Hopefully by year's end

What would you recommend?

Depends. Do you like Hard Mode?

If I'm target practicing, sure

If I need it for self defense, probably not

A Mosin Nagant is a rather simple gun, easy to understand.

Able to put a solid dent in a quarter-inch thick steel plate

Mmm

No room for a scope, only iron sights.

Cheap.

But it fires about 60 cents down range every shot, and only holds 5 cartridges.

Still, another benefit is that it's a gun you can actually break down to components to inspect

And that, I feel, is an important learning experience, when trying to learn and understand guns.

Yeah. I'm subscribed to Forgotten Weapons as well, so I've learned a lot of the basics of firearms disassembly from that

I was thinking I'd probably get a rifle and a handgun first

I made a point of getting a rifle, handgun, and shotgun.

My dad has a shotgun that I'll probably inherit from him. Granted, it's 14 gauge and we have no idea who the manufacturer is

bolt-action with a 3 round mag

I've got an Ithica Featherlight.

Cool thing about it is, it's capable of 'Slam Fire'.

If I hold down the trigger and pump the slide

I can fire as fast as I pump.

as soon as the slide hits the break, it fires.

Yeah, nice

My Handgun is a Walther PPQ 22.

Walthers are good, from what I know

Yeah. I mostly bought it because they're ballsy enough to advertise with Crowder.

lol, true

and it was only a $300 gun.

I soon found out, though, that I might've wanted to save up for the more expensive model.

I figure when I get a handgun I'll probably go Walther or HK - those are the two that I'm used to from Airsoft

It's a good gun for learning, but .22 LR is a rimfire cartridge

and I can't take my CHL test with rimfire, for some reason...

That's odd

Of course, the other nice thing about Walther is that so long as they keep making Bond films, they're basically guaranteed never to go out of business

Still, advice I'll give you on getting your first gun, If you're wanting to learn to shoot, and don't want to blow through a wad of cash practicing

9mm PPQ?

Get a rifle that fires .22 LRs

they're about 7 cents a shot.

That's pretty good

If you're wanting to go shooting, and you want to feel the pain every time you miss