Wanted: Cheap .22 handgun for a kid

[miles71]

If considering semi auto the S&W victory 22 is a very nice pistol. Hardly any recoil and very accurate.

I have a heritage 22 that has run great and it fun to shoot. Def worth the cost.

I don’t like the SR22 I have. Trigger sucks and safety in a bad place. Fairly accurate though.

TD

 

[Bertfish]

If considering semi auto the S&W victory 22 is a very nice pistol. Hardly any recoil and very accurate.

I have a heritage 22 that has run great and it fun to shoot. Def worth the cost.

I don’t like the SR22 I have. Trigger sucks and safety in a bad place. Fairly accurate though.

TD

Man I HATED the Victory when I shot it. Just didn't feel good in my hand.

 

[Cold Steel]

The Wrangler is the one I thought of immediately when I saw the post. So did a lot of people, so I think it's good advice.

In the late 70s, I bought a Ruger Security-Six 357. It was the first gun I ever bought and the first gun that taught me about how expensive centerfire was. Soooooo, I bought an RG revolver, a single-action.22LR. It was a piece of junk and was the first gun I sold...and I missed it ever since!

It had an aluminum frame and had a polished nickel finish. Cost me $68 and was a gun I could take up in the mountains of Utah and plink with. I bought me a Ruger Standard Auto for $92 to replace it with.

So after the Wrangler, my recommendation would be a Ruger used blue auto. I say "Used" because it could teach the kid about the value of character in an auto. Buying him a .22LR auto would stay with him the rest of his life, especially if it had a story to go go along with it. I had a friend who had an old blued Ruger .22LR that was functionally perfect. It was worn in all the right places, and the great thing was, it was a beater gun. It might be a gun your boy would love all his life.

 

[linkstate]

I was married almost 10 years before I ever owned guns. I live my life with no regrets...but if it was marriage after I'd already been owning guns, no I probably wouldn't either.

I hear you. I kinda lucked out in that I bought my first gun while dating my now wife. We were still in the phase that everything each of us did was cool. She still claims that revolver as her own. She took a women’s only class with it and knows how to operate and shoot it. She is adamant that she always has access to it. But only for homestead protection.

Now when it comes to any other toys I may or may not have, she gives me the whole, why do we need another one lol.

If she knew how much ammo I had, she would probably freak out. And I probably have a lot less than a lot of folks around here.

When Bruen hit, I told her I’m doing this, do you have any questions or concerns. There wasn’t too much discussion and I don’t make a big deal about carrying. She probably has no idea when I am and when I’m not.

ETA: Damn thread drift. A Single Six is a fine choice OP.

 

[Bertfish]

I couldn't find a single six at a reasonable price

I did have a very kind IP offer me a TX22 at an amazing price. I know two people with them who have said they're super reliable for a cheap polymer frame Taurus. So we're going to give that a try

 

[lazarus]

I hear you. I kinda lucked out in that I bought my first gun while dating my now wife. We were still in the phase that everything each of us did was cool. She still claims that revolver as her own. She took a women’s only class with it and knows how to operate and shoot it. She is adamant that she always has access to it. But only for homestead protection.

Now when it comes to any other toys I may or may not have, she gives me the whole, why do we need another one lol.

If she knew how much ammo I had, she would probably freak out. And I probably have a lot less than a lot of folks around here.

When Bruen hit, I told her I’m doing this, do you have any questions or concerns. There wasn’t too much discussion and I don’t make a big deal about carrying. She probably has no idea when I am and when I’m not.

ETA: Damn thread drift. A Single Six is a fine choice OP.

I shall drift it further! It causes occasional thorny issues in our marriage and a few huge fights. But mostly doesn’t cause real issues. Heck, I’ve got a whole 10x14’ gun and reloading room (okay, it’s a safe in there, not just guns on walls behind a safe door). Her only ask is I call it a storage room. Not my gun room. Bruen came out and she was fine with the SCOTUS decision. She doesn’t like THT (for anything), but she was aware how stupid the May Issue states were about permits. No issues with me getting my permit. Though I rarely carry.

There was one time when I was reloading she came down to talk to me, stopped halfway through and asked me the stupid question. “Just how much have you spent on all of this? It has to be thousands. Like a lot of thousands”.

