Show and Tell about your Favorite Handgun you Got in 2022

[Tallball]

We've done this thread before, IIRC.

Tell us about your favorite handgun you got last year, boast about it a bit, show us a pic.


I didn't purchase or trade for a lot of handguns this year. My favorite is plain-jane and utilitarian, but I'm pleased with it.

I've been looking for an affordable 40 caliber revolver for a range toy for a couple of years or more. I like larger-bore revolvers that go boom, and the traditional revolver cartridges like that are getting hard to find and/or very expensive. I own a few 45acp revolvers, but none in 40 caliber.

I ran across this Taurus Model 405 used in nice shape for $399. It's a medium-framed five-shot DA/SA revolver that's chambered for 40 S&W caliber in moon clips. Fixed sights, decent finish, pretty okay trigger for a Taurus, the ribbed Tracker-type grips that I like.

It was dirty and had a little bit of rust. I cleaned it up. The trigger was pretty okay for a Taurus, but I went ahead and installed a slightly lighter mainspring after the first range trip. I also painted the front sight red. That's all it needed.

I've had it to the range three times and have been very pleased. The moonclips work just fine. Without moonclips, the empties mostly fall out if I gently bump the grip on the shooting bench. The cartridge is spicy enough to get my attention. You definitely know you're shooting more than a 38, but it's not painful, just fun.

It's been through about 150 rounds of various ammo with no problems. The trigger is smooth and not heavy at all. The fixed sights are nice and fat. I'm almost as accurate with it as I am with my good 2" Model 10, and that's pretty accurate. I've had a fair number of groups with all of the holes touching at least one other hole. It will be going to the range with me often. I don't plan on using it for CC or HD, but would feel comfortable doing so.

What's your favorite gun you got last year? Show us and tell us why.

Taurus Model 405

• Tallball
• Dec 15, 2022

 

[beeenbag]

My favorite of 2022 has to be this 1980, near mint Smith and Wesson 19-4 still in the box with tools and paperwork. It’s a beauty!

 

[DR505]

Hmm...not sure which I like best:

Model 27-2 .357 Magnum with 3.5" barrel


Model 13-4 .357 Magnum with 3" barrel


Model 25-9 .45 Colt with 5" barrel (middle revolver of the three 25-9 .45 Colts)

 

[Pat Riot]

Hmm...not sure which I like best:

Nice…I think you’re showing off.
I love that model 27..Big thumbs up!

 

[Jeff olson]

Hard to pick 1. But these 2 top my list.

 

[Pat Riot]

This year I bought 3 pistols. A Kel Tec CP33, a Glock 44 and a Glock 48 MOS. All 3 are favorites for one reason or another, but my favorite as a Fun Gun is my CP33.



I added a red dot sight and some rail cover snappie thingies and turned it into a “cheek pistol”. Weird concept, but a lot of fun.

https://www.luckygunner.com/lounge/the-cheek-pistol-lets-get-weird/

 

[Rubone]

I guess for last year it would be the Model 27-3 S&W FBI commemorative. I have been looking for a 5" model 27 for a while, this popped up without the accompanying documents and box but at a price that worked for me. I am not a collector so as long as it was in the decent price range for a 27 I went for it. I may find a box, but if not I don't care, as I intend to shoot the snot out of it. The poor photos are my camera, it is pristine and hard to say if it was ever fired beyond factory testing.

 

[DR505]

I guess for last year it would be the Model 27-3 S&W FBI commemorative. I have been looking for a 5" model 27 for a while, this popped up without the accompanying documents and box but at a price that worked for me. I am not a collector so as long as it was in the decent price range for a 27 I went for it. I may find a box, but if not I don't care, as I intend to shoot the snot out of it. The poor photos are my camera, it is pristine and hard to say if it was ever fired beyond factory testing.
View attachment 1125533 View attachment 1125534 View attachment 1125535

I've been trying to find one of these for a while. I have the commemorative 100 year anniversary FBI Glock 22 and FBI Remington 870, but the Model 27 was before my time on the job. The guys who have them seem to want too much $$$ or they don't have the presentation case.

 

[someguy2800]

I can’t remember if I got it in 2022, it might have been 2021, but I am pretty fond of this Star Model PD. I shoot it really well and it has a really nice trigger. I rescued it out of a pawn shop in as new condition. I find it very comfortable to shoot with moderate loads but with heavy loads I get some hammer bite. For some reason I shoot it better than my commander size steel frame 1911. I do carry it occasionally during the day. If I could put night sights on it I would carry it a lot more.



