Quality .22 ammunition is under $.03/round and offers both negligible recoil and great accuracy.  Which makes it the ideal cartridge for target training.

Of course, since it’s hazardous to shoot a gun without a suppressor, you will probably want to buy a pistol that can be easily adapted to use a suppressor.  I actually shopped for my suppressor first.

Suppressor

Given the hassle and cost in acquiring a suppressor, I figured it would be wise to get a removable (threaded) can in case I wanted to use it on different guns.  Which made this an easy choice: The current standard in removable baffle .22 suppressors is the $300 Gemtech Outback-II.  As with any “Class III” NFA device, you have to pay an extra $200 to the feds and wait months for the BATFE to review your fingerprints and transfer application.  And if you live in one of the sixteen states that forbid private ownership of suppressors, all you can do right now is petition your government to stop restraining your right to own this safety accessory.

Gun

A lot of people buy Walther P22’s, which cheaply and easily accommodate a threaded end for attaching a suppressor.  But after reading some reviews criticizing the accuracy and trigger on that model, I decided to step up to either a Ruger Mark III or Browning Buck Mark.  And between these two the deciding factor was the following: The Ruger design integrates the receiver with the barrel, which means that the barrel itself falls under all of the federal firearms restrictions, and therefore any replacement threaded barrel would have to be purchased through a FFL dealer.  In contrast, the Buck Mark barrels completely detach from the gun so they aren’t regulated.

I bought a Buck Mark Camper – the model with the cheapest barrel I could find – for $275.  Then I paid another $200 for a 4″ aluminum-clad “Trail-Lite” barrel with a threaded end, from Tactical Solutions.  I could have instead paid $100 to have Gemtech (or many other gunsmiths) thread the original barrel, but the Trail-Lite has the distinct advantage of significantly reducing the weight forward of the trigger, so that gun stays very balanced even with the silencer hanging off the front.

I was originally thinking of getting a longer barrel to increase accuracy.  The problem is that longer barrels increase muzzle velocity.  Regular .22s shoot right around the speed of sound, and as soon as a bullet breaks the sound barrier it adds a “sonic crack” to the sound signature, which a suppressor cannot control.  The goal with this gun is to keep the bullet subsonic, and my final configuration delivers: I chronographed dozens of Federal 40gr Champion High Velocity rounds at just over 1000fps, with a stdev of just 7fps.  (The speed of sound in standard atmospheric conditions is 1100fps.)  And in the end, this setup seems to be as accurate as a shooter can be with conventional notch-and-post sights.

In order to enhance indoor, low-light shooting I upgraded the standard black front sight post with a $30 HiViz fiber sight.  It stands taller than the regular sight, but still within the range of the standard rear sight’s adjustment.  For practicing at home I bought a $50 “Do-All Bullet Box“, which reliably traps .17 and .22 rimfire bullets.  I shoot only in my garage, and would seriously recommend against shooting in living spaces: .22 bullets are typically unjacketed balls of soft lead, which spall when they impact anything, leaving shards of lead everywhere.  It’s easy to dump this out of the bullet box, but some of it is going to be vaporized into the air.  Also, even though the suppressor traps most of the propellant gas that normally blasts out the muzzle, there is plenty of leakage out the ejection port and one can smell it when I’m done shooting in the garage.

The gun itself is a pleasure to shoot.  It has nice beefy grips (though these would not be well suited to shooters with smaller hands), and a light, crisp trigger with minimal travel and reset.  The magazines can be painful to load without a $4 speedloader, so be sure to pick one up.

Shortcomings

This is the hardest gun I have to clean, which is a shame because it’s also the cheapest to shoot, and also because unjacketed .22 rimfire seems to be the dirtiest ammunition this side of black powder.  Cleaning requires unscrewing two screws and dislodging the recoil spring from the rear post and then the plastic firing-pin assembly from the slide.  None of these steps are easy to do.  And you’re still left with that rear post on the frame, which prevents you from easily cleaning the barrel from the breach end without undoing a third screw to completely remove it.  (And I read reviews that said this is easier to clean than a Ruger!)

9mm is the cheapest defense round you can buy, with FMJ cartridges widely available for under $.10 apiece.  The Glock 17 or its slightly smaller, more concealable sibling, the model 19, are the best way to carry and shoot this round.

The Glock semi-auto design is so simple, so widely recognized, and so thoroughly proven, that this pistol wins based not only on simplicity but also on ubiquity and durability.  The polymer frame keeps it very light.  The slide is also the only semi-auto with a factory spring light enough for my wife to reliably cycle.  Cleaning, if necessary at all, is a cinch:  You remove the slide, pop out the recoil spring, remove the barrel, scrub and lube them all, and then put it back together.  Show above is a first generation Glock 17 from the mid 1980’s.  I don’t know how many thousands of rounds have gone through it, but that’s the extent of its cleaning, and I can’t remember ever having a non-operator-induced malfunction.

You can buy a new Glock for under $500.  Put tritium sights on it for another $100.  Get a holster, load up its 17-round magazines with cheap ammunition, and get to a range to hone your skills.  For defensive use, especially if you don’t have a military or police background, you owe it to yourself to get some professional training.  Local NRA-affiliated organizations or shooting clubs should be able to steer you in the right direction.  (I qualified expert on the M9 in the Air Force, and subsequently spent 3 productive days at the SigArms Academy’s Concealed Carry course for civilians.)

There are a plethora of semi-automatic pistols on the market.  Right off the bat I rule out any with an external safety: A well-designed handgun is drop-safe, so it doesn’t need a manual safety.  The gun’s operator keeps the gun safe by keeping it holstered, and when it is unholstered the operator keeps it safe by not pulling the trigger unless he wants to discharge a round.  I also rule out guns with exposed hammers or double actions: These are unnecessary complications that may be fine for competitive shooters, but which should not be brought into the equation for civilians just trying to acquire or maintain basic competency.

The only drawback to the Glock series is that it uses “double-stack” magazines, which means the grips are larger and not suited to people with small hands.  If you have small hands, find a single-stack gun that fits you — that’s more important than any other feature.

Finally, if you don’t already have a safe, buy one of these and bolt it into a cupboard or closet.  (You can find them on Gunbroker.com for under $100.)

Update: this is a photo of a third generation Glock 17. Its frame has more aggressive grip moldings as well as a front rail for attaching lights and laser sights — in this case a Streamlight TLR-2 unit that combines both.