Advice on how on Buying a Pistol - You Will Shoot Your Eye Out

So you think that you found a pistol that you would like to add as a new member to the family? Well Done!

Okay here is a few hopefully helpful hints. On what to look for before you slam down some of your hard earned money on the counter.

Now pistols come in basically three flavors

Revolvers Single Action or Double Action*

Single action – You have to cock the Hammer every time to shoot

or Double action. When you can just pull the trigger and the gun will go off!

Single Shots** The name is kind of self explaining

Semi Automatic*

What to look for when thinking of seriously buying the pistol

Is the price realistic?

Look it up on the computer at some of the gun auction sites. This will give you a good sense of what it is really worth

How expensive and available is the ammo?

A 41 Colt ammo cost a lot more and is harder to find than say a 22 Long Rifle

This some of the more popular calibers out there that are fairly easy to find.

How do the grips look like? But do not freak out about this. Since Today you can easily get a replacement grip at a fairly reasonable price for most pistols.

Image result for popular types of pistol grips

Image result for basic types of replacement pistol grips

Unless you want to go whole hog and then the sky is the limit.

I myself like Pachmyr grips. Yeah they are ugly and plastic.

But they really help my score at the range.

What kind of overall shape is the gun in?

Not a good choice!

Ditto

Note any Rust, holster wear, marks, dings, scars, no serial numbers etc.

Image result for worn out pistol barrels

Image result for filed off serial numbers pistols

This is very important! As it will tell you if the gun is safe / legal to shoot and its value down the road.

What does the barrel look like?

Image result for what does a shot out barrel look like

Hopefully not like this!

The lands and grooves should be clear and sharp. (These are cuts in the barrel which help the bullet go straighter)

If you see bulges, cracks or gaps either in or out of the barrel. Image result for what a bulge on a gun barrel looks like

****Do yourself a favor and pass on the deal. Its a turkey and may be dangerous to the user & folks near when it goes off!***

Now a lot of crafty gun seller will put a nice coat of oil on the gun for sale.

Since Oil can & will cover a lot of sins and problems. So get a rag and wipe it as dry as you can get it.

Who is this guy selling this gun to you?

They are a lot of stories about cops doing stings on selling guns illegally.

Image result for cops arresting a gun sting buyer

Also remember the Courts for the most part allow Cops to lie to folks.

So only buy from Reputable folks. It will pay off in the long run.

Old Joke – Two guys are sitting in their cell, One say say to the other. “She sure didn’t look like no cop to me!”

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* I stole this from another site since it is better than I can explain it

Single-action (left) and double-action (right) revolvers come in nearly every shape and size. — Single actions (left) and double actions (right) come in nearly every shape and size.

Revolvers come in many flavors, many shapes and sizes, and many different configurations. The two main platforms are the single action and the double action. Which one is best for you is ultimately a matter of preference. Which is most comfortable in your hand, and more importantly the revolver you can shoot most accurately, is the one you should choose.

Single and Double Action Differences
Single actions derive their name from the fact that they can only be fired by cocking the hammer and squeezing the trigger one shot at a time, whereas the double action can be fired in the same manner as the single action or simply by squeezing the trigger to fire – hence “double action.”
All modern day single-action revolvers are based, however loosely, on the Colt Single Action Army (SAA). So timeless was the design that it is still in wide use today. There are a number of manufacturers of single-action revolvers, including Ruger, Freedom Arms, Magnum Research, Uberti and Colt.
Double-action revolvers are available from Smith & Wesson, Colt, Ruger and Taurus on the new and used markets. Colt’s excellent Anaconda is no longer in production, but it can be found used and makes for an excellent choice for hunting or as a back-up weapon.
Both types of revolvers can be chambered in calibers adequate for big-game hunting and protective back-up duty, but they handle recoil differently. Double actions tend to transfer all of their recoil straight back into the web of your hand, while single actions have a propensity to exhibit barrel rise and are designed to roll upward (particularly in the case of single actions equipped with “plow handle”-type grips).
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** As the name implies, single shot refers to any firearm–which may be a pistol, rifle or shotgun–that has no magazine and holds a maximum of one cartridge at any given time

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A semi–automatic pistol is a type of pistol that issemiautomatic, meaning it uses the energy of the fired cartridge to cycle the action of the firearm and advance the next available cartridge into position for firing. … A semi–automatic pistol harnesses the energy of one shot to reload the chamber for the next.