So first off a lot of it will vary depending on the gun being fired and a lot of the face value details you can find via youtube. I don't have much more to add to this that others haven't touched on except share the first few times I fired one as a kid. The very first one was .45 ACP and I was only 13 at the time (I was a tiny kid). I had already fired rifles before so they kind of just let me self teach and that almost ended badly. I held it with both hands but like an idiot I followed what I saw in hollywood and bent my elbows just slightly. Fired one shot and instead of the force of the shot pushing the gun and my arms upward it forced me to bend my elbows violently and I nearly knocked myself out when the back end of the gun almost smashed into the bridge of my nose between the eyes. Let's just say after that one shot I was done. The shock and blast wasn't too terrible but I had already shot a 12 guage shotgun at that point which was the strongest kick I had ever felt. Second time was with a .41 Magnum and that was only a few years later (still a rather small for my age). This gun was much heavier and for that it put a lot of stress on my wrists just to keep the barrel level enough to aim at a target. Now this one had some kick. I am talking so much my joints hurt the next day after firing six well spaced shots. And it was loud, I still think to this day it has been the loudest I have ever shot. The lift from firing wasn't too bad but I am certain that was just from how heavy the weapon was in comparison to my capacity for strength. Hope these help.
I went to a shooting range. I was surprised that I got the middle of the target on my first shot. The next shots weren't as good. The owner told me that many people tend to miss after their first try because they anticipate the kick and push against it too early. I relaxed my wrist and arms a bit. I got nine out of ten direct hits on my next try. Holding such a powerful weapon for the first time made me very nervous about it. The shooting range was actually my second time. My friend owned a gun at his home. It was hard to look into it's barrel when I was holding it even when it was empty.
Generally, if the officer is having to shoot at all then things have gone a little bit pear shaped; he's meant to be staying stepped back and focussed on controlling the situation. If you're resorting to plinking at bad guys with your sidearm rather than your rifle, then it's proper brown trouser time.
This is not your first time shooter weapon, and for good reason. It can break your hands if you are not well versed, or are not bulky enough to take its kickback. Nothing says intent to kill like a massive 12.57mm slug that is traditionally fired from a mounted machine gun or from a rifle platform.
To be honest that's not a decent weapon for anyone ever - its accuracy will be shit, and the weight and the size of the rounds means you don't get many in the magazine. Not to mention the fatigue of holding that in your hands will make you less accurate Things like that are good for penis substitute ego boosting and for purposes of intimidation, but in an actual gun fight you'd be far better off with decent 9mm (or for that matter .45 acp) semi automatic.
That is true. However on the positive side it won't suffer feed jams. On the other hand, it would be best to start out with 9mm or caliber a bit larger. But a .45 is a little much for a first timer due to kick. .22 is a good introductory to get them comfortable with moving to larger ballistics, though from what I have heard 9mm does not offer that much more recoil than .22.
Most of my handgun shooting was with a Browning Hi power 9mm.... but tbh people fixate far to much on what weapon, calibre, etc is used rather than the ability of the shooter. So long as your gun is reliable and doesn't jam or otherwise malfunction when you need it, a good shot with a .22 will beat a bad shot with .44 anyday
Seconding or thirding or whatever the feeling of holding a handgun that you know is loaded is just awesome. Not good awesome, but the original meaning of awesome, in that it will fill you with awe and more than a little fear. A long gun isn't the same because if your finger is on or near the trigger, it's pretty much always pointed in away from you (not the same as a safe direction, but it feels that way). The muzzle of a handgun, however, is very apt to sweep something you definitely don't want swept, and she will (or damn well should be, had to ban my mom the last time I went shooting) be very conscious of that fact. Like, um, should have used my quote function, like someone up above said, that awareness is going to make the gun feel a lot heavier, especially once there's a round in the chamber and the hammer is back. Also, as mentioned above, the kick of a Beretta M9 shouldn't be a big problem, but it will surprise you with its immediacy. It's not like a punch, a gun goes from stationary to moving in no time at all, it's just something that happens. It'll actually be worse if she's doing it right and doesn't flinch and push forward in anticipation, her trigger finger will be squeezing slowly back as the sights dance around the tar-BOOM! shit it just went off, did she hit anything? Does she remember to keep it pointed downrange? That was why mom lost her handgun privileges, she fired a shot carefully, said "WOW", and turned around with the pistol sweeping down and across pretty much everything. Nearly filled my shorts, since it was a Colt Government Model, so it was still ready to go.
