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First Gun Purchase, how did you start your collection?

B.Boston said:
... The nearest Range is also only 10-15 min away so I can do some extended lunch breaks and sneak away for some practice there. I definitely don’t want to be one of those guys that gets a gun and doesn’t know how to use it.
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That's likely a strategy that will pay off bigly.


Just don't be in such a rush to get back in time for a meeting
that some day you pack away the gun with a boolit left in the chamber.

We almost never hear a diagnosis of how
that class of negligent discharges gets set up.
But being in a big damned hurry at the end of a range session
seems like an obvious failure mode.

Nothing personal.
Jus' sayin'.
 
My first gun was a Browning A-5 Light 20. I was 12 years old and picked Blueberries all summer for it. I paid $124.00 NIB. I had enough money left over after buying school clothes to buy a Remington Nylon 66 ( $ 36.00 ). I still have both guns today. Both guns put many meals on the table.
 
I said go big or go home and bought a 6" GP100 as my first gun.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably do Glock 19, Mossberg 500, build an AR - in that order. Everything else seems optional.
 
I started more than 50 years ago with a .36 navy and nobody had a gun safe in those days. At most they went into a gun cabinet but usually went under the bed or in the closet. Isn't it amazing that any of us are still alive?
 
There’s a lot to be said for starting with the full size version of a gun that comes in many different sizes. Glock and S&W come to mind, but there are others. Forget about carrying for now and learn to shoot, and possibly compete in local matches to challenge yourself and build up your skills. Then later, if you want a smaller gun to carry, you will already be very familiar with how the gun works.

If money is an issue, don’t buy any gun until you find someone that has one and you can put 50+ rounds through it. You should only be looking at 9mm as a center fire caliber, or disregard my above advice and get a full size .22 to practice with. Again, practice and shoot in some matches to build up your skills.

What ever you choose, get a couple of extra magazines and as much ammo as you can afford. And remember, shooting a lot, doesn’t make you a better shooter. You have to actually practice and pay attention to what your doing right and wrong.
 
kalash said:
I said go big or go home and bought a 6" GP100 as my first gun.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably do Glock 19, Mossberg 500, build an AR - in that order. Everything else seems optional.
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If I could start again with gun buying, I would've bought up all the AK and FAL kits I could and all the then-cheap milsurp bolt actions. Kept the ones that interest me the most, sell the rest over time to make profit on basically my own storage costs.

But hey. That's life.
 
Guns as an investment is a pretty silly idea unless you're willing to spend a ton of money and fill an entire shipping container or something. Even if your milsurp rifles appreciate by $200 each and you have ten of them, that's not a exactly a huge profit. More likely they appreciate by like $100 and you have two of them lol
 
I started with revolvers. Two S & W's. One K frame (66-8) and one J frame (60-15). They taught me how push a trigger and stay on target. After learning on a revolver it is easy to transition to a semi-auto. I also think a Beretta 92 is a solid gun to start with for the same reason.
 
My first choice was a S&W M&P340PD a snub nosed .357 wheel gun. My second purchase was my AR which was in the days prior to Healeys malarkey so it was reasonably priced lol. Then it goes downhill from there. My carry gun is a S&W M&P 2.0 9mm.
 
VetteGirlMA said:
My first choice was a S&W M&P340PD a snub nosed .357 wheel gun. My second purchase was my AR which was in the days prior to Healeys malarkey so it was reasonably priced lol. Then it goes downhill from there. My carry gun is a S&W M&P 2.0 9mm.
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Kind of wish I started with a revolver or a full sized semi auto 9mm instead of a micro compact. I got a J frame recently and feel that learning to accurately shoot a revolver in double action makes you a better over-all shooter. I also feel that learning on a larger gun would have helped too, as I initially developed a bad anti-flinch habit (over compensation of movement) with the snappy micro compact that I had to work through just to get to a good fundamental starting point.
 
ReluctantDecoy said:
Kind of wish I started with a revolver or a full sized semi auto 9mm instead of a micro compact. I got a J frame recently and feel that learning to accurately shoot a revolver in double action makes you a better over-all shooter. I also feel that learning on a larger gun would have helped too, as I initially developed a bad anti-flinch habit (over compensation of movement) with the snappy micro compact that I had to work through just to get to a good fundamental starting point.
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I spent a good 4-5 months at the range until I had my aha moment and figured out how to handle a wheel gun properly.
 
1st gun was hunting shotgun. Remington 870 Express combo.
Then carry gun - M&P9c. Get the APEX trigger done.
Then an AR
Then a 10/22
Then a 1911 .45 with a .22lr conversion
Then a bolt-action .308
Then a .380 for my wife
Then a .308 AR
Then a Revolver
Then another AR, and a couple more stripped lowers just to have...

This took over eight years...
 
I honestly can't remember where the guns I always had stopped and the ones I bought for myself started.

As I get older I'm thinning the herd into:
1) Keep because I use it
2) Keep because the kids have claimed it, but I'm stuck with it for now
3) Get rid of it

I've got #3 down pretty well, with just a couple of trading stock items left, but I still feel like I've got too many. I need to take a harder look at the safe.
 
Colt Combat Elite .45....my uncle had one that I learned to shoot with as a teen. Once I had some cash in my 20's, I had to have one. Late 80's vintage.
Tackle Unlimited....RIP Al
 
chuckules said:
I was only issued the formerly available Class B LTC at first.
I bought a Ruger Security Six .357mag 4” barrel revolver.
And a Ruger 10/22 rifle.

Both were excellent guns. With the price of 22LR vs all other cartridges, I think the 10/22 is the most fun gun I’ve ever owned. Plinking with that one is loads of fun.
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My first handgun was a Ruger Security Six in .357 w/6" barrel, bought on my 21st birthday.

My first gun was a Charter Arms AR-7 in .22 bought on my 18th birthday. It was a useless, jammamatic POS, but it was cool and I could hide it from my anti-gun parents! 😦
 
ridleyman said:
My first handgun was a Ruger Security Six in .357 w/6" barrel, bought on my 21st birthday.

My first gun was a Charter Arms AR-7 in .22 bought on my 18th birthday. It was a useless, jammamatic POS, but it was cool and I could hide it from my anti-gun parents! 😦
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had to hide my first as well. luckily i had plenty of toys guns as a kid so no one though anything of the shotgun in my closet with a lock on it
 
My first gun was a Sig p229 in 9mm, but I didn't start "collecting" for years later until I had already gotten all the guns I "needed".
 
My first handgun purchase was a G19. I still have it and several of them actually. I can't say when the last time I shot them was though, since I'm a CZ whore now.
 
Mine was a 12 gauge 870, which I bought in NH about a week after getting my FID. The second was a Ruger bolt action 77/22 and the third was a Ruger 77 in .308. All the guns I needed at the time and all purchased over a two month period.
 

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