Another honorable mention is this Kahr P40. I fell back in love with 40 S&W after buying an SR40, so I decided to add a compact single stack 40 to the mix as well. I found this one with a very low round count with night sights for only $250.




I saw immediately why the guy wanted to sell it because it couldn’t get through half a mag without a fail to feed because it had so much extractor tension that it couldn’t push the rounds up into the extractor. I don’t know what compels me to keep buying Kahr’s because in my experience they are junk as they come from the factory, this being my 4th, but for some reason I just absolutely love the way they look and feel in the hand. After reshaping the extractor about 10 iterations and shortening the extractor spring, I got it feeding reliably without beating the slide closed every 3rd round. Then I had to machine on the slide to get it to reliably lock back on an empty mag. The magazine spring is so rediculously stiff that it was hard to load the mags or rack the slide with a full mag so I opened that up and cut a couple coils off the spring. I actually found that if you clip a few coils off and sand off maybe an 1/8” off the top of the plastic follower that you can actually turn the 6 round mag into a 7 round mag.

Finally I set out to fix my biggest complaint with kahrs, the trigger. After studying it a bit I figured out I can reduce the arc the sear has to travel by tig welding a stop on the back of the sear. This reduces the distance from the point of take up to the break, but still leaves full sear engagement. Next to address the trigger breaking all the way to the rear I sectioned and shortened the trigger bar to move the break forward to about the halfway point in the trigger travel. Once this was done I found the next problem which is that when the slide pushes the reset down, the trigger can then travel all the way rearward again, so I took it back apart again and tig welded an over travel stop on the front of the trigger shoe and carefully filed it down till the trigger stops about .020” after the break.

This is the trigger fully forward



and here it is at the break. If you’ve shot a Kahr you’ll notice this is like half the normal trigger travel of a Kahr.


The trigger now feels nearly identical to my LC9s and has been 100% reliable over the last 200 rounds. The firing pin block is still fully functional and I’m quite confident you could throw it off a building and it would be safe. Now with the trigger fixed I can actually shoot it well unlike the other kahrs I’ve had and sold off. Once I get some more rounds through it will probably get the majority of my non pocket carry days. Why Kahr didn’t make them this way boggles my mind, but the end result is a great little pistol. 7+1 of 40 in a very slim 18 oz pistol is very nice to carry as well.

 

[bannockburn]

DR505

You had me right out of the gate with your Model 27-2 with the 3 1/2" barrel.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

This 2206 (bottom), might be the only handgun I actually bought this year....but Ive been on the hunt for one to join its 422 sibling for a long time and finally scored one for a great price.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

DR505

You had me right out of the gate with your Model 27-2 with the 3 1/2" barrel.

Yup, thats a rare beauty!

 

[bannockburn]

For a favorite new gun I got last year I would have to say it's my SIG P365X. Finally got the CCW that I wanted since they first came out as I really liked this new micro size 9mm. but felt the grip frame was a little bit on the small side. I was sure glad to see when they came out with the slightly larger X grip module for it. Fit's my hand perfectly and feels and handles great!

 

[Targa]

I have found myself liking this Bond Arms more than I thought I would

 

[Haywood]

I inherited a Springfield XDm 3.8 in 9mm it came with a nice case full of gear including 4 - 19 round mags. It’s a nice shooter. I carry it when I’m not having areal active day. It gets heavy after a while. Love it at the Range.

 

[chicharrones]

In 2022, I bought a Charter Arms Undercoverette and a Ruger LCP Max for pocket duty. But the gun I bought in 2022 that stands out as my favorite is a 1982 production Ruger Single Six w/ 4-5/8" barrel.

At first I almost regretted the purchase and I felt kind of "meh" towards it. But, it has really grown on me after I removed thumb stains from the hammer and gave it a light trigger job. I'm super glad now that I jumped on it when I saw it.

