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the gun everyone loves to hate
Jul. 11th, 2022 08:26 pm A non-entertainment post for a second lol. I bought an AR15 here recently and being the very hands on person i am, i decided to also sign up for a class so that i could feel like i knew what i was doing with it. Gonna try not to be snarky and be informative instead lol. I'm honestly not a gun nut either i just have an interest in them and shooting is a hobby that i'm getting into.
First of all, AR15 is a platform, it's a type of gun with many different manufacturers and many different calibers, but the most common is 223 Rem which is = to 5.56 NATO. IN Washington, where i live, it's not legal to hunt big game with anything smaller than 224, so no, the typical AR15 is not a super cheaty machine gun hunting rifle. That brings me to the other thing that it seems like people get rampantly wrong about it, it's a semi-automatic, which means that it fires ONE round with ONE trigger pull. Automatic means you pull the trigger and it fires until the magazine is empty. Typical AR15 mags hold 30 rounds.
I'm not completely new to guns. I've fired a handgun and a 7mm bolt action deer rifle. I have strong knowledge on firearms in general as well. So that part of the class, such as it was, was definitely not new to me. I know my way around guns. So, to start the class, they showed us the general parts of the AR and how to dissemble it for cleaning. To make it cold range safe, you set the safety, and then pull the charging handle back and set the bolt catch. That shows there's nothing in the chamber. If you drop a mag that isn't empty, you'll have to pull the charging handle back to release the round from the chamber. When you insert a loaded mag and release the bolt catch, a round goes into the chamber. Switch the safety to FIRE and you're ready to roll. Each pull of the trigger puts another round into the chamber.
Now to the actual shooting...so in this situation we were seated with the rifle on a rest pointed down the range. The AR15 has a pistol grip that you'll want to grip like you would a handgun, so pointer finger just above the trigger guard until you're ready to shoot. Preparing to fire, you extend the stock and put it against your shoulder. I also held onto the mag with my left hand to further steady it but idk how necessary this was tbh. When you get sighted on your target, you pull the trigger, and it's like a nice punch to the shoulder lmao, along with a puff of stinky gas and a cartridge that will fly past your face somewhere. I did a few rapid fires so to speak and the gun definitely reacquires the target quickly like, it's just a matter of your own vision. If you pull the trigger and keep your eye on the sight, you can fire again in the same spot with little to no movement. That's pretty impressive. I did that a few times just bc it keeps you from overthinking it and you can be like bang bang bang same spot lol.
AR15s are LOUD. The high pressure gas creates a sort of shockwave that you can actually feel both from your gun and the person shooting next to you. It smells strongly of sulfur. I was able to tune it out rather quickly and had no problem focusing on my gun and my shot only. Idk if that would be everyone's experience, but i have been on a range before, and i live in an area where people blow 2k on fireworks on the 4th of July so idk it honestly did not faze me all that much.
I touched hot brass only once and that's when a shell casing landed somewhere near my left hand and i accidentally touched it. Otherwise i seriously hardly noticed where the spent casings were going as i was shooting. I spent about three hours shooting roughly 120 rounds and i would have prolly kept going except man my shoulder had HAD it lol. My groupings were getting very loose.
Was it fun? Hell yeah it was extremely fun. I spent most of the class getting it sighted in, but i kinda didn't care bc it was just a rush shooting it tbqh.
First of all, AR15 is a platform, it's a type of gun with many different manufacturers and many different calibers, but the most common is 223 Rem which is = to 5.56 NATO. IN Washington, where i live, it's not legal to hunt big game with anything smaller than 224, so no, the typical AR15 is not a super cheaty machine gun hunting rifle. That brings me to the other thing that it seems like people get rampantly wrong about it, it's a semi-automatic, which means that it fires ONE round with ONE trigger pull. Automatic means you pull the trigger and it fires until the magazine is empty. Typical AR15 mags hold 30 rounds.
I'm not completely new to guns. I've fired a handgun and a 7mm bolt action deer rifle. I have strong knowledge on firearms in general as well. So that part of the class, such as it was, was definitely not new to me. I know my way around guns. So, to start the class, they showed us the general parts of the AR and how to dissemble it for cleaning. To make it cold range safe, you set the safety, and then pull the charging handle back and set the bolt catch. That shows there's nothing in the chamber. If you drop a mag that isn't empty, you'll have to pull the charging handle back to release the round from the chamber. When you insert a loaded mag and release the bolt catch, a round goes into the chamber. Switch the safety to FIRE and you're ready to roll. Each pull of the trigger puts another round into the chamber.
Now to the actual shooting...so in this situation we were seated with the rifle on a rest pointed down the range. The AR15 has a pistol grip that you'll want to grip like you would a handgun, so pointer finger just above the trigger guard until you're ready to shoot. Preparing to fire, you extend the stock and put it against your shoulder. I also held onto the mag with my left hand to further steady it but idk how necessary this was tbh. When you get sighted on your target, you pull the trigger, and it's like a nice punch to the shoulder lmao, along with a puff of stinky gas and a cartridge that will fly past your face somewhere. I did a few rapid fires so to speak and the gun definitely reacquires the target quickly like, it's just a matter of your own vision. If you pull the trigger and keep your eye on the sight, you can fire again in the same spot with little to no movement. That's pretty impressive. I did that a few times just bc it keeps you from overthinking it and you can be like bang bang bang same spot lol.
AR15s are LOUD. The high pressure gas creates a sort of shockwave that you can actually feel both from your gun and the person shooting next to you. It smells strongly of sulfur. I was able to tune it out rather quickly and had no problem focusing on my gun and my shot only. Idk if that would be everyone's experience, but i have been on a range before, and i live in an area where people blow 2k on fireworks on the 4th of July so idk it honestly did not faze me all that much.
I touched hot brass only once and that's when a shell casing landed somewhere near my left hand and i accidentally touched it. Otherwise i seriously hardly noticed where the spent casings were going as i was shooting. I spent about three hours shooting roughly 120 rounds and i would have prolly kept going except man my shoulder had HAD it lol. My groupings were getting very loose.
Was it fun? Hell yeah it was extremely fun. I spent most of the class getting it sighted in, but i kinda didn't care bc it was just a rush shooting it tbqh.
