Recommendations for first handgun?

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AramNecro

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Hi,

Im new to here and to guns in general.
Looking to buy a handgun for occasional shooting range practice and home defense.

What im looking for:
* Manual safety
* 15+ mag capacity
* Modern and good looking
* Ammo availability/affordability
* Budget $1000 ± $200
* Preferably 9mm or .45 ACP but ill consider other good options
* Longer barrel

Based on those, a lot of good guns get left out (Glock, S&W M&P, FN 509).

Right now i have my sight on either FN Five Seven or H&K HK45 Tactical, P30L 9mm or VP9 Tactical. Also, anywhere online i could find suppressors for those?

Ive yet to find out what permits ill need and how to get them in my country so its a long way till i actually buy it, but just wanted to get this out of the way soon as possible. Going to a shooting range for the first time in a week and though their gun selection is poor, hopefully itll help me decide if i really want this.

Thank you.
 
Welcome to THR!
I'm going to break this down into a couple of parts.
AramNecro said:
Hi,

Im new to here and to guns in general.
Looking to buy a handgun for occasional shooting range practice and home defense.

What im looking for:
* Manual safety
* 15+ mag capacity
* Modern and good looking
* Ammo availability/affordability
* Budget $1000 ± $200
* Preferably 9mm or .45 ACP but ill consider other good options
* Longer barrel

Based on those, a lot of good guns get left out (Glock, S&W M&P, FN 509).

Right now i have my sight on either FN Five Seven or H&K HK45 Tactical, P30L 9mm or VP9 Tactical.
Click to expand...
Your location is going to have a pretty large bearing on several different aspects of this, such as what models are available, with or without thumb safety, price, aftermarket, support, etc. For example, I know that in the USA, the S&W M&P line is available with a thumb safety. I have no idea if that's the case where you are.

I'd also ask how much of that budget is for ammo. You say that you're new to guns, so I'm going to suggest that you need to make sure you leave plenty of room in your budget for practice ammo.

AramNecro said:
Also, anywhere online i could find suppressors for those?
Click to expand...
Again, location plays a role. I'm only familiar with American sellers, but I'm pretty confident in saying that there's a whole lot of hassle in trying to get one sent from the USA to another country. Then again, in the USA, the suppressor is more tightly regulated than the firearm, which is certainly not the case everywhere.
AramNecro said:
Ive yet to find out what permits ill need and how to get them in my country so its a long way till i actually buy it, but just wanted to get this out of the way soon as possible. Going to a shooting range for the first time in a week and though their gun selection is poor, hopefully itll help me decide if i really want this.

Thank you.
Click to expand...
Best bet: Go shoot everything you can afford to shoot. Come tell us what you liked and didn't like. Choosing a gun is a surprisingly personal decision, and actually shooting will inform you quite a bit.

Good luck with your search.
 
Welcome to the forum.

Folks have already given good advice. I’d like to echo the suggestions on CZ, Sig, and HK hammer fired guns. All three brands make some good guns.
 
For a first gun I'd recommend the S&W M&P 22 full sized 5" barrel ... Yes buy the 22Lr version. Shoot it a lot. Train and practice. Then upgrade to the centerfire M&P caliber of your choice after a year or so. You will become a better shooter for going this route. Cost of learning with a 22Lr is a fraction of the price in ammo. The M&P controls and grip frames are almost identical. Never, never underestimate your time spent with a quality 22. Or its abilies for that matter.
 
JTQ previously mentioned Beretta. I have the Beretta PX4 Storm Compact. Take a look at the Beretta PX4 Storm Compact Carry which is a 15 round smaller version.
 
From your list I own the HK45 and P30L. Both are terrific pistols and are available with safety. The P30L has changeable back straps and palm inserts to customize to user's preference. HK VP9 is another terrific pistol but not sure if it is available with a safety in your part of the world and so far here it is not. Good luck with your search for a pistol.
 
My 1st thought was go CZ, Sig or HK DA/SA models. A nice CZ 75b can be had 500 or SP01 for 600. Then I’d also get the .22 conversion kit for 300 so could also practice with cheaper.22. However, not sure the DA/SA platform is best for new shooters. I think maybe best for you would be getting the S&W M$P 2.0 9mm full size and also get the same model but in .22. You could get both for your budget. For new semiauto users I strongly recommend going with 9mm and a similar gun in .22 for practice.
 
AramNecro said:
Im new to here and to guns in general.
Looking to buy a handgun for occasional shooting range practice and home defense.
Click to expand...