View attachment 1125673

 

[jar]

The Tisas "Army" 1911A1 that I bought last year has to be my favorite new gun not just in 2022 but in many decades. It finally restored my faith in the 1911 platform after decades of grief from a Series 80 and a Dan Wesson Pointman/Patriot. I've always loved the 45acp cartridge and loved my 1903 Colt Hammerless and always felt I ought be be able to at least tolerate a 1911 but the Series 80 and Dan Wesson were simply so unreliable, so unpleasant, so annoying that I feared I'd never be able to say the 1911 was a viable and reasonable self defense platform.

The Tisas "Army" though was everything I thought a 1911 should be, super reliable, accurate, fun to shoot, easy to carry and conceal, simple to maintain and not bad looking either. Two more Tisas 1911s and a Girsan Commander 1911 and my faith in the 1911 was fully restored. ('cept for the fact that my brother-in-law shot one of the Tisas and now won't give it back)

For 2023 my first purchase of the New Year arrived today; one of the $339.99 Tisas "Duty" full size enhanced models with beaver tail and better sights and forged frame, barrel & slide and now I need to get to the range and see if it is as reliable, accurate, fun to shoot, easy to carry and conceal, simple to maintain as the others and it's not bad looking either.

 

[Lennyjoe]

S&W M&P 2.0 10MM with an added 507.

 

[MedWheeler]

I only got two, a Davis derringer in .32ACP, and an old Charter Arms Undercoverette in .32 Long.

The first was just to round out my "Westerns" gun set. I have little, if any, desire to shoot it, much less carry it, and the lack of practicality negated any desire for one of the higher-quality ones. It's a pretty little thing, nickel-finished, and quite possibly unfired.

The Charter is one I just happened across at my favorite LGS. I already have three Undercovers, all vintage (one is over half a century old, at my age), and all of which I've been pleased. They're kind of my "cop-tribute" guns, since one was carried by my father, a one-time deputy, and another by me when I was on the job. Having one for the ladies of the profession made sense. It came with a holster (for which I have no use, since I'm left-handed) and a box of ammunition, six rounds of which had clearly spent some time in the cylinder.

I guess the Charter would be my favorite of the two.

 

[JR24]

Only got a couple in ‘22 but I think the 365xl is my favorite.

 

[bannockburn]

chicharrones

But the gun I bought in 2022 that stands out as my favorite is a 1982 production Ruger Single Six w/ 4-5/8" barrel. At first I almost regretted the purchase and I felt kind of "meh" towards it. But, it has really grown on me after I removed thumb stains from the hammer and gave it a light trigger job. I'm super glad now that I jumped on it when I saw it.

Had one from around that same time as yours! Nice little .22 plinker, much better than my first .22 single action, a Hawes Deputy Marshal. Went without a Single Six for many years until a very old friend of mine gifted me his that he had used when running his trap lines. When he stopped doing that he figured he didn't need it around anymore so he gave it, along with a fairly decent leather holster, to me.

Took a bit of effort to clean it up but it all turned out fine; new old stock factory grips and a .22 Magnum cylinder restored the Single Six to it's former glory.


Recently I picked-up a Ruger Wrangler because 1) it was on sale, and 2) I just wanted another fun .22 plinker to play with! Of course I had to replace those factory grips with something more befitting a single action revolver as well as finding a right proper leather holster for it!

Think I accomplished both tasks very nicely!

 

[JoeHenry]

Well, let me see. I guess my favorite gun purchased in 2022 would have to be my Beretta 92X compact. I did purchase a couple of Springfield SA35’s and I like them a lot, but the Beretta just seems to out shine the SA 35’s.

 

[chaim]

I've bought 6 or 7 handguns since Sept so it would be hard to choose, and most of mine are pretty utilitarian so it is hard to pick an emotional favorite.

Of my new guns, I love my SIG P365 for carry. My Taurus Tx22, well it is hard to not be impressed with how well such an inexpensive gun runs. My Taurus 431, I've wanted one for two decades so when I shoot it for the first time in about an hour it may get the nod. However, to pick one right now, I think I'd go with my Glock 19. It is great at the range, accurate, comfortable to shoot, and yet it also carries so well that it may surpass my P365 for carry time soon. Hard to beat a gun that does everything well.

 

[WVRJ]

I guess I'd have to call 2022 the year of the pistol.I bought 14,and I would have to say the Sig P210 Target is my favorite,but there are several that I really like.On the other hand,I can get a warm fuzzy feeling from simply racking the slide on that P210.

 

[botofogo]

My favorite pistol I purchased in 2022 is my wonderful CZ 75 Compact.