While I’ve sent quite a few rounds through both a rifle and a shotgun, I haven’t spent much time with handguns. I decided to add one to my collection but which one to buy? I ended up with a Browning Buck Mark Camper UFX. It shoots .22 LR bullets which some view as kind of wimpy, but the big upside is that each bullet costs less than a nickel. If you’re shooting a 9mm, .45, or one of the more popular big sizes, you’ll be paying ~$0.40-0.60 per bullet. I read more than a few websites that said everyone should own a .22 handgun because it’s so cheap to shoot. Why spend lots of money learning with more expensive ammo? If you figure you’ll shoot 1000 rounds to learn how to shoot a handgun, you can buy a .22 handgun, 1000 .22 rounds AND a 9mm handgun for the price of a 9mm gun and 1000 9mm rounds.
I bought the gun at Cabela’s. Washington state imposes a 5 day waiting period on handguns but waives that if you have a Concealed Pistol License since you’ve already been through a huge background check. For some unknown reason, the quick background check that they always do when you buy a gun raised a little flag (maybe somebody fat-fingered data along the way?) so I had to wait two days to get the gun, but that wasn’t a huge deal.
Ammunition of any kind is difficult to find right now, but they sold me a box of 525 bullets that they keep in the back room for new gun owners. Score! It just so happened that 800 12-gauge shotgun shells that I had ordered two months before had finally arrived too so I walked out with quite a haul!
I look forward to getting to the range to try this gun out!