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JTarrou  1yr ago (text post)   4226 thread views

I'm a "gun guy", AMA

A couple people had expressed interest in this topic, and I have a bit of extra time for a couple days, so here goes:

Bona fides: I am a former infantry NCO and sniper, hunter, competitive shooter, reloader, hobby gunsmith, sometimes firearms trainer and currently work in a gun shop, mostly on the paperwork/compliance side. Back in the day, was a qualified expert with every standard small arm in the US inventory circa 2003 (M2, 4, 9, 16, 19, 249, 240B, 21, 24, 82 etc.), and today hang around the 75th percentile of USPSA classifications. I've shot Cap-and-Ball, Trap and Sporting Clays badly; Bullseye and PRS somewhat better and IDPA/USPSA/UML/Two-gun with some local success. Been active in the 2A community since the mid-90s, got my first instructor cert in high school, and have held a CPL for almost twenty years now.

I certainly don't claim to be an expert in every aspect of firearms, there's huge areas that escape my knowledge base, but if you've got questions I'll do my best to answer.

Technical questions

Gun control proposals for feasibility

Industry

Training

Wacky opinions

General geekery

Some competition links (not my own) just for the interested.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=U5IhsWamaLY&t=173

https://youtube.com/watch?v=93nEEINflXE

https://youtube.com/watch?v=utcky0zq10E

https://youtube.com/watch?v=xVh4CjbgK7s

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0IK2RUxVq3A

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I've never fired a gun in my life. My dad owned some guns but never shared them with me. I've got it in my head that I should own a shotgun, rifle, and handgun, and learn to use them.

My questions:

Is my pistol/rifle/shotgun trio dumb? Which one of the three is best to start with?

Speaking of starting, what's the first place I should when I decide to actually move forward?

And finally, my biggest concern is storage. My state has storage laws, I think, and my wife has concerns, I know. My dad has a locked closet in the basement with his guns (50 years old at least), what should I expect to use?

I've never fired a gun in my life. My dad owned some guns but never shared them with me.

..how did that happen.

Three guns triples your cost, and the training will be somewhat different for each platform. I'd pick whichever one you want the most and learn to use that before branching out. Long guns (rifles and shotguns) will be easier to learn to shoot than handguns.

Starting out, I'd either take a class in basic safety/operations or find someone you know to run you through the basics.

Storage is mostly in safes. You can get relatively cheap ones for a couple hundred bucks, basically just big metal cabinets with good locks.

It's very hard to go wrong starting with a plinker 22 rifle, since you'll inevitably end up with one anyway. Fun, cheap to feed, good for basic riflery practice, and handy for farm use. Mine got more rounds through it than everything else put together before that tragic day on the lake.

Everything else can sort of build off of that.

You can get a safe, but iirc trigger locks bolted to something solid meet most(?) storage requirements to the extent I pay attention to them. (Note: this is not legal, practical, or even informed advice)

Safes are expensive, I don't have one.

It's very hard to go wrong starting with a plinker 22 rifle, since you'll inevitably end up with one anyway.

Well, if you're rich.

Poorer armies used airguns to train marksmanship, and I personally like airguns and laser cartridges / targets.

Especially the latter allows you to train drawing, sighting and firing indoors, with little hassle.

With airguns, usually you can just shoot whenever, in most sane countries, guns require travel and range fees.

True, the balistics are nothing much, but there are accurate models out there, and if you shoot 2 MOA at a coin sized target 30m away, it's almost the same as shooting 2 MOA at something man sized 300m away...

I'll also note that you should never let anyone know you have a gun safe in public, disguise it when you bring it in, etc. Massive robbery target.

Very much this. Especially in formerly high trust societies.

Do not tell people you own guns. Don't post pictures of that, don't mention it on social media, make sure kids know it and don't talk about it either.

If you've never shot a gun, you should start by trying to shoot a rifle. It is significantly more manageable than a pistol. Many ranges offer rentals, and I'd try renting an AR-15 or a small-caliber bolt-action before making any purchases.

Your best bet for learning is probably talking to an experienced shooter. Many of us like to introduce newbies. If that's not an option, look for classes. Handgun classes are the most common, but many ranges do offer "basics" for handguns or rifles.

What's your intended use case? There's nothing dumb about wanting to own multiple guns, especially for sport. If you have any expectation of needing one for self-defense, that changes the priorities.

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