20 Best Handguns

Washington Times internet posting here.  They show nice big pictures of 20 different handguns, nineteen of 'em automatic pistols, and one snub nosed revolver chambered for a ridiculous load.  The automatics are a mix of full sized service pistols and tiny belly guns.  Most of 'em were just under $500, which is significant money for most of us.
   First time buyers should be aware that it is extremely difficult to hit anything with a pistol.  If you can find a pistol that fits your hand properly, you can vastly improve your chances of hitting the bad guy.  A story.  Back in USAF they issued us .38 revolvers for target practice and qualification.  The issue revolvers were in miserable shape.  All the checkering was worn off the wooden grips, the grips had been marinated in gun oil for 20 years and they were slippery.   Each shot made the grip twist in the hand, throwing your aim off for the next shot.  The grips were too small to get all your fingers around, my pinkie finger either waved free in air, or  slipped underneath the butt and damn near dislocated with each shot.  My target shooting was miserable with the issue .38
  Later, on a sandpit shooting afternoon, a friend let me shoot his commercial .38 revolver.  It had nice big wood grips, good sharp checkering, nice and dry, good smooth trigger, shot like a dream.
   Before you shell out $500 for a handgun, you want to shoot the thing, say twenty rounds, and see if it agrees with you.  Then think about revolvers.  A home defense gun  might spend 20 years in a night table drawer, loaded, unloved, unlubricated, but that one time something bad happens, you want it to work.  A double action (pulling the trigger cocks the hammer) revolver is good for this.  You just pull the trigger and the gun goes bang.  No safeties, no slide to work, no magazine releases to avoid.  And it stores loaded, and un cocked, all the springs uncompressed.  In automatics, the magazine spring is fully compressed when the magazine is loaded and the hammer or striker is cocked.  Over the years, compressed springs can weaken, or even break. 
   Pistols come in various sizes, too damn big (Dirty Harry's .44), service pistol (cop's holster gun) and pocket pistols.  Service pistols shoot best, they have enough weight to soak up the recoil of a decent load, a long enough sight radius to be easy to aim, big enough grips.  Unless you are planning to carry the gun in your pocket, there is no reason to mess around with pocket pistols.   They are harder to shoot, harder to get a hit with, and are often chambered for wimpy little loads that won't stop a bad guy, but just make him mad.
     You want a handgun chambered for a standard, widely available load.  These are .38 Special, 9 mm Luger, and .45 ACP.   There are a lot of other loads out there.  Any thing less than .38 special isn't big enough, anything more than .45 ACP is too damn big.   The lighter the gun, the harder it will kick, which throws your accuracy off.  The shorter the barrel, the fiercer the report.  For example, the classic 1911 .45 government model automatic pistol weighs 39 ounces, has a 5 inch barrel, and handles the big .45 ACP load reasonably well. I have seen ads for little pocket pistols weighing only 14 ounces, with 3 inch barrels chambered for .45.  I would not care to shoot one, too much kick, too loud a report.