The best gun for a new pistol shooter is ….

[Japle]

…. a .22 rifle with a good set of open sights.

Frequently, a new shooter has very little experience. He’s shot his buddy’s Glock or M&P or XDm or 1911 at 20 feet. He hit the target almost every time. So when it’s time for him to buy a pistol, he reads the articles and surfs the forums and buys a Glock 22 or something similar. Supplied with a couple of boxes of ammo from Wal-Mart, he’s all prepared for …… disaster!

I suppose it’s possible to learn the fundamentals of good shooting with a 9mm or .40 or .45 pistol, but it’s unnecessarily difficult. The gun jumps around and makes a lot of noise. The muzzle blast is distracting. Bad habits are easy to pick up. Flinching is almost inevitable.

If the new shooter starts off with a decent .22 rifle and a competent instructor, he’ll learn the basics of trigger control, follow-through and calling his shots. He’ll learn that closing both eyes and yanking the trigger is wrong and why it’s wrong. He’ll learn how to shoot consistently and how to shoot good groups. Mastering those skills will make his pistol shooting much better. He’ll be able to shoot groups ¼ the size of his buddy’s groups.

There’s no substitute for knowing the fundamentals and being able to apply them.

[Sparks1957]

a .22 rifle with a good set of open sights

I'll be the first person to totally agree with you. Years of shooting a .22 rifle, first a single-shot bolt-action then a lever-action later, both with iron sights, laid my foundational shooting skills.

When I moved on to handguns in my late teens, those basics were deeply established.

[3kgt2nv]

the same thought process can be applied for any caliber. The first gun i ever shot was a .458 i did not develop any bad habits nor did the gun jump around.

is a .22 a good practice tool? sure. but it can also be one of the most frustrating tools also because of the inconsistency in the ammunition and the fact that the slightest deviation will show huge group size. Personally i believe you should practice with what your going to use/carry. so you learn to correctly handle to firearm you are going to use. many people that are flinch happy will get worse when stepping from a 22 to anything else if thats their first gun since the difference in recoil / noise

[P-990]

Here's another full agreement with learn on an iron sighted .22 rifle. Or even a .22 handgun if the shooter insists.

Flinch comes primarily from noise exposure, with actual physical discomfort being next on the list. Almost anybody can be taught to shoot comfortably with a .22 and the technique translates to larger firearms.

And besides, .22s are good, cheap, fun ways to enjoy shooting. Few things are as enjoyable as steel plates, a repeating .22 and a brick of ammo.

[BigJimP]

I understand your point - about muzzle flash, recoil, etc ...and while they might be a deterrent to a new shooter learning fundamentals...there is a big difference in shooters ...and different things work for different people:

Its been my pleasure to teach most of my grandkids ( now 12 - 22 ) ....to shoot / their parents & some of their friends..../ and I help out a few instructors at my local range with some general classes - so I see a little bit of everything in the mix:

a. some young shooters are more focused - and focus on fundamentals and learn quickly. Its easy for them to transition to a 9mm or some reasonable caliber.../especially if the gun isn't intimidating in terms of size or what they've heard or whatever...and if the gun style & controls fits their hands well.

b. some shooters ...think they know it all / and just don't get it ...untill you really get them to settle down / use some dummy rounds so they realize they are flinching, milking the grips, not focusing on front sights, etc .....and work on trigger control, watch the front sight, etc...and moving to even a 9mm too quickly is disastrous....

c. some young men ( and even older guys in their 60's ... ) think shooting well is part of male DNA....and until they hit rock bottom / and you can start to build them up with better fundamentals...they are just going to keep going back to their "spray and pray" mentality...vs developing good shooting skills. Guys with big egos can be the worst to teach ...and counsel...( and they want to move quickly into .44 mag ...or whatever before they're anywhere near ready ).....

