People call them lots of things, depending on the state that you're in, but whether it's a Concealed Weapons Permit, a Concealed Pistol Permit, a Concealed Carry Permit, a carry card, whut-EVER, it allows you to have a loaded firearm on your person, in your purse, in your car, etc. They are all issued separately for whatever state you live in, usually by either the statewide police agency or your county sheriff's department. Not every state allows concealed carry (cough coughIllinoiscough), which is bad. How are you supposed to be able to defend yourself against muggers/dogs/bears/zombies/whatever if carrying a TOOL to defend yourself is against the law? In Illinois, you have to apply for a card/permit to even PURCHASE a firearm. >:( I am not going all NRA-crazy here, but that sounds suspiciously like "infringing" my "right" to "keep" and "bear" arms, if you ask me.
And i guess i am a little stymied as to how something like that would even purport to work. I mean, me, Law-Abiding Lucy, has to fill out a bunch of forms and pay a bunch of money to purchase a firearm. Great. Fan-freaking-tastic. Does that inconvenience to ME stop Criminal Carl from buying a used gun from some crackhead and mugging people with it? NO. Gun laws like this are well-intentioned but they do NOT stop guns from getting into the hands of people who are going to do something stupid and give guns a bad name. Laws don't stop criminals from doing anything. These people don't follow laws. THAT'S WHY THEY ARE CRIMINALS. Gun laws just get in my way and piss me off. grrr.
Anyways, on to more awesome things.
Some states allow OPEN carry, which is cool. Meaning, if I want to have a gun on my hip, covered by a Carhartt jacket, that is considered "concealed" and i need a permit. But if the state allows open carry, i can have that same gun on my hip NOT covered by a Carhartt jacket, and go swaggering down the street nice and legal. Awesome. Wisconsin is an example of this. They do not issue concealed carry permits but open carry has to be specifically prohibited by the building or place of business.
I got a . . . checking . . . Concealed Weapons LICENSE (whatEVER) when I moved to Idaho because I have guns in my car on a regular basis, and while that alone is perfectly legal, it makes things easier if i were to, for example, get pulled over with three shotguns in the backseat.* John Law likes to see the license because it means that I am not only a law-abiding citizen, but also that I have been photographed, fingerprinted, paid a license fee, and been subjected to a national FBI and local background check to make sure I'm not a felon. Felons in the United States lose their right to keep and bear arms. So don't do crime, kids; it's not worth losing a chance to (legally) play with sweet sweet guns.
*-This is actully pretty likely to happen if I am headed to the gun club. ;)
Here is a kick-ass website that has all the info on what your state issues, along with your state's reciprocity information. Meaning, does your state honor carry permits from OTHER states? Not all of them do, folks! It is one of the vagaries of this wacky nation. There have been legislative attempts to standardize carry laws across state lines, but they are usually fought by most gun-rights organizations for a couple of reasons. 1) Because nationwide standards start us all down a slippery slope to standardized firearm licensing requirements, which are bad, and 2) a nationwide standard has to be voted on by Congress, and the vast majority of Congresspeople come from heavily populated, urban areas. They have generally grown up thinking that guns are bad, and no one has ever taken the time to teach them to shoot and demonstrated that guns are nothing but tools. So who is to say that Congress wouldn't decide to enact a nationwide standard based on, say, Illinois' dumbass position? Nobody, either pro- or anti-gun, wants to fight that fight, and that's why everyone is happy to leave that as it is, as a states' rights issue.
Anyways. Concealed weapons permits! Go get one!
And yes, i am still working on Rifle Post. FEVERISHLY working. Well, not really. But you can pretend.
Showing posts with label handguns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label handguns. Show all posts
Friday, April 24, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Guns 301 - Semi-automatics
Sorry everyone! Work has been cracking the whip. But i would like to continue on with my overview of different types of guns and get into a brief discussion of semi-automatic handguns.
"Semi-automatic" refers to the action of the gun, or where the next bullet comes from. There are about a gajillion moving parts in these guns, which is why you have to keep them clean or they jam on you like crazy. I am going to take some indecent liberties with explaining how they actually work, mostly because i am not sure i fully understand it myself and i like to refer to the process as "magic." Basically you load the gun by slapping the magazine into the hole in the bottom of the grip.
