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In 9mm's I'm impressed with the small Taurus and the Kahr line of 9mm's. I personally don't like the Glocks because the only way you can decock one of them is to remove the magazine, empty the chamber, and then drop the firing pin. Otherwise you're stuck in SA mode after the first shot. The SIGs are nice too, if you can afford them.

Do you own a good .357 revolver?

"I personally don't like the Glocks because the only way you can decock one of them is to remove the magazine, empty the chamber, and then drop the firing pin."

Huh? The Glock's firing pin is put into a "halfcocked" position when a round is chambered. A pull of the trigger fully cocks and then releases the firing pin. If you don't pull the trigger it won't shoot. If you drop a Beretta or other autos with a cocked hammer it may go off. The trigger pull on the Glock remains constant from the first round to the last. My Glock 23 has been kept loaded with a chambered round for over ten years and still functions perfectly. Having fired most of the automatics that are on the market (I'm a gun dealer) I would put the Glock first overall. BTW, Glocks should only be carried in a holster that covers the trigger.

You cannot decock a Glock at all. That is because the striker is never fully cocked until you apply pressure to the trigger. The first 1/4" of take-up is what pulls the striker back to firing position. Doing what you descibed will allow the striker to move to the forward most position, but as soon as you chamber a round, the striker is positioned back on the trigger. It is not cocked at that point though.

I personally don't like the Glocks because the only way you can decock one of them is to remove the magazine, empty the chamber, and then drop the firing pin. Otherwise you're stuck in SA mode after the first shot.

If you want to decock a Glock after firing it, just let go of the trigger. One of the brilliant and unique features of the Glock is that it combines the best attributes of a SA/DA and DAO pistols. The first shot on a Glock is a moderately-long trigger pull; not as long as many DAO's, but longer than a 1911. If the trigger is not released fully after each shot, however, follow-on shots may be fired with an extremely short trigger pull as the gun will remain cocked between shots. Releasing the trigger fully, however, will decock the gun to the point that the striker spring no longer has enough energy to fire a round.

No...the only guns I currently have are a Ruger .44 Mag rifle and a 410 shotgun.

I may have to take a closer look at the SIG...I didn't check the price tags, but the Beretta and Glock were around $500 - $600.

Is the SIG much more expensive?

"the only way you can decock one of them is to remove the magazine, empty the chamber, and then drop the firing pin. Otherwise you're stuck in SA mode after the first shot."

I've been teaching the Glock since 1989, and I've never heard such a lack of understanding of the Glock in my life. If you want to "de-cock" a Glock, TAKE YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER! The striker returns to rest, and that's it. As to SA mode, the Glock is considered a double-action only weapon per BATF. The Glock is the single, most reliable handgun mankind has developed since the combination of gunpowder and projectiles. My issue Beretta, on the other hand, is the biggest piece of crap in the handgun world. When the left-ear of the locking block starts cracking, if not caught, will shear off, locking up the gun completely. If a gunfight is NOT the time to nave a three-pound paperweight! As a Federal Officer, I work for about the only agency (one of 22 combined recently, post-911, that mandate a single weapon, and the Beretta 96 is it. If we, the agency firearms instructors had anything to say about it, Glocks would be on every hip here. The legacy officers of our sister agency, now we're all one, are wearing Glocks, and we'd LOVE to see that extended to the rest of us who came to the new agency, burdered with this boat-anchor of a gun.

Hamersly