New to Guns

stuckon308

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No, not me. I'm taking 6 city friends home to the country to show them the joys of shotguns. None of them have ever fired anything bigger than a pellet gun. Should be fun. Just pray that I teach them how to use the guns properly and no one gets hurt. All of our girl friends think that someone is going to get clipped. Let's hope not.
 
Do you have a 20 gauge? 410?

I took a buddy out who'd never shot anything but a .22 before and he's a big strong guy and felt quite walloped by the 12 gauge.
 
If you are the only one who is familar with firearms (and safety), then I would suggest highly that you only bring one gun - just so that your undivided attention can be given to the one holding the gun. You may be surprised how things can get out-of-control when too many newbies with BIG smiles on their faces start picking up and loading guns at random. I once had this happen with just two (yonger) newbies learning to shoot. I read them the riot act and safety speech and thought that they were clear on everything: i.e. No one picks up a gun without me knowing about it. Sure enough, one of the little buggers picked up a handgun and walked behind me with it. I shut him down right away. The kid just go too excited and forgot (or was over-confident) Have fun, but be careful out there.
 
If you are the only one who is familar with firearms (and safety), then I would suggest highly that you only bring one gun - just so that your undivided attention can be given to the one holding the gun. You may be surprised how things can get out-of-control when too many newbies with BIG smiles on their faces start picking up and loading guns at random. I once had this happen with just two (yonger) newbies learning to shoot. I read them the riot act and safety speech and thought that they were clear on everything: i.e. No one picks up a gun without me knowing about it. Sure enough, one of the little buggers picked up a handgun and walked behind me with it. I shut him down right away. The kid just go too excited and forgot (or was over-confident) Have fun, but be careful out there.

That's an excellent advise in the given scenario.....I couldn't agree more. It would certainly be to the benefit of all concerned who will accompany you.

On second thoughts, if you were planning on bringing in multiple firearms and to keep it interesting among your friends, simply play by the same rule above and leave the other firearm(s) locked in the trunk while using only the single one.
 
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I always bring a few 3-1/2" 2-1/2oz Turkey loads for those who are brave enough after shooting a few dozen target loads. It's a subject always brought up at gatherings..

"Hey man! Remember the time we shot those crazy turkey loads!"
 
If your friends are serious about shotgunning I would say go for a 28 gauge.From your post I would say that you are just a bunch of guys going out for a little fun.That being the case I would say a.410,28 gauge or 20 gauge shotgun would work just fine.Enjoy yourselves but remember safety is not to be forgotten.:)
 
Like they said, one gun, one shell at a time, barrel always pointed downrange, no fingers on the trigger until ready to shoot.

I've shown newbies my gunlocker and handed them a rifle and the first thing they want to do is curl their finger around the trigger.
 
Thanks for the advice. I didn't get to read it until I just got back. But I pretty much did all of those things. Only one gun. They all had a pretty detailed sit down discussion about that specific gun. To start off only one shell in at a time. We did start out with 12 gauge though. They are all bigger guys and most of them said that they could feel it but it wasn't hurting at all. They all put at least 30 rounds through within two days. It was snowing for a lot of the time so we had to have other "man fun" which included making a bonfire and setting off fire works. It was my first time doing this sort of thing with this many people and I learned a couple of things that I would do differently. But it worked.
 
"...all bigger guys..." Size means nothing. I've seen big strapping teenage guys run away from a C1A1 when small statured girls had no problem. If it's not held right or the stock isn't the right length, it whacked you on the cheek bone.
With a shotgun, a lot has to do with the action type. A semi-auto, of course, doesn't hurt as much as a pump gun or single/double barrel. Leaning forwards a bit helps. Mind you, the felt recoil of a 12 ga isn't that bad.
In any case, it sounds like a good time was had by all and that's what shooting is for.
 
"...all bigger guys..." Size means nothing. I've seen big strapping teenage guys run away from a C1A1 when small statured girls had no problem. If it's not held right or the stock isn't the right length, it whacked you on the cheek bone.
With a shotgun, a lot has to do with the action type. A semi-auto, of course, doesn't hurt as much as a pump gun or single/double barrel. Leaning forwards a bit helps. Mind you, the felt recoil of a 12 ga isn't that bad.
In any case, it sounds like a good time was had by all and that's what shooting is for.

Yeah, one of the things that I made sure to tell them was to not be scared of holding that stock tight against their shoulder. Size does mean something. I'm 6'6" and 250 lbs. I move a lot less and feel it less than my 6'6" 180 lb brother. Just physics. There would also be no way that I would have my 5'6" 120 lb girlfriend start on a 12 gauge. I'm not saying that it isn't possible. I'm just saying that it wouldn't be nice.
 
well i braught a friend of mine on the range with my 12ga, the only thing he fired before was a pellet gun and .. an ar15, he was scared as hell of a shotgun due to the size of the shell compared to the .223 of an ar15, well, we started with my 870 with a knoxx spec ops stock so the recoil buffer would protect his little shoulder from the massive recoin of my remington gun club target load, than i gave him my baikal( 18" barrel, plastic buttpad, about 4 pounds N.B. a target load in that gun has the recoil of a 3" magnum round) and I put a 3" slug in it. once he fired, he dropped the gun on the ground and started shouting and chasing me XD t'was funny as hell...
 
hehe, 30 rounds over two days? First time I took my 870 super mag, to the range I shot 200 target loads and 2 boxes each 3" 00buck and slugs. But I guess it depends on whose gun it is and more importantly who is PAYING for the ammo. Although, really, I only shot all 200, because they were the cambodian tire cheapo's, which kept jamming, and I was too annoyed by them to justify the effort to take them back home.
I still need to try the turkey loads, part of the reason I bought the super mag was to hunt turkeys. What's up with turkey loads anyway, turkeys don't look that hard to kill, why do I need to use some legendarily painful cartridge to get them?
 
hehe, 30 rounds over two days? First time I took my 870 super mag, to the range I shot 200 target loads and 2 boxes each 3" 00buck and slugs. But I guess it depends on whose gun it is and more importantly who is PAYING for the ammo. Although, really, I only shot all 200, because they were the cambodian tire cheapo's, which kept jamming, and I was too annoyed by them to justify the effort to take them back home.
I still need to try the turkey loads, part of the reason I bought the super mag was to hunt turkeys. What's up with turkey loads anyway, turkeys don't look that hard to kill, why do I need to use some legendarily painful cartridge to get them?

Yeah I know 30 rounds isn't a lot. The first time I put together a pistol grip 18.5" barrelled Mossberg I think I touched off 100 in less than half an hour. And took my that long because it was pretty much the hottest day in the summer and the barrel needed to cool down.

The reason it took so long was because we only really had Saturday to shoot and we only shot in the morning for an hour and then made a fire, cooked some lunch, and then it started snowing heavy. So we put the guns away until around 4:30. Then we only had a couple of hours left until dark. But we were shooting at clays until we were physically capable.
 
Turkey loads have more whallup to extend your kill range. Heavier faster loads leaving your barrel tend to come back at your shoulder a bit harder. Turkeys are smart sometimes and hang up out there a ways.

And turkey hunters like spending lots of money if something costs twice as much as product ''A'' it has got to be better.
 
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