A note I have written for my wife. She asked what she should get me for father's day. (Never ask me a question like that unless you want an honest answer.) All the $ numbers I use here are based on what I've seen locally or through various online vendors.
Possible Father's Day gifts,
<wife's name>,
You asked, so here's a list of possibilities. I have no idea how much you are planning to spend, so I'm covering a range here.
Shotgun:
As I mentioned before, if your goal is to put food on the table (like, if there's a major disaster), there's really not much to beat a shotgun. It's also an excellent home defense weapon. I've seen them in the stores used from about $140 up. At the low end, they can be pretty rough although still serviceable. It's probably about the $200 range on up where they start to get decent.
22 Pistol:
The one we have is basically cheap junk. There's an invention I have in mind that I might be able to use it as a base for, but as it stands it's really only good for "fun shooting" without much concern about accuracy and is a very poor defense weapon. As I've said before, 22's are very good "learning" weapons because ammunition is cheap. .22's also have low recoil so people are less likely to develop bad habits like "flinching" while practicing with them. Some good choices would be a Ruger Mark III or a Browning Buckmark. They start at a couple of hundred dollars--maybe less if you're lucky enough in finding a used one--and go up from there.
"Defense" pistol:
For me, that really means a "1911." Originally, that name went with a particular model of pistol used by the US army. More recently, many gun manufacturers make copies of it. I've tried a couple at different times and find that it fits my hand very nicely. It also uses a fairly big, heavy bullet that is very effective at stopping people who are trying to harm you. If you're lucky, you can find a decent used one for $450 or so. New ones, or one's with fancier accessories and so on, go up in price from there.
Ammunition:
If you go with any of my suggestions, this is probably where you'll end up. The guns we have now use two different kinds of ammunition. The cheap pistol and the Ruger 10/22 use 22LR ammunition. The big Mosin Nagant uses 7.62X54 rimmed Russian.
22LR:
There are many different brands of 22 ammunition of many different qualities and prices. Lately, I've been using "match" ammo--high quality ammunition intended for competition. .22 ammunition comes in boxes of 50 or 100, and "bricks" of 500 or 525 (depending on brand). I usually buy it by the brick at prices of $20-35 per brick. One brick lasts me about 1 week of shooting.
7.62X54 rimmed Russian
They have this at the gun shop/range we go to at about $7.95 per box of 20. I recently bought some online, a "can" of surplus ammo at about $130 (with shipping) for 440. Note that we have to go to the farther range to shoot the rifle that uses this, so I don't expect to be shooting this a lot.
Accessories:
Gun case:
They have locked cabinets for storing guns and gun supplies at Dicks starting at about $99. That's the only place I've seen them in stock, but you can get them other places as well.
Cleaning supplies:
Solvents, patches, coated or carbon fiber cleaning rods, all sorts of things that are fairly cheap. Ask the person at the counter At the gun store for suggestions.
Upgrades:
For many guns, in particular the 10/22, there are lots of aftermarket accessories and upgrades (like new barrels, stocks, and other parts) intended to make the gun "better" in some way (more accurate, more reliable, that sort of thing), or more "fun" in some way (better looking, "cooler," what have you). I've already been giving thought to a barrel upgrade for the 10/22 to make it more accurate for when my skill gets high enough.
Possible Father's Day gifts,
<wife's name>,
You asked, so here's a list of possibilities. I have no idea how much you are planning to spend, so I'm covering a range here.
Shotgun:
As I mentioned before, if your goal is to put food on the table (like, if there's a major disaster), there's really not much to beat a shotgun. It's also an excellent home defense weapon. I've seen them in the stores used from about $140 up. At the low end, they can be pretty rough although still serviceable. It's probably about the $200 range on up where they start to get decent.
22 Pistol:
The one we have is basically cheap junk. There's an invention I have in mind that I might be able to use it as a base for, but as it stands it's really only good for "fun shooting" without much concern about accuracy and is a very poor defense weapon. As I've said before, 22's are very good "learning" weapons because ammunition is cheap. .22's also have low recoil so people are less likely to develop bad habits like "flinching" while practicing with them. Some good choices would be a Ruger Mark III or a Browning Buckmark. They start at a couple of hundred dollars--maybe less if you're lucky enough in finding a used one--and go up from there.
"Defense" pistol:
For me, that really means a "1911." Originally, that name went with a particular model of pistol used by the US army. More recently, many gun manufacturers make copies of it. I've tried a couple at different times and find that it fits my hand very nicely. It also uses a fairly big, heavy bullet that is very effective at stopping people who are trying to harm you. If you're lucky, you can find a decent used one for $450 or so. New ones, or one's with fancier accessories and so on, go up in price from there.
Ammunition:
If you go with any of my suggestions, this is probably where you'll end up. The guns we have now use two different kinds of ammunition. The cheap pistol and the Ruger 10/22 use 22LR ammunition. The big Mosin Nagant uses 7.62X54 rimmed Russian.
22LR:
There are many different brands of 22 ammunition of many different qualities and prices. Lately, I've been using "match" ammo--high quality ammunition intended for competition. .22 ammunition comes in boxes of 50 or 100, and "bricks" of 500 or 525 (depending on brand). I usually buy it by the brick at prices of $20-35 per brick. One brick lasts me about 1 week of shooting.
7.62X54 rimmed Russian
They have this at the gun shop/range we go to at about $7.95 per box of 20. I recently bought some online, a "can" of surplus ammo at about $130 (with shipping) for 440. Note that we have to go to the farther range to shoot the rifle that uses this, so I don't expect to be shooting this a lot.
Accessories:
Gun case:
They have locked cabinets for storing guns and gun supplies at Dicks starting at about $99. That's the only place I've seen them in stock, but you can get them other places as well.
Cleaning supplies:
Solvents, patches, coated or carbon fiber cleaning rods, all sorts of things that are fairly cheap. Ask the person at the counter At the gun store for suggestions.
Upgrades:
For many guns, in particular the 10/22, there are lots of aftermarket accessories and upgrades (like new barrels, stocks, and other parts) intended to make the gun "better" in some way (more accurate, more reliable, that sort of thing), or more "fun" in some way (better looking, "cooler," what have you). I've already been giving thought to a barrel upgrade for the 10/22 to make it more accurate for when my skill gets high enough.
