2. Join the NRA or the Second Amendment Foundation. If you have any money left, join the Second Amendment Sisters.
2. Buy a Pistol in a caliber you can handle. If you like 9MM, that's peachy. You don't have to explain to anyone.
3. Buy a rifle. I know how hard it is to find a place to shoot a rifle if you live in a city but try to buy one anyway. You can always save up for ammo and then go once every couple of months and keep practicing.
4. Buy a shotgun. Ammo is expensive but most people who shoot the other firearms don't have a problem picking up and getting decent with a shotgun.
5. Buy a Dillon 550B for reloading. Notice I didn't say another brand. There just isn't another brand. You won't save money. You'll shoot more.
6. If you want to be good with a pistol, join the IDPA. They'll show you how to shoot for the price of membership and competition fees.
7. Learn to shoot that rifle at an NRA High Power Rifle Match. You'll learn standing, sitting and prone. You'll be surrounded by expert advice.
8. For rifle shooting, learn natural point of aim. If you stress the rifle to be on target, you recoil will put you back to where you were before stressing to the target. Oops.
9.Targets. If you have your own place to shoot, you can buy a pack of styrofoam picnic plates and then go to Home Depot for light garden fence posts. A fifty pack of plates and a half dozen posts under 25 dollars will take a long time to use up. The plate is held by the top clip on the post.
l0. The perfect handgun for a woman who wants to shoot in competition like IDPA is a Browning High Power in 9MM. It just is.
11. Wilson makes a great magazine for 1911 45 Autos. Mec-Gar is the best handgun manufacturer for the other pistols.
12. If you have a revolver, you owe it to yourself to learn to reload it under five seconds with a speedloader.
5. Buy a Dillon 550B for reloading. Notice I didn't say another brand. There just isn't another brand. You won't save money. You'll shoot more.
No question about it, Dillon is top of the line. While I've got an RL-550B, if you can afford it, go with the 650. The auto-indexing is quite handy. If you can't afford the RL-550B, don't give up and get an el-cheapo from another company... At least try to get yourself a Dillon Square Deal B. They're a lot cheaper, but limiting in a number of ways, including the fact that it uses non-standard dies. But if you're in a pinch, and want to get into reloading relatively cheaply, consider the SDB. Finally, Dillon Precision takes customer service VERY seriously. I once called them, telling them that I had broken a part on my press, and asked how much it would cost for a replacement. They asked for my address, and the next afternoon I had not only the part I had broken, but 2 spares, AND the base piece, just in case I had damaged it (it was part of the primer feed). They shipped it overnight express at no charge! Then I received a call later that day to make sure that everything was working properly. I still get "The Blue Press" whenever it comes out, even though I haven't bought anything from them in a few years.
9.Targets. If you have your own place to shoot, you can buy a pack of styrofoam picnic plates and then go to Home Depot for light garden fence posts. A fifty pack of plates and a half dozen posts under 25 dollars will take a long time to use up. The plate is held by the top clip on the post.
Styrofoam OR plain, white paper plates, and I just use a staple gun with plain wooden strips.
11. Wilson makes a great magazine for 1911 45 Autos. Mec-Gar is the best handgun manufacturer for the other pistols.
Wilson Combat makes awesome magazines, but I've also had good luck with Chip McCormick's mags as well. Never had a misfeed.
Mark
“12. If you have a revolver, you owe it to yourself to learn to reload it under five seconds with a speedloader.”A single-action sans the ejector?
Good advice — great thread.
This is the only point on which I particularly disagree with you [aside from the fact that I like the Dillon SDB for handloading pistol ammo over the 550B]
No problem about the paper or styrofoam plates, but I prefer to mount them on largish cardboard boxes instead, 2x2x4 feet being pretty good, taller when available. that gives me a 4-sided target stand that can withstand a couple hundred rounds of rifle fire [after replacement of the shot-up paper plates, of course] or when stacked one atop another can support a IPSC/IDPA target or silhouette for handgun practice.
On windy days, a brick tossed in the box prevents any movement of the box from wind. If it starts to rain, the boxes are an excuse to call things quits before it really dumps. And when you leave, you can not only pack out your own trash, including shot-up paper/styro plates and cardboard ammo boxes, but drag out some of that left by others.