I am in no way an expert now, and don't want to come off that way. I do want to make a few observations and see what others think. I want to see if my first impressions are accurate.
Went to Bud's Guns Shop in Paris, Ky yesterday with my wife. First off, if anyone lives in the central KY area, I highly recommend this be a place to check out. Everyone was friendly and willing to help. We spent about 2 hours in there and I didn't feel uncomfortable at any time during the process. Also, I felt that they wouldn't have minded if I spent another 2 hours there. Course, have a pretty little female with me may have helped my service a little.
Anyway, after checking out the revolvers (my wife was having a little trouble pulling the DA triggers on the revolvers they showed us (S&W .38's & .357's)), we moved on to the semiautos.
After holding and working the controls on many different models, the guy behind the counter offered to let us fire one of his used Ruger P89's. We bought a box of ammo, and they took us down to the range. They provided hearing and eye protection, and a silhouette target. The guy showed us how to load the magazine, how to hold the gun, how to pull the trigger. He moved the target out to 5 yards and handed my wife the gun. Her first shot was in the 9 ring, the 2nd shot was up at the target's neck, 3rd shot was a couple inches below that and the last 2 shots were bullseyes. She put the gun down, turned to me, and said the recoil was no where near what she thought it would be.
Then it was my turn. 1st shot-1st reaction=where's the recoil? Yeah, I guess I felt the gun move, but there wasn't any detectible kick or uncontrollable jump to the gun. It felt very clean and balanced. No where near what I thought it was going to do. By the end of the day, I was shooting it pretty quickly (nothing like a "double-tap", but somewhere in the neighborhood of one a second) without any loss of accuracy or discomfort.
My wife and I went through half the box at 5 yards, and the other half at 10 yards. By the time we were done, the bullsye was gone and the surrounding center mass was quite holy. Not too many shots outside the 9 ring. Now, while this might not be impressive to the rest of you dead-eyes, I was very impressed with my wife's and my ability to shoot for the first time.
A couple of observations. I obviously liked the accuracy of the pistol we shot. However, I did not like the trigger. We shot all of our rounds SA, and accuracy was best when you pulled the trigger back to the resistence point, fine-tuned the aim, then broke the resistence. While this was obviously great for target practice, I'm not so sure it would be good in SD/HD situations. I found that early on in my shooting, I would start squezzing the trigger at the very beginning of the pull, expecting it to fire immediately, and then lose my accuracy by the time the pull actually fired the gun. I imagine that in an HD situation, I will not have time to pull the trigger back to the resistence point, aim, then break the resistence. More than likely I will just want to pick up the gun, aim, and pull the trigger. I'm not looking for a hair trigger (like one I saw on a loaded Sprinfield 1911), but I don't want to have to pull the trigger a mile to get it to go bang.
Coupled with the fact that I didn't like this gun's SA trigger was the thought of having a DA trigger for the first shot (if not cocked), and then an SA trigger for the next shots. This varience in trigger pulls, in addition to the already worrisome SA trigger, makes me wonder if a DA/SA pistol is right for us.
Because of this concern, we looked at some DAO's. He showed us a Taurus 24/7 9mm. While I like the thought of the firing mechanism resetting itself everytime (even after a dryfire), I didn't like the trigger on it either. It seemed long and mushy. There didn't seem to be that clean resistence point.
Then, moved to the Glock 17. Firing mechanism doesn't reset after a dryfire, but the trigger was short and the resitence point was distinctive.
I would like to shoot a Glock 17 next, as well as try out a bigger caliber. My wife said she doesn't think she would want anything with any more recoil than a 9mm, but I want her (and I) to at least fire a .45 (1911) to see what we think.
If you have read this far, thank you!
Went to Bud's Guns Shop in Paris, Ky yesterday with my wife. First off, if anyone lives in the central KY area, I highly recommend this be a place to check out. Everyone was friendly and willing to help. We spent about 2 hours in there and I didn't feel uncomfortable at any time during the process. Also, I felt that they wouldn't have minded if I spent another 2 hours there. Course, have a pretty little female with me may have helped my service a little.
Anyway, after checking out the revolvers (my wife was having a little trouble pulling the DA triggers on the revolvers they showed us (S&W .38's & .357's)), we moved on to the semiautos.
After holding and working the controls on many different models, the guy behind the counter offered to let us fire one of his used Ruger P89's. We bought a box of ammo, and they took us down to the range. They provided hearing and eye protection, and a silhouette target. The guy showed us how to load the magazine, how to hold the gun, how to pull the trigger. He moved the target out to 5 yards and handed my wife the gun. Her first shot was in the 9 ring, the 2nd shot was up at the target's neck, 3rd shot was a couple inches below that and the last 2 shots were bullseyes. She put the gun down, turned to me, and said the recoil was no where near what she thought it would be.
Then it was my turn. 1st shot-1st reaction=where's the recoil? Yeah, I guess I felt the gun move, but there wasn't any detectible kick or uncontrollable jump to the gun. It felt very clean and balanced. No where near what I thought it was going to do. By the end of the day, I was shooting it pretty quickly (nothing like a "double-tap", but somewhere in the neighborhood of one a second) without any loss of accuracy or discomfort.
My wife and I went through half the box at 5 yards, and the other half at 10 yards. By the time we were done, the bullsye was gone and the surrounding center mass was quite holy. Not too many shots outside the 9 ring. Now, while this might not be impressive to the rest of you dead-eyes, I was very impressed with my wife's and my ability to shoot for the first time.
A couple of observations. I obviously liked the accuracy of the pistol we shot. However, I did not like the trigger. We shot all of our rounds SA, and accuracy was best when you pulled the trigger back to the resistence point, fine-tuned the aim, then broke the resistence. While this was obviously great for target practice, I'm not so sure it would be good in SD/HD situations. I found that early on in my shooting, I would start squezzing the trigger at the very beginning of the pull, expecting it to fire immediately, and then lose my accuracy by the time the pull actually fired the gun. I imagine that in an HD situation, I will not have time to pull the trigger back to the resistence point, aim, then break the resistence. More than likely I will just want to pick up the gun, aim, and pull the trigger. I'm not looking for a hair trigger (like one I saw on a loaded Sprinfield 1911), but I don't want to have to pull the trigger a mile to get it to go bang.
Coupled with the fact that I didn't like this gun's SA trigger was the thought of having a DA trigger for the first shot (if not cocked), and then an SA trigger for the next shots. This varience in trigger pulls, in addition to the already worrisome SA trigger, makes me wonder if a DA/SA pistol is right for us.
Because of this concern, we looked at some DAO's. He showed us a Taurus 24/7 9mm. While I like the thought of the firing mechanism resetting itself everytime (even after a dryfire), I didn't like the trigger on it either. It seemed long and mushy. There didn't seem to be that clean resistence point.
Then, moved to the Glock 17. Firing mechanism doesn't reset after a dryfire, but the trigger was short and the resitence point was distinctive.
I would like to shoot a Glock 17 next, as well as try out a bigger caliber. My wife said she doesn't think she would want anything with any more recoil than a 9mm, but I want her (and I) to at least fire a .45 (1911) to see what we think.
If you have read this far, thank you!