Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Handgun noob - home defense/CCW?

Hey guys - just recently got my CCW permit and looking to purchase a new handgun, probably 9mm...maybe 40SW? for home defense or possible carry. I have shot some Sigs, Gen 4 Glocks, and Springfield XDs...I liked them all. My question is where should I focus my search? Price is not a huge concern for me, but it would be nice to not be over the 500-600 range. I don't want anything too small (that's what she said) where shoot-ability would be severely impacted. It'd also be nice to have this be something my wife or kids could shoot easily. Thanks in advance for replies, gents.

Neighbor of mine added a couple of Springfield Armory Hellcats for him and his wife. Decent compact carry. Good capacity and handling with extended mag.

Sig P365 checks all the CCW boxes for me.
With the 12 round magazine it is still easy to conceal, as accurate as my larger pistols, and very controllable for its size.

You couldn't go wrong with a Glock 19, it's a medium size high capacity 9 mm.....the Sig P365 is a bit smaller.....I have both and tend to carry the Sig more, as it is smaller...

Smith and Wesson M&P 2.0 version of either the Shield or Compact in 9mm.

Shooting easily and carrying easily are two opposed criteria. The bigger the pistol the easier it is to shoot but the harder it is to conceal.

The Sig P365 would be about the smallest to recommend, if you get into a Glock 19 size then it plus the M&P 2.0 compact or Sig P320 XCompact are all great handguns. Any of those four are good combinations of both goals. The Sig is smaller to carry and mechanically very accurate but does have a bit of a snappy recoil. The "compact" sized pistols are not too difficult to conceal but more so than the Sig and are definitely more shootable, i.e. softer recoiling and a bigger grip to hang on to. With your description of being a handgun noob I would not recommend a .40 S&W, recoil in a small to even intermediate sized handgun can be sharp and is very likely more than a woman or kids will want to put up with.

Since you mention home defense first and possible carry as a secondary criterion then you'd probably be happiest with one of the Compact sized pistols just for the easier recoil and overall shootability so you and your family would want to shoot it more, then find a way to carry it concealed when and if you want to do that.

Likely that. I'm still a huge Glock fan but I've been very happy with the Shield and it conceals a little easier. I don't have any of the skinny Glocks, they are are 17/19/23

I'm not going to mention any models but the decision that only YOU can make is what size gun do you think that you can easily conceal. A gun that is hard to conceal is one that's going to left at home, where it doesn't do any good. I remember when I first started carrying, I thought that everyone could see my gun. After a while, you realize nobody notices and you can carry a larger gun than you first thought. There's really no "one gun does everything". You may end up needing two or three.

<Grin> This line of thinking is exactly the type of thing that has gotten me into trouble in the past. To combat this, I simply do not tell the wife about firearms purchases anymore.

Lots of quality handguns out there. Pick one that fits your hand. I'd go with a 9mm.

Most of the popular models will all be reliable and accurate enough for your purposes. A good point was made that the gun only does you any good if you carry it. Some people buy a gun that fits their lifestyle, some people alter their lifestyle to fit their gun.

When picking plastic-framed gun it is worthwhile to get something with beefier construction (thicker plastic). I can recommend G26. If you're right-handed there is no practical differences between originals from mid 1990s and what is put out today. Mine has withstood test of time.

In keeping with the traditions of this site, I would recommend a Cabot, either a Gran Torino SS or a Vintage Classic. If you can't wait for one of those a Wilson CQB. .45ACP of course. If you have to go cheap, a Les Baer Comanche, .45 again.

If you want to suggest 1911 CQB Springfield Armory gun designed to compete with Colt in US Morine Recon bid is worth a serious look. Bid downsides for CCW are it's size, weight and low magazine cartridge capacity.

Buy a good belt and you can carry just about any damn handgun you want. 1000 dollar gun and 150 buck holster doesn’t make carry any easier if your belt fuggin sucks.

See if you can wrangle a separate closet for your gun belt collection, especially if you have duty, dress, casual, revolver and field gun belts.

Now I understand better why you catch so much chit here...

Go out and buy five Sig P365's and a dozen 12 to 15 round mags, a family of new shooters needs to remember one shooting system, plus, you 'may' need plenty to go around, the country certainly isn't getting anymore 'stable' as of late, I bought my Wife three Sig P365's.

Yea.

This is the belt I wear. It makes a huge difference:

As for which gun?

Right now, that's the one in stock.