How To Pick The Right Pistol

Picking The Right Pistol For You!

Picking the right pistol for your person is subjective. This article will illuminate a guide line to be able to effectively pick a pistol that is best for you when you are beginning your journey into this protector life style. Keep in mind everyone is different and one size does not fit all, so lets begin.

Tip #1 - What Is Your Purpose?

Find your purpose, the reason why you want to buy a pistol in general. For example most people buy guns for Self Protection, Hunting, Recreation, Competition, etc. If your buying a gun for self protection, your firearm purchase is going to be different than someone who is purchasing a pistol to shoot competition. So again find your purpose aka your why. This also is where you need to ask yourself where are you going to keep it? How you are going to carry it? Is it just going to be on the night stand or on your person?

Tip #2 - Find A Template

Once you have found your purpose and what your going to use it for now you can start narrowing your choices. There are 2 easy ways to begin finding which model, caliber, size, weight, etc. 1. Go to YouTube and search something along the lines of "Top 5 Carry Pistols" or "Best Pistols To Own". It's an easy way to catch trends, patterns, reviews, and there you can begin to get tons of information who dedicate their time to reviewing firearms. (Don't go down the rabbit hole to Pg.58....Stay within the first 3 pages.) 2. Go to a local Expert (i.e. Firearms Instructor or Gun Store Owner). This makes it more personal, by having someone specifically dedicate time and effort into you and also allows you to ask questions and/or maybe even feel different firearms.

"First thing I tell everyone is that when looking for one, is that it must be comfortable in the hand when you pick it up. If you don’t like the way it feels then you won’t want to shoot it. The important part of this is that you won’t be familiar with it when/if it ever becomes time that you have to use it." – Tactical Rifleman

Tip #3 - Which Caliber To Pick?

Again this depends on your goal but our typical rule of thumb is pick a caliber that you can shoot multiple times effectively. This probably requires you to go to your local gun range and renting guns or taking a firearms class to understand more about what you can shoot effectively. Typically most guns guys and gals will tell you 9mm or .45. This can be very biased based on who you talk to for example.

If you get someone who always drives Chevy's they are going to recommend a Chevy to you. This is because that specific individual has not broaden there horizon on other vehicles. So be careful on who you speak to about recommendations.

Tip #4 - How Does It Feel?

Picking a Firearm should be in some way comfor

table. When you grab the grip of a pistol; comfort, angle of the grip, weight, and grip texture are things to keep in mind when feeling for comfort. Make sure to pick something that almost fits like a puzzle in your hand. Especially if your buying your first gun. There is nothing more detouring than picking a gun that you don't like to shoot, or even hold at that. Note: A big thing to keep in mind is if you plan on concealed carrying how does this impact you when looking for comfort in your pistol.

Tip #5 - Bigger Pistol V.S. Smaller Pistol

Physically the more material on gun = more weight & real estate to grip = more recoil management. The struggle here is finding the sweet spot for you. Can you control the recoil of a smaller gun than a larger gun? Can you get a proper grip on a smaller gun?

We all have different size hands so though I would like to tell you get this specific size gun because its the best. The only thing I can do is tell you what I use and why. For me I use a Glock 19 Gen 4 for concealed carry. To sum up why I use this specific one in a nutshell is: 1. I want more ammo per magazine (double stack) 2. I can get a proper grip 3. I am very familiar with Glocks 4. Customization options are available 5. It's not too big to conceal for me 6. There are High Quality holsters available

In Closing

As I close remember picking a gun is based on per person but like most things we can like similar guns. So asking others and research can help aid in picking your preferred pistol.

We didn't talk about price for a reason..Though I know it is very important to most of you understand if you sacrifice paying for a cheaper gun your going to typically end up regretting it. My typical saying is "Buy once, cry once" because cheating yourself on quality is like saying you cut the seat belts off your car so you can purchase the car. Stay safe everyone, let's build a community of protectors, and live for higher purpose!

Jacob Zamora | Founder & Lead Firearms Instructor