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Buying your first handgun can prove a very daunting experience. As well as being quite expensive to purchase you are faced with deciding from the many different makes and models which one you should buy. In this article we take a look at the kinds of handguns you can now purchase along with the kind of trigger they may be fitted with.

Style 1 – Revolver

This is the type of handgun that we would normally associate with cowboys. It has a cylinder into which the bullets (ammunition) is placed and rotates. Normally these types of guns have the ability to hold either 5 to 7 rounds of ammunition in each cylinder. After one bullet has been fired the chamber then rotates to allow a fresh one to be brought into the firing position. Although these ones are much slower to reload you will find that with a revolver, as they have far less moving parts, they are far easier to maintain and also the risk of having problems feeding ammunition for firing is less.

Style 2 – Pistol

Most people now refer to this weapon as an automatic but in fact they should be referred to as a semi-automatic or autoloader. With this type of weapon once fired a bullet will then automatically be loaded from the magazine attached. The magazines of these types of handguns are able to hold ten rounds or more, however there are some which only have the ability to hold 7 to 8 rounds. These are of course much easier to reload than the revolver but require a great deal more care as they have a larger number of moving parts. As there are so many more moving parts in these weapons then the risk of problems arising as the gun reloads is far greater.

Once you have decided on what style of handgun you wish to invest money in, of course the next thing you need to determine is what style of trigger it comes with.  So to help you make a decision in this respect we look at the styles of triggers these weapons are fitted with.

Trigger Style 1 – Single Action

The simplest of them all and as the name suggests it performs one operation at a time so that the hammer can be released to strike the firing pin. You will either need to cock the trigger manually or in the case of a semi automatic, by action of the slide. A handgun fitted with this trigger cannot be fired until the hammer has been cocked. Deer hunting.

Trigger Style 2 – Double Action

This is a much more complicated trigger mechanism in that it is capable of performing two operations at one time. It is able to release the hammer so that the firing pin can be striked just as with single action trigger.  However this one is also able to cock the hammer even when it hasn’t already been cocked. In fact a handgun that is fitted with a double action trigger can be fired when the hammer has not been cocked manually just by pulling on the trigger.