You pull the slide back to chamber a round . . .
and then you point the firearm at something you wish to puncture and pull the trigger. The bullet is fired, just like when you pull the trigger in a revolver, but the gas from the round pushes the slide back on a semi-auto handgun. The slide blows back and ejects the spent shell casing. Once that happens, the (very strong) spring in the magazine pushes the next round up into the chamber. Just like that, you're "automatically" ready to fire again, as many times as there are rounds in the gun.
Here is an exploded view of a semi-auto:
Oh, and a terminology thing: "Semi-automatic" simply means you have to pull the trigger one time for each bullet. "Fully automatic" means you can theoretically pull the trigger once and then hold the trigger down and spray bullets all over the place. Fully automatic handguns don't exist outside of that dumbass "Underworld" movie because they would be absolutely uncontrollable, and because you would be out of ammunition in like 2 seconds.
I don't mean to give a political commentary, but sometimes you do hear legislators talking about restricting semi-automatic guns. It baffles me a little as to why, or what crime that would prevent. I know people who can fire revolvers every bit as fast, or faster, than semi-automatic handguns. So it's not really a speed-of-fire issue . . . Legislation of this type is probably proposed by well-meaning people who think that "semi-automatic" sounds scary and so it should be taken away. This is why i am such a big proponent of people learning to shoot. After you have pulled a trigger a time or two, you learn that a gun is not something to be scared of. It is simply a tool. Nothing more, nothing less. Dismounting soap box now.
You don't have to cock the hammer on a semi-auto, generally speaking. They are all double-action. Some of them (Glocks, etc) don't even have an exposed hammer, so you're SOL if you want to fire it single-action. You can cock the hammer if you want on those that do have a hammer, and you see it done a LOT in movies or on TV, but it is pretty much a useless gesture. Just takes "I want to shoot you" to "I REALLY want to shoot you."
Semi-autos are pretty much the concealed carry gun of choice for most of us who carry. Basically we want as many bullets as we can get, available as fast as we can get them, and semi-autos fill this bill pretty well. I will get into that a little more in a separate blog entry, mostly because i have to go to work again. :(
I kind of blew through this entry, and i really really need some coffee, so let me know if there is anything you would like to know more about! I can address it in the comments or edit the entry or whatever.
But i will leave you with some awesome photos I found. :)
These are pretty fugly even by my standards. And the one with the snakeskin grips is EXPENSIVE, like 4-digit even before you pimp it out. Kind of ironic that guns are considered to be a redneck/yokel/poor bumpkin kind of thing, eh? ;)
"Semi-automatic" refers to the action of the gun, or where the next bullet comes from. There are about a gajillion moving parts in these guns, which is why you have to keep them clean or they jam on you like crazy. I am going to take some indecent liberties with explaining how they actually work, mostly because i am not sure i fully understand it myself and i like to refer to the process as "magic." Basically you load the gun by slapping the magazine into the hole in the bottom of the grip.
You pull the slide back to chamber a round . . .
and then you point the firearm at something you wish to puncture and pull the trigger. The bullet is fired, just like when you pull the trigger in a revolver, but the gas from the round pushes the slide back on a semi-auto handgun. The slide blows back and ejects the spent shell casing. Once that happens, the (very strong) spring in the magazine pushes the next round up into the chamber. Just like that, you're "automatically" ready to fire again, as many times as there are rounds in the gun.
Here is an exploded view of a semi-auto:
Oh, and a terminology thing: "Semi-automatic" simply means you have to pull the trigger one time for each bullet. "Fully automatic" means you can theoretically pull the trigger once and then hold the trigger down and spray bullets all over the place. Fully automatic handguns don't exist outside of that dumbass "Underworld" movie because they would be absolutely uncontrollable, and because you would be out of ammunition in like 2 seconds.
