which gun for around $300?

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go and buy a Rock Island Armory 1911 .45ACP for about $300, and then invest another $170 or so for a Ciener .22LR conversion kit:
http://www.22lrconversions.com/specials.htm

This is what I did and now I have the best of both worlds... .22LR for practice and getting a good feel and understanding of the 1911 mechanics for cheap, but still have the ability to carry the RIA .45 as a self-defense gun when/if/as needed. Couldn't be happier with my setup:
http://community.webshots.com/album/550112023ZUYHhb

good luck and happy shooting :)
 
well i had gone to the gun shop and picked up an XD and feel in love. it jsut felt perfect.

so today i went and picked up my Stainless Steel XD .45acp Service. i shot 140 rounds through it today (kept 10 to leave in the mag for home defense) no problems, and the gun felt amazing. definately the best gun ive ever shot. on my first shot with the gun ever i was only an inch away from dead bullseye from 25. i was pretty happy with that :)

thanks for your suggestions guys. im very happy with my new gun and am glad i upped my price range.
 
For $300, I'd look at used guns. You have a lot of choices in used Taurus and Rugers semi-autos for that price, and some S&W ones too. This is assuming you want 9mm or larger cailber.

For smaller caliber, like a .22lr or even up to .380acp, you may be able to find new semi-autos at the $300 mark.

But, have you considered the cost of ammo? It's be a shame if you've got a nice gun but can't afford the ammo to shoot it.
 
Rugers are fantastic. I've owned three of 'em, still own two. I know you can get a P95 or P97 in that price range, fantastic guns and a carryable size IWB. I never carried mine in summer, a little bulge under a T shirt, but they're light enough in a Milt Sparks IWB to be comfortable. Excellent shooting guns, 100% reliable, built to handle +P and last forever, and decent accuracy.
 
summitgunbroker.com has GLOCK 23's for $330. I was thinking of one myself.

I've never done biz with him, but he has a good rep on Glocktalk.

maybe?
 
I'm guessing that 98% of all guns get handled and carried one hell of a lot more than they get used.

For that reason, used guns can be a bargain. I've had the best luck checking the classifieds on this forum, as well as glocktalk and TFL. You can usually count on regular posters to do well with you.
 
I'd get a used glock. I can personally hook you up with one very close to 300 if need be. I've yet to find a more reliable pistol.
 
Makarov

Rugers, Glocks, XD's, Taurus are all fine guns, particularily if your limiting it to "Polymer" guns. The Makarov's are very affordable and excellent shooters. They have been well proven as reliable & accurate weapons, for a "Very" good price.
Good Luck
 
I was gun and pawn shop hoppin' today, first time in a while, just somethin' to do. Not like I had any cash or anything. :rolleyes: The local gun shop in Victoria, Texas has S&W stainless M642s for $302 new. I was favorably impressed. I might pick one of those up sometime now that I'm pocket carrying a lot more. I have a Taurus M85UL that I like a lot, is only 15 ounces and has a DA trigger that makes that 642 I looked at feel like a Rossi. :D But, it was a well built, well finished little revolver and I sure like the hammerless for a pocket.
 
so today i went and picked up my Stainless Steel XD .45acp Service. i shot 140 rounds through it today (kept 10 to leave in the mag for home defense) no problems, and the gun felt amazing. definately the best gun ive ever shot. on my first shot with the gun ever i was only an inch away from dead bullseye from 25. i was pretty happy with that
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Congrats! I've never run across a bad XD. :)
 
Big difference between $300 and $400. If you can except the latter as you max then alot more doors open up. I would suggest going to CDNN and dowloading their catalog. They have some great deals on factor reconditioned HKs, Sigs and Glocks that might fall within your budget. Personally I would rather have a good used Sig over most new guns at the same price. In addition to looking at CDNN you might also want to check out KY Imports. I have bought guns from both companies and find both great to deal with.

With that said, I would recommend you make a list of guns you find within your price range and then go to a gunstore and hold as many as you can to see which you like best. If you don't find any deals as good as you find online for a gun you like then find yourself an FFL holder that will do a transfer for you. A good place to find FFLs is gun broker. Under the "for buyers" section you can search for FFL holders that do transfers in your area.

Also check out a local range and rent as many different guns as you can that you found you liked to see how they fire.
 
In a word, NONE.

Be real, this is your life you are talking about. If you buy a junky gun to save $300, that will sound really stupid when it malfunctions and you die. Do your homework, go to some shops, DON'T LOOK AT THE PRICE TAGS, decide the right gun, and then eat macaroni and cheese until you can afford it. It really doesn't sound good in the big picture to say, "My life is worth $300, but not $700".

Now being hypothetical, saying I HAD to have a gun NOW, for the bare minimum cash, I would get a used Glock. I give a Glock the highest liklihood of working no matter what the bonehead previous owner did to it. Any other gun, I would have a gunsmith go through it before I would trust my life with it, and if your gunsmith decides to replace a couple of springs, and charges you for two hours of labor, you are up to the price of a new auto anyway.

Honestly, if you were to look at a revolver, you could do better for the money. Look for a 4-6" Smith, Taurus, or Ruger .357, there are plenty of those used in pawn shops, and they are much less likely to need work.
 
