Shooting Sports

As you are probably well aware if you live in the state, Idaho is home to a lot of people who enjoy guns. A number of factors combine to make Idaho an ideal place to be a gun owner. For one, Idaho is generally a politically conservative state. There are all kinds of political minds to be found within the state’s borders, especially when you get into the more populated zones like the Treasure Valley. Furthermore, there are a lot of past times in Idaho that are accomplishable only by the use of guns, such as hunting (Of course, hunting is a sport that can be done with a bow or with a spear if you are extremely skilled and capable, but the vast majority of people are gun hunting). There are a lot of wide open spaces with diverse populations of animals. So, if you live in Idaho and are interested in hunting, where do you start? What are the most important things to know and what can you make your hobbies? That is what we are going to talk about right now.

The first thing that needs to be said in every conversation that involves is that guns are dangerous, which is about as obvious as saying water is wet and fire is hot. Knowledge about how to be safe with a firearm is an absolute necessity and should be understood well before you even touch a gun for the first time. So, let us get some major principles out of the way. A gun is always dangerous. Even if you are absolutely certain that you have completely unloaded the weapon and put the safe on, that does not mean it cannot go off and shoot you to death. Of course, an unloaded gun on safe cannot actually fire, but you can never truly be sure of the state of the weapon. Maybe you think you have made a gun safe, but also might have forgotten some crucial detail, like a friend put a bullet in the gun when you were not looking (This can be a simple mistake and not a malicious act) or your memory is not as good as you think at the moment.

The best thing to do with a gun is to never point it at something important to you that you are not okay killing. This means people around you, important objects around you, or you yourself. Just do not point it in a direction where you would be very unhappy or dead if the gun went off unexpectedly. Do not look down any barrels unless the barrel is completely disconnected from rest of the weapon and it is time to do some cleaning. Even though you are never going to point the gun where it should not be pointed, you should still make sure the gun is always on safe when you are not actively shooting it and that it is unloaded at the same times. This way you can avoid as many accidents as possible.

Now, maintaining your weapon is a necessity if you want it to work for you when you need it (Whether you are at the shooting range, in a competition of some kind or in need of defending yourself). A gun is not something you can just pick up and shoot with perfect accuracy, even if you know the correct forms, stances and control techniques. Small problems with the gun can lead to malfunctions or bad accuracy. The gun can jam if it is dirty or the bullet can go off course from where you want it to go. Make sure your gun is clean at all times, both so you can use it for defense on quick notice if that is what this particular weapon is for and so you do not have to go to the trouble of doing emergency cleaning when you would rather be shooting. Your gun also needs to have its sights adjusted to the right position to shoot and hit what you want. This is not as frequent a job as cleaning, but it is still something you need to keep track of.

The next question is, what kind of gun do you want? If you really catch the itch and find you love being a gun owner, you will eventually have a lot of different kinds of weapons, but your first gun is generally something you want for a practical use like home defense or hunting. Shotguns are generally most useful for home defense as well as competition shooting. They are one of the easier kinds of guns to use and maintain and their ammunition is generally cheap. Using a shotgun in your home is more effective than some weapons that require precision shooting and more skill with firearms. Furthermore, one of the biggest shooting sports is skeet shooting, which involves hitting flying targets with a shotgun. It can actually be an enormous amount of fun, so once you know what you are doing with your shotgun, you might want to give it a try. Shotguns are also big for hunting. Pistols are the ultimate portable self-defense weapon. You can take them with you easily (As long as the place you are going allows them) and once you know your way around a pistol you can use it quickly in a tense and dangerous situation. Of course, you need certain permits and training for concealing your pistol, but this is good because it teaches you a lot of important information. Long rifles are best for hunting, as they are meant to be used over great distances. For home defense, they can be unwieldy and hard to aim in confined places. Assault rifle style weapons are more popular among gun enthusiasts. They have the same practical uses as the other weapon types, but they do not fit any niche quite as well as others, for the most part.