And if you're a bad shot with either just stitch to a Taurus Judge loaded with 14g shot and keep the gunplay within 15 yards. ETA: I have a feeling 14g is inaccurate, but my internet is too slow to fact check.
There's got to be a joke in here somewhere re: Yank/UK And as previously mentioned in other posts I've watched several first-timers smack themselves in the nose/eye/forehead simply because of the unexpected recoil.
I would post the scene here but that may infringe the guidelines as it would turn into a crit post. Thanks everyone, this has been really helpful.
Love that the guy was smart enough to wear hearing protection, but had no idea you could use your other leg to brace yourself.
Based on everything else going on in the gif, I'm going to guess somebody else put the ear defenders on him.
Just a little detail but I thing is very important for a first time gun shooter is to expend a significant amount of time teaching the safety of the gun. Never point the barrel and your self or anyone else even if it’s unloaded. Always unload the gun and show that the gun is unloaded before you hand it to someone else never rest your finger on the trigger unless you want to kill something keep you finger off the trigger I’m sure im missing something I’m surre youtu be has aa plethora of gun safety videos
What kind of handgun? Grip, weight, balance... are totally different with different guns. Difference between .22, 9mm, .357magnum and .44magnum is very big. Same gun with different barrel lenght is different. 2", 4", 6", 8"? Trigger touch with target pistol and service pistol is different. Diffferent countries and companies have very different attitude to quality. (We in Finland are among the best.) Accurate & decent/ quality if I understand it correct? You should go and try. Aaand... If a 110kg man fires first time it is not the same as if a 55kg woman fires. The weight of the gun feels different to diffferent size and strenght peoples.
OFF TOPIC Not everywhere. In Finland officer leads and men follow. You can't lead behind men. It's not leading but just ordering.
Even so the officer needs to stay alive to give orders and control the battle - regardless of how brave he is if an officer commanding a rifle platoon is down to sidearms to defend himself something has gone seriously wrong. Incidentally the later M9s were fine, the early ones had a nasty tendency to suffer from slide separation after a few thousand rounds which could be interesting (read lethal) for the shooter - it was to do with increased terrilium content in the slides of the early ones making them too brittle for the 9mm nato round
First time during a pistol I damn near broke my wrist. My friend had just gotten a .44 long barrelled mag at a job site, I was drunk as hell and had never fired a pistol before (I wasn't the brightest 18 year old). I wasn't holding it tight (like, at all) and threw a GI Joe in the air to shoot it. Damned if that thing didn't spin in my hand and nearly break my fingers and wrist.
I always liked long-barrelled .44 Magnums. It was the snubby that made my wrist hurt the next day. However, it looks like the person who started this thread got their answer months ago.
Leadership isn't just standing up and shouting 'follow me!'. An officer's job sometimes involves that, but more often it involves exercising effective command and control to ensure that the objective is completed with minimum risk to your side. You can't command effectively if you're too busy fighting for your life. We don't fight the sort of battles these days where simply standing at the front and running toward the enemy first counts as 'command'. That went out the window when they invented gunpowder.
I can only tell what I felt. My instructors were extremely careful. They showed a big respect to the gun. The bang and the recoil was much more than I had expected. I felt how extremely dangerous a gun is, it's designed to kill. I did one year of military service, it was mandatory a the time. We did not start with handguns. On the range, on the ground with a military weapon. It was named AK4, an automatic rifle. I remember the sound, the sudden realisation that this is something that is designed to kill with. It's not for hunting, it's not for target shooting, it is for killing. I also member the respect that our instructors showed to the weapon. Of course we had learned everything on how to assemble/disassemble the gun. How to clean and check that is was ok. Of course we had instructions on how you handled the gun on the range. But it was not until that first shot I really understood the respect thing. Later on we had the possibility to learn to shoot with handguns. This was indoors and we used caliber .22 The .22 is a plaything compared with the guns we had used before. The instructor was not one of our usual commanding officers. But he had the same respect, the same extremely careful rules on how to handle the gun.
