Need help deciding on a handgun

[OldmanFCSA]

Originally picked 9mm Berretta 92 , but after reading your intro, I changed to Other with Berretta 96 Stainless in mind. I have both/both (92's and 96's in blued and stainless), but prefer 96 stainless for rough duty carry and 96 blued for night-time carry, with Crinsom Trace grips.

Berrettas fit my hand - which I feel is necessary for ease of shooting and required for shooting accurately. They are heavy, but are very reliable, and easily handle +P+ loadings.

Have you considered an good quality revolver, like a Ruger GR100 in 357 Magnum ?

 

[19-3Ben]

I was under the impression that the Rugers had quite a few problems. Is this true?

No. No it's not. The general wisdom on Rugers is that they are overbuilt, very rugged, very reliable, very durable, on the heavy side, and less than optimal triggers.
They are pretty much in the same category as the CommBlock surplus guns. Super tough, but not much to look at.

 

[ATBackPackin]

I was under the impression that the Ruger's had quite a few problems. Is this true? My dad had a Mini-30 and all it did was jam. We tried a dozen different types of ammo and several magazines and it still refused to work. When he talked about it to a gunsmith, he went "well there's a Ruger for ya!" so my dad promptly sold it. That has kind of soured me towards Ruger's so I never considered them. I'm honestly not crazy about them and I'm still leaning towards the Beretta.

I'm not sure which Rugers you are referring to, but the P series Rugers are great guns. Ask the people on here there opinion of them. With that being said, this is going to be your gun so you do what you think is right. I was just thinking of some options that would save you some duckets. Like I said prior, the Beretta is awesome, I would buy one in a heartbeat without any reservations. Likewise with the CZ's, but both of those will probably cost you at least $200 more than the Ruger P85, which in my opinion will do everything that you need.

Shawn

 

[Ranger30-06]

If there's a Ruger at the store I'll definitely check it out.

OldmanFCSA: I'm going to assume that you meant GP100? I have considered them and I do like them very much, however I was leaning towards a semi-auto because I would like quicker reloads and more rounds to a magazine.
I would also go for a Beretta 96, I just forgot to put it in the poll. Considering the 92 and the 96 are identical in size, I would go for either one.

I also did some parts searching and there are plenty of parts out there for 3rd generation S&W's. My biggest 3 choices now are:

Beretta 92/96
S&W 5906/4006
CZ75 (I do prefer the other 2 guns over this one)

 

[Ben86]

CZ75

 

[miles1]

I was under the impression that the Rugers had quite a few problems. Is this true? My dad had a Mini-30 and all it did was jam. We tried a dozen different types of ammo and several magazines and it still refused to work. When he talked about it to a gunsmith, he went "well there's a Ruger for ya!" so my dad promptly sold it. That has kind of soured me towards Rugers so I never considered them. I'm honestly not crazy about them and I'm still leaning towards the Beretta.

I have a Ruger P95 and GP100.Both are built like tanks with NO problems and several hundreds of rounds.I Highly recommend at least looking one over before discounting Ruger out of your equation.

 

[Ranger30-06]

Well the local gun shop has a S&W 4046 in really good condition for $360 with a spare mag and a holster. Is this a good price? Is there anything I should look for? I'm heading over tomorrow afternoon to "take a closer look"

 

[ATBackPackin]

Sounds like a fair price. Have you ever held a 3rd gen S&W? I like them a lot, but some find them to feel blocky in the hand.

 

[Ranger30-06]

Sounds like a fair price. Have you ever held a 3rd gen S&W? I like them a lot, but some find them to feel blocky in the hand.

I have held them, but it was a while ago. Pretty much anything with a 1911 style grip is good for me as I have pretty beefy hands. Now as for Glock style grips, I find a 2x4 more comfortable.

 

[bestseller92]

The Ruger P90 is an accurate, uber-reliable .45 auto for less than 5 bills.

 

[RinkRat]

Out of your list I voted Beretta 92FS ... when I got my CCL the class fee included the use of their gun and ammo for their QC/liability issues and the price of the class was over all less then those that you had to BYO buy time you included ammo. The instructor used his personal Beretta 92FS. Their were 5 people in the class and only 2 of us had ever shot a handgun. The instructor put 10 rounds in the mag for us to fire. Even the 3 novas shooters had descent groupings for never shooting a handgun before. For a gun I'd never shot at 30' I had a 4" group, the other shooter that had shot before had a 4.5" group.