Although this is the 'Autoloader' forum, I'm convinced that one's first handgun should be a revolver. Easy to understand, easy to load and unload, reliable, ammo is cheap (.38 spl.), and doesn't need a safety.
After familiarizing yourself with a revolver, you'll be better able to choose an autoloader that fits your needs. You may even decide to stay with a revolver like a Chief's Special (5-shot) for concealment.
 
sigarms228 said:
Problem with CZ is he wants a safety. With CZ you can get only a safety or a decocker and not both like you can with HK or Beretta.
Click to expand...
He didn’t mention he wanted both safety and decocker, just the manual safety. Maybe you gathered that from the HK’s he mentions that he’s considering. Arex Zero 1 pistols would also make another safety decocker option, but more than likely will have some import issues in other countries.
 
There are lots of good ones: CZ, Beretta, HK, Walther, S&W, Glock... those are just a few off the top of my head.

My personal favorites are the CZ75's and clones thereof, but all of those I mentioned have some very nice full-sized service pistols in various calibers.

Depending on what's available, the Tanfoglio copies of the CZ's and the Canik copies of the Walthers are very nice and relatively inexpensive.
 
AramNecro said:
new ... to guns ... Looking to buy a handgun for ... range practice and home defense.

i have my sight on either FN Five Seven or H&K HK45 Tactical, P30L 9mm or VP9 Tactical.
Click to expand...
Welcome to THR.

9mm will allow you to shoot more for same ammunition cost than 45Auto and afford you more practice/trigger time to improve your accuracy.

I have helped many people select guns for range/defense use and I highly recommend you shoot them before deciding to buy one.

Would you marry a person without getting to know them first? Of course not. Same goes for buying a tool that could possibly save your life.

If possible, shoot the pistols you are interested side by side and buy the pistol you can shoot fast and most accurate because a gun that looks cool but you can't hit your targets with is useless.

I had many people who had their decision made on a particular pistol yet when range tested, did not like how it shot or with it's accuracy. Over decades, I have seen most new shooters tended to shoot Glock 9mm faster and more accurate than most other pistols.

Try shooting different pistols, including Glocks and let us know your impression of pistols.
 
Go 9mm and if you must have a safety make sure it's of good stock, meaning something actually useful.

You can get a few 1911's in 9mm with a good extended safety. The full size M&P's have a good sized safety as do the Sig M17's. There are others you just need to research and go handle them to see what suits you.

If you are open to DA/SA that's a different ball game but plenty of options there too.
 
If you can borrow or rent some different guns to try, this would help you with your decision.

I'd recommend starting with a 9x19 pistol. At least in the United States, 9x19 ammunition is plentiful and reasonable priced. 45 ACP is a great round but gets more expensive. If you can get into reloading, either would be a viable choice in terms of cost.

Many folks have trouble dealing with the different trigger pulls while operating a DA/SA semi-auto. Of course, if you start there, you do not know any difference. But, it will take some extra effort and training to become proficient with a DA/SA trigger.

All of the main stream manufacturers make good pistols. You just have to decide on the features that you want.

My main self defense pistol is an HK P30SK with the V3 trigger. I'd like to investigate a P30 with the V1 trigger.

I do not like to carry a striker fired or SA pistol but they are fun to shoot. I'm not comfortable carry a pistol with potential energy stored in the firing mechanism. It is just one of my idiosyncrasies.

This is just a single data point to continue. Welcome to the forum.
 
Thanks for the great replies, i can see this is a helpful community.

bds said:
Welcome to THR.

9mm will allow you to shoot more for same ammunition cost than 45Auto and afford you more practice/trigger time to improve your accuracy.

I have helped many people select guns for range/defense use and I highly recommend you shoot them before deciding to buy one.

Would you marry a person without getting to know them first? Of course not. Same goes for buying a tool that could possibly save your life.

If possible, shoot the pistols you are interested side by side and buy the pistol you can shoot fast and most accurate because a gun that looks cool but you can't hit your targets with is useless.

I had many people who had their decision made on a particular pistol yet when range tested, did not like how it shot or with it's accuracy. Over decades, I have seen most new shooters tended to shoot Glock 9mm faster and more accurate than most other pistols.

Try shooting different pistols, including Glocks and let us know your impression of pistols.
Click to expand...

Ill just use this message to reply to all the questions and suggestions that have been posted. I live in Armenia and so both the laws are stricter and the ammo and gun availability is tighter. I havent done extensive research of what we have available in the few gun stores we have but i doubt i can find the guns mentioned ITT.
I will try to shoot every gun and ammo available at the range next week and share my experiences here.

Thanks for the recommendations, especially for Arex, their Alpha model caught my attention, though im judging too much based on the looks and ergonomics of the gun which is probably a common trait among gun newbies.
I shouldve probably also mentioned that id prefer a metal-polymer body rather than full metallic one.
 
For $1000 might as well get some quality. I would look at Sphynx offered through Kriss USA.
 
paulsj said:
For $1000 might as well get some quality. I would look at Sphynx offered through Kriss USA.
Click to expand...

Thanks, looks good. So far, HK P30L/45, Rex Alpha and Sphynx made the most impression. If only P30L was available in a tactical longer barrel variant.
 
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