The Handgun Carousel Ride, Intervention Needed!

[Bergeron]

There isn't a perfect option. Most guns don't fit me well. The few that fit me well don't come with the options I prefer. I can't get everything I want in a handgun. So I pick the stuff that's most important and drive on. Some things are deal breakers. Some things are minor annoyances.

Swapping pistols is rudely expensive when you factor in support gear, customizations, ammo spent working all that shit out, etc. This doesn't mean you just pick something at random and stick with it no matter what. If you can clearly identify an advantage to something else and you're willing to invest the time, effort, and money into it go nuts.

If you think "Maybe X will..." then forget about it unless time, money, and effort are in abundant supply for the endeavor.

I cannot like this post enough.

It would be fun to play with Staccatos and Beretta 92s, sometimes I get an itch to get back on the USP train, but when I look at my two totally getting-the-job-done Glocks, with the mags, the holsters, the .22 conversion, the laser dryfire barrel, the red dots, and the familiarity of the manipulations, the oh-god-cost of having that in what'll just be another "service/carry size 9mm", I just can't justify to myself the need or even desire spend the money and take the time when I could just spend all of that potential investment in just shooting more instead. I think the just shooting more instead will bring me more personal happiness.

[Jason M]

In CA use the magpul 10 rounders with jhp

For fun sure. Others here have sought a reliable 10 round mag for the G19. I do not believe any of the OEM or aftermarket 10 round options were reliable enough for defensive use. @DocGKR

[19852+]

I was on that carousel for a few years, trying to find the ultimate pistol... Several things happened that resulted in more focus and less trading. 1) I got serious about competition which meant I modded a good pistol leading to a greater inclination to keep it. 2) Along with that the realization I cared more about being good with a pistol than having the latest and greatest. 3) Stop buying gun mags or visiting websites that focus on the "next big thing". 4) Life changes, I had mine in middle age and I'm out now for the better. 5) I made a promise to myself of no new guns for 3 years, it's working and the longer I go on the easier it gets.

Now that I have the optic question settled for my AR15 all I buy now is ammo and mags.

All the best !

[G19Fan]

For fun sure. Others here have sought a reliable 10 round mag for the G19. I do not believe any of the OEM or aftermarket 10 round options were reliable enough for defensive use. @DocGKR

The 10 round oem glock mags in California have a ton of issues with jhp (some of them). Magpuls are better in 10 round form vs the gen 3 mags.

The gen 5 10 rounders are fine imo

[Clusterfrack]

For fun sure. Others here have sought a reliable 10 round mag for the G19. I do not believe any of the OEM or aftermarket 10 round options were reliable enough for defensive use.

Great point. I suppose that's a reason to go with his P-01. 10-round CZ/Mec-Gar mags are good to go.

[42Willys]

Thanks to Pistol Forum’s straight talk I realized that I was never going to stop collecting toys, it’s my favorite way to spend money. Because of that I needed to adjust my training.

Since 2018 or so I’ve had a strict rule. 80/20.

80% of my training time (range, dry fire, etc) goes into my LCP, my Glock 17 and 19, my Smith Shield 9, and my AR. Those are my actual carry and home defense tools so those get the bulk of hands on time.

The other 20% is whatever the flavor of the week is. Right now it’ll be the Sig M17-B. In July when I pay off the last $50 to close the layaway, it’ll be my Smith E-series 1911. But at most 20% of my range time will be spent with those.

I have found this to be a very satisfactory solution. I get to try out new stuff but always keep a sharp edge with my actual life-defending primaries.


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Know thyself. This is a good plan. Similar to how I've been feeling but with much more thought put into it.

[TCinVA]

I'll say for clarity that I don't have a problem with collecting guns. I've bought a bunch of handguns just because I find them interesting in some way...but almost every single shot of a live round through a handgun for me is done with something I am actively carrying on a regular basis, and that is all focused on developing better skill with them or experimenting with some sort of alteration/addition to them.

[RevolverRob]

Yes, I've been on the carousel. I'm "off of it" at the moment and haven't bought a new gun in two years. I run 1911/2011 as the 'big' gun for almost five years. And J-Frame as my 'small' gun for 5-years. Two years ago I bought an LCP and that has mostly supplanted the J-Frame. Though I keep the J around because it does certain things an LCP can't.

If you want to get better/best at pistol shooting - there is no compelling argument against the CZ - given a 10-round mag limitation. If you're going to run a CZ in competition a P-07/P-01 as your carry gun works. Personally, I'd go P-07/P-09 as my competition and carry combo in this realm. This way you aren't stocking radically different magazines. A 10-round P-09 mag as your spare mag fits right into your P-07.

---

A couple of thoughts re self-defense:

1) I am a stick in the mud: The gun doesn't matter in a defensive situation, as long as you're confident in your ability to put bullets where they want to go. Many know I'm not an advocate for speed. I prefer, much prefer, accuracy to speed. People are hard to stop with handgun bullets. There is no magic bullet or off-switch. But putting bullets where they can do the most damage is priority 1; doing so quickly is priority 2. So, whatever gun(s) you choose to use should be ones that allow you the capability of doing that.

