Thank you all again for the continued suggestions. By the time I’ve purchased my gun I’ll be exhausted from all the research.
With all the praise for the S&W 39 series, I’ll make it a point to check those out.
Looks like my biggest hurdle will be finding a range in my area that has my kind of guns to try out. The local range here only has high end stuff out of my price range (no Bersa’s, Keltec’s, etc.) so I don’t really see the point of going there, and the range the next town over doesn’t rent at all. Looks like it’s going to take a road trip to try out everything I want.
My reasoning for wanting a manual safety is that being my first handgun, I think it would give me a little more peace of mind when handling it. I of course will always follow the rules and treat it like it’s always loaded and ready to go, but until I’m handling one every single day and get more acquainted with it, I feel having a manual safety would make me a little more comfortable.
I’m open to opinions on that as well.
Thank you very much for the advice on belts, I’ve been thinking a lot about types of holsters of course but haven’t given too much thought about belts. I work at a fairly casual place (jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc.) and the belt I use now is a little light, I think I will definitely need to upgrade.
