What kind of gun can I buy with....

Well there is not a whole lot out there, and I learned the hard way that you get what you pay for. My first pistol was bought in a hurry when I worked in a bad neighborhood. I bought a Cobra .380 for $125. I sent it back to the factory 5 times to get it fixed before I had enough and traded it in. I traded that for a Kel-Tec .32 cal which was decent but priced at $275. It was a good little gun but not the best. If you are going to buy a gun for $150 and don't have the time to save up more money, try for a revolver. Or as a previous member said, a Hi Point. A .38 special or 9 mm would be the smallest calibers I would use. Good luck, and I hope you never have to use whatever you buy. I forgot to mention that f you are looking on-line, Armslist.com is an awesome website. It gives you a local and statewide search of all of the guns for sale in your area. It has some from private parties or dealers and good search options. I check the listings every day and bought my 1911 from a poster on thae site

I'd have to agree that your price range - even for decent used hand guns is a bit low - however...

Texas isn't Virginia but...I'd be willing to be that there is one or more sites such as this one in Texas that offers direct sales of used weapons from owner to purchaser
www.vaguntrader.com...

IF you go this route - make sure you can provide (at the very least) a voter reg card to assure the owner that you're not a felon - AND insist on a Bill Of Sale - it protects BOTH of you!

Luck!

I have no idea what the last few pages told you...but for my money id go buy an older 45 acp goverment model.
I was picking up these 45s a while back for 100 bucks each surplus prices.
They all functioned but i picked the best of the bunch and bought twentyfive or so.
No im keeping them!
I suggest you pick a decent one and fix it up yourself with a new barrel etc when you have more dough.
The colt 1913 govt model is still as good as a gun gets, and it wont penetrate walls easily like 9mm and other calibers.
If you go with this plan check out surplus guns and pwan shopd etc.
Surely you know somebody with a few to spare?

Save a couple hundred more and get yourself a decent handgun. If you are looking for home protection then get yourself a shotgun, if you are looking for all around capability save some more and get yourself a decent .357, thats just my opinion, plenty of intelligent posters here. It really comes down to you.

I'll throw my hat in the ring for a Hi-Point as well. Since cost is an issue I would stick to the 9mm as it's half the price of 45acp or 40s&w ammo. Below is a link to what you can expect to pay for the pistol, as well as a video review by a popular YouTube reviewer who came away impressed by the pistol after not expecting much from it.


www.budsgunshop.com...

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by 8ILlBILl8


save your money and buy a 45

I'm going to throw in my .02 cents here and recommend a CZ 82 or CZ 83 ... you can get them for around 220 plus shipping and transfer ... (so figure about 300 total) YES I know this is DOUBLE what you "want" to spend but realistically $150 just won't get you much.

I have several cz pistols none of which cost me over 300 dollars and all of which shoot just as good as much more expensive options. Honestly I have got rid of all my more expensive pistols in favor of these cheap reliable and beautiful little pistols.

On the 1911 .45 acp many have recommended... All I can say is to get a DECENT .1911 style .45 you're looking at 500 to 1100 BARE MINIMUM which is way out of your price range! And beyond that 1911 style .45's can be finicky beasts better suited for those that like to tinker with their guns as much as shoot them.

My advice is to look online for your cz 82 or 83 (one week's good deal will be next week's high price) and DO NOT buy from gunbroker! There's just plain better deals out there .... only use gunbroker if you're willing to pay a premium to have EXACTLY what you want RIGHT NOW. (And in your case where budget is more important it's best to shop around carefully and slowly.)

Bottom line: As many other posters have pointed out... you get what you pay for, but there are good deals to be had.

I recommend a hi-point pistol. Though they are big and bulky plus weigh a ton, the pistols can be bought for under a 150 bucks brand new. They come in all popular handgun calibers. I have owned about ten of them in the past but make great cheap pistols for stashing around your house for those SHTF situations. I have only had two jams out of a 9mm I had 5yrs ago that my brother ran over with my truck during deer season when I sat my rifle and pistol down by a tree. Other than those two jams from stove piping it was all good with the thousands of rounds put downrange with that gun and several other hi-point pistols in different calibers. I will warn you they are heavy pistols and bulky for a semiauto pistol.

reply to post by 8ILlBILl8


if you live in a bad neighborhood just be careful of where you go and when you go there. i think a gun is a bad idea. if you get backed into a corner, then fight. if you get robbed, then give them your money. getting your ass beat and/or your money taken is better than being dead or being a murderer yourself. there is no glory in violence.

