Best to start out with

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CorIAnnda said:
The MK (not sure which one, 2, 3, I don't remember) had an awesome sight on the top, it was a laser circle, which I found very very easy to use. Still heavy for me, I had to place my hands on top of this box to hold it up so I could keep from weaving evvvverywhere. However, I felt like that was making my grip and stance all messed up, and early on, I don't need to pick up bad habits. It jammed a lot, at least every clip. :( Perhaps, I do need to look into revolvers. OH and by the way, yes, I have an amazing instructor, and teacher- my dad. He is amazing with everything, and gun smiths and all. I just want to go out and find my own information, hopefully it will show more dedication. After 22 years of ignoring his hobby, I feel I should catch up a bit! So, thank you all sooo much
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Eh, I like hanno's idea about the CZ with a kit. You already liked shooting it, 2 guns in 1, and if the kit's a jammer you can sell it and still have a gun on hand. Price for 9mm isn't terrible either (not nearly as bad as .380 or .45 but still not as cheap as .22).
 
If you can build your hand strength then I would recommend the CZ 75 compact or full size. I read above some people advise on the CZ cadet kit. It's okay, but mine has problems (just the Kadet kit). Personally, I would advise that if you are just going to get ONE handgun, get the .38 revolver. OR, if you are willing to get two handguns, you should get a designated Ruger .22 and a CZ 75 9mm (again, provided you can rack the slide).

The .22 will be an inexpensive way to learn to not flinch when you shoot. But it would not be a good choice for self defense.
 
Welcome, indeed. I'm with those who have mentioned the .22 as a good starting place for a newcomer to pistols. Take your pick between a revolver (such as Ruger Bearcat) or a semi-automatic pistol (such as a browning Buck Mark or something from the Ruger Mark series). The bottom line is that you pick it, based on what best fits your hand and eye. But there's no question that the .22 will serve you well until you are ready to step up a notch or two, IMO.

Good luck.
 
loneviking, thanks for the advice on the barrel length, and trigger control is a major issue for me, I get nervous slightly right before a pull, and then that small flinch messes the whole group up! (unless I flinch the same every single time, haha) Here come the probably sounds silly question, what is a wax bullet? And besides college, guns are the only thing that appear to be priceless around my house. Well, with the exception of the CZ Scar-L, my mom put the foot down on that one for some reason, ha.
 
Lions- thank you so much for the site info. I will have to def check it out. As for the two in one thing because the kit, that does sound like a good deal. If anything, 22s sound like the best thing I should start with to get things figured out better. Never heard of a Ruger Bearcat, google is getting a workout tonight. ;)
 
whist doing Google, check out S&W model k-17, 6" barrel
(or just browse the revolver threads here)

if you have not shot several revolvers yet, ought to give them a whirl, it's not better/worse; it is different feel in your hand, because nothing on the gun itself moves when fired

other than for CCW, avoid extra lightweight or extra small guns
appealing as smaller/lighter may "intuitively" feel
size and weight is your friend for range shooting, fast or slow, an advantage
stick with 4" to 6" barrels for revolvers until you gain more experience
(more like 5" to 7" in semi-auto 22s)
 
Coriannda, what is a wax bullet? Take a look:

http://www.gunfighter.com/waxbullets/

Get a Lee Auto Prime for $20, a box of primers and the wax bullets. You mentioned flinch, well, here's something that when you pull on the trigger and make the gun go off, it's just a little bang. I've heard cap guns louder than a wax round going off. Again, these only work well in a revolver as the rounds don't have enough power to cycle the slide on a semi-auto.
 
Get a Lee Auto Prime for $20, a box of primers and the wax bullets.
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From the website:
For pistol practice, many people simply use normal shells with regular pistol primers. These make for great close-range shooting practice.
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If you use regular cases, mark them (I file a nick in the rim) and open up the flash hole with a twist drill. If you use the normal diameter flash hole, pressure will cause the primers to back out, and that can tie up your gun.
 
