Yeah, taurus has a habit of poor quality control, and hipoint is essentially a gamble on whether or not any given trigger pull will do more than exercise your finger, but it’s still better than nothing at all. Not better than other more reliable options, but still.
The 22lr bit refers to a very common caliber round. It is, however, a fairly low powered round, and isn’t a big bullet at all. Despite that, if you are using a firearm that shoots it reliably, I would argue that it has a place as a defensive round (it definitely has a place in hunting and target shooting).
A lot of what matters if you’re shooting under pressure is your ability to hit your target reliably. A 22 isn’t going to be a one-hit drop unless you either get lucky or are calm enough to be very precise in your aim (unlikely even if you’ve trained under pressure, even at the distances that would matter for the statement in the post). But it is still better than many other options that aren’t firearms, and it’s still better in specific cases where the person may not be able to handle anything with more power.
Firearms are like cameras. The best one is the one you have with you. Should you pick a more capable brand, or caliber? Yeah. But if you’re unable to afford or reliably hit a target with other firearm options, and you need a potentially lethal weapon, then you use what you can, and just practice enough with it to maximize its potential.
If anyone passing by has one of those brands, and it’s giving you trouble, try different ammo until you hit on one that’s reliable in it. Even hipoint cycles some ammo reliably, so you go for what will feed correctly for a full mag.
If you’re shopping still, and one of those brands is your only affordable option, try a revolver from taurus. Revolvers are pretty much dummy proof as far as brands go, so the usual issues aren’t going to apply.
Don’t expect either brand to last for decades of regular shooting, but they’ll get the job done short term.
Well, there’s no single, best way. Communities like this are good for crowd sourcing info, but you have to take it with a grain of salt since everyone has some degree of difference of opinion.
A local shooting club is usually going to work well because you can see the options in use, and have the possibility of someone letting you try a specific firearm.
There’s a ton of websites offering product reviews, but you run into bias and the possibility of reviews being paid.
YouTube is decent enough since there’s so many people doing demonstrations along with explanations for their opinions. As an example, if you don’t mind long winded explanations, there’s a channel called hickok45 that’s this old dude shooting guns and talking about them in a realistic way. The problem with YouTube is that it’s YouTube, and that means you don’t know who you’re monetizing. That isn’t a big deal overall, good info is good info, but there’s a good degree of overlap between the right wing and firearm information, so if that’s an issue, it takes a lot of work to avoid individual channels that are jerks.
Ideally, a gun shop would be able to guide your purchase as well, and some do a great job of it. But they’re selling a product, so they have an incentive to lean to profit over good info to a degree, so that grain of salt is needed.
I personally prefer a mix when I’m thinking about buying something new/different. I have a range I go to that “rents” guns, and the three shooting clubs I’m in are great for in person discussion. But online resources like this community are also great, and you’ll have access to more opinions, and might get niche bits of advice that you won’t find unless you have hundreds of people involved.
Thank you. I’ll check out the gentleman you mentioned in YouTube. I thought about going to a local shooting range. Didn’t think about shooting club. Shopping for anything is such a process now, huh?
A friend showed me a Cz sp01 9mm. I remember liking the feel of it. But it’s @ 1,500. That’s a fair chunk of change for me. Not sure what the budget is for a good piece? And elsewhere in this thread it sounded like a 9mm might not be the way to go, anyhow
Yeah, gun shopping is always a process, but the way the market has expanded the last decade or so makes it more difficult for new shooters. Used to be that there really wasn’t much in the way of junk out there, just slightly less good. Certainly not much that would utterly fail the way some hipoint products can.
Well, that model of cz is on the high end of things. The good part is that it’s worth the price tag in terms of durability and function. Great firearms imo.
If you’re buying new, don’t waste time with anything that’s under 300 unless you’ve had a chance to thoroughly research the exact model.
Again, for new, you can end up with some damn fine handguns in the $3-500 range. Glock, Sig Sauer, Smith & Wesson, and a lot of other reliable brands have offerings in that range.
If you’re going used, you run into the low to mid end range overlapping a lot more, so you can’t really set a price where you’re going to be reasonably certain you’re getting something good. There’s used glocks out there in great shape that you can snag for maybe 300 with some luck. Some in rough shape go for less, but are still perfectly good in function; they’re just beat up visually. But a visually pristine used taurus might only be fifty bucks less, despite not being as good a buy overall.
As far as caliber, there’s a lot to be said for 9mm. It’s usually easy to find, and if you stick with a major brand, the aftermarket accessories are wide open. The ammo is also relatively cheap. There’s also plenty to be said against it, like it lacking one-hit stopping power (which isn’t a guarantee with any handgun a beginner spoke should be looking at, but still), and the supply chain issues with the ammo recently. But it really depends on individual needs/wants.
Is 9 the ideal beginners’ caliber? Ehhh, probably not. I’d rather a new shooter start with something even gentler to learn fundamentals with. But if someone is only going to buy 1 handgun, it’s difficult to pick a better round to start out with. It’s almost certain that a total noob can handle 9, and that means they’ll practice more, and that matters. But it is a debated topic for sure.
Tbh, it’s a little exaggerated though.
