Sometimes I'm my own worst enemy. I get caught up in something, start writing and, quite often, hours later, wonder where all the time has gone. I found myself doing that last night. After midnight. Responding to a handguns post, the one about the 40 S&W. Trying to get everything down that I thought was important. So, feeling somewhat silly, in hindsight, I've decided that my best course of action is to post, in six installments, one per week, pretty much all that I've learned by owning, shooting, testing, carrying (for self defense) and hunting with handguns. Then sit back and hope that folks read it. If all goes as planned, as a result, I'll be able to do less responding and more referring. Anyway, I'm gonna try it, so here we go with the first installment of HANDGUNS.
HANDGUNS PART 1 - Over the years, I've owned a total of 64 handguns made by Smith & Wesson (28), Ruger (8), Colt (7), North American Arms (7), Kahr (4), Kel-Tec (2), Uberti (1), Harrington & Richardson (1), High Standard (1), Walther (1) and Kimber (1). I've also owned an Austrian made mini pin gun from World War II, a FMJ D Combination gun with a single barrel bored for both a center fire cartridge as well as a shot shell and a customized Ruger Vaquero with a 2 inch barrel and no ejector rod or ejector rod housing reminiscent of the old time "belly gun" that was sometimes also called the "sheriff's model" by at least one gun maker. Looking back, I've now owned handguns in 13 different calibers in several different action configurations. These have included semi-automatic actions (24), double actions (23), single actions (15) and single shot (2). Additionally, in an attempt to keep myself informed, I go, on a fairly regular basis, to a variety of local gun shops in search of popular or interesting handguns that I have not, as yet, owned. Such as, for example, Glock, Sig, HK, Para and many others. So, you might say, I've now:
1) Owned, looked at and handled quite a few different handguns.
2) Shot, in competition, team, in college, and, individual, after college, as well as in hunting, both small and big game, plus I've worked as a bounty hunter, shooting varmints and pests for money, and, in preparation for anticipated personal self defense needs, based on a realistic and experienced, I've also worked as a body guard, evaluation of my life style. So, I've pulled some triggers in more than a few different situations.
3) Over a long period of time, almost half a century, and, in a variety of shooting situations, I've formed some opinions that I would now like to share.
I'm not claiming to know it all, but I have learned a few things, primarily by:
1) Owning a chronograph, building a knowledgeable data base requires accurate information.
2) Doing a lot of related reading, for most of my life, and, also, talking with hundreds of shooters which, again, over time, has motivated me to do a lot of shooting and "independent," on my own time and at my own expense, testing.
4) Keeping good notes, more than anything else, has helped me to build a pretty good data base with respect to guns, both short (handguns) and long (rifles and shotguns), cartridges and the bullets, which have always, especially, intrigued me. For that is the ultimate purpose of both guns and cartridges - to fire a bullet.
FIT - For me, the first criteria, in seeking to become a serious handgun owner, is determining hand to gun fit. If that handgun, just as the name hand - gun implies, really fits your hand then you are far more likely, over time, to shoot it. And, from shooting it, comes skill building. The ability to shoot, with that particular handgun, as well as you are capable of shooting. You master, to the best of your ability, bullet placement. Without a good hand to gun fit, odds are, again, over time, that you will not shoot as often and will not become as proficient as you might with a better fitting handgun.
So, how do you know when a handgun fits you? Here is what I do:
1) Go to every gun shop and person you can find with handguns.
2) Look at, handle and ask questions about these handguns.
3) Heft them, feel how they balance in your hand and learn how to operate them.
4) When you get to a point where you are starting to feel like making a purchase, pick up your intended handgun and get a comfortable grip. Now, without shifting your grip or stretching your trigger finger, can you reach, with your shooting finger, this particular handgun's trigger comfortably?
5) With some double action first shot and single action type second shot trigger configurations the trigger will be in one position for your first shot, usually with a longer trigger pull, and another, different, position for your second, and following shots, usually with a shorter trigger pull. Always, in hunting and self defense, the first shot is the most important and that trigger position is the one you need to consider most in determining whether or not this particular handgun fits you.
6) With permission from the owner, who may want to install a snap cap, a simulated cartridge that allows you to pull the trigger safely, so as to protect the firing pin in the handgun that you are now looking at, and, maybe, intending to purchase, try the trigger pull. Is this trigger easy or hard for you to pull? Do you have to strain or shift your grip to complete the trigger pull? Most of us find that it is very difficult to shoot well, consistently, with an uncomfortable, to us, trigger pull. Trigger pull is, purely, one of those individual choices that you are going to have to make for yourself and, if you want to have the best possible opportunity to shoot as well as you can, a critically important choice. One reality, I've learned, is that different people, who are both serious and sincere about their shooting needs, like different triggers with different trigger pull characteristics for different reasons. Why? Well, I guess, because we are all different and that not only makes life interesting but gives us plenty to talk about when it comes to our personal, and I do mean personal, handgun preferences. For example, I like a smooth, light trigger that breaks, fires the loaded cartridge, with 3 to 4 pounds of pull. This, to me, feels good and gives, again, me, the best results with respect to consistent bullet placement.
