Let me start this by saying don’t ever let anybody talk you into buying a gun you don’t think is for you. All gun owners/sellers are biased, including me. Those of you who know me know I love my Soviet weapons. I’ve personally found my Bulgarian Makarov 9x18mm to be highly dependable, easily operated, easily cleaned and comfortable to shoot, but that’s me not you.
If you are looking at buying a handgun for self-defense/home-defense there are several things you need to take into account before you purchase one.
First, do you plan on carrying concealed? Carrying concealed will largely affect the size of the handgun you want to purchase. A M9 Beretta service pistol might be comfortable to shoot and easy to keep on target, but it’s bulky size makes it difficult to conceal. I don’t say impossible, but difficult. To carry concealed comfortably most people like sub-compacts like the Glock 26, Walther PPK, Ruger LC9, S&W Bodyguard or Sig Sauer P290. Their small size makes them easy to carry in a coat pocket or purse. However, before you think you found the answer to what gun to buy, let me throw in another variable in.
Second, weapon size vs. caliber? I’ve been continuously surprised by the number of people who complain about recoil from a specific caliber and, in order to avoid having the same discomfort next time they shoot, the chose a smaller pistol that is firing the same exact caliber. In the military we are required to qualify with the 9mm M9 Beretta a full steel frame service size pistol weighing 33 to 34 oz. The recoil on this gun is light and can easily be managed, however the 9mm Ruger LC9 nylon gripped sub-compact pistol that weights only 17 to 18 oz has worse recoil I’ve experienced. They both shoot the exact same round, it’s the weight of the gun that makes the difference. If you don’t like the recoil you are getting either look for a heavier or bigger gun or move down a caliber.
Third, what caliber? Lot’s of people I know swear by the .45 ACP for self-defense. While I agree that this is a very effective caliber and I wouldn’t advise going higher, lower calibers will do the job. With proper proficiency training you can put down a threat with a .22 caliber Walther P22, however, for you have to mentally know that the threat probably isn’t going to go down after the first round as it likely would if you were engaging it with a .45 caliber Springfield 1911. As I said before, I personally use the 9x18mm Makarov as my self-defense pistol. It is just in between the 9mm ParaBellum and the .380. For a balance between comfortable to shoot and stopping power, I don’t advise dropping below .380 caliber. Whatever caliber you choose, I’d advise you try to get hollow-points for it as they are specifically designed to stop things.
Forth, will the weapons ergonomics work for you? Ergonomics is basically how fluid it is to, with a shooting hold on the gun, to activate the slide release, safety or magazine release. With it in mind that it might take some practice to make it muscle memory, it has to be comfortable for you to operate all of these. If you look most handguns you will find that although the placement and manipulation of these varies slightly most are pretty much the same. Sadly, a lot of the newer guns on the market are just copies of each other. For example look at Springfield’s XD or XD’M’ line and then at Glock’s handguns. Other than a few cosmetic differences, they are basically identical. Several other gun companies are just duplicating something that’s already on the market. Sometimes it’s good because it give the shooters a cheaper option to what might otherwise be an expensive gun, but in other ways it steals the option of a new different and potentially better handgun from the shooters. But I digress, guns like Glocks and Springfield’s XD lines have no external safety, making it one less thing the shooter has to think about when faced with a threat, however, it means that whenever there is a round in the chamber the gun has a higher potential to fire than a gun with a safety mechanism. The M9 Beretta, Walther PPK and Makarov all have external safeties. Another thing to manipulate when a threat’s coming at you, but it allows for increase peace of mind when carrying.
Fifth, can you pull the trigger? You should be able to pull the trigger comfortably and smoothly without leaving your proper shooting grip. I experience shooting a spurless .38 caliber S&W snub-nose revolver. Because it didn’t have a hammer there was no way to avoid having to shoot in double action every time and the trigger pull was both long and hard. By the end of the range time, my hand hurt primarily from pulling the trigger. With most semi-automatic pistols, you can find a ‘trigger reset’ point that allows for minimal trigger release following a shot, increasing the accuracy and decreasing the time delay in any follow-up shots. To find the reset point, make sure the gun is empty then dry fire the weapon. Keep the trigger squeezed all the way back as if you had just fired and rack the slide. With the firing pin reset, slowly release the trigger until you either hear a click or feel the trigger re-engage the firing pin. If the gun has a good trigger reset, you should only have had to release a little ways. If you had to fully release the trigger to get it to reset, I want you to take the gun and throw it at the clerk who’s trying to sell it to you. 
Finally, do you like the gun? The pistol you choose to purchase should be a gun you like. If you actually like the gun, you are more likely to go shooting and take proper care of the weapon. This means increase proficiency and understanding of exactly how the gun works. If you really like a weapon, you will learn to work around any issues that might have been pointed out by the paragraphs above. For example, although my Makarov has good ergonomics in its safety and slide release mechanism, the magazine release is not very ergonomic. However, with practice, I’ve adjusted my reloading procedure to compensate for the lack of ergonomics.
Despite what gun magazines and gun-store clerks tell you, there is no universal answer to what gun is best for carry. My one word of advice is, in the process of looking at all the new model guns on the market, don’t over look some of the older ones like the Walther PPK or Makarov.
- Philip Consiglio
