New gun owners

Hollywood’s fake shooters and real experts in online videos can be very misleading and quite dangerous for those new and inexperienced with firearms. I have helped a large number of newbies and novices to a level of relatively safe competence. I am good at that.

I am not a master in any class or form of the shooting sports, but I am a good teacher of this and other things I understand well enough to impart key ingredients.

It is crucial that you select your first firearms from real advice and thoughtful counsel rather than from what looks good in action movies or excites a speed-gunner expert … or much worse, the wannabe Rambos behind too many gun shop counters.

From a cost standpoint, popularity in movies and what the experts use, the semi-automatic handguns are far and away the most popular. They are a BAD CHOICE for your first or second gun. In the training videos I recorded I cover why that is and what the better choices are.

Now we go to a nice Taurus revolver. I describe and demonstrate why this form is FAR BETTER for those new to handgun self-defense. This particular revolver can shoot .38 Special and .357 Magnum, which is relatively common, but is especially versatile in that it can also be quickly and easily converted to shoot 9 mm.

In this next video I go back to the semi-automatic handguns to STRESS very important aspects of handgun gripping. I coach and want you to practice the correct grip on every pistol or revolver you fire. Get it right initially and it will serve you well forever.

Switching back to the Taurus 692 revolver I run though its versatility – along with more stressing how to safely operate handguns, including revolvers. You can see in this clip the power levels offered by .38 Special, 9mm and .357 magnum.

Below the video covers double-action compared to single-action revolver shooting. If your revolver has double-action capability, they are quite capable of rapid fire in the hands of someone who has practiced even a modest amount.

If you are wondering whether or not I actually hit the targets with a short-barreled revolver, this is a quick look at them.

The revolver that was used in these videos comes with adjustable rear sights. To properly adjust them you shoot 5 or more carefully aimed shots to get a reasonably small group of holes in the target. Then you use tools to adjust the sight left, right, up or down to bring that group of shots to the center.

Repeat that process until you get what we call a “ZERO” on the center of the targets at the distance you want to be your main zero. Shots taken a little closer or further away will be very near zero at any reasonable handgun range.

I am very definitely NOT a high-speed shooter in the game known as “Practical Pistol”. I have shot in groups of people who were. That is another world altogether. While I have over two gallons of spent brass shells from the semi-auto rounds I have fired, the serious competitors will shoot 1,000 rounds a week and dry-fire without ammo several times a week as well.

The next clip is me shooting a short, standardized course of fire with a .40-caliber that required the shooter to change magazines between shooting the paper targets and the steel targets. I missed one of the steel “pepper poppers” but was ready for that and addressed the miss quickly. My buddy thought the camera would automatically adjust for how he held it, but realized part-way through he had to rotate it himself.

I include this video to demonstrate what the semi-auto handguns bring to the game. They do have superior ammunition capacity and reloads for the practiced shooter are rather quick. DO NOT expect to be this fast with your first thousand rounds shot.