I don't mean to give a political commentary, but sometimes you do hear legislators talking about restricting semi-automatic guns. It baffles me a little as to why, or what crime that would prevent. I know people who can fire revolvers every bit as fast, or faster, than semi-automatic handguns. So it's not really a speed-of-fire issue . . . Legislation of this type is probably proposed by well-meaning people who think that "semi-automatic" sounds scary and so it should be taken away. This is why i am such a big proponent of people learning to shoot. After you have pulled a trigger a time or two, you learn that a gun is not something to be scared of. It is simply a tool. Nothing more, nothing less. Dismounting soap box now.
You don't have to cock the hammer on a semi-auto, generally speaking. They are all double-action. Some of them (Glocks, etc) don't even have an exposed hammer, so you're SOL if you want to fire it single-action. You can cock the hammer if you want on those that do have a hammer, and you see it done a LOT in movies or on TV, but it is pretty much a useless gesture. Just takes "I want to shoot you" to "I REALLY want to shoot you."
Semi-autos are pretty much the concealed carry gun of choice for most of us who carry. Basically we want as many bullets as we can get, available as fast as we can get them, and semi-autos fill this bill pretty well. I will get into that a little more in a separate blog entry, mostly because i have to go to work again. :(
I kind of blew through this entry, and i really really need some coffee, so let me know if there is anything you would like to know more about! I can address it in the comments or edit the entry or whatever.
But i will leave you with some awesome photos I found. :)
These are pretty fugly even by my standards. And the one with the snakeskin grips is EXPENSIVE, like 4-digit even before you pimp it out. Kind of ironic that guns are considered to be a redneck/yokel/poor bumpkin kind of thing, eh? ;)
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Guns 201 - The Revolver
Revolver post!
Revolvers rock. The first handgun i ever shot was a revolver, a .22-caliber Ruger Single Six (which i just typoed as "Single Sux," which could not be further from the truth). Revolvers are a great learner gun, generally speaking, but more on that later.
So it is probably oversimplifying, but revolvers are so-called because they have a revolving cylinder. The cylinder is where all your bullets live, and the cylinder rotates each bullet so that it lines up with the barrel. That's easy enough. HOW the cylinder works is a little more complicated.
Revolvers come in two different types of actions--single-action and double-action. Single-action is when you have to use your thumb and cock the hammer (the pointy doohickey on the back of the gun, above the grip). Cocking the hammer rotates the cylinder and lines the bullet up with the barrel. Cock hammer (huh huh), aim, squeeze trigger, *bang*, cock hammer again, repeat. It's called a single-action because the trigger is responsible for a single action only--dropping the firing pin onto the bullet.
DOUBLE-action guns don't need you and your feeble thumb to cock the hammer, although you still can if you want. The two actions performed by the trigger are the rotation of the cylinder and the firing of the bullet. I think that's why it's called double-action, anyway. I never really understood that. As far as I'm concerned, the names should be switched, because MY thumb and MY trigger finger perform 2 actions for one type, and only one action for the other type. I don't get to make the rules though, so whatever. >:(
Double-action guns have a really heavy trigger--you have to pull it pretty hard because it is mechanically working the cylinder around. You can shoot a double-action gun as a single-action, though. If you cock the hammer and rotate the cylinder yourself, the trigger gets a LOT lighter and easier to pull.
You most likely won't be able to tell single-action from double-action by looking at them, so make sure you ask before you shoot! It's nice to know so you're not sitting there hauling on an immobile trigger going "WHY. WON'T. YOU. FIRE!!?" and looking like a big dweeb when actually you forgot to cock the hammer. :) The notable exception--hammerless revolvers are always double-action. Also, they are always humpbacked and ugly. Even when they are pink:
Revolvers fire bullets almost exclusively, although they DO make tiny shot-shells in certain calibers for revolvers. The shot-shells are retardedly expensive and have a lethal range of about 3 feet, which is why people pretty much just buy them for shooting rattlesnakes, at least in my part of the world anyway. John Wayne might be able to thwack a rattlesnake with a bullet from like 30 feet, but most of us aren't that good. And no, i have never actually shot a snake, because i loooooooooooooooove snakes. But i am in the minority with that opinion, i think.
They also make blanks, which are basically black powder capped off with wax or paper. No bullet, but the black powder goes *BANG* and flings flaming powder 6-8 feet. THAT's the stuff they use to pop balloons in cowboy-action mounted shooting.
