My friend wants a DE .50 for first gun...
So me my cousin and my friend are all getting licensed and will be going to the range once a week. None of us have ever owned a handgun before. I want a sig 226 my cousin wants a p99 and my crazy friend wants a Desert Eagle .50 cal.
I keep trying to talk him out of it and tell him to at least make that his second or third gun buy. I dont think he will enjoy it. What can I tell him to change his mind. I know I should let him be, if thats what he wants, but he only wants it cause its the biggest gun he can get. Any ideas
You're a good friend for trying.
My first handgun was a 9mm CZ 75(it came with hi-cap magazines, which were banned at the time were the #1 selling point). Recoil of that pistol was detrimental to my marksmanship. My next purchace was a Springfield compact .45, then two cheap pocket .22's(yeah, I know that was a waste), Then I purchased a Taurus Tracker in .357, then I bought a Kimber .45, then I bought a ruger .22 target pistol.
The day I bought the .22 Ruger is the day my pistol markmanship began to improve. And from that day the relative value of all myother pistol increased since my marksmanship beganto improve. The point of owning a small calibre pistol is not to compensate for not being able to handle recoil. The reason is you can concentrate on fundamental skills like trigger squeeze, breath control, sight picture/alignment. If you ever want to develop advanced shooting techniques then you have to master the fundamentals, and a good .22 is the right place to start. Muscle memory develops very quickly and it is extremely difficult to "unlearn".
I personally recommend a new hand gunner purchase a target .22 of some description and a .357 magnum revolver. The reason I advocate the .22 should be apparent from my previous pargraph. The .357 can fire cheap .38s for practice (relatively low recoil and expense) and 38 +p, or .357 for defense. So in that way the .357 is a weapon that can grow with the user's ability.