I have started the lengthy process to legally own a handgun. In my dear little country, I must jump through a few hoops to do this. I need to join a pistol club, I am then on 6 months probation ( pistol club is $125 a year ) and need to do handgun specific safety course ( $55 and 8 hours, sheesh ) and compete 3 times in recognised comps ( and record and get signed off ) with a hired club gun, then I can buy 2 handguns in the first year after that ( one can be an air pistol one a real gun ) and must compete 6 times a year to keep it, or 4 times per additional gun per year. OKAY! tomorrow is my first time at firing a hand gun.. I have thought of some do`s, and of course don`ts , perhaps the good people here can add some more? # 1 would of course be no finger twirling ( cowboy style ) # 2 would be ( also in the cowboy idiom ) no hammer fanning. #3 ` are you talking to me??? #4 tapping myself on the chest when refering to myself in third person ie: ` Johnno looks after one guy ( taps chest with barrel ) Johnno. #5 Really, any movie quotes would be considered poor form I believe, so I`ll lump them under one roof, ` no movie quotes `. #6 especially not - ` FREEZE, DIRTBAG` .... #7 ` OOOH! a nail head stickin` up, I`ll deal wiff that, mang! and bang it in with the butt... Homer Simpson covered some ground on this topic, and thats me about dryed up...
that's not the road to handgun Heaven I have a bunch of handguns :right: no hoops, no competition, no BS..If I want to I can open up my safe and get any one of mine out and look at it because I live in the US of A
I will be able to as well L.D., once I do the steps. I did my first comp today, it was interesting. Been ages since I used open sights on a rifle let alone a revolver and my shot gun doesnt even have a bead, , well my double barrel does but I dont fire it hardly. I eventually started putting 5 .38`s thru one hole after a while ( I did a couple times anyway ) as I fired my last round I thought hey, I know what I am doing wrong, eh! Next time I`ll do better. Oh, being cack handed using a hired gun set up by a right handed person doesnt help either, but I`ll adapt .
Get into the habit of clearing it 3 times when you pick it up and when you're done with it! It sounds cool too! Unless you have a wheel gun of coarse. A bad thing to do is to clear a round out of an automatic and try to catch it, bad idea. A dude on an other forum did just that and the slide fired the round almost blowing his finger off. Does this help? Also, when you are clearing a revolver or loading one do not flip it shut for it stresses out the metal of the frame. You might not want to give somebody a flashlight and point the gun at them and ask them if they can see the round in the barrel. That is a BIG no no too! I'm a lefty too, not good for auto rifles.
"A bad thing to do is to clear a round out of an automatic and try to catch it, bad idea. "
I simply drop the mag (yeah, obvious, but even I have forgotten!), then rack the slide with my left hand, cupping it over the ejection port (finger OFF the trigger!) - the ejected round is easily palmed, and doesn't hit the ground. Easy, with a little practice.
The .357 revolver is great. Excellent versatility - from light .38 loads to the stout .357 Magnums, even shotloads for snakes and other close vermin.
With the range officer standing immediately behind you ( it`s his gun, you might as well say ) one doesnt flip the cylinder back in Eliott Ness style, `he`d prolly toe you up the coight if you did. No, I will just swap hands when clearing the spent shells, I was holding the revolver with my left hand ( cack handed is Australian for left handed btw ) and operating the ejector with my right. Few times I must have impeded the shells coming out with my knuckles, still I am a n00b so I will learn.
Hey Johnny, I'm a molly duker to, but my old man taught me to shoot right handed, he reckoned it looked 'kinda queer' using a right handed rifle left handed.
Good luck with the hand gun licence, I had a licence for a while, but never got around to buying a hand gun, couldn't see the point, gun clubs give me the poo's, and well I moved away and there wasn't a club close enough. so I handed the licence in.
__________________
OzHunter
Give me a six-pack and a red dirt open road (Adam Brand)
Mick, if you don`t have a handgun, you still have to compete to keep the H on ya licence? its the one thing I havent asked. I was never bothered by handguns, I had rifles and shotguns, but one day, in about 1987 I was waiting for my then girlfriend to finish work at a book shop and I was browsing, and I saw a big coffee table book with some brand of 1911, and a big .44 ruger redhawk... It was a beautiful piece, redwood handles and stainless steel, I was giddy with desire.. Now, after near 20 years I want one, always have but now I am acting on it while I am able... While the law says I can. Hunting is cool ( !!!! straight! ) but its a once or twice a year thing, I work with my autistic son and his normal ( for the want of a better word ) brother and most of my time is not my own. I want to, every couple weeks, go to the indoor range and lose myself in concentration trying to improve my aim. To not think of anything but making one hole with 5 rounds. And knock steel pigs and chickens etc over at the outdoor range every once in a while.I`d say I`d take my handgun out the sticks too but thats against the law, isnt it? but there IS a range on the way.... heh heh heh
Hey Johnny, I'm a molly duker to, but my old man taught me to shoot right handed, he reckoned it looked 'kinda queer' using a right handed rifle left handed.
I used to shoot left-handed also, until I got me a sidelock Muzzleloader. I got tired of collecing shrapnel from the cap in the face.
I have shot pistols with either hand since I was a kid, and it is certainly a thing that I would reccomend that people learn to do, especially if the purpose of having the gun is self-defence.
__________________ Chuck Norris -Now try to beat that signature!
I am extremely left handed... I eat and use a shovel right handed, and thats that! Some tasks I have had to evolve to, but for everything else, its upside down for me!
Hey Johhny, my H licence expired last year, I didn't own a handgun, and in the 5 years I had the licence I went to the range probably 10 or 12 times, and never competed I used to just rock up and fire off a box of .22's from the range gun, and then go to the pub with the fellas. I never had any nasty letters from the law, but I reckon it'd be different if I had a handgun.
Oh yeah it is definitley illegal to hunt with a handgun.
__________________
OzHunter
Give me a six-pack and a red dirt open road (Adam Brand)
Mick: I was aware it is illegal to hunt with a hand gun, I dont think it ever was any other way. Regarding the licence / the law ( Mr. Plod ) due to extremely bad planning my firearms licence expired, I got a letter like 6 months later. I rectified it all, I might add it cost me a bit and was a LOT of trouble to go thru, but it was some time during the process a pleece man came to see me. I think the so called " special squad specifically assigned to firearms licencing and gun safes " is one guy, in my town anyway.. The average cop behind the counter doesnt know to much about the gun laws and requirments. I`m not suggesting anyone try to rort them, just what I have found. I have had to walk the cop serving me thru the processes of permits to aquire twice. The lady at the police station near me, not the ones in town, is VERY clued up on firearms laws, but she isnt a cop, thank god she`d be a real ball breaker.