M1911 said:
I absolutely agree with you that anybody's FIRST handgun should be a .22.
My first gun was a Glock 17. My second was a ParaOrdnance P14.
I did eventually by a .22 (got 4 of them now) and a revolver (can't count how many).
A .22 is a fine first gun. So is a revolver.
But so is a larger caliber autoloader. I just don't buy into the "first handgun should be a .22" or "first handgun should be a revolver" dogma.
My personal experience is as follows:
Got my CCW when I was 22. Took the NRA Handgun Safety Course, got to shoot all kinds of guns - 22 revolver and semi-auto, 38 snub, 357 and 44 magnums, S&W 9mm and Colt 45acp, loved them all.
I'm one of those obsessive types who over thinks everything. I have to first figure out what I need or want a gun for, then figure out what the perfect gun to accomplish that is. Lot of reading and research before a purchase.
Anyway, after reading Elmer Keith, Bill Jordan, Skeeter Skelton, and so forth, I decided I was going to stick with revolvers - "I'll take a revolver, YOU take your chances" and decided I really wanted a matching pair - Either a S&W model 18 (Combat Masterpiece .22) and a S&W model 19 (Combat Magnum .357) OR a Colt Diamondback and Colt Python.
Based on Bill Jordan's comments in
NO SECOND PLACE WINNER I decided to go with the S&W line instead of the Colt. I acquired the S&W 18.
After that, I sort of fell on hard financial times. There was also a growing interest in motorcycles, and somehow I never scraped enough money together for the Combat Magnum.
But for ten years, I was able to go out with the 22 behind our house and plink at tin cans and otherwise engage in informal practice.
Finally, at a time when I was particularly hard up for money, I was looking around for a part time job to supplement my income, and came across an add from a local armored car company - they were looking to hire part timers, but you had to have a CCW in order to apply.
I got the job, borrowed a few hundred dollars and went looking for a deal on a used Combat Magnum, or even another Combat Masterpiece in .38. Couldn't find one, but did stumble across a Ruger Security Six and ended up buying that.
Wound up at the company range needing to qualify with it. The rangemaster was a full time cop and police firearms instructor who moonlighted for the company as their fireams instructor. The course we had to shoot was the same one NY mandated for cops.
I had never fired such a course before, hadn't shot a centerfire revolver in ten years, and was shooting 357 mags, not 38s, to boot.
But thanks to ten years of weekend plinking with an identical feeling 22, I qualified as "expert" on the course - and watched some of the other guys who LITERALLY were missing the target COMPLETLY and washed out.
As far I'm concerned, that totally validated the theory that it's the 22 that really teaches you how to shoot.
If you have sufficient money to pay for nearly unlimited centerfire practice ammo, then maybe you don't really need a 22. But ANYBODY who can afford a pistol can afford nearly unlimited 22 practice ammo, and that's the smart way to go.
Regards
John