Observations
Is there a place for surplus military guns?
Recently, an 84-year-old Korean War veteran was awakened by the sound of someone trying to break into his home. Fred Ricciutti, pulled a handgun from a nearby drawer and yelled a challenge. When the man standing in his kitchen door didn’t respond, Ricciutti fired, shooting through the kitchen and storm doors and wounding the would-be intruder, prompting him to flee. The alleged intruder, Raymond Hiles, was arrested a few blocks away with a screwdriver, a stun gun and a 9mm hole in the back of his neck. It’s very possible that Ricciutti’s use of his firearm saved him and his ailing wife from a tragedy. Continue reading
Like what you read? GunNoob is now part of Pew Pew Tactical. Check out the rest of our awesome resources:
Make them Cooler!
I was originally trying to do a fun list of the “Top 10 Fictional Guns We Wish Were Real”. After over a month of pouring through many guns from many movies, I gave up. As the great Frank Bama once said “indecision may or may not be my problem”. There were just so many awesome guns out there in the fictional world that I couldn’t narrow it down to ten and I’m admittedly too lazy to do a top 100. Continue reading
Like what you read? GunNoob is now part of Pew Pew Tactical. Check out the rest of our awesome resources:
A Few Tips for the New Shooter
Don’t form opinions about things you’ve never tried based on what other people say. Be brave enough to do the research yourself to formulate your own well informed views. You might think you know that guns are scary and they KILL people, but think about how you know that before you espouse it as the ultimate truth.- Let go of the things you think you know about yourself. They can all change at any moment, given the right circumstances. Be open to learning new skills and remaking your own self-image. You will end up having some extremely enriching experiences.
- When someone hands you a Glock chambered in .357 Sig (or some other ridiculously high powered weapon) your first time at the range and it stuns you with recoil and leaves you with sore hands, don’t write off guns all together. There are plenty of other fish in the sea.
- Stop worrying about looking stupid. You don’t look stupid. You look like someone who is taking an active interest in their own safety. Even when you are dry firing in your pajamas while watching reruns of Seinfeld. You. Are. A. Boss.
- You don’t have to be some kind of commando right off the bat. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself to put all of your shots on top of each other at 50 yards your second time out. Part of the purpose of going to the range is having a good time. It’s serious business, for sure, but it’s still ok to let out that giggle the first time you shoot a shot gun.
- Talk to other people at the range, especially if they seem interested in what you’re shooting. They will end up being some of the most pleasant interactions you have and will build the pilars of a community that will sustain you.
- Don’t be afraid to take classes and get training before you think you’re ready. It’s great to get tips and advice from your spouse and friends, but learning from an unbiased, impartial instructor can be invaluable. Don’t think you don’t know enough yet to take a class. The point of taking classes is to learn new things, so find a class for beginners and get your moldable little mind in there.
- Ask questions, read books, check out blogs, get involved in the gun community. Educate yourself and make up your own mind. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, varying preferences and specific body/apparel criteria. The good ole boys don’t always know everything about everything. Don’t let other people’s opinions intimidate you.
- Handle and shoot (safely) as many guns as you can. Then practice, practice, practice with the one you want to carry. The only way you get better at something is by doing it. And the better at it you get, the more you’ll enjoy doing it. The more you enjoy it, the more you will practice and before you know it, you’ll be Lara Freakin Croft all up in this bitch.
And then we’ll all be happy, because the world needs more take-charge, no-nonsense, kickass people in it. Go get’em, tiger.
Like what you read? GunNoob is now part of Pew Pew Tactical. Check out the rest of our awesome resources:
A Very Special Congratulations!
When I’m not blogging about guns, I’m a computer geek. I essentially work two jobs: a programmer and network administrator. I only started shooting about 6 years ago. When I saw that there was an IT guy who has only been shooting for a couple of years on this season of History’s Top Shot, I knew immediately who I was going to cheer for. Here is a self-taught, geek that’s going up against well trained powerhouses. You want to talk about an underdog, Chris is it. That underdog had some teeth, however, because as of last night, Chris Cheng took the title!
He has shown throughout this competition that he has an almost uncanny instinct for shooting. He has been able to adapt to any situation they’ve thrown at him and come out on top. We here at Gun Noob would like to congratulate Chris for his amazing accomplishment!
(We do wonder what the budget for his department will be next year now that they know how good he is with a gun!)
