Keeping skills up on my own time

[Colin Parkinson]

The .22cal is the perfect firearm calibre to introduce people to shooting with. Please don't give them a 44mag for their first shot, that's the best way to turn people off shooting. I let my wife shoot the .22cal and I had to fight her to get it back.

 

[Mike Baker]

I let my wife shoot the .22cal and I had to fight her to get it back.

Never fight the person who has the gun

But shooting a .22 is awsome. I remember the first time I did with my father when I was eight. I never wanted to stop  ;D

 

[BernDawg]

I started with a .22 several years ago (several other cals since)  and have cycled 1000's of rounds through my 10/22.  If it does nothing else it provides confidence around weapons.  Although I'm not a "crack shot" I am very comfortable around firearms and I can attribute this to 100's of hours on the range before I joined and after.

 

[Moltar]

If you can deal with the price/paperwork, I definitely recommend an AR pattern rifle.  It allows you not only to train marksmanship, but to work on all the drills (IA's etc.) with are specific to your service weapon.  A few years back, I picked up a Norinco CQ 311 (a chinese AR-15 knock-off) for under $700, and though I wouldn't entrust my life to it, I found it to be an entirely accurate and useful tool for practice.  Now that I can (sort of) afford it, I've upgraded to a Colt AR-15A3 carbine.  Now that's a fine piece of kit!  ;D

 

[Munxcub]

Oh absolutely, the AR-15 would offer so much more in terms of "skills maintenance" over just shooting. But like you said, cost is high for the good ones so the 10/22 sounds like a more feasible starting point. And if I can introduce my wife to shooting and get her into it, it would make getting an AR-15 that much easier.

 

[NavyShooter]

I'll second/third/etc the suggestion to buy yourself a decent .22 so that you can get some inexpensive practice time to work on your skills.  The marksmanship principles still carryover.  A Ruger 10/22 is much fun, and you should see what you can do with them....I'll have to dig out a picture for you. 

The thing about buying one rifle, is that one turns into two very quickly, which turns into 3, and hey, that other one looks so nice and shiny, why not make it 5 or 6? 

Be prepared that if you go down the road of gun ownership, you're unlikely to only own one firearm.

There's some good shooting available in the Pet area from what I understand, so it's just a matter of meeting the right folks.  Some hang out here, so they'll be able to help you when the time comes.

Now, something that you may want to look into once you buy an AR-15 type rifle is the .22 conversion kits that are available for them.  I have one, with a dedicated upper receiver that I swap onto my rifle for indoor training in the winter.  Basically, I end up with a rifle that looks exactly like my issued C-7A1, that I can practice with at my local indoor range, on my own time. 

Anyhow, drop into canadian gunnutz, and feel free to look at some of the "fun" guns that are out there for owning.

NavyShooter

 

[Brockvegas]

Hey, on top of the excellent idea of using a .22 for honing your accuracy, you may also want to think about doing some skeet/trap shooting to practice hitting moving targets. You can get a real decent 20 gauge secondhand from your local gunshop at really reasonable prices, and 20 gauge birdshot is fairly cheat as well.

 

[BushmasterBob]

About the restricted PAL's not being handed out for now, that is a myth.  I just received mine a month or so ago.  Yes, 1 gun isn't enough, figure on getting 1 gun a year.  I wonder if theres a Gun Buying Anonymous help center around.  ;D

 

[Yrys]

  I wonder if theres a Gun Buying Anonymous help center around.  ;D

You just have to go to the nearer gang neighborhood in your town or the next biggest town, no ?

 

[mudgunner49]

About the restricted PAL's not being handed out for now, that is a myth.  I just received mine a month or so ago.  Yes, 1 gun isn't enough, figure on getting 1 gun a year.  I wonder if theres a Gun Buying Anonymous help center around.  ;D

Lightweight... ;D

I just bought/traded for 3 handguns yesterday.  This is a common enough occurrence that my wife doesn't even blink anymore!!

I average at least a gun every 2-3 months.  Some come and go, some form a lasting/relationship...


blake