Single-action revolvers are considered very safe to carry and shoot because the gun CANNOT accidentally fire without the hammer being cocked back. This, and historical accuracy, are the reasons single-action firearms are the only ones allowed in cowboy-action mounted shooting ("cowboy" action meaning "single-action").
Most revolvers have room in the cylinder for 5 or 6 rounds. Some of the smaller calibers can hold more but 5 or 6 is pretty standard.
CMSA (Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association) rules state that your revolver has to be a single action .45 caliber, and that you can only load 5 (blank) rounds even though your gun holds 6. The thought process behind this is, if you drop a loaded revolver on a VERY hard surface and it lands on the hammer JUST RIGHT, it can theoretically hit the butt-end of the bullet hard enough to fire it. The chances are like one in a gajillion, but they don't take chances with people's safety, so the chamber underneath the hammer is ALWAYS empty unless you are in the ring running the pattern and actually firing your gun. GunS, there are usually 10 balloons on a course (i think) so it takes 2 guns. I am still a total n00b at mounted shooting, and Roxie sucks out loud at it, but it is fun and I'm going to keep on it!
Revolvers are a really good gun if you are learning how to shoot, for a variety of reasons. One of these is recoil. Most first-time shooters are a little scared of what it's going to feel like to have a thing in your hand go *BANG* and kick backwards. Revolvers are generally pretty heavy for their size, and the rule of thumb with guns (if you're ignoring caliber) is always "heavier gun = less recoil." I'll touch on that more when i talk about long guns.
There is a little bit of a trend in the gun world right now to make handguns out of lightweight material (titanium, alloys, "polymer" which i am pretty sure is just a fancy word for plastic, etc). Lighter-weight materials make a gun a LOT easier to carry, especially in your purse which is already too heavy. The problem is, FIRING A LIGHTWEIGHT GUN IS TOTALLY LAME AND UNCOMFORTABLE. Especially as you get into larger calibers or magnum rounds.
I work in the timber industry, and I know a lot of my foresters like to carry titanium revolvers because they are lightweight and that's a big concern when you have to carry it on your hip or in a vest pocket all day long. But even these big burly dudes complain that actually FIRING the gun sucks because there is a ton of recoil. It's intimidating, and it makes it tougher to get the gun back on target after each pull of the trigger. So that's something to keep in mind if you are learning to shoot or picking out a gun to purchase. Heavier = better, unless you have some experience and/or know what you're getting into.
The Ruger Single Six i was talking about earlier was an AWESOME learner gun. Single action and .22 caliber. When you pulled the trigger, the gun didn't go "bang," it went "pop." Hardly any recoil, and very accurate over short distances. Most pistol ranges have the targets set at 25-30 feet out (although some are pretty adjustable) and that is longer than most distances over which you would actually want to use a handgun. Handgun hunting is an exception, but I won't babble about that just yet.
Anyways, a single-action .22 revolver is a great way to learn to shoot and build confidence.
Revolvers also don't fling an empty shell out of the gun like semi-automatic pistols do. When i was learning to shoot semi-autos in larger calibers, i found the flying empty shells to be a HUGE pain in the butt until i learned better control of my wrist. It's one less thing to think about with a revolver, and personally i am ALL ABOUT lessening the number of things i have to think about. ;)
Loading a revolver is pretty simple. Most of them either have a little gate that swings open so you can rotate the cylinder and stick a bullet in each chamber, or they have a lever or a button you can press to make the whole cylinder swing out of the gun. The above picture is a close-up of the little gate, closed, on a gun that has the hammer cocked back. The swing-out cylinder is easier to work with, although according to Google Image Search it is apparently prone to cracking. The gate-style (i don't think that's really what it is called) is slow to unload because you have to extract each spent case with a push rod on the front of the gun, under the barrel. Some revolvers are break-action, which is cool but you really don't find that too often.
