Preferences, Opinions and
True Gun Lore

The advice you get when trying to choose a new gun may come from a father, brother, sister, uncle, cousin, co-worker, magazine article, online forum, or your previous experience. There are “operators” and wannabes. There are military and police — trained one way and one way only. There are competition shooters. There are cowboys and video game players. There are hunters and “good ol’ boys.” They will all have preferences and opinions based on their experiences.

Preferences aren’t necessarily bad. We all have them, and if we’re honest with ourselves, our preferences in food, cars, members of the opposite sex, entertainment and firearms is most often based upon our earliest exposure to these things. That’s why I like wood and blued steel, and my son likes black rifles, bullpups and other guns he first learned about playing video games. Opinions are only bad when presented as facts.

People in gun shops can be intimidating to those who don’t readily know what they want. They, too, are likely to be opinionated and communicate in jargon meaning nothing to you. Let’s see if we can get past some of that and provide information to help you sort it all out regardless of your experience level.

Uses?

The first question someone trying to help you should ask is, “What is the intended purpose of this gun?” Once that’s established, you can move on to narrowing down the wide array of choices to get you on the right track for selecting a gun suiting you.

The first consideration is platform, which is a term I use to describe different gun types, much like a car dealer would differentiate between sports cars, crossovers, compacts, mid-size sedans, SUVs and pickups. In the handgun world, we have single-action (SA) revolvers and double-action (DA) revolvers plus different styles of semi-autos such as 1911s, striker-fired semis, and hammer-fired semis — and whether they use single- or double-stack magazines. There are also specialty guns such as derringers or single-shot hunting guns.

Some people choose their platform based on ease of concealing or carrying. Ease of shooting is probably a more important consideration. Once you decide on the right gun for you, there will be a way you can carry it. Lots of people comfortably carry big guns and medium-sized guns all day every day. Ask your dealer or instructor for help, but don’t let carrying the gun be your primary concern.

The first obvious decision is revolver or semi-auto. For me, the decision between these is the same one that caused a massive shift of the nation’s police departments from revolvers to semi-autos starting in the mid-1980s with the introduction of the Glock 17 to American shores. Semi-automatics allow us to carry more ammunition and to reload quickly. I run into people all the time who aren’t concerned with a lot of ammunition or the speed in which they can reload. They just want something working quickly and easily, with little that can go wrong. The revolver is their answer. Once the decision to go with a revolver is made, other questions loom, the first being single action or double action. Single-action revolvers are normally big, they must be cocked before they can be fired and they load one round at a time. Most consider a double action a better choice for personal defense.

A variety of offerings are available including lightweight, short-barrel revolvers easy to conceal. Some have exposed hammers, some have a bobbed or concealed hammer. Lightweight guns don’t absorb recoil like heavier guns do. Some are even painful to shoot because of the sharp recoil. Concealed or bobbed-hammer revolvers do not give you the option of cocking the hammer for a shorter, easier trigger pull. Among professionals, the snub nose revolver is often thought of as an excellent backup gun. If you’re choosing one for primary carry or bedside home defense, please understand its limitations. An all-steel, double-action revolver with a 3″ or 4″ barrel could make a good bedside gun and a decent carry gun.

Semi-Autos

Because they carry more ammunition and can be loaded faster, the semi-automatic is a more popular choice for a primary gun. Its primary disadvantage for people with issues of hand strength is the physical exertion required to load cartridges in the magazine and manipulate the slide. There are cartridge loaders to help with the first, and thankfully, you only have to manipulate the slide once to shoot at least as many rounds as your magazine holds.

Regardless of the platform, there are differences in features many people consider important. One of the primary ones is sights. Modern handguns are sold with a variety of sight patterns either loved, hated or tolerated by the forum jockeys, operators and competitive shooters. Most modern semis are sold with 3-dot sights. They are designed so the dot on the front sight should line up perfectly between and in line with the two dots on the rear sight. Usually the dots are white, but sometimes the front sight has a differentiating color from the rear sights helping the eye make the alignment more quickly. Another three-dot option are night sights, which are smaller but glow in the dark.

Some sights are all black. Some sights, such as the ones on most Glocks, have a U shape on the back sight with a dot on the front sight. Some sights have a dot in the center of the rear sight and a dot on the front sight aligned like a figure 8. There are lots of variations to these from guys who love to create a solution in search of a problem. The “operators” among us will tell us we need the rear sight to be of a shape we can snag on a pocket or seam of our jeans and use it to rack the slide in the event one of our hands becomes injured.

Opinions are abundant in favor of or against almost any one of those types. What really matters? That YOU become familiar with the sights on YOUR gun and how to align them quickly. This comes through practice, not through some magical sight type. One argument I’ve seen against three-dot sights is when you’re shooting five shots in a second, you don’t have time to figure out if the front sight is the one in the middle. For most of us, that’s not going to be a problem.

Triggers

This includes both type and pull. The 1911 trigger moves straight back to engage a sear releasing the hammer. Most of the polymer semi-automatics have a hinged trigger. If the gun has an external hammer, the trigger is usually double action, with a fairly hard pull for the first shot, then an easy single-action pull for subsequent shots. Striker-fired handguns such as the Glock, Smith and Wesson M&P and others have the same trigger pull for each shot. Sometimes these triggers have different marketing names, but they’re essentially the same.

One thing you don’t want is a trigger pull that’s very hard — say 12–14 pounds. On the other hand, you don’t want one that’s too easy — say less than four pounds, unless you’re shooting for competition. Regardless of the pull weight of your trigger or whether it’s straight pull or hinged, the most important thing you can do is learn to: 1) keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target and you are ready to shoot, and 2) shoot your gun enough to be comfortable with the trigger. A good instructor can teach you the proper method to use to insure you’re getting the most effective use of your gun’s trigger.

Safeties

External safeties are an important decision for many. They are absolutely necessary on some models such as the 1911. They are optional on many of the polymer-framed guns and not available on some very popular models. All modern firearms have some type of built-in safety preventing them from being fired unless the trigger is pulled. On some models — in particular, ones having the safety on the slide with the requirement to push the safety up to disengage it — many shooters simply leave the safety off. Keeping your finger off the trigger is the ultimate safety. That and always keeping the gun pointed in a safe direction.

What about finish? Black, stainless steel, blued, raspberry, or pink. None of these have anything to do with how the gun shoots and very little to do with how it will hold up over time. If you like the finish, go with it!

Having ambidextrous safeties on my 1911s is important to me, even though I shoot right-handed. I can easily check the outside of my gun to insure the safety is on when I can’t easily reach the inside of the gun. Some say an ambidextrous safety gets in the way or adds extra width to the gun and they don’t want them. Opinions.

On the 1911s, the clamor over full-length or standard guide rods for the recoil spring, series 70 or series 80 safeties, internal or external extractors, fills many pages on Internet Forums. I’ve shot lots of guns with either type of each of these and cannot tell any difference as a shooter.

What really matters? If you can hold the gun comfortably, operate its action, align the sights, pull the trigger, hit what you’re aiming at, manage the recoil and feel good about what you put in your holster or purse, then you’ve got the right gun.

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