Imagine that you want to buy a new car. It is easy and smart to go to various websites and look at specs of your short list of cars. After you narrow down the options, there is likely a list of two to four cars that meet the specs but you still want more. So, you go to the dealer and they say ‘these are the cars that you can look at’. The key word is look. I one time looked at a Porsche 911 but the salesman said that I could not drive it unless I made an offer to purchase. How would I know I want to make an offer if I cannot drive it and see it is for me?
As a high school trap coach, I see plenty of new shooters. They may not be new to shooting but most are definitely new to the game of trap. Most of them fit into two categories. There are those that fall into the camp that they purchased a shotgun to participate which is almost always inadequate and those that upgrade their shotgun within a year. The latter group is often the ones shooting dad’s or older brother’s shotgun.
What I can say from experience is that fit is king. I don’t care if you are shooting 20 gauge as opposed to 12 gauge, if the gun does not fit you are going to struggle. A few years ago a kid on the team was shooting a beat up Remington 870 pretty well. He purchased a semi-automatic Tri-star and could not hit the broad side of a barn. After struggling six out of eight weeks with his newer and fancier shotgun he switched back only to shoot season high scores. Neither gun was wrong but the simpler 870 fit him much better and so he scored better.
I recently attended an event that my range put on. This is a new thing; they used to host a fully automatic shoot that was a real hoot. This was intended to bring back a fraction of that fun that no longer can happen due to insurance costs. But the premise was to bring in a number of manufacturers and a whole lot of guns to shoot. Ideally, that would lead to purchases from the sponsor of the event.
What you can see in the picture is about a third of firearms that Sig Sauer brought to the event. There were a number of other vendors there as well. The idea was that participants would purchase tickets that would be presented to vendors for ammunition. Depending on what caliber you chose to shot, a ticket was worth 10 22LR, 8 9mm, 6 45 ACP etc.
In today’s world, semi-automatic handguns are king. In my day growing up, 38 special was the same price as 9mm ammunition. Not so today, 38 special is three times the cost as 9mm. This event was almost exclusively 9mm pistols which is too bad because I don’t own any. On top of that, my tastes are pretty eclectic. For instance when I visited the Taurus bay, I really wanted to shoot a Judge (45LC/410 revolver) but no such luck.
I have heard over and over from multiple sources that first time, gun owners should try a bunch of different firearms before just buying one. But how, where? This event was awesome for handling and shooting a large number of the most popular firearms in the market. In fact, the majority of firearms I have purchase were a surprise in how I shot with them until I purchased them and went to the range for the first time.
I could have shot different exotic things but I did not. I tried three different 22LR, a 9mm and a 45acp pistol. I tried some shotguns that were way out of my price range and also a 6.5 Creedmoor rifle. The pistols were things that I have considered over the years. The shotguns and rifle was just for fun. Nothing I tried is on my next to purchase list but then again they didn’t really have what I wanted to shoot to begin with.
I definitely learned some things. I learned which 22 pistol I liked over the others. I learned that I really liked the 9mm and I learned that I didn’t like how the 45 felt in the hand. The one overall lesson I learned was with the 6.5 Creedmoor. This has become an extremely popular cartridge in the last ten years. I wanted to shoot a rifle that I considered affordable and without a silencer. This particular rifle had a muzzle brake on it.
After firing the first round, it blasted my ears causing them to ring even with ear plugs in. I have heard about this phenomenon before but never personally witnessed it. I found myself closing my eyes on the remaining two rounds which I am sure that effected my marksmanship. If this is how all brakes work, this is a definite no-no for me.
End Your Programming Routine: I am fifty years old and have been in the scene most of my life. There are two places that I can think of that actually rent firearms but you are limited to what they have on hand and the disciplines that they offer. This was a very unique experience to get a large swath of manufacturers of similar firearms together. This is something that you really cannot reasonably do, try before you buy.
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