A gun store/range local to me has something like 130 handguns for rent, and an indoor handgun range. I've fired plenty of different rifles and shotguns, but I've never had occasion to fire any handgun. I have been telling myself for over a year that I was going to go in there sometime and have some fun. I took today off of work to make it an extra long weekend, and I decided to go over there, rent a few handguns, and see what I thought.
First I shot a Ruger KP95. I figured starting with a 9mm would be safe and easy. It was comfortable, the recoil was almost nothing, and I thought it was very easy to shoot.
So for my second choice I asked the range master what he'd recommend to shoot for fun to a newbie. He showed me a Wilson Combat 1911, which is an almost $3,000 gun. I loved this one. The action was ultra smooth, the trigger pull was extremely light, and the gun was very, very accurate. If I had to pick one gun of the three I shot to be the only one I'd shoot again, it'd be this gun. Plenty of punch, but I think I could shoot it all day without getting dead arms.
The final gun was a .44 Magnum Desert Eagle.
They had a .50, but the ammo was over twice as much, and I didn't really want to spend $50 to shoot 20 rounds.
The range master made it sound like this thing would blast me backwards 5 feet every time I fired it. In all honesty, I didn't think it was too bad to shoot. After I was about halfway through the box of ammo the range master actually came over and told me that he's seen very few people be able to hold the groups I was the first time they shot it.
Here are a couple pics I snapped with my cell phone. One is of the Desert Eagle, the other of the target after about 30-35 rounds at 10 yards.
I can definitely see how this could get addicting.