As I said to her, we’d just bought a more than $45,000 brand new minivan for her. All of my stuff added up over the 7 or 8 years I’d been buying stuff was well less than the cost of that van. And though not remotely close to the cost of everything, the hobby indirectly has lead to several thousand dollars worth of Venison on the table and in the freezer over my years of gun ownership, even if just comparing to buying good quality beef.

Other times she sure doesn’t complain about me being a gun owner like the ground hog I just toasted earlier today that was literally running the perimeter of her fenced garden looking for a way in. Hell I noticed him on the front porch “honey, come watch this ground hog while I get my 22”. She was walking around with her laptop in a meeting with her staff keeping tabs while I ran down to my safe and ran back up.

Her only mandate “you are not cooking that thing up for dinner”. Foxes, raccoons, and vultures gotta eat so I am okay with that.

 

[Bertfish]

I couldn't find a single six at a reasonable price

I did have a very kind IP offer me a TX22 at an amazing price. I know two people with them who have said they're super reliable for a cheap polymer frame Taurus. So we're going to give that a try

I want to thank @FFBWMD for putting a huge smile on my friend's son's face yesterday. I had him shoot the pistol a bunch under the guise of making sure my new gun was reliable. After he was sufficiently enamored and we were packing it up for the day I said oh hey by the way this is yours for working your ass off at my place. I like making kids happy.

Not to discount the other offers made in this thread at all Brian just had the right tool for this job. I'm appreciative to all who responded.

 

[Magnumite]

This thread brings back memories. I bought an old model Ruger Bearcat revolver waaaay back when my son was a youngster. Because it fit him. His five shot six shooter we called it because of the old single action lockwork. I corralled a holster and gunbelt for him. He shot his first 'match' with it when he was 9 years old...basically a full size humanoid match target. He shot just the one target but loved it still. Up to the that point he was shooting with me for about 3 years...

So I know the OP's search.......cudos

 

[Uncle Duke]

This thread brings back memories. I bought an old model Ruger Bearcat revolver waaaay back when my son was a youngster. Because it fit him. His five shot six shooter we called it because of the old single action lockwork. I corralled a holster and gunbelt for him. He shot his first 'match' with it when he was 9 years old...basically a full size humanoid match target. He shot just the one target but loved it still. Up to the that point he was shooting with me for about 3 years...

So I know the OP's search.......cudos

What it's all about....

 

[Magnumite]

^^^^

 

[U.S.SFC_RET]

I don't doubt they are safe and responsible. But handguns, inherently are a multitude of times more dangerous. I am speaking of MANY YEARS of training experience where I have seen senior ranking military members (typically officers) who come out to qualify on their assigned pistol and are offenders of handgun mishandling.

If you're dead set on a handgun for him so be it. My recommendation would be a plane jane Ruger Mark IV. I picked up my last one for like $380. It's the 10/22 of handguns.

You are right on so many levels. The practice of handling a pistol with extreme care is losing its commonality at present. I have noticed accidents much more often with a handgun vs a rifle.

 

[Magnumite]

The handgun isn’t any more dangerous than a rifle, a shotgun or a large sharp knife. The cause of the mishaps are in your quote and underlined bold. If the rifle was handled less than the handgun the rifle would have been quoted as being more dangerous.

While I am beating this horse the poorest gun handling I have ever witnessed, and still witness, in a formal setting has been at trap, skeet, and sporting clays ranges. Most of those folks need to go back to their basic gun handling classes. What they do at those places would get others DQ’d and thrown out of handgun and rifle matches. So again it is the operator, not the tool.

Want to witness real stupidity and mishandling, watch youtube and what people do with cell phones.

“MANY YEARS of training experience where I have seen senior ranking military members (typically officers) who come out to qualify on their assigned pistol and are offenders of handgun mishandling.”

 

[Cal68]

I want to thank @FFBWMD for putting a huge smile on my friend's son's face yesterday. I had him shoot the pistol a bunch under the guise of making sure my new gun was reliable. After he was sufficiently enamored and we were packing it up for the day I said oh hey by the way this is yours for working your ass off at my place. I like making kids happy.

Not to discount the other offers made in this thread at all Brian just had the right tool for this job. I'm appreciative to all who responded.

Brian is a great guy and I am very happy to hear that he helped to make you and your friend's son happy. And you deserve a lot of credit too for buying your friend's son a pistol. Kudos all around.

Cal68