Here is a little story to illustrate what I'm trying to convey here. I once bought a handgun that actually pinched my trigger finger between the bottom of the trigger and the space between the bottom of the trigger and the trigger guard. So, why did I make such a dumb choice? Two reasons: First, a, relatively, low purchase price. Greed, as a result, became a part of my "to buy or not to buy," decision making. Second, I didn't try pulling the trigger often enough, even though I was welcome to do so, in that particular gun shop, where I was both well known and friendly with the gun shop's owner, before I bought the handgun. Not only did I make a dumb choice, based on "my hand to that gun" fit, but, when I traded this particular handgun away, I lost money on the deal. I guess, with this deal, I was a two time loser.
By the way, pulling a trigger is either discouraged or not, at all, permitted in some gun shops. And those gun shops NEVER, and I mean NEVER, get any on my money. I'm the type of guy who ALWAYS tries on, for example, a pair of White boots, even though they are custom made locally by people I know, or a Stetson hat, even though, through owning a great many of them, I know my own size, before buying them. And, why shouldn't I? How else can I find out if they fit me? Mistakes, despite the best intentions of those who are doing the work, happen. Good hunting boots, hats and handguns are, relatively, at least to me, expensive. And I'm not inclined to throw my money away on things that don't fit me. Furthermore, should I be so foolish as to buy something that does not fit me, and then, as a result, have to go through all that entails, in order to make it right, I have no one to blame but me.
OK, after going through this section on FIT, you have developed some general ideas about what you are interested in, would like to know more about and, most importantly, what feels good, so far, in your hand. So, let's move on to the next phase of "finding a handgun that fits you."
POINT TEST - This is the one that counts. The real test. Explain what you are about to do, get permission from the handgun's owner and ask if, before dry firing, pulling the trigger without chambering a live cartridge, a snap cap needs to be installed. OK, now:
1) Using both eyes, or your dominant eye, depending on how you choose to shoot, pick a spot that is roughly 6 feet away. (Do you shoot with both eyes open or just your dominant eye open? If you don't know which eye is your dominant eye, here is how you can find out: Pick a spot roughly 6 feet away and, with both eyes open, point your right index finger at that spot. Now, close your left eye. If your finger stays in place, on the spot you have picked, you are right eye dominant. Now, close your right eye. If your finger looks, to you, to have moved from the spot that you have picked, then you are left eye dominant. If your finger stays in place, as it did when you closed your left eye, then your eyes are equally, and this is very rare, dominant.)
2) Hold the handgun, double check to be sure that it is not loaded, at your side, somewhat like you expect to be carrying it either in your pocket or in some type of holster, and then close your eyes.
3) Now, quick as you can, without feeling awkward, using a one hand or a two hand hold, again, that's up to you, another personal preference choice, point, still keeping your eyes closed, that handgun at that spot you have picked out and pull the trigger.
4) Hold your POA, point of aim, and, now, open your eyes. Look at the handgun's sights (if the handgun you are testing does not have any sights, look at the barrel alignment). Where are you aiming? Are you aiming at that spot you picked? If you are, this handgun probably fits you reasonably well. If you are not, this handgun is probably not a good fit for you. You can also use this same process to determine long gun, rifle or shotgun, fit.
5) If you were really shooting, with your handgun's sights or sighting system adjusted properly, or, if you have no sights, your barrel aligned properly, and you held true with your follow through, holding your POA position through and slightly after completing your trigger pull (the more I shoot the more I think that this is extremely important), then your POA should be the same as your bullet's POI, point of impact. If it's not, look to your shooting: Are you shooting consistent and relatively small groups to the same POI with your POA? If you are not, keep shooting until you are. You may need to move closer to your target. Try shooting off hand, without resting the barrel of your handgun on anything, with the muzzle, the end of your handgun's barrel, 6 feet from your target. At this range you should be able to shoot three shot groups that measure, from the center of the two bullet holes farthest apart in the three shot group, 1 inch or less. Then move back to 21 feet. Still shooting off hand. At this new, and somewhat longer range, distance, you should be able to shoot three shot groups that measure 2 inches or less. Then try shooting off a rest, where you rest the barrel, but not the butt, of your handgun on something, like, for example, an Outer's Pistol Rest, while sitting at a bench or table. At this range, with the benefit of a barrel rest, you should be able to shoot groups that measure 3 inches or less. Once you are shooting consistent and relatively small groups you can, with some degree of confidence, adjust your sights accordingly. Remember, move your rear sight, if you have one, in the same direction that you want your bullet to go. If you do not have a rear sight, your next best option is to try a variety of bullet weights and shapes from different ammunition makers in your handgun for this may well, probably will, change your POI to, you hope, align with your POA. You can achieve bullet placement skill without POA and POI alignment (by holding low, high, left, right or some combination thereof) but, especially, if you shoot more than one handgun, you will never be as quick or as good a shot, everything else being equal, as someone whose handgun does have a proper POA to POI alignment. Also, depending, again, on the handgun, you may be able to move your front sight, usually, by taping it, to the left or right; file it lower, or, even, by filing, reshape it; or, maybe, completely replace it so as to make it higher, lower or, for you, and the situation you find yourself shooting in, more visible. Regardless of what you do or how you do it, your goal is to bring your POA and POI into alignment. Think of it this way, why wouldn't you want to be shooting a handgun where POA and POI are in alignment for you?
