eldeguello

For a person who has no experience with a handgun, I always recommend a revolver as a starter weapon rather than an automatic, for safety reasons. You can always tell if a revolver is loaded, and it is much more difficult to fire one by accident! Just make sure no kid can get ahold of it! Kids can't generally pull back the slide and chamber a round in an auto, but they can cock & fire a revolver!

The old argument about reliability between the revolver and the auto has been raging since when the "Good Lord was a Road Guard", but will never be resolved. A good revolver is very reliable as long as it is kept clean and well-maintained, but a revolver is much easier to put out of action by things like sand, dirt, mud, water, etc. On the other hand, the good old Colt .45 can be buried in a sandy mud puddle for a week, retrieved, and it will fire! The assertionthat a bad round of ammo will require you torack the slide and chamber a new round in an auto, but not in a revolver, is true. But in the many manythousands of rounds of GI .45 Ball ammo I have fired in the last 48 years, and half as much U.S. made factory target pistol ammo I've shot in that same time, I have yet to have, or even see, a misfire! It just doesn't happen. This included a couple of boxes of .45 Ball marked FA 18! It was made during WWI, and still gave standard ballistics 60 years later!

Once you learn to shoot a handgun safely and well, an automatic is by far the superior defensive arm! But you need to get one that is chambered for an adequate cartridge. Personally, I prefer the .45 ACP, and use a variant of the Colt M1911A1.... I do NOT consider the 9mm Parabellum to be acceptable-some people do.

Automatics and revolvers are about equal in the accuracy department. An accurized Colt .45 auto or .38 Super will shoot as well as the finest target revolver ever made. I once has a Colt .38 Super auto that had been converted by Clark in LA to shoot .38 Special wadcutter target ammo. It was every bit as accurate as my Colt single-action only Officers Model .38 Special, which was one of the most accurate revolvers ever made by anyone anywhere.

Tuco

Also don't get hung up on a calliber. Shot placement is way more important. Even with a .22 you are no longer a victim. If you have a 500 S&W and can't hit with it,,,it is no good. Get a gun that is reliable and you feel comfortable shooting and can hit a torso sized target at 7-12yards.

bigtim6656

i am thinking a 357 so i can use the 357s and the 38s

eldeguello

Right!

JeffS

I agree the only pistols I have are Ruger .22 target pistols though I don't carry them with me. I have a lot of friends that say I need a bigger one and I ask them why. I can put several shots in a small circle before they even attempt to shoot. I told them when they shoot if they miss with their first shot it takes them a while to bring the gun back down and get lined up again and in the meantime I can keep it right on target and keep firing. Also they only shoot theirs a few times because the cost of ammo where I shoot a brick of shells through mine in a weekend. I've run several thousand rounds through mine so I know exactly where it will hit. Practice makesa big difference and it doesn't matter the size if you hit someone in the right spot.

Also most of the time if you are carrying a pistol if something happens you don't have time to pull it out anyway. I had a friend that had his laying on the seat of his truck beside him and a guy came up and stuck a gun through the window and my friend never had a chance to grab his. If I'm going to carry a gun with me I carry a sawed off shotgun in my truck. If you see trouble coming it is just as easy to grab it as a pistol and nobody argues with a shotgun pointed at them.

cjwink

Revolver.. In a life or death situation you don't have time to fool with a jammed weapon.. The benefit of an auto is the amount of shells it holds.. But you can get a 9 shot 22..

New York Hunter

I carry a Glock 27 in the warmer months and a Glock 22 in the colder months or when concealment isn't a big deal. Both are 40 S&W. Both shoot Remington's 165 gr. Golden Sabersvery well. I do have a 357 Sig. barrel for my G22. I carry the Glocks because I shoot them better then anything else. [/align]

Tuco

Can't go wrong with that decision.

glockman55

For the most part a Revolver is fool proof, but semi-auto's are IMO a good choice for a CCW. Sure you hear that some say they jam, but you get what you pay for. I've seen some $100. auto's out there that are junk, and a few cheap revolvers as well. What ever you get for your carry gun spend the money on a good one. I like my Glock, but that's the gun I can shoot in my sleep, in a matter of speaking. Practice is the key to any hand gun. and don't get talked into a .22 cal for a self defence gun. That is just crazy!

CCPaHunter

I have many to choose from butI always default to my S&W 1006.WhenI dress light I go to my .25 Berretta or as mysix year old soncalls it " the baby gun".