A friend of mine invited me shooting in December and I thought I’d give it a try. Why not? Turned out I really liked it and applied for my FOID that night.
Been to a couple different ranges and rented a few different guns, and have decided on my first purchase. Springfield Armory XD mod.2, 3" 9mm sub-compact. That’s a mouthful. I’m putting the deposit on it Thursday and can pick up Sunday - and hopefully get an hour range time if it’s not too weekend crowded.
Been watching a lot of training videos, and concluded that dry fire practice is necessary since I’ll only be able to get to a range once or twice a month. Time to get a pistol I can practice with consistently. And I have a range partner for sure, too. Friend has her CCW and I plan to enroll for a class next month. Which means it will be four months before I get licensed for that, but not sure how much I’ll actually carry.
It’s been - interesting - so far, as each time we’ve gone to the range we’re the only two women there without an “escort” so to speak. Plus we’re both pretty left on the political scale. We’ve had to just keep our mouths shut on several occasions, especially around formal instruction type people, as they seem to like to shove the NRA down our throats and Obama-bash at ever opportunity they create.
I’m enjoying shooting in spite of all that. Hard to hear it with earmuffs on.
I am a left-leaning gun owner. My right wing nut friends think I’m stupid because my guns live in the safe (“What are you going to do when the bad guys get there?” “I’m going to call 911, because a good mom with a gun would prefer to be robbed than for the 4-year-old to get hold of a gun. My dogs are for protection and deterrence. The guns, I inherited.”)
I like guns. Grew up with them. They are nice tools to have. Kind of fun to use. But I don’t have any illusions about my ability to be Rambo or Chuck Norris. I’m just a woman who owns a few guns.
You don’t have to get involved with any of the political aspects that some people think accompany shooting if you don’t want to.
It’s not automatic that an interest in guns has to have anything to do with one’s political affiliations.
I mean, I like guns a lot but my own personal politics are incredibly complicated - too conservative (or, often, not progressive enough, apparently) in some areas for progressive/left-type folks, too progressive/small-L liberal for many conservative folks.
The main thing is that you enjoy shooting and get a lot out of it!
Purchase made. Illinois has a 72 hour wait period, so picking up on Sunday.
I hear varying opinions on whether to clean it before firing it first. I’ve read Springfield’s manual from cover to cover and there’s no mention of it, though they do recommend using snap caps for dry firing, while also mentioning dry firing without is fine for over a thousand pulls but snaps are better. Any opinions here on cleaning first? The range is an hour away on a good day with no traffic. My plan would be just 50 rounds on Sunday. I won’t get a chance to use it again until the 21st when we have a private instructor booked. Another friend is coming Sunday and she will want some range time and so will I, I’d rather try out my new one than rent again.
I also wanted to try it out because I think I prefer the green fiber optic rod over the red (front sight) that comes installed. Want to try out the red again before deciding to change it. Though the rental will have red so maybe that’s moot.
I think I might be on silenus’ end of things, ownership-wise, but I voted for Bernie, so whaddya gonna do? (It’s hard to live in the south and inherit things from SO MANY RELATIVES GOOD GRIEF. First-world-bible-belt problems, perhaps?)
My personal practice is to always disassemble and clean first. I seriously doubt that cleaning it before shooting it will hurt anything, and I like to get my hands all over a piece before I take it out so I know that I can take it apart and re-assemble it with confidence BEFORE I’m out at the range surrounded by hotshot gap-toothed camo-clad sons of the confederacy who would love nothing more than to “help” the cute little girl with her jammed or misfired gun.
Husband and I have “matching” (it was an accident, I swear) Springfield midsizers - he’s got the 40, and I’m in 9, and they are fun to shoot, but make my wrists extremely tired after a solid afternoon. For my little ones I ended up with a Ruger SR22 and a Walther P38, and I adore them both. I think I could shoot them for days if my ammo held out.
So far, between the Sig and Springfield models I’ve rented, never had a jam. And the last time I rented the Springfield, my fingers were filthy after 50 rounds. Pretty sure that one was way past due for cleaning. Based on that, I’m feeling pretty confident it won’t be a problem. I do plan to field strip it just to check it’s not gunky from the factory. It’s really easy and fast to strip and reassemble. It will take way more time to load the magazines until my speed loader comes from Amazon!