I like the idea of a 22 as a starter. But most women, can handle a 9mm especially in a full sized gun so keep that in mind down the road. And I bring that up because my wife now calls her .22 Buckmark a "pop-gun" and although she'll shoot it some, she now likes the center fire pistols much better. 9mm and even an occasional .45 (to the detriment of my ammo budget..lol)
 
Male or female, the .22LR is ALWAYS the best handgun to learn on. Even an air gun is good if it's quality and accurate, probably better than a cartridge gun. But, don't mess with cheap ones, get quality. For the price of an airgun of decent quality, you can buy a couple of Ruger .22 autos. That's why I think the .22 is better, although you can set up an airgun range in an urban back yard.

Learn gun safety and marksmanship skills before you tackle serious defense calibers. Personally, I still prefer the .22 for fun shooting. I own magnum revolvers, black powder, center fire autos, etc. I like 'em all, but I'll revert to the .22.
 
A 22 is a fine starter pistol, and for plinking. My wife (kindof a smaller lady), started off with my kimber .45 topped off with a 22 conversion. She is a dead eye with it. She really likes it in .45 though. It is now refered to as her first love. Don't be afraid to try larger calibers, you may suprise yourself.
 
Vern wrote:
If you use regular cases, mark them (I file a nick in the rim) and open up the flash hole with a twist drill. If you use the normal diameter flash hole, pressure will cause the primers to back out, and that can tie up your gun.
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If you open up the flash hole, then how do you get your regular primers to seat tightly?

As for backing out, I think what's happening is that folks primer the cartridge and then put the wax bullet in. There is air in that empty cartridge and when you press the bullet in, that air pushes on the primer and causes it to back out just a tiny bit. I always put the bullet in, then the primer and I've never had a primer back out on me yet.
 
Sorry for the delayed reply: a 3 inch barrel is long enough to be accurate and short enough to conceal if you so choose.

I've only always taught people to shoot starting with either a 9mm or a .38. While I support the suggestions for starting with a .22 if needed, I choose to use the handgun that has real recoil, noise, and shock waves, but not too much.

Sure, they're surprised at first, but before too long we're up and running, the recoil, noise, etc, become a thing of the past and they are concentrating on tactics.

Just my preferred method. As you can tell I'm in the minority here :)!

Have fun and get good instruction with whatever you choose.

Take care,
DFW1911
 
CorIAnnda, if you get a .22 autoloader, be aware that they are very selective about ammunition. For example, I have a Ruger 22/45 MK III, and it's 100% reliable with CCI MiniMag solids, but misfeeds frequently on MiniMag hollowpoints.

What this means for you is that you'll have to buy single boxes of a lot of different makes and models of ammo until you find the one that works best.

Revolvers don't have this problem.
 
I like the idea of a 22 as a starter. But most women, can handle a 9mm especially in a full sized gun so keep that in mind down the road. And I bring that up because my wife now calls her .22 Buckmark a "pop-gun" and although she'll shoot it some, she now likes the center fire pistols much better. 9mm and even an occasional .45 (to the detriment of my ammo budget..lol)
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Haha, yes, I shot a .45, not having any idea what it was going to be like, then it was like WHOA!! cause prior to I had been shooting .22s! But I did well, my second shot hit the edge of the first one, and I love a .45 now. HAHA, ammo budget, no joke!! I am learning to reload my own ammo now, save me some money! Picking up brass as a kid sucked, now I completely know why I had to for my dad! $$$$
 
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Heron, yeah I found out that some pistols require a specific ammo or it just doesn't work out well. Revolvers don't have that problem? Nice. I shot a Flat Top Black Hawk, I fell in love with that revolver. .41 mag This other one though, and I can't recall it's name, I couldn't get the hammer pulled down with one thumb, it was strong, and I am weak still with them. I need to do a lot of practice with just being able to build strength up!
 
CZ-75B Kadet vs. Sig Mosquito?

I have both. The mosquito is fun to shoot and does feel good to hold. It also looks a bit aggressive. That's the good news. They are a bit fincky about ammo, but once broken in become fairly reliable, especially with CCI minimags. As far as accuracy goes, I have to say my other 22s are more accurate. The cz75B with the kadet adapter is a far better pistol in my opinion. They are very reliable and do not seem to be particularily fussy about ammo brand. There is a lot to be said for having the same trigger, grip and controls on a 22/9mm handgun. The option of shooting either 9mm or 22 is very convenient. If you go with the CZ, get a 9mm CZ-75B and the Kadet adapter. You will not be disappointed.
 