I just sold my S & W .357 6" barrel for $150....so its not impossible to find one. But, you set the price...and you do say you ve some experience with guns. If so, then you'd know that the price you want to spend is low. So why not save a few more dollars?

You'll get what you pay for, right? You know that? I guess just go with used....you can find all kinds. Good luck.

Honestly, if you have to ask what kind of handgun you can get with 150 bucks, you should probably take a couple of classes on firearm safety, and possible hit the range a few times before you purchase one. You aren't going to get anything quality with 150 bucks, and the last thing that you want is your method of defense jamming when SHTF. A great place to find guns locally is armslist. Google armslist, and then select your area and go from there. Also look into local gun trader forums, not only can you find good deals, but you can learn about what you are buying.

Google Cobray DD pistol
Side by side .410/.45 Long Colt
Strong ..can handle 3 in .410 magnums
Cheap ..can be bought online
I carry it everywhere in a fanny pack.
Wicked recoil..but it will blow a big hole in someone..Last ditch save your life gun..it will do the job !

I personaly do not trust cheap automatics..Revolvers can be found used...min.cal. is .38 or bigger
Stick with a name brand on that.
I live in Texas..get your permit to carry ..you will spend 300 for that but it beats going to jail for carrying without a lisence !!

I own roughly 20+ guns. It started out same as you just wanting to have a pistol for self protection and to take fishing with me because I fish overnight for catfish on the river and there are coyotes in my area that aren't too afraid of people. They are starting to walk right into the suburbs at dawn and dusk.

Anyway, I paid $120 for a Hi-Point C9 in 9mm. I had 1 jam in 3 years of carrying it and that happened when I purchased a box of All American reloaded ammo that cost $8 a box.
Luckily that was at the range and I never bought that ammo again. Other than that box of ammo I've never had a problem with it. Winchester, Remington, Wolf, Czech republic surplus, PMC, every other ammo I've used has worked just fine.

I was so impressed with that cheap little "tackle box" gun, that I bought another in .40 S&W. Again I started open carrying that one when hiking and fishing and never had a problem.
So I bought another one in .45 acp.

Then I bought one of their 9mm carbine rifles. Never had a problem. For a couple years that 9mm carbine was the gun my friends asked me to bring when we went shooting for fun because it was so easy to shoot and was bigger than .22. With a multi-reticle dot sight that thing is real accurate out to about 80 yards. And fun to shoot.

After that I started buying "nicer" more expensive guns up to my current collection.

3 things you need to understand about a Hi-Point.

#1. It is UGLY. It is just about the most boring gun you will ever see.
#2. They are HEAVY. All of them, even the carbines weigh much more than they need to. This isn't a bad thing though. The weight is because the blow back operated block chambers are kind of huge for safety so they eat up alot of recoil.
#3. It will NOT go up in value. It's never going to be a sought after collectors item or something you can use to trade up for later. Once you buy it, cut its value down to a third of what you paid and unless you lie to someone down the road, you'll never get your money back out of it.

You also never have to worry about them getting scratched or dropped or dirty. They have plastic triggers with a poor pull and much of the internal parts are sonic welded into the polymer base so you can't really tweak it or take it apart easily either.

Other than that they are affordable, they work well and you don't have to pamper them like you do some other fire arms.

Don't let people poo poo your budget. As long as the gun does what it needs to do, how much you paid for it is only important to you.

Not all cheap guns are bad and even the best guns can jam. 9mm and up are guaranteed *one shot stoppers* but with such a low budget all you can do is get a used gun and have it looked at by a gunsmith to ensure reliability.

If you want a new gun you can get a hipoint, phoenix arms, cobra, jennings, bryco, etc. Some manufacturers went out of business and some changed their names, so you have to research this more. I am simply giving you ideas. The problem with mouse guns is unless you are really accurate you will die faster than the person who shoots second due to hydrostatic shock theory.

Anyway regardless what gun you buy, it must be maintained and you should read the manual first.

For 150 or less you're looking at a derringer. they run 125+. If you want a small semi-auto I do reccomend an old surplus makarov (9x18), theyre the best deal you're going to find. Full sized pistol, look into a tokarev TT (7.62x25) plenty of power my friend