Things like getting them to spend some time dry-firing a gun in a classroom or somewhere they can really get used to the controls pays off .....sometimes having them go with double ear plugs ( plugs and muffs ) makes a big difference. I had one young lady in a class...that literally jumped every time a gun went off next to her. I worked with her for the whole class...one round at a time / until she finally settled down. Yet on the 2nd class - she was one of the most focused students /and progressed quickly to a 9mm.

So a .22 handgun isn't always the answer....I have a couple of grandsons that had a big desire to move quickly into 9mm's like their older brothers or cousins..../ and their pure drive - to want to compete and learn quickly - with the 9mm was a driving force for them.....

I have one granddaughter that only wanted to learn to shoot revolvers well...and she's done really well with K frame revolvers in .38 spl and even .357 mag..
--------------------
It just isn't --- start everyone on a .22 or it'll be a mess..../ every shooter is different ! As an instructor I've had to adapt as well ...and I think its made me a better shooter as well ..with all calibers.

[warnerwh]

You are so right that a .22 is the best firearm to start with. Even if they are eager to shoot a centerfire the first few sessions should still be with a .22. Shooting a handgun with any level of competence takes a lot of practice, thousands of rounds of ammo and a .22 is far more economical. I'd bet we lose a lot of potential shooters because of how much money even 9mm ammo can cost.

The blast of many small guns with any centerfire round is not conducive to the best concentration from any beginner. This can cause many problems that you want to avoid especially early on. Any kind of flinch is counterproductive and can lead to the person giving up.

The people who recommend centerfire handguns as a first gun in my opinion are flat out wrong. I'm glad to see others who are of the same opinion. My guess too is that many people who started with a centerfire took much longer to attain the same skill level as a person who used a .22.

If I tried to start my daughter with even very mild .357 reloads should would not have enjoyed learning shooting nearly as much.

[Creeper]

I'm inclined to agree with BigJim on the "different strokes for different folks" path... and my little "new shooter story" will explain why. Bear with me, I get wordy sometimes.

I taught my daughter to shoot only after she had shown and interest... she had just turned 14, about 16 years ago. Before she actually shot a handgun, I had her dry fire a variety of guns, explained the different cartridges to her, and gave her a basic education on firearm control types, trigger control, aiming, ballistics, recoil and firearms safety. Spent maybe 20 hours over the course of a few weeks for this, plus the time she spent dry firing on her own.

She demonstrated a desire to shoot single action automatics, thinking that her ability to aim and control the trigger was best served with the 1911 in particular. She also liked the well worn BHP, P9S 9mm and CZ75.

The first time we went to the range, I started her with a S&W 41, which she enjoyed and shot very well, but became bored with rapidly. Kids.
We progressed thru to the 9mms... again she shot it very well, but didn't enjoy the "snappy little dog" recoil of the 9mm. She was no fan of the 10mm either. Is there anything she would like?

Finally, and again, this was on the her first actual day of shooting... I pulled out my father's pre-war National Match Colt. She took a sort of modified Chapman stance that was most comfortable and controllable for her, squeezed off a shot... and drilled an almost 10X pinwheel.
At her first shot, she actually laughed out-loud... then with a amazingly smooth cadence, emptied the magazine, with the remaining 7 shots following the first into the 10 ring.

That was it - I was screwed. The "big, friendly dog push" and fat hole in paper... the .45 was a winner. For the next year or so, every Saturday night, she'd want to know if I was going to the range on Sunday, and if I needed any help loading up a few hundred rounds of .45. I could have had Don Johnson's Bren 10... hell, I could have had Don Johnson loading for her, and she would still have shot up every .45 round I had, and complained when we ran out. Then she discovered boys.

She owns 2 Colt 1911s, a Dillon 550B... still covets the NM ("I'm in the will for that, ah... right dad?") and lately has been asking me if she can "borrow" (that's a euphemism for I will never see them again) a few guns so she can try 3-gun.

C

[Bob Wright]

My sequence was:

1. Daisy Red Ryder 1000 shot carbine

2. Marlin 39A lever action .22

3. Colt New Service .45 Colt

My instruction was by the Daisy Red Ryder Handbook and later was taught by an uncle who was a WW I veteran and sharpshooter.

