Avoiding Rooking Mistakes
“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest” – Confucious
We’ve all grown wiser via the third method at one point or another. I’m no stranger to bumbling my way through my firearms journey. So let’s avoid repeating my mistakes and see what we can learn from them.
- Feel Less, Shoot More This is a common mistake that a lot of people make when looking for a new gun: they go to their local gun store, they ask the staff to put some guns in their hand to try, and then they buy what feels best. This is exactly the same as buying a car based on just sitting in it. Sometimes, it works out if you’re flexible, ignorant, or desperate. But if you want to be confident when going to make your purchase, go and rent those guns, or better yet, shoot with some friends! You’ll save on ammo costs by skipping the marked up prices for exactly the same ammo you can find online, and your friend gets to show you some of their collection. If there’s one thing shared in the gun community, it’s the excitement of seeing someone try something different from your collection.
Additionally, the practicality of actually shooting the gun to learn how the gun handles cannot be understated. It’s just like test driving a car; It’s only by driving that you realize you don’t like how noisy the car is at speed, or the dashboard controls are too confusing, or the car is just not sized well for you. Same lesson applies for shooting guns.
Get a Gun that can Grow with You For my First Handgun Buyer’s Guide, I recommended the Glock 19 because it has the most accessory options available to it. Specifically, I should mention that you should get the Glock 19 MOS. MOS stands for Modular Optic System, which means that via Glock’s adapter plate system, you can use almost optic you want without committing to any specific optic brand. This is really useful as when you try that hot new optic everyone is talking about, only to realize it wasn’t for you. Similar can apply for weapon lights and holsters.
Make sure you know how to Operate the Weapon Controls This isn’t as simple as read the owners manual and trying the controls once. It’s important to be familiar with the platform you’re using to such a degree that you can operate the gun without looking to someone or the manual when a basic malfunction happens.
It’s seen as a joke, but there was an online video going around where a soldier in bootcamp couldn’t figure out why his gun wasn’t firing, and it’s because he was out of ammo. This sounds like a boneheaded, obvious mistake, but almost every beginner I’ve seen gets similarly confused when their handgun slide locks back on an empty magazine. They aren’t used to the recoil impulse difference, or how to tell the difference between a jam and getting an empty magazine. They just feel a trigger difference, and that the gun stopped firing on their latest trigger press.
This is where we’ll introduce the idea of learning the ‘manual of arms’ for a firearm. The manual of arms is essentially knowing what techniques and operations must be performed at a given time. For example, if you are told to ‘show clear’, that means you should be able to:
- drop the source of ammunition
- clear the chamber
- lock back the slide to allow an observer to verify the chamber is empty.
If you know what that means, that’s great. And if you don’t, that’s ok too; I’ll quickly explain that:
- To drop the source of ammunition, you need to drop the magazine in your gun by hitting the mag release button.
- To clear the chamber, positively rack the slide and visually observe a round pulled from the chamber.
- To lock the slide back, push up on the slide catch, and rack the slide while still pushing on the slide catch.
With enough practice, you will know the basic operations of your firearm and with enough training, be able to confidently execute those operations during different situations. That together will mean you have learned the manual of arms for your firearm and will immensely increase you confidence in handling your firearm.