How did you learn? Guns?

S

schwann_oltorain

Inactive
So, how did you learn everything you know about guns. I just want to know so I can educate myself. I heard that it takes a lot of reading and expirience and range time, but when people start talking about "Bore should be Chromed, 6 Grooves, 1-7" RH Twist, with a Direct Gas System, Locking Bolt, and direct impingment system". And thats just rifles, I want to learn everything about pistols too. I just dont understand the relavance of that stuff and its signifigance. How do range masters and gun salesmen learn so much. Seriously, I want to learn but it cant take me my whole life to learn it. thx.
 
Probably the same as many others. I grew up around guns from an early age. Studied, and read a lot about guns, and still do today. Also studied, and learned handloading many years ago.

I want to learn but it cant take me my whole life to learn it.
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Yes, it has for me. Now 65 years old, and still learning every day!!!
 
It does take your whole life

Welcome to the forum.

I started by reading magazines. American Rifleman, Shooting Times, Guns & Ammo, American Handgunner, etc. The internet has substituted for many sources, but you have to remember that many internet sources are simply casual and may have incorrect information. Published magazines and books are generally more reliable.

Books by established shooters with good reputations. Elmer Keith. Bill Jordan Come to mind right away.

Hopefully it WILL take you all your life and that you will never learn EVERYTHING. Where's the fun in having nothing left to improve about your mind?

It's not the destination. It's the journey.

Once you have enough knowledge, endeavor to teach someone. Nothing improves your knowledge more than teaching what you know to someone else.

Good luck and thanks for asking our advice.

Lost Sheep
 
+1 for what Lost Sheep said.
Read and ask. Follow this & other forums.
I like Wikipedia for info. Their gun, ammo, and history articles are pretty accurate.
Talk to people at ranges. Ask old guys why the shoot what they shoot. They'll share a ton if you let them.
 
One more important part, probably the most important. Don't try to learn everything in a hurry. Start slowly with the basics. especially the fundamentals of gun safety. Don't worry about all the high tech, latest revelation in firearms. You will have time to learn, and sort through what is really advantageous, and what is just the latest fad. A couple good books to get started with basic firearms knowledge would be Small Arms of the World, and Cartridges of the World. At the time of my beginning in firearms formal classes were rare, or non-existent. Now you have the opportunity to attend many firearms related classes to learn for experts.
 
Read facts and absorb objective comments. Ignore blatant subjectivity.

Ask questions about no more than 1 or 2 points of curiosity at a time. People don't like to respond to 25 question quizzes. Nor do they like to read 40 sentences, and not a single paragraph to separate them.

A high post count is not an indication of intelligence... no more than a low one is the red flag of stupid.

If something doesn't smoothly pass through your logic filter, it's probably crap... and sometimes it ain't easy to sort the pearls of wisdom from the larger pile of poo.

If you ain't sure, ask. You've heard it before... the stupid question is the one not asked.

I'm 57, been shooting since I was 7, reloading since I was 12... and learned 2 things yesterday about tumbling that I was completely unaware of.

Welcome to the asylum... cheers,
C
 
Reading is about the only way .../ because 75% or more of the stuff I hear - in gun shops, etc...is just noise / and sadly misinformed or just outright wrong ...

In all aspects of this hobby - I think it will be easier if you settle on a couple of platforms ( like 1911's, or S&W revolvers, or Glocks, or Sigs --etc ) and read everything you can on that platform. There are all kinds of specialty books out there / collectors books,etc that will really tell you a lot about that platform. Gun Digest is one company that publishes a lot of books on specific platforms ...you can pick them up at a lot of gunshows, online,etc...

If you know a shooter that specializes in 1911's - ask them for reference material ...but even in the 1911 platform ...you'll find some mfg's do things differently ...like ambi safeties - some won't use it, some have a cheap design, some have a better design ...and the original design didn't have it. So just that one issue - on one platform requires a lot of research as an example.
 
you'll find some mfg's do things differently ...like ambi safeties - some won't use it, some have a cheap design, some have a better design ...and the original design didn't have it.
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Fantastic point made Jim... and man, the memory of the first time I made that one modification to my personal 1911 decades ago.
I must have spent weeks reading magazines and books, talking to 'smiths... what I settled on isn't the relevant part, what is, is that I spent 30 hours learning about a $60 part and how to install it correctly.

