First Day Of Fire Arm Training

Today was another milestone in my life......since I'm trying new experiences and learning new things, I went to my first SAS (Second Amendment Sisters) chapter meeting today. The meetings here are the second Sunday of the month. It started off with an hour meeting on fire arm safety, going over the three most important steps in using a fire arm safely:

1. Always point the fire arm muzzle away from what you don't want to shoot (or, as they put it in my class today: destroy). You can to keep the muzzle pointing towards down range. And I'll add to this that you always want to LOOK what you are pointing the muzzle at and BEYOND! Bullets can travel up to a mile and a half. Know your target, know what's beyond it.
2. Keep your finger off the trigger until you want to initiate a shot. Keep your finger on the "frame" of the gun, don't put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to fire off a shot. The "frame" of the gun is above the trigger area on the side of the fire arm (in other words, keep the finger pointed straight along the side of the muzzle).
3. Do not load your fire arm until you are ready to use it. Keep the gun unloaded until you are ready to fire shots from it. Simply said. When you are taking a break at a firing range, unload the gun and place it with the muzzle still pointing down range, and step back.

Also in class we went over some standing positions to be in when firing your gun. I'm not going to get into detail about the difference stances we went over as the article here on American Rifleman gives a great detailed explanation of each stance. I preferred the "Isometric" stance for my first time shooting and I will play with other stances as I progress thru my practices along the way.

The only thing I would recommend in doing (which I will do before my next shooting practice) is invest in a good pair of Earmuffs. Even a .22 gun goes off a little on the loud side if you aren't use to it. So I looked on Amazon and the one that I will end up buying is this one from Howard Leight. A pair of protective glasses is on my list too, but obviously won't be as challenging to hunt down as I can just stop by the local hardware store for that. Which I just want to add in here a table of decibel ratings for you to compare the level of decibels different fire arms have compared to normal hearing levels.

Decibel Ratings
10	Normal Breathing
50	Interior Home Noise
70	Crowded Restaurant
80	City Traffic
85	Hearing Damage Possible
90	Lawn Mower
120	Threshold of Pain
120	Siren
130	Jackhammer
140	Jet Engine at Takeoff
152	.22 Pistol
156	12 Gauge Shotgun
157	.45 ACP Pistol
160	9mm Pistol
164	.357 Magnum Revolver