Thinking of purchasing your first firearm?

If you are new to firearms, you need to know the basic safety rules

1. Always treat every gun as loaded.
2. Never point a gun at anything you don’t intend to kill
3. Keep your finger off the trigger and outside of the trigger guard until you are ready to fire.
4. After picking up a firearm make sure it is unloaded.  Always open the chamber and make sure no cartridge is lurking therein.

Guns are made that shoot various different cartridges of vastly different powers, starting with .22 Long Rifle and working up to Dirty Harry’s 44 magnum and .223 and 30-30 and 30-06 and .308 Winchester and 12 gauge shotgun.  I can recommend firing the more potent cartridges before buying a gun chambered for them.  You may find that the report and recoil of the more potent cartridges is so bad that you cannot shoot them well.  In which case buy a gun chambered for a lesser cartridge that you can shoot well. 

    Guns need to fit you.  It’s like buying clothing.  Long guns want to have the correct length of stock, so that your trigger hand can reach the trigger comfortably.  Hand guns are pickier about feel.  I learned hand guns in the Air Force.  At the time, the Air Force issue handgun was a .38 caliber revolver of the sort the police used in those days.  That was one miserable gun to shoot.  The grip was too small, the grips were old and soaked in gun oil and slippery.  The piece would twist in my hand with each shot, making the second and third shots harder.  About that time I acquired an Army .45 automatic.  That was a joy to shoot; the grip filled my hand nicely, and was at the right angle to push straight back rather than twisting.  The piece was always just right in my hand for the next shot.  I strongly recommend getting to a range and shooting off a box of ammunition in the handgun you want to buy before laying out the money to buy it.  Long guns are not so critical; if the stock feels right in the store you will most likely be happy with it.   Little pocket pistols chambered for full house cartridges lack the weight to soak up the recoil and the short barrel creates an ear shattering report.   Full sized service pistols will serve you better with the full house cartridges.

   Once you have the gun, you need to shoot it if you expect to hit anything with it.  Once a month is good, a couple of times a year is the bare minimum.   Buy a pair of ear defenders and wear them.  Other wise the recoil and the report will shock you into a flinch that ruins your chances of hitting much of anything.  Use both hands to shoot a hand gun.  Before firing take a half breath and hold it.  Center the front sight on the target bullseye; line the front sight up in the rear sight. notch. Squeeze the trigger slowly and gently.  It should be a surprise when the gun fires.