Now I have it, what do I do with it

[MailleMan]

Little bit of an intro and a smidge of back story... For a couple years, now, I've been reading quite a few good reviews on the PF-9, as well as a couple other guns, on the motorcycle forums I visit. For the last six months, my search had been getting more and more serious, and I determined that the PF-9 was the best bang for the buck.

My only experience with firearms was from the army (oh, so long ago; '85-'88), and even that was limited - outside of basic, I picked up an M16 3 more times.

Well, Saturday, a buddy asked if I'd like to go to a gun show - he was buying an AR15. Great, for me, it was something different, something new. While he was futzin' around with his dealer, I found a dealer that had the PF-9's at a decent price, sat down, filled out the paperwork, and walked away with brand new gun.

I've never handled, nor fired, a handgun before. Luckily, I've got a few friends that have been shooting for some time, one being a retired LEO. So, I'm expecting some good training from these guys. And hope for some good advice from the folks, here.

-Chris

[gunjunkie]

Chris, you picked a good concealment pistol. The thing that helped me the most with the long trigger pull was to get some Azoom snap caps and practice using different finger tip positions and grips until I could keep the sights from moving.

[MailleMan]

That's the ultimate goal - concealment. I'll have to take your (and apparently everyone else's, too) word, regarding the long trigger pull. My hands are on the narrow side, and with the grip extension, I can get all my fingers on it. The trigger pulls feels like a pretty natural movement to me, like I'm just closing my fist. I guess, never having handled a pistol before helps me in that respect (?). After I get my schedule in synch with some of my friends, and I get to do some live fire, we'll see if I feel the same.

Thanks for the heads up on the Azoom snap caps. Going to see if the local range has some that I can pick up on the way home from work tonight. Azooms website lists them as a distributor...

[spirithawk]

Just my opinion but I think a lot of folks over think the PF-9. They've heard the recoil is bad and they read threads about old problems and convince themselve's the PF-9 needs a "Fluff & Buff", needs modified grips, needs this or that. My best advice, and I'm speaking from experience as I, my son and my grandson all carry PF-9's as our CCW firearms, is to simply clean it before you fire it the first time, keep it reasonably clean there after, don't "Limp Wrist" it when you fire it and it will perform better than most. They aren't near as delicate as some would have you believe and are quite reliable. As I always say...if it aint broke don't fix it!

As to never handling a firearm before don't let that bother you. At least you don't have old bad habbits that need correcting. Just remember, treat any gun as if it's loaded, even if told or you know it's not. Never point one at anything you wouldn't intend to shoot. Listen to your more experienced friends and if you do these things you'll do fine.

[jayspapa]

And be sure to keep your finger off that trigger till ready to fire.

[MailleMan]

@ spirithawk: I've got similar views regarding mods. I'm a big fan of keeping things stock, at least until I've become familiar enough to pin-point exactly where I need to make changes that work for me. I bought this little puppy because of the simple, 'no frills', purpose built aspects. And it, pretty much, fits my hand right out of the box. I see slapping on modifications as adding weight, or size, or encumbrance, etc., and if a mod's benefits don't outweigh it's liabilities, I ain't doin' it. That's not really what I bought this for.

Your, and jayspapa's tid-bits of advice are already echoing in my head - in the last two days, one of my friends has gone so far as to call me about a half a dozen times, and has sent me about 20 texts with little kernels of gun safety...