GD714: I'm afraid the focus of my research has been on mainstream police favorite brands and makes. I have no direct or 2nd hand experience with the baby eagles. Sorry. It better be pretty good for the $500 price tag. Because they have polygonal rifling you cannot use lead bullets. You must use the jacketed type (no big deal). Make sure it's smooth and you can operate all of the controls without compromising your grip on the gun. Good luck.
http://www.magnumresearch.com/old/babyeagle.html
MARK IN NE: Both the Sigs and H+K's are very reliable and an owner of either will probably mention them as one of their favorites. With Taurus, however, I have ahd a different experience. I wanted a large frame, high-capacity, 9mm (back when I didn't know any better). I liked the Berreta 92FS, but saw the Taurus PT92, which looks very similar, and bought it since it was $100 cheaper. Bad move. The trigger was very squishy, the adjustable sights were garbage, and it was very sensitive to magazine problems. Even the one that came with it from the factory would cause frequent jams.
The safety configuration also was not a good arrangement for defense under pressure. The thumb operated safety lever has three positions: up=on-safe, center=off-safe (fire), and the momentary down position is a decocker. I found that with the safety on(up), when I went to push it down to the fire position, I tended to go too far. It wouldn’t actually decock the pistol, but when the trigger was pulled, the firing pin block from the decocker was in place preventing the gun from firing. When faced with an intruder, this would be bad. "Click" is NOT the sound you want to hear.
http://www.taurususa.com/pt99.html
I would have to recommend against this taurus semi-auto model, but I do like their revolvers. If you like the look of it, put out the cash for a berreta. Both Taurus and berreta make the same gun in 40 cal.
RAZORHUNTER: If the home defense scenario will be a strong factor, you may want to consider a handgun that sports a utility rail for mounting a high-intensity flashlight. Several makers include these on their guns. H+K and Glock are two that come to mind. The gun-mounted flashlights are expensive. If you don't care to invest in one of these, at least keep a bright, focused hand-held flashlight where you keep your gun. This can help you identify an intruder, and keep you from shooting a member of your family accidentally. Being able to determine if the person is armed is also of great value. It may keep you from having to shoot an intruder and simplify the legalities after the fact.
Also, I highly recommend tritium night sights on any home-defense gun. Although they do NOT help identify your target, they WILL give a positive fix on exactly where your gun is pointed. This may enable you to take a precise head-shot in the dark if, God forbid, you are ever presented with a hostage situation where the police have not arrived yet and the intruder gives you no choice. Better to have the ability and the tools than to leave the decision to him.
The .40 and .45 calibers are very proven man-stoppers. Hard to go wrong with either one. If you do decide to go with a single action cocked-and-locked 1911 style .45 pistol, buy a newer one. Some of the older ones you find at gun shows do feed hollowpoints very well. They can be gunsmithed to work adequately, but for the same money or less you could have a new one. Kimber, Springfield, and Colt($) are good choices in this catagory. Even thought this style of action has about the best trigger pull you're going to find, I'm not really big fan of keeping my gun's main-spring (for the hammer) under tension the entire time the gun in service ready to use. If you have the same concern, but still like this style, you can just load up the magazine and leave the chamber empty. Simply cycle the slide before firing, and keep your finger off the trigger. They have about a 3 to 5 pound pull, which is pretty light. For home defense this might work OK, but to carry, I would keep one in the chamber no matter which action or brand I chose.
Keep 'em all in the Bull.
Edited by - bulzeye on 01/28/2002 16:36:26