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Jeffrey Saunier's avatar

Lots of ground covered well. My take is while figuring out your platform, read up on your states laws. Know the difference between range ammo and carry. Know what Plus + means. Find a range you like and shoot once or twice a month if not more. Learn how to handle misfires and how to clean. Find the holster that will fit your clothes, the way you dress. Get a dry fire round. Practice drawing from your holster. Look into a safe. Be hyper aware if you have kids. Go to gun shows and bounce ideas off people who are willing. It’s a life style, not a once in a while proposition.

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Jesse Slater's avatar

Absolutely. Training, competence, and of course program compliance are huge.

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Jeffrey Saunier's avatar

Not to mention Counsel

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Tony's avatar

Thanks for including revolvers. After years of fiddling around with glocks/ruger/sig* and how to carry and access them, I’ve moved for now to a J frame S&W .357. Can’t jam/stovepipe/FTF, can be fired from inside a pocket, no edges or angles to catch or snag anything, no safety, it’s as smooth as a river rock and fits in my palm. Just toss it in a pocket. Shorts, slacks, windbreaker, heavy coat, anything.

Is .357 a bitch to shoot through it? Haha hell yes it’s like an M80 going off in my hand. So at the range I just shoot light .38 ammo. I’m assuming if I ever have to actually use it in self defense, the recoil won’t even register. Would it be better to have more than 5 rounds on tap? Maybe. I’m not looking to get into a gunfight. I’m looking to give an assailant something else to think about while I run away. I’d guess a couple of rounds of hollow point .357 delivered at point blank range might do that. *But a year from now I might be back carrying a Glock 9mm.

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Jesse Slater's avatar

That's about where I've landed. I've carried Gov't Models, Commanders, CZs... atm it's a steel Chief's Special AIWB, and an Airweight Bodyguard in my pocket. The two together weigh less than a lot of guns I've carried, the best reload for a revolver is another revolver, and the two positions give me options.

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Tony's avatar

The “New York reload.” I love it.

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The Anti-Gnostic's avatar

Excellent breakdown of trigger action friend.

This article made me get up and grab all my pistols lol. The right amount of heft and feel are definitely important, even more of a consideration than caliber IMO. I have friends who bought all these hand cannons when they were younger and now that they're in their 50s and 60s the guns are just not fun to shoot if they ever were.

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Jesse Slater's avatar

Yeah, there's been a real trend toward cramming the most cartridge into the least amount of gun lately. I suspect it's a side effect of the way sales works. Unless you can point to some kind of achievement, a "we're the best!" by some metric, then a product is more likely to be ignored. But a lot of good, sensible guns aren't the best at any one thing.

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Alan Devincentis's avatar

I’ve tried polymer, and aluminum, and just can’t get past that feeling of it being junk. I used to carry the pocket 380 for backup. What a horrid little thing. I don’t do9mm, unless you want to consider kurtz. But then I got a polymer .45 for edc, and that ,too, was just a Barky, nasty thing. Springfield 3.3. So I’m back to my stainless 645, and I can shoot that all day, with no discomfort. So I put the 3.3 in sob, and the 645 on the hip. One caliber, 15 rounds.

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Jesse Slater's avatar

Maybe I'm more of a gourmand than a gourmet when it comes to guns. I like, or have liked guns from all around the spectrum. I started with, and have circled back to S&W revolvers, but also love 1911s. I've had Glocks, and they're fine. Kinda boring, kinda uninspiring, but they work just fine. Bunch of others have similar stories. 8-)

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Jason's avatar

Good article. I tend to split the difference. I suggest the person go rent a Glock 19 (most generic gun you can find) and shoot 100-200 rounds. Make a written list of what he/she likes and dislikes about it, from shooting to handling to hand fit to budget to everything. Then, get with a knowledgeable gun seller (or smart friend) and use the list to find a gun that meets the preference. It's like buying a car in that aspect.

For a brand-new shooter, I'm not above recommending a .22lr pistol as a starting point. The round will do the job for self-defense, and the ammo price and enjoyability encourages practice.

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Jesse Slater's avatar

I've definitely used a .22 as a teaching tool, but I don't know that I've ever recommended one for defensive use. It's not a terrible choice, though, a face full of .22 will sure ruin somebody's day.

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Jason's avatar

People tend to not want more deep holes in themselves than they were born with, no matter the diameter.

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David H. Roberson's avatar

Good general summary. You might provide some more context to the safety issue of striker-fired guns so that new shooters will understand they’ll be fine with a striker if they learn to manage the trigger finger correctly. Maybe a topic for a future article?

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Jesse Slater's avatar

That's a good point. I covered that a few articles back, but didn't really get deep enough into it, here.

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David H. Roberson's avatar

Ah, I must have missed that article. I’ll go look for it. Thank you.

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