Cheers,
C
 
Get off the Internet and go to the library. Study every thing written about Gen J. Hatcher's (Hatcher's Notebook is the best you'll find)

You mentioned

"Bore should be Chromed, 6 Grooves, 1-7" RH Twist, with a Direct Gas System, Locking Bolt, and direct impingment system"
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It's all there in Hatcher's Notebook. Gen Hatcher spent his life in the the US Army Ordnance Dept. from the early 1900s to the 50s. He finished his career as a Tech. Adviser for the NRA's American Rifleman.

Read all you can, but know the author. Before you concentrate on an author find out what he did, not what he read, or heard about. Using Hatcher as an example again, he shot our our Rifle and Pistol Teams. He developed the machine gun schools for our army when we first started using machine guns.

When you find a teacher, find out what they did, not just the schools they went to, but what they did with their instructions.

Go the the CMP bookstore and read everything they put out by the Army Marksmanship Unit. Best shooters in the world. Their Sniper school was used to train the instructors for the marines, FBI, Secret Service, Army, Air Force and several police department sniper schools.

The Seals still use them to teach the Marksmanship portion of the Seal Sniper Schools.

The CMP was started in 1905 (then it was called the Division of Civilian Marksmanship) by congress to instruct the American Citizen in marksmanship. It's still under charter to do just that.

Bryan Litz of Berger Bullets wrote a dern good book, Applied Ballistics for Long Range Shooting. It's not a technical as it looks, study it.

Read every reloading manual you can, whether you reload or not.

Study every thing you can get your hands on regarding the mental aspects of marksmanship.

Read about the old guys, besides Hatcher, Phip Sharp, Elmer Keith, Jack O'Connor, Townsend Whalen, Bill Jordon. (To Name a Few). These guys were there. They got the t-shirts, they know what they were talking about.

The best book you'll ever find, (and its hard to find) is Capt Edward Lewis' "Military and Sporting Rifle Shooting.

Good and read the Article "Secrets of the Huston Warehouse". Goggle and read "The Bullet's Flight, from powder to Target" By Dr. Mann. Goggle the web sights for any of the Military Manuals.

Shoot, get in on every NRA Shooting Course you can. Attend the CMP GSM Clinics. Attend Appleseed Events.

Find local shooting events and compete in every one possible.

Remember, regardless what some one tells you, Trust but Verify. Lots of people will tell you to do this or that, ask them if they did it, what is their accomplishments.

Again, don't discount your local library, you'll find much more accurate information then you'll fnd on the Internet.
 
I learned from a young age. Mom was a cop. Then learned more when in the military. Now, I learn from the experienced people on TFL and from practicing what I've learned.
 
Same here, when I was seven my Mom took me down to the local hardware store and bought me a single shot Savage Arms 22 cal rifle, and a box of 22 ammo. Then off to woods we would go, shooting tin cans and shotgun shell casings. Then off to serve in the USMC for six years and still learning about firearms. Sixty years later. Everyday you will learn something new.
 
Guns aren't my primary interest, engines Are.
But I learned most of my knowledge is from my dad and stuff I've figured out. Got A few books and magazines too.
 
I had an old guy who was a police trainer and total gun nut and shooter take an interest in me and got to learn lots. I shot and learned all about his 100's of guns at a young age. He wasn't a great shot anymore due to a heart condition and liked to take me around and show me off because I was "his" shooter. Join a club and find someone to apprentice yourself to.
 
Without a doubt my Uncle. He is a lifelong student of firearms.
A Forward Observer in the Marine Corps in Korea that was once inserted more than 30 miles across the line. He and his partner were to work their way back and report along the way. Of the 5 two man teams sent out on that mission the other 4 were never heard from.
My point being: One usually learns more from the end of the bull with horns than the other end.
If you can find someone like my Uncle. LISTEN and ask questions, wisdom will follow.
 
I read a lot from good sources. But then I tried to prove or disprove what I had read. Most of what I know came from experience.

Bob Wright
 
Life is a continual learning experience. Some of my earliest memories are going to the range with my dad and shooting. So, as long as I can remember. When I moved out and started buying my own guns I jumped into casting and reloading with both feet. This was pre internet so I did a lot of reading of manuals and gun rags.

If you're behind the curve...better get crackin'.
 
I've learnt from my own experiences (probably more than I realise)

Going to the range and observing/following instructions (especially when I was first getting into it)

My own research on the internet (ongoing work in progress)

Asking questions on TFL. Lots and lots of questions.
Probably some daft, but all of them useful to me. (most of what I know!!)
 
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