Jim Watson
Member
I do NOT recommend a 1911 as a first pistol. Nor ANY centerfire, unless you are going to get extensive intensive expensive professional training. Dinking around with a bigbore without experience will kick and blast you into bad habits you will never get completely out of. You will whine about ammunition costs, and get too little practice. Ask me how I know.
Get a good .22. A Ruger Mk II before they are replaced by Mk III with key lock and magazine disconnector or a Browning Buckmark will do fine.
The gun costs less, the ammunition costs much less, noise is low with proper hearing protection and recoil is negligible. Jeff Cooper, the Guru of the 1911 and founder of the Modern Technique says "You can learn about 80% of what you need to know with a .22."
Or get a 1911 with .22 conversion and start out with the .22 on it for at least a couple of thousand rounds. But that will cost a good deal more up front and you are already trying to cheap out.
Resist the temptation to treat a gun as fireworks just because they shoot a big bullet, kick you in a manly fashion, and make a lot of noise. That is not the way to learn to shoot well.
Get a good .22. A Ruger Mk II before they are replaced by Mk III with key lock and magazine disconnector or a Browning Buckmark will do fine.
The gun costs less, the ammunition costs much less, noise is low with proper hearing protection and recoil is negligible. Jeff Cooper, the Guru of the 1911 and founder of the Modern Technique says "You can learn about 80% of what you need to know with a .22."
Or get a 1911 with .22 conversion and start out with the .22 on it for at least a couple of thousand rounds. But that will cost a good deal more up front and you are already trying to cheap out.
Resist the temptation to treat a gun as fireworks just because they shoot a big bullet, kick you in a manly fashion, and make a lot of noise. That is not the way to learn to shoot well.