Anyone else do it backwards?

O

osbornk

New member
I started shooting handguns with semi-automatics. Early on, I had a revolver but I shot it single action because I was more accurate that way. I wasn't ever a bad shot but I shot single actions better (1911, Ruger Mark III, etc). I shot my little bitty Taurus TCP worse than any of them.

A year or so ago, I bought a DAO (called hammerless) snub nose 357 revolver. I didn't shoot it very well so I bought a DA/SA 22 revolver to learn how to shoot the DAO revolver. I was told that if I could shoot a DA revolver accurately, I could shoot anything.

After shooting a few thousand rounds through my Charter Arms SA/DA revolver, I found that I could shoot the 357 DAO snub nose revolver pretty well. I bought a Taurus Spectrum to replace the TCP since I shot it poorly. I was pretty accurate with the Spectrum and thought it was the gun. Then I got out the TCP I had shot poorly and ran a magazine or two through it. I shot it pretty well and almost as well as my new Spectrum. The only difference between when I shot the TCP poorly and the TCP fairly well is my practice with the DA revolver.

I then went and got my other handguns (a couple of 380s, a couple of 9mms, a 38 special, 357 and a few 22s). I think shooting the little 22 DA has made me a better shot with all of them.

I also found that 22 caliber revolvers that at SA/DA are expensive when compared with many 38 special and some 357.
 
I'm sure I began like many by shooting revolvers almost exclusively for many years before I shot a semi-automatic. I'd held the 1911 that followed Dad home from his North African, Italian and Persian Gulf four year excursion; even took it to school with a real bullet for show & tell and to talk about safety. My teacher was so impressed she had me do show & tell in a couple other classes and the kids all got to feel how heavy it was and see how big the bullet was. That would have been in the very early 1950s, but it was too heavy for me to carry so teacher kept it in her desk until it was time to go home. I don't remember ever shooting it though until much later; likely when I was in my twenties I guess.

My first guns were a single shot Western Auto 410 and an H&R 923 22LR revolver around the time Ike was President. After that revolvers were the norm until sometime in the 1970s when I got my first semi-automatic. IIRC it was a Beretta Model 71 in 22LR. The transition from almost exclusively DA with my revolvers (almost never shot them single action) to the SA trigger on the Model 71 plus the concept of a safety took awhile to become familiar.

From around the mid 1970s though right on until today it's been a mixture of revolvers and semi-automatics in SA, DA/SA and DAO.
 
I started off on rifles, actually a Sears & Roebuck single shot .22 of my brothers. Then a Mossberg .410 shotgun followed closely by a Marlin tube fed .22lr. A buddy talked me into buying a Mosin Nagant M44 at a gun show that made me love shooting distance. Many other rifles of many platforms but I only got into pistols when I won a few in a raffle at the gun range. I finally broke down & bought a carry arm. I shoot pistol only to practice for self defense. It is a great feeling to pull the trigger on a firearm & get to wait a few seconds before hearing the clang of the steel gong. I just can't get that kind of feel out of a pistol.
 
The first handgun I shot, and what I did all my learning on for many years was a High Standard HD Military given to me by my grandfather when I was about 12 years old. Didn't shoot wheel guns until I bought a Ruger Super Blackhawk about ten years later.
BTW, both are still in my safe, are prized proper ssessions, and get shot often.
 
The first gun I shot was a Mossberg semi auto 22 rifle. Can't remember the first handgun. The first handgun I bought was a Ruger New Model single six 22. That was 1976. I didn't own or want semi's for many years. I got a bunch now.

jar, I love your story, how great it was back then.
 
Lots of shooters start with a semi-auto. There's nothing backwards about it.
"...shot single actions better..." They tend to fit more hands than revolvers do. Your Taurus TCP and the Spectrum very likely don't fit your hand well either. Mind you, neither is a target pistol. More of a big kid's toy(so is a DAO snub nose revolver.). Us "big kids" have better toys than our little brothers.
The muzzle blast and noise of those wee barrels makes a huge difference. Especially a .357.
 