2) I am a strong proponent of taking time to evaluate your most realistic defensive scenarios. And this also requires constant re-evaluation of your needs as well. To include being aware not just of your surroundings, but of general going ons of where you are and are going. Have you read your local crime report lately? That's info you can look at and use to begin to make careful evaluations of things. You'd be better off spending 10-minutes dry firing and 20-minutes staying aware of your local world than 30-minutes dry firing.

Does this help you shoot better? Nope. Not in the least. But it helps you win way more fights and criminal encounters, by not being there, or not being behind the curve if you are there.

---

The reason I bring this up is we often get trapped in a circuit of trying to apply hardware and software changes, "It's the Indian not the arrow" still assumes that the problem is a shooting one. If you show up to a pow-wow with a strung bow and an arrow ready to launch, but everyone is sitting around smoking the peace pipe, you're prepared for the wrong event.

So, make sure your disentangling and carefully evaluating realistic needs from shooting needs. And shooting needs are being further divided into relevant categories (e.g., competition, defensive, etc).

[Sig_Fiend]

At its core, this is a behavioral and decision-making issue. I don't say that to offend. Many of us have been in that boat before. I would focus on improving your skills with those two factors, and less towards the "implementation details".

On the behavioral side, try to separate entertainment and enjoyment from the equation. If the purpose is skill acquisition, almost any modern service-grade pistol will do. It's for that reason, in more significant cases like these I would lean towards @Clusterfrack idea of a default of Glock 19. There is an ROI component to this. The longer one spends "deciding", the more time is wasted. If you have to think past a certain point, I'd say go Glock 19. Eliminate the decision immediately, and focus hard on skill acquisition. This is not a decision that should take months.

Also, try to remove as much emotion from the equation. This is hard on PF. Many here are passionate and have great depth of experience. This garners a great degree of reverence for people's opinions here, moreso than you'll find most other places. If you're not careful, this has a tendency to get one caught up in riding that wave of reverence into new acquistions and an ever-shifting goal post. Not sure if anyone else has coined it but, I'll refer to it as "WHEEL OF PF!". Read a thread, get pumped about some new concept from an SME. Then you're off to the races with some new gadget that'll send you down a rabbit hole for months or years. This can be a fun and gratifying experience, but you have to modulate that along with your baseline skill acquisition and maintenance. If a person has trouble modulating that, make boring choices (aka Glock 19) and avoid spinning that wheel.

[4RNR]

You are.



Yup.



There isn't a perfect option. Most guns don't fit me well. The few that fit me well don't come with the options I prefer. I can't get everything I want in a handgun. So I pick the stuff that's most important and drive on. Some things are deal breakers. Some things are minor annoyances.

I'm carrying a Gen5 Glock 17 because I needed a gun I could easily dot, that I could safely AIWB carry (The SCD achieves that) and that would be reliable. It achieves all of those things.

It has the ergonomics of a 2x4 with a cheese grater stapled to it and the fit to my hand is so poor that if I don't put medical tape on my shooting hand I'll be bleeding inside of a single box of ammo. But it does those things I listed and my carry gun, at least, is accurate as hell.

The M&P fits me much better...but it's also more of a pain in the neck to get set up and running because of getting the parts I want to customize on it, waiting for a holster, etc. And then there's the magazines I need to buy for the thing which I'd rather not do...etc.

Swapping pistols is rudely expensive when you factor in support gear, customizations, ammo spent working all that shit out, etc. This doesn't mean you just pick something at random and stick with it no matter what. If you can clearly identify an advantage to something else and you're willing to invest the time, effort, and money into it go nuts.

If you think "Maybe X will..." then forget about it unless time, money, and effort are in abundant supply for the endeavor.

I cannot like this post enough.

It would be fun to play with Staccatos and Beretta 92s, sometimes I get an itch to get back on the USP train, but when I look at my two totally getting-the-job-done Glocks, with the mags, the holsters, the .22 conversion, the laser dryfire barrel, the red dots, and the familiarity of the manipulations, the oh-god-cost of having that in what'll just be another "service/carry size 9mm", I just can't justify to myself the need or even desire spend the money and take the time when I could just spend all of that potential investment in just shooting more instead. I think the just shooting more instead will bring me more personal happiness.

And here's an example of 2 guys who carry and shoot the same thing I do but for wildly different reasons.

I just want a boring reliable product. No interest in all the extras, except that mags, parts and holsters have to be easily found. That means no weird gun that went out of production in 1983 and almost no one has heard of or seen one.
Price of mags isnt too big of a deal since I buy them over time. My support gear is 2 holsters, concealed and duty, and some mag pouches. If I was starting out now I wouldn't care wether it was Glock, M&P, P10, ....etc...

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