Bob Wright

[shortwave]

Since I started very young with a .22 and still go back to it some 40+ yrs later to still yet practice things such as trigger control, breathing etc., I'm gonna go with the .22 as well.

[Pistolgripshotty]

.22 are nice for the young but I would just go for the 9mm and start from there because of its versatility. But I am not opposing a .22 caliber they are impressive little rounds.

[Japle]

.22 are nice for the young but I would just go for the 9mm and start from there because of its versatility.

Versatility isn't the point. Did you read the OP?

[j3ffr0]

I agree with the OP. My first gun was a .357 mag for home defense. I quickly bought a .22 rifle followed by a .22 pistol for practice. The ammo is much more affordable, and I have found that it is a better platform for learning trigger control.

[TailGator]

I can agree with the OP from a pure shooting standpoint. Unfortunately, though, there are a considerable number of people who start shooting as adults, motivated by a desire to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their home. For those people, a first handgun is going to be an only handgun, at least for a while, and often permanently. A decent 9 mm is a good choice then - not too difficult to learn, not too expensive to practice with, and still an effective defensive caliber.

For young folks or anyone who does not have an immediate desire for self defense capability, starting with .22LR is great, and going from rifle to pistol even better. I would even go so far as to say that a .22LR is probably the second handgun most people should by. I have been shooting for a few decades, and I still see myself improve after shooting .22, and I still enjoy it, too. Cheap, fun, and a good aid to training, learning, and maintenance of pistol skills. I would also point out that a .22 pistol pays for itself in ammo savings very quickly. Nothing there to dislike, IMO.

[Japle]

There’s no question that some people have a higher tolerance for recoil and muzzle blast than others.

Long ago, I was a firearms instructor in the Army. Back then, the standard sidearm was the 1911 .45. I always thought it was funny, the way some 240 lb soldiers were so afraid of the .45. They weren’t the only ones. Some smaller soldiers had their problems, too. I used to **** them off by maxing the qualification course weak-hand-only. I weighed 145 lbs.

Years later, my daughter, a 95 lb professional ballerina, liked to go to the indoor range. Her favorite pistol was a lightweight .45 Commander loaded with hardball. She didn’t see the point of shooting a .22. “When I pull the trigger,” she told me, “I want action!” All her shots were inside the 8 ring, mostly 9s and 10s. She’d learned the fundamentals of shooting with single-shot .22 rifle I’d given her for her 6th birthday. She learned pistol shooting with a Ruger .22, shooting metallic silhouette targets from the Creedmoor position. She had good instruction and natural talent, plus a high tolerance for recoil. If you have those attributes, you might manage to become an expert pistol shooter with a centerfire CCW-type gun, capable of shooting very close to the best groups your gun can produce. The odds are against you, though.

To be clear, I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a good, powerful SD gun. You should. I’m saying you shouldn’t try to learn the fundamentals of shooting with that gun. You’re just making it hard on yourself.

Of course, I’m assuming you want to become an expert. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you’re happy with a lot less. If that’s the case, just ignore me.

[Hook686]

I think a rifle shoots different than a hand gun. For hand gun shooting as a new comer I would recommend starting with something like a Ruger Single Six in .22lr. It is a nice easy shooting revolver and the single action allows plenty of time to focus on the sight picture, breathing and handgun grip while feeling the trigger as you squeeze off a shot.

[223 shooter]

I think a rifle shoots different than a hand gun.

Exactly , there are plenty of shooters that can fire a 22 rifle fairly proficiently but cannot shoot well with a handgun.

[Ronbert]

Chances are good that a person's first handgun is going to be something less than ideal as they can find loads of internt advice that will support whatever they choose.

Their SECOND handgun should be a .22. This to learn how to really shoot and control the first one.

I'll go back to the .22 when I sense myself getting flinchy. And I suggest it to anyone I happen to be taking to the range.