IMHO doing it "backwards" is starting out with a centerfire, especially a big bore-a magnum, then switching to 22 RF. I did not learn to shoot a handgun until I practiced Bullseye with a 22. DA shooting requires more practice, one of the arguments for the SA semiauto pistol is it requires no change of grip or trigger pull. Ed McGivern emphasized that proper sight alignment is just as important in fast DA shooting.
I have read that there are advantages in using a DA revolver in training a new shooter, easier to make safe, if an instructor sees a problem with flinching he can cure it by alternating live rounds with snap caps, etc.
 
T. O'Heir said:
Lots of shooters start with a semi-auto. There's nothing backwards about it.
"...shot single actions better..." They tend to fit more hands than revolvers do. Your Taurus TCP and the Spectrum very likely don't fit your hand well either. Mind you, neither is a target pistol. More of a big kid's toy(so is a DAO snub nose revolver.). Us "big kids" have better toys than our little brothers.
The muzzle blast and noise of those wee barrels makes a huge difference. Especially a .357.
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I'm not sure you understand what I was saying. I said I didn't shoot the TCP very well before I started practicing with a revolver in DA. After I practiced a lot with the DA revolver, I bought the Spectrum to replace the TCP. I shot the Spectrum much better than I had shot the TCP. I then shot the TCP and found I shot it much better than I did before I shot the DA revolver a lot. Both the TCP and the Spectrum fit me well. I also shoot the snub nose 357 revolver pretty well now that I have practiced a lot with the SA/DA revolver. The noise and muzzle blast have nothing to do with it. Even "big kids" find a good use for little guns when we need to conceal them.
 
I tend to shoot my revolvers as good in DA as SA, ever since learning how to pull straight through in DA I shoot most of the time in DA. I think the reason is shooting in DA helps to overcome flinching for me since I do have a problem with that. I believe shooting a lot of heavy magnum rounds through my .41 mag over the last 30+ years has caused some kind of nerve impulse that's really difficult to overcome and stop flinching. It just seems like no matter how long a guy has been shooting, it's always a learning process as things physically deteriorate over the years. Eyesight gets bad, hands and arms less steady, etc. it may sound weird, but I've found that the less I shoot my handguns, the better I actually shoot. I think it's because my muscle memory has a better chance of overcoming flinching etc. as I shoot more. I used to average 300-400 rounds through my handguns per week, now I probably shoot 100 rounds a month and shoot better. Oops, sorry for wandering there, the point I wanted to make was, I've found learning to shoot my revolvers DA has improved shooting my semi autos since learning to pull the trigger through instead of staging and trying to anticipate the shot.
 
I started with my Dad's High Standard Sport King (.22) shooting NRA target matches when I was 9. When I was 16, a friend of my Dad's left a S&W Model 10, two inch barrel, with us for safekeeping. All the guys in the gun magazines shot groups at 25 yards and I was accustomed to that distance shooting matches, so that's where I practiced with the 38. It made me one helluva handgun shot and a lifelong handgun fanatic.
 
IMHO doing it "backwards" is starting out with a centerfire, especially a big bore-a magnum, then switching to 22 RF.
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That's how I started. My first handgun was a Ruger Redhawk .44 magnum. My second was a mk-2 22/45.

I would not recommend to anyone learning to shoot handguns with a .44 mag.
 
IMHO doing it "backwards" is starting out with a centerfire, especially a big bore-a magnum, then switching to 22 RF.
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I guess I did it backwards then.

When I was a kid I had 22LR rifles. I also did shoot Co2 bb/pellet handguns and had a pump pellet rifle. However, my first real firearm handgun was a 9mm CZ75. Later I got a 22LR Kadet conversion slide for that gun (still own both) and then got into revolvers with a Single Six 22LR/22Mag, then a S&W .357 Highway Patrolman and S&W .38 Special 642. Somewhere in there I got my first 1911, but can't remember exactly when.
 
First gun I shot was at age 5, an old AOW (vintage 1920's) J. Steven's Autoshot .410 shotgun pistol. Gun Roared & recoiled, hammer split my eyebrow wide open, blood poured out. Dad, laughing, ejected and passed me that empty green Remington birdshot hull and I inhaled the smoke through a stream of tears. Yup, I was hooked! :D

Mostly revolvers and .22 rifles after that, in the late 70's and 80's. I still prefer revolvers today.
 
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