Handgun Shopping
I had a coworker ask me to recommend a good first handgun in the $300-$400 range this week so I went out touring the local shops with him Saturday looking for some deals.
It was fun, and I think we found some good stuff out there.
The first stop was Gander Mountain. They were running a sale in the firearms department this weekend that I wanted to check out anyway. We hit the used handgun section first and I found a couple of S&W .357’s there between $315 and $350. For $315 they had a 686 with some scope mounts already placed on it. Not a bad idea at all for a first handgun but the buyer was pretty set on an auto-loader
Not a problem.
We took a gander at the new auto-loaders and they had a Bersa Thunder in 9mm for, I want to say, $320 or so. This certainly wouldn’t be a bad choice. The DA pull on them is very smooth. Long, but smooth and consistent. The SA pull on it wasn’t half bad either. They certainly have a very solid feel to them, and they’re a damned good deal for what you’re getting.
We also took a look at the Kel-Tec P11 sitting next to it. This was mostly to satisfy my own curiosity. The Kel-Tec was running, I think, for $280. Not a bad price at all. The trigger on the Kel-Tec was just like my P-3AT — a little sloppy but it works. A workable weapon, but not quite as nice in the hands as the Bersa. Probably a better CCW piece, however.
After Gander Mountain we moved onto MC Sporting Goods. In all honesty I didn’t even known if they sold handguns. Turns out, they do! It’s not a great selection, but they do seem to cater to the low budget handgun buyer. This was very nice.
First up, based on my recomendations, was the 4″ Springfield XD in 9mm. MC Sports, at least the one we went to (3160 28th Street, S.E., Grand Rapids) is running an inventory reduction sale on their pistols. The 9mm XD was going for $380 — a full $110 less than another shop in town selling them.
Awesome! This is absolutely, without a doubt, the pistol I would recommend given the budget constraints in this area. It’d probably still get the nod if the budget was set at $500.
While there we also took a look at the Ruger P-series and the Smith & Wesson SVE (no link, website seems down). Like the Bersa they’re both DA/SA pistols but the Bersa had a better “feel” to it.
To satisfy my own curiosity I took a look at z CZ 100 B that they had on display. The asking price was only $310 which was very attractive for me. Unfortunately I’m not at all impressed with the DAO trigger on them. The pull was clean but it broke like a pencil, not a glass rod. You pull, and pull, and pull, then it required some Hurculean effort to finally get the striker to fire it seems. I was really disappointed in it. I’m forced to wonder how much different this trigger is compared to other CZ triggers. I really hope a good ’smith could fix it up and make it break much cleaner. The pistol felt pretty solid in the hands. Light, but solid. If I’m not mistaken George Hill is going to be doing a write-up on the CZ 100 for Concealed Carry Magazine pretty soon here, and I’d like to see what his impressions were on it. Maybe I just got my hands on a real lemon. We’ll see.
From there we went to Al & Bob’s but they were closing in 5 minutes so we didn’t look much. Since there wasn’t anything much in the used section that appealed to me I figure we weren’t missing much. They’re pretty hit-and-miss when it comes to handguns. I’ve seen, and gotten, some good deals there, so I’ll keep my eyes peeled until an actual purchase is made.
Next was Silver Bullet Firearms. Probably the best place in Grand Rapids to go looking for a handgun. A used SW99 for $350 caught my eye so I asked the prospective buyer to check it out. He liked it, as did I. The guys at the store also thought highly of the pistol. Definately a solid piece and the trigger on it isn’t too bad. A little sloppy, but I’ve seen a lot worse.
In the end it looks like the guy is going to go for the Springfield XD. In fact, I’m considering humping myself down to MC sports to grab the .40S&W version of the 4″ XD myself which they have on sale for a lowly $420 right now.