Oh, the other cool thing about revolvers--if you have the hammer cocked and then you decide you don't want to shoot, you hold the hammer with your thumb, pull the trigger, and EASE the hammer back down. Pulling the trigger releases the hammer but your thumb slows it down (hopefully) so you don't actually shoot if you don't want to. Definitely practice that at the range though, and keep the barrel pointed in a safe direction! ("Down range" refers to "towards the targets," and that's a safe direction).
Also, just like anything else, they DO make guns with us in mind:
See??
Revolvers rock. The first handgun i ever shot was a revolver, a .22-caliber Ruger Single Six (which i just typoed as "Single Sux," which could not be further from the truth). Revolvers are a great learner gun, generally speaking, but more on that later.
So it is probably oversimplifying, but revolvers are so-called because they have a revolving cylinder. The cylinder is where all your bullets live, and the cylinder rotates each bullet so that it lines up with the barrel. That's easy enough. HOW the cylinder works is a little more complicated.
Revolvers come in two different types of actions--single-action and double-action. Single-action is when you have to use your thumb and cock the hammer (the pointy doohickey on the back of the gun, above the grip). Cocking the hammer rotates the cylinder and lines the bullet up with the barrel. Cock hammer (huh huh), aim, squeeze trigger, *bang*, cock hammer again, repeat. It's called a single-action because the trigger is responsible for a single action only--dropping the firing pin onto the bullet.
DOUBLE-action guns don't need you and your feeble thumb to cock the hammer, although you still can if you want. The two actions performed by the trigger are the rotation of the cylinder and the firing of the bullet. I think that's why it's called double-action, anyway. I never really understood that. As far as I'm concerned, the names should be switched, because MY thumb and MY trigger finger perform 2 actions for one type, and only one action for the other type. I don't get to make the rules though, so whatever. >:(
Double-action guns have a really heavy trigger--you have to pull it pretty hard because it is mechanically working the cylinder around. You can shoot a double-action gun as a single-action, though. If you cock the hammer and rotate the cylinder yourself, the trigger gets a LOT lighter and easier to pull.
You most likely won't be able to tell single-action from double-action by looking at them, so make sure you ask before you shoot! It's nice to know so you're not sitting there hauling on an immobile trigger going "WHY. WON'T. YOU. FIRE!!?" and looking like a big dweeb when actually you forgot to cock the hammer. :) The notable exception--hammerless revolvers are always double-action. Also, they are always humpbacked and ugly. Even when they are pink:
Revolvers fire bullets almost exclusively, although they DO make tiny shot-shells in certain calibers for revolvers. The shot-shells are retardedly expensive and have a lethal range of about 3 feet, which is why people pretty much just buy them for shooting rattlesnakes, at least in my part of the world anyway. John Wayne might be able to thwack a rattlesnake with a bullet from like 30 feet, but most of us aren't that good. And no, i have never actually shot a snake, because i loooooooooooooooove snakes. But i am in the minority with that opinion, i think.
They also make blanks, which are basically black powder capped off with wax or paper. No bullet, but the black powder goes *BANG* and flings flaming powder 6-8 feet. THAT's the stuff they use to pop balloons in cowboy-action mounted shooting.
Single-action revolvers are considered very safe to carry and shoot because the gun CANNOT accidentally fire without the hammer being cocked back. This, and historical accuracy, are the reasons single-action firearms are the only ones allowed in cowboy-action mounted shooting ("cowboy" action meaning "single-action").
Most revolvers have room in the cylinder for 5 or 6 rounds. Some of the smaller calibers can hold more but 5 or 6 is pretty standard.
CMSA (Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association) rules state that your revolver has to be a single action .45 caliber, and that you can only load 5 (blank) rounds even though your gun holds 6. The thought process behind this is, if you drop a loaded revolver on a VERY hard surface and it lands on the hammer JUST RIGHT, it can theoretically hit the butt-end of the bullet hard enough to fire it. The chances are like one in a gajillion, but they don't take chances with people's safety, so the chamber underneath the hammer is ALWAYS empty unless you are in the ring running the pattern and actually firing your gun. GunS, there are usually 10 balloons on a course (i think) so it takes 2 guns. I am still a total n00b at mounted shooting, and Roxie sucks out loud at it, but it is fun and I'm going to keep on it!
