New Shooter
Posted by:
- gipper's ghost
Foundational skills is a literal term. I was taught to grip tightly with my support hand. It engages muscles, makes me tired. This means I’m practicing. When I grip harder with my support hand, the sight pulls left. This is good - I tend to shoot right. Groups get tighter. I something to build on.
I’m a new shooter. Most of my life was spent avoiding firearms. Life changed that. The gun sits under my bed, quietly.
I bought a Glock 17 pistol. A cool person would call it a g17.4. Glocks are carried by cops and were designed in the birthplace of Adolf Hitler. It is all black and has a terrible aura.
My gun is reliable. Reliability is an interesting concept. It must equal consistency, because it shoots the same every time. When I see bullet holes in the wrong place, I know it was me. This makes it good for training. I saw in a YouTube video that it can be shot twenty-thousand times before needing cleaning. Ben Stoeger told me that, and I might as well listen to him because Paul Harrell is dead.
Paul Harrell brought me here too. I’m not sure he was a good person. I liked him very much. He was funny. He killed at least two people.
My bulk of interaction with this organization has been through range days. These are equal parts ritual and practice. Everything is the same every time. People exchange pleasantries, and help set up. The range safety officers go over safety, and explain drills. After my fourth range day I realized that I was witnessing a well-oiled machine of volunteers. Apparently volunteers will stay overnight in a good spot. That’s quite a bit of work. I prefer to spend my free evenings writing weird articles for leftist organizations.
My very first range day was in the woods. I drove out into the middle of beautiful bumfuck nowhere to meet armed strangers. It’s good they didn’t murder me because then I would be dead. This was my first time firing a gun. The first gun I ever shot was a Ruger Standard. It was comfortable, heavy. The second gun was a Ruger TX22 and I thought that one was okay. Someone was firing an assault rifle and I jumped when it went off. I did this when I was speaking to someone, and they didn’t even giggle. That’s nice. Two days later I realized I wanted to go shooting again and that I had probably developed a problem.
There’s an element of performance when you’re shooting in front of other people. It adds pressure. Seems like a good thing to be familiar with. Helps you know what to expect. It also adds the element of wondering if you “look cool” or “was this hat too much”.
Wading into this community has been both intimidating and affirming. Novices provide levity. We tend to do things funny, overstep, ask strange questions. But I’ve never felt unwelcome.
I recently started taking small blue pills that make me cry and dream. I am new to this also.
I am grateful for the people who have been teaching me. They have been patient, respectful. My time here has been well spent. I look forward to spending more.