[tahunua001]

thanks FALPhil, I'm not sure exactly what venue would be able to get more circulation than TFL that would be willing to publish a private commentary but I will pursue such.

I did not tackle revolvers because this is the autoloader sub-forum and my knowledge of revolvers is quite slim when it comes to makes models and the such.

it was difficult to find a balance between weeding out problem brands and keeping budget brands. looking back through my lineups, I see that I unconsciously left out Taurus, Kahr and the problematic 22lr makers like Umarex and Chiappa. personal and 2nd hand experiences with Kahr and Taurus make me leery about recommending them to anyone. Umarex and Chiappa? well their reputations speak for themselves. I had to offer something in the $350 and below category for those that are one very strict budgets but you are completely right, I should have added a caveat that many budget brand guns are cheap because the companies may cut corners in production which may cause reliability issues. in fact I will EDIT the OP to reflect this information, thank you FALPhil.