So for accuracy I'm convinced. If I had one I know I'd get tighter with practice. And as for reliability what make and model is that again ???

 

[9mmforMe]

Yup, the P series are awesome guns. Search the board and you'll find quite a few thread which praise them highly. Good luck.

 

[OldmanFCSA]

If there's a Ruger at the store I'll definitely check it out.

OldmanFCSA: I'm going to assume that you meant GP100? I have considered them and I do like them very much, however I was leaning towards a semi-auto because I would like quicker reloads and more rounds to a magazine.
I would also go for a Beretta 96, I just forgot to put it in the poll. Considering the 92 and the 96 are identical in size, I would go for either one.

I also did some parts searching and there are plenty of parts out there for 3rd generation S&W's. My biggest 3 choices now are:

Beretta 92/96
S&W 5906/4006
CZ75 (I do prefer the other 2 guns over this one)

Thanks for the correction - don't know where the "GR" came from - I own 2 GP100's - both 6" heavy barrels, 1 blued, 1 stainless - stainless gets the most severe usage - blued is the most accurate - blued is my daughters gun, stainless is mine. WE LOVE them both, shoot lots of 38 specials and can switch to 357 Magnums with 140 or 180 grain XTP's as need requires. My daughter is by far the best shooter !!!

We shoot the GP100's the most, and carry the 92's and 96's the most, although a Berretta Model 21A lives in my right pants pocket.

 

[Ranger30-06]

Thanks for the correction - don't know where the "GR" came from - I own 2 GP100's - both 6" heavy barrels, 1 blued, 1 stainless - stainless gets the most severe usage - blued is the most accurate - blued is my daughters gun, stainless is mine. WE LOVE them both, shoot lots of 38 specials and can switch to 357 Magnums with 140 or 180 grain XTP's as need requires. My daughter is by far the best shooter !!!

We shoot the GP100's the most, and carry the 92's and 96's the most, although a Berretta Model 21A lives in my right pants pocket.

Thanks guys for your input! I'm going in today to check everything out. My personal hope is that I'll be leaving with that S&W 4046, but I'm definitely going to consider Berettas/Rugers. Thanks everyone!

 

[Ranger30-06]

I am the proud owner of a very beautiful S&W 4046! $360 and it included 2 mags and a holster! Now for Jersey's stupid waiting period...

 

[ATBackPackin]

I am the proud owner of a very beautiful S&W 4046! $360 and it included 2 mags and a holster! Now for Jersey's stupid waiting period...

Congrats man, hope you enjoy her. She looks to be in great condition and I'm sure she'll be good to you.

Shawn

 

[Ben86]

I am the proud owner of a very beautiful S&W 4046! $360 and it included 2 mags and a holster! Now for Jersey's stupid waiting period...

Nice choice.

Oh come on, I'm sure that waiting period has reduced sooo much violent crime. *sarcasm*

 

[Ranger30-06]

Nice choice.

Oh come on, I'm sure that waiting period has reduced sooo much violent crime. *sarcasm*

*sigh* Please don't get me started... It ticks me off to no end that they can do crap like this, and I'm in the better part of Jersey! It's usually between 30-40 days for me, but a friend of mine had to wait 6 MONTHS for his handgun permit!

 

[Ben86]

That's insane. I hope one day those laws change for you people. There shouldn't be a waiting period to exercise your 2nd A rights.

I don't want to drift your thread to far into the political range, but I thought that stuff would start to go away with Chris Christie as governor.

 

[Ranger30-06]

That's insane. I hope one day those laws change for you people. There shouldn't be a waiting period to exercise your 2nd A rights.

I don't want to drift your thread to far into the political range, but I thought that stuff would start to go away with Chris Christie as governor.

Supposedly they are working on some legislature to allow CCW, but they want us to go through a police training course and charge us $500 every year for it! I need to move to PA...

 

[230therapy]

One major problem with the Beretta 92 is the flip-up safety mounted on the slide. It's a terrible design that tends to be accidentally activated during emergency reloads. I've seen it too many times in gun courses. Take a look at a DAO version that doesn't have the external safety.