I'm thinking about getting my brother and his wife a defensive handgun as a gift. He currently has a Davis .380 POS that I gave him way back when he went to college. Obviously, that's not really a good choice and I'd rather see him with something that isn't as likely to jam than function reliably.
It seems like there used to be a good market in used, inexpensive, guns that isn't around much anymore. You could get old S&W revolvers (or at least Rossis, Dan Wessons, or some assorted Euro imports like Astras or Titans) or various military surplus pistols for less than $200, heck for less than $100.
I tossed around the idea of just giving them my P3AT, but that thing is a bit of a handful. I was really leaning to a revolver, just because it's about as simple as you can get and his wife could operate it just as easily. Unfortunately, I've already thinned out my collection to the point where I only really have an old S&W .32-20 4". While that gun is reliable as all get out, the caliber is weird and it has a monster double action trigger pull.
The only cheap surplus guns around anymore are Nagant revolvers. But the round is anemic and the trigger pull is even worse than my old S&W. I thought about some of the Czech or Polish guns, like the P64 or CZ82 in 9x18 (now that there is some selection in Makarov ammo) but it looks like they either have dried up or got pricier. Armscorr makes a sub $200 (some places at any rate) .38 Spl revolver, but I haven't heard much about it.
Maybe I'm just being too cheap.
It seems like there used to be a good market in used, inexpensive, guns that isn't around much anymore. You could get old S&W revolvers (or at least Rossis, Dan Wessons, or some assorted Euro imports like Astras or Titans) or various military surplus pistols for less than $200, heck for less than $100.
I tossed around the idea of just giving them my P3AT, but that thing is a bit of a handful. I was really leaning to a revolver, just because it's about as simple as you can get and his wife could operate it just as easily. Unfortunately, I've already thinned out my collection to the point where I only really have an old S&W .32-20 4". While that gun is reliable as all get out, the caliber is weird and it has a monster double action trigger pull.
The only cheap surplus guns around anymore are Nagant revolvers. But the round is anemic and the trigger pull is even worse than my old S&W. I thought about some of the Czech or Polish guns, like the P64 or CZ82 in 9x18 (now that there is some selection in Makarov ammo) but it looks like they either have dried up or got pricier. Armscorr makes a sub $200 (some places at any rate) .38 Spl revolver, but I haven't heard much about it.
Maybe I'm just being too cheap.
The CZ is really accurate, and it doesn't get much easier to field strip a weapon.