Like what you read? GunNoob is now part of Pew Pew Tactical. Check out the rest of our awesome resources:
A Case of Media Ignorance
Gun blogger and Shooting Illustrated writer Bob Owens takes Senior Editor for The Atlantic, Robert Wright, to task over an article Wright published entitled “George Zimmerman’s Ammunition.” Wright apparently takes issue with the fact that Zimmerman’s gun was loaded with hollow-point bullets, remarking, “You don’t need hollow-point bullets to stop a pit bull. And you don’t need hollow-point bullets to stop a robber.”
The ignorance Wright packs into two paragraphs awes me, and Owens does a great job of eviscerating him over it. Check it out.
TJ
Like what you read? GunNoob is now part of Pew Pew Tactical. Check out the rest of our awesome resources:
Best “real world” training for the price? Compete!
There was a scene in the Bruce Lee film “Enter The Dragon” that comes to mind. Some big, mean-looking bad guy was trying to intimidate Bruce’s character. He held up a piece of wood and easily smashed it with his other hand. Bruce just shrugged him off and said “boards don’t hit back.” As I think back to the numerous holes I’ve put in all manner of silhouettes printed on paper, the striking reality of it all comes into an obvious but often ignored cognizance: paper targets don’t shoot back. Continue reading
Like what you read? GunNoob is now part of Pew Pew Tactical. Check out the rest of our awesome resources:
When is hipster-doofus season again?
So a group of film-making hipster morons in New York are getting a lesson in what it means to get caught poaching. They’ll probably get off with a slap on the wrist where if you or I did the same stupid thing we’d be hit with a $2,000 fine and jail time.
This is one of the reasons I started off my hunting series on learning the legalities. These MENSA candidates didn’t even know there were regulations. Well, there are, and they’re taken very seriously. How seriously? Seriously enough that I’ve known people who’ve been rounded up in sting operations because they were out hunting when they shouldn’t have been. Seriously enough that when you do take a deer and mount that beautiful rack on your wall, the tag you used to kill him with must follow that rack forever. Get caught without it, and you’re a poacher.
That’s why it’s important to do your research and know the regulations beforehand. That’s why you tag that deer you shoot right away and not wait on it. The game wardens are out there, and they take their jobs seriously, and so should you.
Sometimes it seems draconian, but one of the reasons we get to hunt deer year after year is that the populations are managed so that they’re A. not hunted down to nothing and B. not allowed to grow so numerous that they eat themselves into extinction. Those regulations are put in place toward that end.
Hat tip: Shalt Not Be Questioned
TJ
Like what you read? GunNoob is now part of Pew Pew Tactical. Check out the rest of our awesome resources:
Take your daughter to the range
So June 9 is National Take Your Daughter to the Range Day, which is something I can agree with wholeheartedly. For years the stereotype has been that guns are the realm of men. Boys played with toy guns, and girls played with dolls. But recently that’s been changing, and it’s a good change because women are more often the targets of criminals, and even if a woman chooses not to own a gun, it can’t hurt her to know how to use one.
When my sister was little she was having a get-together at our house with some of her friends from school. Suddenly, the neighbors’ dogs come running into the backyard after our chickens. Without a thought, and to the fascinated horror of all of her friends, my sister picks up the air rifle my dad kept near the door, gives it nine pumps and shoots the lead dog in the ballsack.
In. The. Ballsack.
And I can’t think of a better reason to teach your daughter to shoot.
Because you never know when she’s going to have to shoot some filthy dog in the nuts… whether he walks on four legs or two.
TJ
Like what you read? GunNoob is now part of Pew Pew Tactical. Check out the rest of our awesome resources:
New Video: Highlights from Action Shooting Competition on 4-14-12
Like what you read? GunNoob is now part of Pew Pew Tactical. Check out the rest of our awesome resources:
Guest Post: An Open Letter to the Firearms Industry
Some of us like pink things. Some of us do not. Most of us like things that are beautiful. Just slapping a coat of pink paint on it doesn’t necessarily qualify as beautiful. There is something childish and Barbie-esque about pink plastic, and we are grown women who packed our Barbies away long ago. A lot of us like engraved revolvers, shotguns with handsome wooden stocks, vintage rifles or stainless steel 1911s. We are drawn to the beauty of firearms and sometimes the history, but our taste in guns is as varied as our taste in shoes. Continue reading
Like what you read? GunNoob is now part of Pew Pew Tactical. Check out the rest of our awesome resources: