Today, I'm embracing the second amendment.

[HoneyBadger]

36. Awesome choice for the range

Last edited Sat Dec 31, 2016, 12:36 AM - Edit history (8)

I highly recommend joining the GSSF (Glock Sport Shooting Foundation) which has many events and competitions nationally as well as all sorts of deals and discounts. If you should one day opt for concealed carry, you may want something smaller. If your eyes are no longer young, you may want something built to accept a red dot sight, which compensates for age. That is not the same as a laser sight, which is yet another type of aiming device. For a house gun, you may want to add "night" sights, which are simply sights that are easier to see. For pure competition, there are better models. The 17L is considered a low end competition gun. Personally I might have opted for 3 slightly different Glocks. The Glock 19 is very slightly smaller, but the most popular model. 19MOS is the red dot version, new and hard to find. 19M is the latest, is not really available yet, still getting debugged also. So there are a ridiculous number of choices, including color options. There are also all sorts of imitation or training Glocks, which allow you to do the 90% of practicing that does not actually involve punching a hole in a target. Believe it or not, breathing style is probably the single most important thing to practice.

In any case, expect to shoot several thousand rounds each to get your skills to a reasonable level. Which if you are a Costco style shopper, means buying several thousand rounds of ammo at once to save money. Ammo quality and purpose varies greatly and correlates to price. For instance, cheap ammo often comes from Russia, is unpowered and prone to failure, and questionable for a gun that is not yet broken in. Expensive ammo is expensive, but cops tend to use it, because they cannot afford to use something unreliable,

At this point you are like someone with a learners permit or someone that just bought a new cell phone. Becoming a good driver or shooter or texter takes practice, repetition and study. Much like driving, the initial goal is to get you comfortable and build safe habits. So that you do not do damage. Eventually you can be trusted on your own to share common space with others of varying ability. Actually hitting your target comes a bit later.

You will need some form of holster unless you never put the gun down, which of course is not possible. Keeping it in your pocket or in a bag without a holster is considered unsafe. Holsters are like pants, no one fits everyone best, and because it tends to be uncomfortable, people keep trying different ones.

You will find that Glocks are considered value guns, not Saturday Night Specials, but very utilitarian. A good gun for someone that does not particularly care about guns either way. They are not weapons of mass murder or invisible to metal detectors. What they are is extremely cost effective to manufacture, extremely reliable, and extremely well marketed to law enforcement departments, which get them for prices that you could not believe. The company is known for the best customer service in the industry. Because Glocks are relatively cheap and reliable, people sometimes try to abuse them to see at what point they cease to function. They treat them like a rental car. The manufacturer looks upon this rather benevolently as a sort of extreme test. And even when guns come back broken due to user error, they typically step up and replace or repair them regardless of warranty.