping that body handgun rounds are.
10. What YOU need is a J-Frame revolver!
This one drives me nuts. A certain subset of people have decided, based in large part on bad TV from the 1970’s and 1980’s, that the perfect ‘girl gun’ is a snubnose, light-weight revolver in .38 Special +P or .357 Magnum with a 2-inch or less barrel. The suggestion is often accompanied by two claims — first, that you can practice with .38 special rounds and carry either +P or .357 rounds because “Under stress, you won’t know the difference”, and “Revolvers are more reliable — fewer parts to go wrong”. On face, each of these things seem to make sense. The problem is that neither statement holds up under any sort of testing. In fact, revolvers are full of small parts and springs that can and do break, in addition to being sensitive to things like out of spec ammunition and rough handling.
All of that is secondary to the bigger issue, though: J-frame revolvers are really, really hard to use well. Their sights are small and hard to see, their triggers are long and heavy, reloads are complex, and sight radius is unforgivingly short. Are J-frames a viable option for concealed carry? It depends. A number of very good shooters out there can run a J-frame well. However, like most very small guns, these are expert weapons requiring a great deal of time and effort and ammunition and training to master. If you’re a casual or new shooter who isn’t willing to commit eight+ hours a week to working on mastery of the pistol, the J-frame is not for you.
11. What else do I need to buy?
For the answer to this question, check out the next entry in our series- you bought a gun, now what?
