I'm currently in the process of obtaining my pistol permit here in the State of Connecticut, and the first part of that process was attending an officially licensed pistol use and safety course taught by a licensed NRA member.  The course was a five hour course that went over every aspect of owning a handgun and the laws associated with it, as well as safety and the science of firearms.  The best part was the end of the course, where upon successfull completion of the examination, we were allowed to go down to the shooting range underneath the classroom and fire a selection of different guns.  The guns at our disposal were a .22 caliber single action revolver, a .357 double action revolver, a .38 Special single action revolver, and a 9mm double action Berretta.  Of all the guns, I have the say that the .22 caliber is the wussiest of them all.  Yes it can do some serious damage, but it just felt very weak and pathetic.  When fired, there was little to no kickback and not a whole lot of "oomph" felt by the shooter.  Now the .38 Special, however, felt GREAT!  That thing has some SERIOUS "oomph" to it and you can feel it in your chest when you fire the gun.  Looking at the target, getting hit by a .38 Special would surely leave you dead.  The .38 also kicked out a good deal of light and smoke when fired and was just very satisfying.  While the 9mm Berretta had a LOT more kick to it and was neat how it flung the spent casing out automatically, the .357 and .38 Special just felt really comfortable to shoot and had a great result.  With my tax return in a few months I hope to be able to afford a nice .357 magnum revolver, preferably a Smith & Wesson.  I'll have to see what I can afford.  

You need a pistol permit in order to legally own a handgun.  I want to own a nice .357 or .44 magnum revolver, and in order to legally do that I need to have a permit.  In addition, just going to a shooting range and firing off a few boxes of ammo is really cathartic and kind of interesting.  A few of the people I hang out with are into guns and target shooting and I thought it would be interesting to see what it is all about.

Yup, the numeric designation is a measurement of the diameter of the bullet being fired.  A .357 is .357 inches wide, a .44 is .44 inches wide, and a 9mm is 9 millimeters wide.  The wider the bullet is, typically the bigger the bullet is.  So a .50 caliber round is considered a VERY large bullet and as such it requires a great deal of force to get it going.  The larger the bullet, the heavier it is and the more gunpowder is needed to propel it forward.  As a result, the higher caliber bullets have much more kickback in the gun since a bigger explosion happens.  When firing, you will definitely feel the kick to it as your hand and the gun are propelled upwards.  With the high power, however, the bullet gets a great deal more energy into it so it will penetrate a lot deeper and do a LOT more damage.  

For the targets, you can either shoot at moving clay targets or at stationary ones.  I'm just getting into the physical firing of guns so I just shoot at targets which are at the opposite end of the shooting range.  It's just a standard 8.5x11 sheet of paper I'm shooting at with a bullseye and point totals printed on the paper.  So I just shoot at those and try and maintain some accuracy and precision in my shots.  Once I've got my permit and have had enough hours on the shooting range, then I'll move forward to the clay target practice.  

Also some snipers during World War II used .22's. Probably so as not give away there position and so the bullet wouldn't go through the targets head/body. Exit wound mean energy that wasn't put into the target. Even wounding a guy could have a tremendous phsychological effect on the guys around him. Especially if the wounded was screaming. Then you'd have to haul him to a medical camp. Wounding was consider almost as good as killing according to my grandfather who knew a guy that was a sniper in WWII. He was an engineer and landed on Omaha beach in Normandy during the 2nd wave.

how awful  

Nice jdurg nice. I personally would love to get a Walther P38 which was the german pistol during WWII. Mainly for historical reasons. As soon as I turn 18 I'm going to purchase my first gun. I've yet to decide, but it won't be expensive. I have a 35lb bow. I'm looking to go up to a 50 or 60 pounder soon. When I first purchase my 35 pounder it was a big step up from the 15 pounder I got way back when I turned 10. So the first arrow I shot when like 10 feet over the target. By the way my 35lb bow isn't a composite. Composite bows are to expensive for me.

I am fairly crap with longbows, as I have had just a little practise shooting em, but crossbows are great, I got my (now ex) other half a 50lb pistol-bow this christmas, that went down well, well, it did, just proved a little surprise for the relatives

I am more into blades myself, but I have been thinking of getting myself a pair of neat pistol daggers online, as they are going for about $30, its basically a long, straight bladed dagger, with a flintlock barrel running parallel to the blade.

I was always intrigued by gun laws.  In New Jersey, to legally buy a gun you have to apply for a gun permit (3 month wait) followed by individual pistol permits (an additional wait).  In Louisiana, you can buy rifles off the shelf with a 5 minute background check and pistols require a two day "Brady bill" wait.

And in Europe in general it is very hard to get a permit. In Poland most people are turned down, and those that don't must do a routine psychological check every year or so.

Went out shooting again today.  I'm still in the process of getting my pistol permit but everything's in motion now so it should only take about 8 weeks.  In the meantime, it just means that if I want to shoot I have to shoot with a buddy of mine who does have a permit and has the guns.  So today I went and fired a rifle for the first time.  Of course my friend had me fire a 7mm Magnum Load cartridge which is REALLY friggen powerful so the kickback from the discharge was NUTS.  My right shoulder is KILLING me right now from the butt-end of the rifle firing back into me.  I will seriously need to build up the tissue there so that the recoil doesn't hurt as much.

After firing the rifle today, I think I realized why I enjoy it so much.  Firing a gun evokes a sense of power and control when you fire it, and it is a wonderful display of chemistry and physics.  When you pull the trigger, you initiate the decomposition of the lead styphnate primer which then causes the gunpowder to rapidly decompose inside the shell casing.  This creates an ENORMOUS amount of pressure which propels the bullet forward while forcing it to spin (rifiling) it at the same time.  It's shocking to realize that a bullet, if not stopped by something, could travel for miles after being fired.  At the end of my session today, the odor of spent gunpowder is infused in my clothing and skin.  I love that smell of sulfur oxides, nitrates, and burned powder.    Anyway, my buddy took a photo of me with his cell phone right as I was about to fire.