Yeah, taurus has a habit of poor quality control, and hipoint is essentially a gamble on whether or not any given trigger pull will do more than exercise your finger, but it’s still better than nothing at all. Not better than other more reliable options, but still.
The 22lr bit refers to a very common caliber round. It is, however, a fairly low powered round, and isn’t a big bullet at all. Despite that, if you are using a firearm that shoots it reliably, I would argue that it has a place as a defensive round (it definitely has a place in hunting and target shooting).
A lot of what matters if you’re shooting under pressure is your ability to hit your target reliably. A 22 isn’t going to be a one-hit drop unless you either get lucky or are calm enough to be very precise in your aim (unlikely even if you’ve trained under pressure, even at the distances that would matter for the statement in the post). But it is still better than many other options that aren’t firearms, and it’s still better in specific cases where the person may not be able to handle anything with more power.
Firearms are like cameras. The best one is the one you have with you. Should you pick a more capable brand, or caliber? Yeah. But if you’re unable to afford or reliably hit a target with other firearm options, and you need a potentially lethal weapon, then you use what you can, and just practice enough with it to maximize its potential.
If anyone passing by has one of those brands, and it’s giving you trouble, try different ammo until you hit on one that’s reliable in it. Even hipoint cycles some ammo reliably, so you go for what will feed correctly for a full mag.
If you’re shopping still, and one of those brands is your only affordable option, try a revolver from taurus. Revolvers are pretty much dummy proof as far as brands go, so the usual issues aren’t going to apply.
Don’t expect either brand to last for decades of regular shooting, but they’ll get the job done short term.
Where does one go to start learning what to buy?
Well, there’s no single, best way. Communities like this are good for crowd sourcing info, but you have to take it with a grain of salt since everyone has some degree of difference of opinion.
A local shooting club is usually going to work well because you can see the options in use, and have the possibility of someone letting you try a specific firearm.
There’s a ton of websites offering product reviews, but you run into bias and the possibility of reviews being paid.
YouTube is decent enough since there’s so many people doing demonstrations along with explanations for their opinions. As an example, if you don’t mind long winded explanations, there’s a channel called hickok45 that’s this old dude shooting guns and talking about them in a realistic way. The problem with YouTube is that it’s YouTube, and that means you don’t know who you’re monetizing. That isn’t a big deal overall, good info is good info, but there’s a good degree of overlap between the right wing and firearm information, so if that’s an issue, it takes a lot of work to avoid individual channels that are jerks.
Ideally, a gun shop would be able to guide your purchase as well, and some do a great job of it. But they’re selling a product, so they have an incentive to lean to profit over good info to a degree, so that grain of salt is needed.
I personally prefer a mix when I’m thinking about buying something new/different. I have a range I go to that “rents” guns, and the three shooting clubs I’m in are great for in person discussion. But online resources like this community are also great, and you’ll have access to more opinions, and might get niche bits of advice that you won’t find unless you have hundreds of people involved.
Thank you. I’ll check out the gentleman you mentioned in YouTube. I thought about going to a local shooting range. Didn’t think about shooting club. Shopping for anything is such a process now, huh?
A friend showed me a Cz sp01 9mm. I remember liking the feel of it. But it’s @ 1,500. That’s a fair chunk of change for me. Not sure what the budget is for a good piece? And elsewhere in this thread it sounded like a 9mm might not be the way to go, anyhow
Yeah, gun shopping is always a process, but the way the market has expanded the last decade or so makes it more difficult for new shooters. Used to be that there really wasn’t much in the way of junk out there, just slightly less good. Certainly not much that would utterly fail the way some hipoint products can.
Well, that model of cz is on the high end of things. The good part is that it’s worth the price tag in terms of durability and function. Great firearms imo.
If you’re buying new, don’t waste time with anything that’s under 300 unless you’ve had a chance to thoroughly research the exact model.
Again, for new, you can end up with some damn fine handguns in the $3-500 range. Glock, Sig Sauer, Smith & Wesson, and a lot of other reliable brands have offerings in that range.
If you’re going used, you run into the low to mid end range overlapping a lot more, so you can’t really set a price where you’re going to be reasonably certain you’re getting something good. There’s used glocks out there in great shape that you can snag for maybe 300 with some luck. Some in rough shape go for less, but are still perfectly good in function; they’re just beat up visually. But a visually pristine used taurus might only be fifty bucks less, despite not being as good a buy overall.
As far as caliber, there’s a lot to be said for 9mm. It’s usually easy to find, and if you stick with a major brand, the aftermarket accessories are wide open. The ammo is also relatively cheap. There’s also plenty to be said against it, like it lacking one-hit stopping power (which isn’t a guarantee with any handgun a beginner spoke should be looking at, but still), and the supply chain issues with the ammo recently. But it really depends on individual needs/wants.
Is 9 the ideal beginners’ caliber? Ehhh, probably not. I’d rather a new shooter start with something even gentler to learn fundamentals with. But if someone is only going to buy 1 handgun, it’s difficult to pick a better round to start out with. It’s almost certain that a total noob can handle 9, and that means they’ll practice more, and that matters. But it is a debated topic for sure.