6) Don't keep trying this point test with the same handgun that you are testing prior to buying. You will get better at this skill as you practice but it's that first few tries that really tells you the most about the gun in your hand and what happens when you pull the trigger. Once you get your own handgun, this is a wonderful practice procedure for you will, indeed, in time, get very good at pointing and pulling your trigger. This will come from simply trusting your hand to gun fit and shooting, as you build them, instincts. This skill building might even pay off someday in a dark room or outside on a dark night when you are facing an attack but cannot see your attacker, or, more likely, according to FBI shooting incident statistics, attacker's, clearly but, nonetheless, feel threatened enough to shoot before that attacker, or attacker's, can harm you or yours. This is a judgment call. One that will be second guessed, face legal review and, even more importantly, one that you will have to live with. The key is to be sure that you are shooting at an attacker. For example, I live alone. No one, so far as I know, has a key to my apartment. Not even my landlord. I changed the entire lock cylinder right after moving in. Therefore, if I wake up in the night, again, according to FBI statistics, we are far more likely to be attacked at night than during the day, with someone inside my apartment, the odds are pretty close to 100 percent that they don't belong there. Yet, before shooting, I'll try my best to, without putting myself in any more danger than I'm already in, observe their behavior, which, I hope, will, tell me what I need to know before I begin to pull the trigger. Whether or not I complete that trigger pull is now, totally, in the hands of the intruder who, unless I'm convinced otherwise, by their actions, that they are not an attacker come to harm me, they, the potential attacker or attacker's, are in mortal danger for I am, now, mentally (this, to me, is the major, by far, component, the mental preparation, thinking through, in advance, what you are going to do if faced with a, as you see it, threat to your well being, as opposed to physical preparation, which is primarily POA to POI practice, for, using your gun, to defend your life) and physically, prepared to shoot. Note: I said observe. I made no reference to speaking. Speaking, or, for that matter, any sound that you make, gives away your position (location) and takes away one of your primary advantages, surprise, in dealing appropriately, as you see fit, with this type of threat. However, if you live with people, or, people have keys to your home, you need to be, again, absolutely certain of who you are shooting at before you pull the trigger. This is where hand clap lighting (I've never had it but from the ad's it looks like it could come in handy. Needless to say, I would not put my gun down to clap my hands. But you could, I think, use your off side hand to clap your leg or something else with sufficient noise to turn that light on.), remote controlled lighting where, for example, from your bedroom, you could flip a switch and thereby light your home, or, a good flashlight, might save you from making a shooting mistake that costs someone who means you no harm their life.
7) Don't worry too much about anything besides your ability to point, pull the trigger and stay on POA. You can adjust to slide release catches, reloading procedures, etc and etc for they, although important considerations, don't really impact your bullet placement potential. Think of it this way, what good is a perfect feeling slide release catch or reload procedure if you can't master bullet placement because you are trying to shoot with a handgun, remember the name, after all is said and done, is still hand - gun, that does not fit your hand comfortably.
Point shooting, where you point and shoot, just like point testing, only, now, you are pulling the trigger on a loaded cartridge, evolves, quite often, from point testing practice, and is a viable option in most close range situations. Aimed shooting, where you acquire a POA prior to pulling the trigger, usually, results in a slower, but, for me, more accurate, first shot. Some folks are great at point shooting and others are not so great. Put me in the latter category. I, almost always, shoot more accurately when I use my handgun's sights. Both in getting a bullet from the muzzle of my handgun to my intended POI and when shooting multiple shot groups so as to test my ability, as well as that of my gun, cartridge and bullet, to shoot consistently.
MORE ON POINT TESTING AND NIGHT SIGHTS - When I did, and still do, point tests, my best results have always been with a 45 ACP Kimber Pro Shadow Limited Edition II with full size single stack grip, to accommodate Wilson Combat Magazines, and a 4 inch barrel. Truth be told, I can't ever remember, especially since I put Hogue wrap around finger grips on, which serve to put my hand in the same position every time, doing a point test, with this particular handgun, that the sights were not right where I intended them to be and, one bonus feature, for point testing in fairly dark to really dark places, this Kimber has night sights, that glow in the dark, front and rear, on it. One good way, I've found, to practice using these night sights is to go out at night and first find, which in itself is fun, and then aim at standing whitetail deer in a nearby, to where I live, wooded area and, also, aim track (follow with my night sights but without firing a shot) those same deer should they sense my presence and start to walk or run away. I've always figured that if I could aim track a whitetail doing the same with a human attacker would be, relatively, easy because of both the quickness (first movement) and speed (running) differential of whitetail deer over humans. Also, the 45 ACP is a really good and time tested self defense caliber for both the home and for personal carry.
CJ
Edited by cjishere2
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