What pistol should I buy for practical use?
(oringially posed on my website)
A frequent question posed to individuals like me, gunstore employees, and on the internet revolve around the initial purchase of a defensive or practical use pistol. By this I am talking about a pistol that is intended to protect the safety of one’s self or loved ones. I am not talking about “game” guns or hunting pistols, there are others far more qualified than me to discuss these topics. However, if you are shopping for a pistol for practical use, here is what I recommend:
Ignore minutia.
There are highly skilled users that have highly evolved preferences that make enough of a difference in their performance to seek specific options or features. These preferences will most likely not make much of a difference to the practical user, and in some cases may be detrimental. There are also numerous internet “experts” that have formed strong preferences based off of reading the opinons of specific experts and not off of individual experience. While the opinions of subject matter experts are certainly valuable (otherwise I argue myself into irrelevance as well), the direct experience of the expert is what makes it pertinent. The knowledge and performance behind the words are what makes the information worth paying attention to.
Upgrade critical parts early, and preference parts after experience.
Critical parts for immediate upgrade is a short list; sights and hand dominance parts. Very few pistols come from the factory with acceptable sights. I have a few sights that I use as “go-to” solutions. I can’t say that they are always the “best of the best”, but I can say that they work for practical use, which is a balance of speed and precision.
Most pistols are configured for right-handed shooters, with a few truly ambidexterous options. Left handed shooters should replace parts as necessary to ensure positive manipulation with the primary shooting hand. It is rare that a slide stop can be switched to the opposite side of the pistol, but other options such as magazine releases and safeties/decockers frequently can, and should be switched to support the dominant hand.
Keep support equipment in mind when purchasing a pistol.
Support equipment includes magazines, replacement/spare parts, holsters, magazine pouches, and ammunition.
There are some really neat pistols that come to market each year, all of them promising to be the next best thing, and many of them do hold the potential to excel. The problem is that new designs usually do not have a simultaneous release of support equipment. The “next best gun” is of little use if the user cannot carry it, shoot it, or fix it when it breaks. Breakage is a very real concern, even for those weapons that promise infallability. Every mechanical item will eventually fail. Every pistol will eventually break. It may happen at 2,000 rounds or at 200,000, but it will eventually happen. I recommend that a user do some research and figure out what parts have the highest failure occurrence, keep a replecement on hand, and know how to replace it. Those pistols that have a high acceptance rate by police departments will have more support gear available, as will older designs with high ownership.
So, what pistol should I get?
The easiest answer, and the one I recommend is this:
Buy a Gen3 G19, 5 mags, good holster that fits your use, a decent mounted light (I prefer the X300), 2 belt pouches, 5,000 rounds of decent practice ammo, and swap the sights for a good set (I personally like Warren and Heinie, but there are other very good options).
Attend 2 classes from well-regarded trainers and shoot all of your training ammo before considering a platform swap.
It will give you an excellent fundamental base and reference for advancement.
No, I don’t think that the G19 is the be-all, end-all when it comes to pistols, but they are easy to fix, easy to find accessories for, well documented, wide spread, well known, and since they are so popular, if you do decide to go to another platform it will be very easy to sell the pistol and accessories without giving it away.
