Interesting my first handgun was a desert eagle 44 I got it when I was 16 as a gift from my dad, neither one of us knew anything about handguns but I still have it and I would like to think of my self as a pretty good handgun shot, 50' with a USP match slow fire no optics I can manage 1.5-2" 10 shot groups. Oh and my first car I bought myself was a 90 vett, Got that when I was 18 used it as a daily driver for about two years until I decided i needed more room and got a LS400.The desert eagle can be a difficult piece to learn on, if you don't hold it right {IE with a push pull grip} it can have reliability issues, Then again if you learn to shoot it properly I don't find them to be any less reliable than most of the handguns out there, I guess what I'm trying to say is that even though I love my desert eagle I would probably not choose one as my first pistol I would probably say get something in 45acp or maby a 40S&W, BUT DON'T START WITH A SMALL CALIBER!!!! I have seen it so many times, people starting with a 22 and never getting above a 9mm. They get used to so very little recoil that anything more is just too much, and they cant shoot it effectively and therefore get very disco urged, So once again I strongly urge you to go with a larger caliber, Yes there is the slight off chance that a very large caliber {IE 50 ae} might frighten some from shooting handguns at all. But I still think you should go with a larger caliber first, shoot it allot, get good with it, get used to it. Then if need be change calibers to suit you preferences. I feel that leaning to shoot a handgun is basically the same with no regard to caliber. But if you set your baseline "normal" {IE expected} recoil with a 45acp then shooting a 40 or 9mm or 22 or anything inbetween will seem to be soft recoiling light ect ect. So get yourself a reliable large caliber handgun don't worry about the mag capacity or having that match grade trigger, at this point it just complicates things. I promise you that if you work hard and are dedicated you learn to shoot any handgun very well. I just find that it makes life easier to start off and get used to big caliber handguns. Think of it this way if your first car was a crewcab dually 1ton pickup and you learned to drive it like a pro then later driving an Avalon or a corvette will seem like a piece of cake. but if you start off with a smart car then try to work you way to a crewcab dually truck you will most likely find it to be "so big and bulky with low visibility, hard to part, ect ect ect...." Do you get what I mean? OK well I'm done ranting for the night, thats just my 0.02.