Vern wrote:
You open up the flash hole -- that's the little hole at the bottom of the primer pocket.
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I know what a flash hole is but I must have done something wrong. The primers wouldn't sit flat and I'm still not sure why. Anyway, I only tried that on a couple of them as I didn't have any problems with using the unaltered cases.

Have you ever used the shotgun primers with the wax bullets? Or a small powder charge? The folks I buy from say you can use a small powder charge but they don't say how small is 'small'. I'm thinking 1/2 to 1 gr. of Unique. Any experience with this?
 
Loneviking. the little anvils in the cup of the primers still need a ledge to seat against. If you opened up the flash holes too far you may have taken away that support. Alternately you need to get in there and lightly remove any burr from the drilling that might be there. A raised burr would hold the feet of the anvil up and could easily cause the primer to sit oddly.

CorIAnnda, welcome to THR and a fine bunch of folks. The others have offered some great advice. And to that I'll also suggest a .22. If not as your first gun then as your second. .22 shooting is great fun in its own right and I heartily agree about it being a great training aide. And as bad habits sneak back in some .22 time can retrain quickly.

The only other thing is that most of the replies so far are assuming that you'll end up using your gun for self defense. But for a lot of us guns are also, or only, a sporting tool. Since you said you're looking at shooting mostly from a sporting perspective I'd suggest you look on YouTube using the keywords "ipsc", "idpa", "cowboy action" and "cas" (acronym for Cowboy Action Shooting). These events are where the sport aspect will likely take you and they are a HEAP more fun than just shooting at paper while standing in one spot. And the IPSC and IDPA events are rooted in defensive shooting practice so taking part in them can aid your performance to some extent in a defense situation. IPSC has gone a more sportified road on this while IDPA is closer to the defensive shooting roots. Cowboy action shooting would require that you jump in with more expense for guns as you need two revolvers, a handgun caliber lever gun and a period correct style shotgun. But the best part is that you get to dress up as a ranch hand cowgirl, salloon girl or some other period style western character. And when you see some of the lightning fast match performances in these videos rest easy. For every one of those Master class shooters that rip off their stages like a machine gun there's at least 20 of us plodding through at our more mainstream pace with big grins... :D So don't worry about performance anxiety at any match you go to. Safety is the ONLY aspect that is expected to be finely tuned when you arrive. Lots of folks shoot times that could be measured with an hourglass and no one says a thing about it.

And check your local shooting clubs to see what they have in their events calenders. Often you can find casual sporting events such as handgun speed steel events where you get the fun of meeting up with a group of other shooters and enjoying some friendly match time. Again hearing a metal target go DING! or seeing a bowling pin fall over is far more fun than just seeing another hole in a piece of paper. And once you've got the basics under your belt shooting while a timer is hanging behind your ear is a great way to sharpen the skills and a big grin all at the same time. And IF you ever have to use the gun to defend yourself operating under the far more minor stress of a match will at least ingrain the skills while under the influence of some adrenaline in your system.

At some point as least give a good revolver a try. I thought I was a dyed in the wood semi sort of shooter. Then I tried shooting a 4 inch S&W Model 19 and it was like the clouds parted and the sun shone down. To this day I can shoot tighter groups more easily with my revolvers than I can with my semis. They may not be for you but if you don't try a few you'll never know.
 
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Welcome!
.22 revolver.
If you MUST have it for self defense, yes, the .38.
All 4" or longer.
Good luck;
Al
 
Have you ever used the shotgun primers with the wax bullets? Or a small powder charge? The folks I buy from say you can use a small powder charge but they don't say how small is 'small'. I'm thinking 1/2 to 1 gr. of Unique. Any experience with this?
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Nope -- I've used both wax and Speer plastic bullets with primers only -- never found any need for more power.

I find the Speer plastic cartridge cases don't give enough support to the primer, so you get misfires. So I often use the Speer plastic bullets with brass cases, with enlarged flash holes.
 
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