My friend with her Ruger, though, it’s a .22 but not sure which one, she’s clearing hers 3-4 times per session so far. I’ve heard some of the little Rugers can be finicky, so she may need to switch ammo, or it may be from a soft wrist/grip and/or cross-eye dominance issue she hasn’t quite sussed out yet. Hoping the session on the 21st will figure it out.
I know modern firing pins are not like the old-timey things and I know autos aren’t like the old hammer revolvers but ------- I would still get a snap-cap (dummy bullet with a spring-loaded mock primer). I use them myself almost universally.
Cleaning a new gun. Again it isn’t like the old days when you had 4 pounds of cosmoline to get out. I do have a habit though of giving everything a good cleaning with basically dry patches and maybe a touch of WD-40 on the slides and moving parts. Then clean off the WD and oil as directed.
I run a Ruger Mk II .22 and while I am not proud to admit it I usually don’t clean it until I get say one jam per two mags. Which for me seems to be about 500+ rounds and with just about any ammo I find cheap. I have heard though that some of the newer Rugers can get finicky with any real dirt.
PS – in terms of clubs/ranges mileage varies. The one I belong two actually has a couple informal internal clubs for registered Democrats! And while I do have some fun debates with some of the far-righters once they see/accept my love for guns and God they seem to forgive my also being for gay rights and other things they may not like.
Thanks, kopek! i think I mentioned above that I’ll be using snap caps, the Springfield manual says it’s ok to dry fire over 1,000 pulls, but snap caps are recommended. My friend keeps her guns clean, she cleans after every other range session, so each 200 rounds or so. I think it’s either the cheap range ammo she’s buying or technique.
There’s a gun club north of here that has Ladies Night two Wednesdays a month. We’re going to check it out on the 4th. A cheap hour and a half of range time with an instructor around if wanted, with drink and food specials after.
So far we’ve just kept our mouths shut when anyone spouts President bashing crap. It would only end up in an argument and what’s the point? We just kind of give them a 1000 yard stare and silence. I just wish people wouldn’t assume just because we’re there that we’re aligned politically. Why can’t they just keep it to themselves? There’s so much more to talk about, like what guns we have and what gear we use. Sheesh.
Shooting is fun. I have a gun through family circumstance (though I could have easily avoided it) – when my grandfather died, we found a pre-WWII Mauser pistol, and I volunteered to take it. It even works fine – I took it shooting a few years ago.
I understand; trust me. But to be fair we can be as bad sometimes when one of “them” ends up in our midst. I have been active for ages with Trout Unlimited which is 90% left-wing tree-huggers who sometimes flyfish and 10% more right-wing types who are interested in doing the best they can to maintain our cold water resources. We gave them a serious ear-beating during all 8 years of Bush 2. I just write off some of the flak I get now at other places as “equal time”.
Don’t know who I’m going to vote for. It will be Hillary or Sanders. I’m Liberal as a rule, but must say I kinda like Kaishe. Bernie is a bit much, and Hillary has a bit of baggage that repubs won’t let her, or anyone within yelling distance forget.
I’ve 12 firearms. All inherited in one way or another. I’ve been a shooter for 46 years. Got my first .22 when I was 9 years old. Don’t shoot as much as I should or want to lately. My Wife and I sold a 40 acre property and put that money to better use. It was basically my shooting range.
I’ve no favorite, but one firearm is a little rare. 336er Marlin in .356 Winchester. Basically a .308 rimmed up to .356. A lever action carbine. It’s a small cannon. Not many where made.
Lever actions are fun to shoot! A friend has one and when I shoot it I feel like a cowboy on my hosre, in the wild west of the 1800s. A Filipino-Russian cowboy, that is.
I think it’s a good idea just to break the gun down and put it back together several times, so that you’re familiar with where everything goes, and what its function is. A touch of oil can’t hurt. I’m also a liberal gun owner, mainly because I grew up with them in the house and learned to shoot at a very young age. One was a gift and hasn’t been fired in a very long time. The other is a handgun that I carry with us on RV trips. Otherwise, it sits on the top shelf of the closet in its carry case, unloaded; after a career in the military and volunteering with the police, I have no illusions as to what can happen under duress.
