Opinions Wanted: First Handgun

[birry]

Hello, everyone. Newb, here, and I don't know all the lingo yet, so bear with me...

My wife and I are searching for our first handgun for general use, mostly recreation and home defense. We don't plan to carry this particular gun very often unless it is in the car or in a backpack. As such, we would like it to be affordable, reliable, and intuitive. Finally, neither of us are experienced pistol shooters, so I'd like this gun to be something that's fairly user friendly and easy to shoot. I decided on 9mm and will probably stick with that as our main pistol caliber. I'm a fan of ammo consolidation, so there's that.

After doing some shopping, holding guns, reading, and shooting a few, we narrowed our choices down to the following:

M&P 9 - have shot this one twice and liked it pretty well. My wife has had quite a few misfires with it, though.
Walther PPQ 9 - have held this one, but we haven't had a chance to shoot one yet. I'd like to test one out, but haven't found a place to do that without purchasing it.

Ruled out (so far):
Ruger SR9 - reliability seems questionable, but haven't shot one yet. It may still be in the running.
Glock 19 - ergonomics and overall shooting experience didn't suit my wife very well, but we LOVED the sight picture of it
XD 9 - my wife hated shooting this gun, mostly because of the harsh grip and the grip safety

Any thoughts or other suggestions? I appreciate the help!

 

[Beau]

M&P 9 for sure. I have 2 m&ps both 40 one is a compact. And they have to be my favorite tupperware guns. S&W customer service is the best around.

 

[birry]

I put about 150 rounds through one at H&H in OKC the other day without any issues. My wife had about 5 or 6 failures (failure to fire?), but I re-loaded all her misfires and they all went bang for me. I'm sure its a combination of things, including the fact that the one we used at H&H had probably been abused and used a lot.

Have you had any issues with your 40s not firing (assuming you have good ammo)?

 

[Beau]

The only problems I had were when I used hornady steel case ammo. But they were just not feeding right. Slide would not go all the way into battery. With good ammo I've never had any problems. I'm about to get my 3rd M&P actually, a shield in 9mm for cc.

 

[Spata]

Have you tried the fnp/fns/fnx 9mm?

 

[ripnbst]

Have you tried the fnp/fns/fnx 9mm?

The FN handguns listed above are very nice, I've considered picking up an FN pistol. I am an M&P guy myself and have two of them, an M&P 9 Pro 5" and an M&P 9 compact. If it is something that will not be carried concealed and especially as a first gun I recommend buying a full size gun. By that I mean don't buy anything with compact or subcompact in the name or description. Basically, don't buy a gun that kinda makes you think "Hey, that's kind of small next to an M&P 9". An M&P 9 is really about the size of a market standard compact anyway (G19). I'd use the M&P 9 as your size benchmark and not get anything smaller than it to start out.

A smaller gun generally means a shorter barrel. The shorter barrel puts the front sight closer to the rear sight and makes the gun harder to shoot accurately. This distance between front and rear sight is what is referred to as sight radius. 9mm is a great first caliber as its cheap enough and easy enough to find and not unpleasant to shoot. Longer barrel will also net you higher velocity in the rounds fired and typically the larger guns are more pleasant to shoot, because they weigh more.

 

[Cavedweller]

If you aren't stuck on getting a polymer framed gun, give the Beretta 92 and CZ-75 a try.

 

[birry]

Have you tried the fnp/fns/fnx 9mm?

I haven't shot one yet, but I'll check them out. I've read good things about them.

 

[birry]

No love for the Walther PPQ, huh?

 

[Lurker66]

If you aren't stuck on getting a polymer framed gun, give the Beretta 92 and CZ-75 a try.

This.