Buying Handguns Part Two

Choosing a pistol is tough. When you step into a gun shop like Helm's House 'O Guns you're presented with an emporium of revolvers and automatic pistols neatly displayed inside long rows of glass cases. There's all kinds of them available, from wicked looking jet black ones to mighty chrome plated long barreled six guns with sturdy wooden grips. Some are incredibly small, tiny frames that could easily fit in a pocket or a boot. Others are monstrous hand artillery. So, where to begin? I decided a brand new 9mm semi-auto of one kind or other was what I wanted. That narrowed down my initial search quite a bit. It ruled out anything used and of course it eliminated all revolvers from the running. Autumn was open to just about everything regardless of whether or not it was new or used. She had a long way to go in order to weed out the undesirables and make a selection.

Salesmen at gun stores are somewhat predictable when they see a female customer. Recently I've overheard them in a few shops pulling a moderately condescending routine on women. In their view women are poor little incapable creatures. This breed of gun salesman inevitably tries to steer ladies away from buying anything semi-auto because as they say to them, "It could jam on you. You don't want that to happen. A revolver will NEVER jam on you." Then they bring revolver after revolver out of their showcases and foist them upon the lady. It's like there is some unwritten rule in some gun salesmen's minds that women can't handle automatic pistols or figure out how to quickly clear a jammed round in the rare event that it should happen. I don't get it.

Autumn will no doubt make up her mind on her own about what to buy because she's so stubborn. Any recommendations will more than likely be discarded by her, but in this case that's probably a good thing. For example what I like in a pistol or what I think will work for me might be a terrible choice for someone else. I'm starting to realize that when you're buying a handgun it's critical that the damn thing is a comfortable fit. You wouldn't buy a pair of shoes that are two sizes too small for your feet or wear pants that are five sizes wider than your waist. Ideally you want a gun that fits your hand well, with good feel to the grips and at a weight that seems natural. If Autumn and I do a very thorough job scrutinizing different makes and models we will most likely pick something up that we'll be happy with for many years to come. That's important because shelling out dough for a handgun isn't exactly cheap business.

I asked Helm's sales staff to show me some Glocks. Their solid black finish and modern shape appealed to me. After finger-fucking a few medium sized 9mm Glocks I quickly noticed a few things I didn't dig about them. The rear sight had a bone white U shaped line around it's notch instead of two white dots on either side. The front sight blade had a single white dot on it and it seemed awkward trying to line it up with the rear sight. It didn't work for me. Glocks apparently don't have a safety switch anywhere on the frame. Closely inspecting the trigger piece it looked like there was a small spring loaded lever sticking out of the front of it. What the hell? The salesman said that was the safety. Weird. For lack of a better description it looked like a double trigger. Glocks are made of a composite material except for the slide assembly. It's some kind of polymer I guess. Each one I picked up felt incredibly light in my hand which was all wrong. I wanted something heavier, something much more solid. I crossed Glock off my list.

Cost is a big factor for me. Scanning over price tags on handguns that caught my eye I realized the average price was in the neighborhood of $600-$700. My wallet was groaning. Something a couple hundred bucks less than that would do the trick. Hopefully I'd be able to make that work out.

Absorbed in my own little world drooling over hardware I looked up to notice that Autumn had two attentive salesmen answering her barrage of questions. I rejoined her at the counter and patiently waited until she ran out of things to ask. She spent a good deal of time checking out all kinds of stuff. Eventually we left the store. Autumn was still uncertain of what she wanted to buy. I was too. The only way to narrow down the field a little would be to try a few different models at an indoor shooting range. Renting is a great way to find out if you actually jive with a particular gun before you plunk down a sizeable chunk of change on it. Our next stop in the quest for a perfect handgun would be Montana Hawk. Montana Hawk is a gun shop and an indoor range with a nice variety of hardware to rent at inexpensive rates.