By this point, it’s fair to say that I’m hooked. Like 100% on board and hooked. I needed my own firearm. I started with poring over websites, trying to decide what kind of gun is fit to be my first gun. A person only gets one first gun, after all and it should be perfect. It needed to be something that had a good weight. It needed to be comfortable in my hand. The slide had to be easy to run. And probably the most important part? It had to look cool.
How many subjective variables can one put into a search?
Shuffling off to gun stores, it was time to put hands on some guns. Went into one store and stared into the glass case. When I got there, the store was fairly busy, so since I had no intention on buying i stood back and just looked on, feeling like a fish out of water. I mean, seriously? All the people who were there earlier were younger men and there’s me. The dude working the counter asked if I had any questions. “Well, that depends,” I began. “I have no intention on buying anything today, but I’m trying to sort out and narrow down what I’m looking for.” I expected to be directed to looking through the glass. I was surprised to hear that they didn’t care if I was going to buy, and asked what would I like to see. Wow. Umm, something in a 9?
Something in a 9 is still a broad category. Not a revolver. Slight narrowing of the pool. I told the dude I had no idea what I was looking for, and I guess this was proof. The first one he pulled out of the case was a Shield. Popular choice, perfect for concealed carry. Remember how I said that there’s too many subjective variables in picking a firearm? One of those is the wow factor. I wasn’t wowed. The barrel was stubby (for obvious reasons), and I don’t have intention to get my concealed carry permit. It didn’t look cool. We talked about what I’ve used and what I liked about them. I liked the .45 and the .40 because it had weight. I like how the heavier guns sat in my hand. I liked the ease of the Glock in running the slide.
He handed me a CZ. That was super stiff. The Springfield was just ok. The Sig was nice. Then he handed me the M9. I knew from looking at pictures that the M9 had the cool factor. I was not expecting to find that once it was in my hand it had the good weight factor. When I went to rack it, the slide moved like it was happy to be there. Holy hell. I may have just found my gun. He hands me the 92FS, virtually the same gun, but minor grip changes. The 92FS was supposed to be more inclusive of smaller hands, which I have.
I’m curious to this day if he handed me the 92FS first if I would have had that cloud parting, planetary alignment, ah ha that I had with the M9. The difference in the grip is slight. It’s noticeable, but slight.
The M9 had me at hello, though.
Yup. Had me at me at hello.