Revolvers are a really good gun if you are learning how to shoot, for a variety of reasons. One of these is recoil. Most first-time shooters are a little scared of what it's going to feel like to have a thing in your hand go *BANG* and kick backwards. Revolvers are generally pretty heavy for their size, and the rule of thumb with guns (if you're ignoring caliber) is always "heavier gun = less recoil." I'll touch on that more when i talk about long guns.
There is a little bit of a trend in the gun world right now to make handguns out of lightweight material (titanium, alloys, "polymer" which i am pretty sure is just a fancy word for plastic, etc). Lighter-weight materials make a gun a LOT easier to carry, especially in your purse which is already too heavy. The problem is, FIRING A LIGHTWEIGHT GUN IS TOTALLY LAME AND UNCOMFORTABLE. Especially as you get into larger calibers or magnum rounds.
I work in the timber industry, and I know a lot of my foresters like to carry titanium revolvers because they are lightweight and that's a big concern when you have to carry it on your hip or in a vest pocket all day long. But even these big burly dudes complain that actually FIRING the gun sucks because there is a ton of recoil. It's intimidating, and it makes it tougher to get the gun back on target after each pull of the trigger. So that's something to keep in mind if you are learning to shoot or picking out a gun to purchase. Heavier = better, unless you have some experience and/or know what you're getting into.
The Ruger Single Six i was talking about earlier was an AWESOME learner gun. Single action and .22 caliber. When you pulled the trigger, the gun didn't go "bang," it went "pop." Hardly any recoil, and very accurate over short distances. Most pistol ranges have the targets set at 25-30 feet out (although some are pretty adjustable) and that is longer than most distances over which you would actually want to use a handgun. Handgun hunting is an exception, but I won't babble about that just yet.
Anyways, a single-action .22 revolver is a great way to learn to shoot and build confidence.
Revolvers also don't fling an empty shell out of the gun like semi-automatic pistols do. When i was learning to shoot semi-autos in larger calibers, i found the flying empty shells to be a HUGE pain in the butt until i learned better control of my wrist. It's one less thing to think about with a revolver, and personally i am ALL ABOUT lessening the number of things i have to think about. ;)
Loading a revolver is pretty simple. Most of them either have a little gate that swings open so you can rotate the cylinder and stick a bullet in each chamber, or they have a lever or a button you can press to make the whole cylinder swing out of the gun. The above picture is a close-up of the little gate, closed, on a gun that has the hammer cocked back. The swing-out cylinder is easier to work with, although according to Google Image Search it is apparently prone to cracking. The gate-style (i don't think that's really what it is called) is slow to unload because you have to extract each spent case with a push rod on the front of the gun, under the barrel. Some revolvers are break-action, which is cool but you really don't find that too often.
Oh, the other cool thing about revolvers--if you have the hammer cocked and then you decide you don't want to shoot, you hold the hammer with your thumb, pull the trigger, and EASE the hammer back down. Pulling the trigger releases the hammer but your thumb slows it down (hopefully) so you don't actually shoot if you don't want to. Definitely practice that at the range though, and keep the barrel pointed in a safe direction! ("Down range" refers to "towards the targets," and that's a safe direction).
Also, just like anything else, they DO make guns with us in mind:
See??
Friday, January 23, 2009
Guns 101: Handguns - The Derringer
So as a primer, we're going to go through all the different types of gun.
. . .
OK, no we're not. I'm not going to get historical because i don't feel like doing research. But i will be discussing the "Big Three" types of guns--handguns, rifles and shotguns--and talking about their uses and attributes. All together that is a huge topic so for today I am going to stick to one type of handgun.
A handgun is a short-barreled gun that you hold in your hand, obviously. Although ideally with most handguns you hold it with TWO hands. :) Handguns are available in a fairly limited range of action types ("action" meaning, "if/how the next bullet is fed after you pull the trigger and shoot once"). The only three of those that i care enough about to discuss, and probably the only three you will ever encounter, are: break action (derringers), revolvers and semiautomatics.
And I am going to start with derringers. Because they are KYOOT!
awwwwwwww!
