hand gun for practice
 

im interested in getting a gun to go shooting with. im primarily going to use it for target practice and working on my marksmanship. i was told a 9mm would be practical with cheap ammo and such, any suggestions???

Even cheaper would be a .22.

What are you practicing for--to defend your house or just to know how to shoot?

A .22 will give you the most control and cost less than $.05 per shot. Of the .22 pistols, I like Browning Buckmarks (except for their sight rail-harder to clean) and Rugers (difficult to reassemble).

A 9mm is the most basic high-power pistol, not much recoil on the heavier-framed models, and will go about $.15-.20 per shot. A heavier model would be something like a Browning Hi-power or EAA Witness. These are full-frame pistols that can take hi-cap magazines if you can find them. The extra weight will keep the recoil down, and thus help you be more accurate.

hth

Dang, cuervo beat me to it.

I strongly second a Browning Buckmark if practice is your goal.

You can get a box of 500 rounds of .22 at Wally's World for under 10$ and you will build up good habits for heavier pistols.

I have to give another thumbs up for the Browning Buckmark. I plan on purchasing one when I turn 21 this summer. They are excellent little handguns.

If you are dead set on getting a big bore though, another idea would be to look at a quality .357 Mag. You can feed it .38 Special for the same price as shooting a 9mm, and you have the versatility of having essentially two handguns.

We really should the descriptor under Tilted Weapons to "We love the Buckmark". I don't know how many times folks here have suggested, but, as usual, I'm adding my own "buy a Buckmark" to it. I love mine and have had numerous folks offer to buy it off me (for what I paid for it, at which point they're told to just go retail, slackers).

Buckmark, it's what's for dinner!

I prefer the RUger Mark II, for a .22 handgun, but thats because Im a solid Ruger Fan.

Those brownings are pretty sweet though. Do your own research, and compare prices. Cant go wrong either way.

Might want to look at an IZH35M - Russian Target pistol. It's as accurate as European Target pistols and usually runs around the $430-450 range. If not, get a buckmark.

Another vote for the Buck Mark. A fine pistol. Stick a scope rail and a Red dot on it, and you can shoot the numbers out of the target.

As for a 9mm. It is a good all around round. Not much recoil, leathal, cheap, and pentiful. I own a springfield XD9. A really good polymer frame pistol. Will not break the bank too.

thanks for the info fellas, ive been doing some surfing on the buckmark. the buckmark camper seems to be a practical one for target practice. what does LR stand for?? ( .22 LR SA ) i know .22 is the caliber and i think SA is semi-auto, LR??

LR=Long Rifle, the most common type of .22 around today.

There is also 22 long and 22 short.

The buckmark is 22LR only, as are most things now.

If you ever see "CB," that means primer only-no additional powder. These are low power and quieter. I've never seen 22LRCB but CB is common in long and short.

.22 Shorts are usually seen in rapid fire target pistols, internation shooting events, and are pretty expensive. Like cuervo said, .22LR is by far the most common .22 around. Good price for it too, can find deals to get it down to .02 a round. (not taking into account the cheapo remington stuff that mis-fires every 10 rounds)

I like 9mm or .380 for target shooting. Generic ammo can be bought cheap if you get large quantities.

Forgive me for saying this, but that's nuts.

Just how cheap can you go on 50 rounds of 9mm? 7 dollars? 6?

When you can get 500 rounds of .22 for the same price?

A .22 is great for the purposes you described above. Just keep in mind that for defensive purposes you should practice with a round close to what you plan on defending yourself with.

-Dostoevsky

Or just start out with a .22, then get progressively near the caliber you're going to be using. That would get pricey tho :)

If you're just starting out, I would recommend a Ruger Single Six .22 revolver.

Of course, my first handgun was a .41 Magnum. :D