Be real, this is your life you are talking about. If you buy a junky gun to save $300, that will sound really stupid when it malfunctions and you die. Do your homework, go to some shops, DON'T LOOK AT THE PRICE TAGS, decide the right gun, and then eat macaroni and cheese until you can afford it. It really doesn't sound good in the big picture to say, "My life is worth $300, but not $700".

Now being hypothetical, saying I HAD to have a gun NOW, for the bare minimum cash, I would get a used Glock. I give a Glock the highest liklihood of working no matter what the bonehead previous owner did to it. Any other gun, I would have a gunsmith go through it before I would trust my life with it, and if your gunsmith decides to replace a couple of springs, and charges you for two hours of labor, you are up to the price of a new auto anyway.

Honestly, if you were to look at a revolver, you could do better for the money. Look for a 4-6" Smith, Taurus, or Ruger .357, there are plenty of those used in pawn shops, and they are much less likely to need work.
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Dude, have you ever FIRED a Ruger P series gun? I out shoot $2500 custom 1911s all the time with my P90 and it'll feed ANYTHING. It has never had a jam in thousands of rounds and it's 1" 25 yards accurate.

There are reasons some GREAT guns are more affordable. In Ruger's case, it's a very innovative manufacturing technique called investment casting which dramatically lowers the cost of production while at the same time producing high quality guns.

It's your money. Spend it on ostentatious desires if you want, beat the Jones', but that ain't my way of doing things. :rolleyes: I wasn't able to retire at 51 years of age by being ostentatious. There are guns out there like the Rugers, the CZs, Taurus, even the Makarovs that work just fine on a budget, thank you very much. They ain't show pieces, they're working guns, and they work.

I had to use a firearm ONCE in 53 years of my life to defend myself. I didn't have to fire. The gun I had at the time was a .25ACP RG! Now, that gun fired and fed just fine so long as the target wasn't over 10 feet. I admit it was a POS, but it's what I had at the time. I've upgraded since then to Taurus/S&W/Ruger/Kel Tec and others, but I've never owned a gun costing four figures in my life. Most expensive handgun I've ever owned retailed for about $600 in the early 80s and it was a POS AMT Hardballer that I had to have $100 in gunsmithing out of the box to make work. Even then, it didn't feed hollow points reliably. My $50 RG never jammed on Winchester pellet nose, go figure. It got stolen, I got the Ruger P90 with the insurance, and I've not missed that POS AMT since. The Ruger never stops going bang and is twice as accurate as that AMT.
 
I love my dad's old ruger mk II, and I bought him a single six for father's day a few years ago.

I know all about the investment casting, they didn't invent it, the egyptians did.

I speak ONLY from experience. I don't care what they write up in the magazines until I shoot it myself.

A few years ago, one of my best friends finally talked his wife into letting him get a gun, but only the rock-bottom cheapest gun he could get. So he got a p-95 dc. Clumsy, top-heavy, and after several hundred rounds, the trigger still creeps up to the break. He shot my Glock, and later my Kimber, and I asked him, "Ok, which one would you rather use to take the hostage shot?" It was a rhetorical question. NOT the Ruger.

This is a competitive business. This is life and death. There are too many great pistols to need to forgive an OK one, or take one to a gunsmith to have it worked over, when you can spend a little more, and get one that you know will work out of the box. It's like buying your kid a lifejacket, and getting an inferior one to save five bucks.

Try ALL pistols, and IF you really like the Ruger best, get it. (Everyone I know who bought one did so because of the price.) You need to be able to say, "I know I got the BEST defense option", and not have an asterisk next to the statement.
 
A few years ago, one of my best friends finally talked his wife into letting him get a gun, but only the rock-bottom cheapest gun he could get. So he got a p-95 dc. Clumsy, top-heavy, and after several hundred rounds, the trigger still creeps up to the break. He shot my Glock, and later my Kimber, and I asked him, "Ok, which one would you rather use to take the hostage shot?" It was a rhetorical question. NOT the Ruger.
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Well, I guess I should have never won a match with my P90, then. Did the P95 not go bang every time? If it did, then the man behind the gun is far more important than a creepy trigger. And, there ain't no trigger any more creepy than a Glock, which is basically a creepy single action. Giving a new shooter a Glock is a recipe for disaster. 1911s and their complicated manual of arms isn't much better.

All JMHO of course, but a DA or DAO is the way to go for the unwashed. Revolvers are even better. I ALWAYS suggest a good revolver for a new shooter. Revolvers are safer, simpler, and will teach you how to use the ultimate creepy trigger, the DA revolver. They ain't tacticool, but they work.

When I hear people with the "get what you pay for" attitude, I just have to figure either they're rich and don't care what it costs or they're trying to impress someone, 'cause in most cases it just ain't so. I figured that out when I dumped the BSA and bought a new Suzuki 35 years ago. :rolleyes:
 
LOL. I just went back and read through the last posts and see that the topic starter already bought his gun before my posted suggestion. Well, I guess any further posts would be for lurkers that need the same question answered. :D
 
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