Like i plan on doing with lots of my pictures on this blog, I pirated this picture from the interwebs. If it belongs to you, and you want me to take it down, just tell me! kthanx.
"Derringer" is actually a generic term for any 1 or 2 shot, break-action handgun. "Break action" referring to the fact that you load the rounds into the barrels by "breaking" the gun in half. You big meany, you.
These are kind of a classic purse/vest gun because they are tiny, easy to conceal, and deadly enough at 15 feet. And 15 feet is about the average distance from your assailant if you do ever get into a gunfight, btw. :)
They are usually chambered in bullet calibers (.22, .38, .45 etc) but they are commonly found in .410, which is a shotgun round (a shell full of tiny bullets). Here is an awesome picture of a derringer, open, with shotgun shells in it:
For the sake of scale, .410 shotgun shells (like the ones in the picture) are a little bit shorter and thicker than a cigarette.
You get the idea though. Open the gun (flip that little lever near the trigger) and put bullets/shells in it. Close. Aim. Pull trigger. As a point of discussion, i should mention that most derringers are single-action, meaning you have to cock the hammer before you can pull the trigger. This is cool because it functions as a safety (you can't pull the trigger unless you MEAN to pull the trigger because there is a step you have to take prior to pulling the trigger) but it can also be kind of lame if you have, like, .005 seconds to shoot a mugger or a rapist.
Derringers aren't really considered a beginner's gun because they are tough to learn how to shoot since the grip is eeny beeny teeny tiny.
They are also limited on range and accuracy due to their size. But they DO fit nicely in a purse, and some of them are plainly designed with women in mind:
Good choice if you are scared of muggers or carjackers. Not such a good choice if you are scared of bears or . . . bears.
Next up--revolvers!
. . .
OK, no we're not. I'm not going to get historical because i don't feel like doing research. But i will be discussing the "Big Three" types of guns--handguns, rifles and shotguns--and talking about their uses and attributes. All together that is a huge topic so for today I am going to stick to one type of handgun.
A handgun is a short-barreled gun that you hold in your hand, obviously. Although ideally with most handguns you hold it with TWO hands. :) Handguns are available in a fairly limited range of action types ("action" meaning, "if/how the next bullet is fed after you pull the trigger and shoot once"). The only three of those that i care enough about to discuss, and probably the only three you will ever encounter, are: break action (derringers), revolvers and semiautomatics.
And I am going to start with derringers. Because they are KYOOT!
awwwwwwww!
Like i plan on doing with lots of my pictures on this blog, I pirated this picture from the interwebs. If it belongs to you, and you want me to take it down, just tell me! kthanx.
"Derringer" is actually a generic term for any 1 or 2 shot, break-action handgun. "Break action" referring to the fact that you load the rounds into the barrels by "breaking" the gun in half. You big meany, you.
These are kind of a classic purse/vest gun because they are tiny, easy to conceal, and deadly enough at 15 feet. And 15 feet is about the average distance from your assailant if you do ever get into a gunfight, btw. :)
They are usually chambered in bullet calibers (.22, .38, .45 etc) but they are commonly found in .410, which is a shotgun round (a shell full of tiny bullets). Here is an awesome picture of a derringer, open, with shotgun shells in it:
For the sake of scale, .410 shotgun shells (like the ones in the picture) are a little bit shorter and thicker than a cigarette.
You get the idea though. Open the gun (flip that little lever near the trigger) and put bullets/shells in it. Close. Aim. Pull trigger. As a point of discussion, i should mention that most derringers are single-action, meaning you have to cock the hammer before you can pull the trigger. This is cool because it functions as a safety (you can't pull the trigger unless you MEAN to pull the trigger because there is a step you have to take prior to pulling the trigger) but it can also be kind of lame if you have, like, .005 seconds to shoot a mugger or a rapist.
Derringers aren't really considered a beginner's gun because they are tough to learn how to shoot since the grip is eeny beeny teeny tiny.
They are also limited on range and accuracy due to their size. But they DO fit nicely in a purse, and some of them are plainly designed with women in mind:
Good choice if you are scared of muggers or carjackers. Not such a good choice if you are scared of bears or . . . bears.
Next up--revolvers!
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