If you’re one of my American readers, Happy Independence Day! For the rest of you, hello! In keeping with the trend of freeing yourself from increasingly incompetent governments and becoming more self-sufficient, this article is going to be a crazy Russian boy’s guide to getting a gun for complete noobs.
There are a number of things to consider when determining what kind of gun to get. Some people like to specialise and have one gun for every different thing, but for a novice shooter, I’d recommend generalising and getting yourself a “do-everything” gun, i.e. something that you can use for home defence and hunting alike, but is also fun to shoot so that you have incentive to target practise at every available opportunity. So, let’s take this from inside the home and gradually move farther outside, shall we?
For home defence, a weapon should be easy to manoeuvre inside. For those who live in newer houses, this is less of an issue, but if you live in a 200-year-old farm house like me, you will have to contend with narrow hallways and sharp 90-degree turns, so you’ll definitely want something compact. I know I’m going to catch a lot of flak for this, but if this is the case for you, one of the best options out there is a bullpup. Bullpups are unpopular for a good reason, but some people swear by them. The Pholosopher’s favourite bullpup is the PS-90, which is the civilian version of the FN P-90, and my neighbour owns one too. The difference is that the original military version has a 26-cm (10-inch) barrel and is capable of fully automatic fire, whereas the PS-90 has a 40-cm (16-inch) barrel and is semi-auto only. Other good options are the Steyr AUG and FS2000. If you insist on getting a shotgun, or if you’re restricted1 to getting one, then I have good news! Bullpup shotguns exist, so you don’t have to deal with a long and cumbersome weapon in a confined space. Examples include the Kel-Tec KSG-12, and the Neostead 2000. I know of a few others, but I cannot recommend them (a lot of bullpups, especially bullpup shotguns, are not good weapons).
Now then, if you don’t mind the paperwork necessary for a short-barrel rifle (SBR), or if you live in a country that doesn’t restrict them like the US, the ideal home defence weapon in my opinion, difficult to get though it may be, is the AKS-74U “Krinkov.” Not only does it have a 21-cm (8-inch) barrel, but it also has a folding stock, making it easy to store and ideal for use in close quarters. You might also be interested in the more modern AK-105, which is functionally the same, but slightly longer, with a 31-cm (12-inch) barrel, and is probably easier to find. No, I don’t own either… yet.
So far, I’ve recommended rifles for home defence, rather than pistols or shotguns. There is a good reason for that, and it goes back to the old saying that pistols put holes in people, rifles put holes through people, and shotguns physically remove a chunk of shit and throw that shit on the wall behind them. Shotguns make a real mess, and should you find yourself having to use one to defend yourself, the result is going to be burned into your mind as permanently as this image is in every animé junkie:
…or if you’ve ever watched Game of Thrones, the ending to The Mountain and the Viper, which is a much better comparison considering what a shotgun blast tends to do to a person’s head. Point being that killing someone is a traumatic experience all by itself, don’t cause yourself unnecessary extra grief by making it messy. Hey, I never said this was a comfortable topic. So yeah, that’s one of several reasons I favour rifles over shotguns, especially for home defence. There is one exception to that rule, and that’s if you live in an apartment complex. In order to prevent rounds from going through the walls and hitting your neighbours, I’d recommend a low-power shotgun (.410 bore with shortie shells), pistol, or best of all, a pistol-calibre carbine (PCC). The best PCCs out there are basically civilian-legal versions of submachine guns (fully automatic weapons that shoot standard pistol rounds), such as the many different versions of AK-9 (basically a Krinkov that shoots 9-mm instead of 5.45x39) or CZ Škorpion Evo 3, but if you don’t care for military derivative, go for something like the Henry Homesteader or Smith & Wesson M&P FPC. If you want a folding carbine to get extra compact but don’t want an SBR, I recommend that last one over the better-known Kel-Tec Sub2000 (all of these are chambered in 9-mm) because the way it folds is much better for mounting optics.
Mind you, all these different models that I’ve mentioned are really just a starting point for doing your own research, particularly because there are availability issues. For example, in Canada, Kalashnikovs are banned by name, but the very similar Chinese Type 81 is ridiculously common, a weapon you flat-out cannot get in the US because of Clinton-era import bans. Likewise, my own “do-everything” gun is an Izhmash Saiga 7,62, which I’ve had since 2004, but Russian imports have since been banned in the US, so good luck getting one now. Luckily, there are other options for AK-style rifles. If you live in the Czech Republic or Slovakia, you can probably get a Vz.58 without too much trouble, but good luck finding one anywhere else.2 Personally, I wouldn’t recommend it (for noobs, but if you end up collecting weird guns, definitely keep this one in mind), because even though it looks like an AK-47, it isn’t, and doesn’t even take AK magazines, despite using the exact same ammunition. Also, I’m not a fan of Czech automatics from this period because they are top-loaders (the Vz.58 accepts stripper clips and can be re-loaded without removing the magazine), and as a direct consequence, tend to throw empty cases straight up into the air. Well, what goes up must come down, and getting showered with hot brass (or steel, as is the case, pun fully intended, if you’re shooting Russian ammunition) is never fun. The Vz.61 is the worst offender in this regard. This is also one of several reasons I prefer revolvers over automatic handguns. Anyway, before I get too far into nerdy details that most novice shooters aren’t going to care about, let’s continue with the noob stuff before getting into something ever nerdier: numbers!
So, you’ve narrowed down your choice of what to own, and here’s where I’ll help you narrow it down further. Suppose you need to shoot something outside that isn’t a piece of paper. Here’s where careful consideration as to the cartridge comes into play. Cartridges designed for use against people aren’t always effective against similarly-sized animals, though this is more of an issue with pistol rounds than rifle rounds. If you want a pistol that is effective against people, 9-mm (of which there are many varieties) is perfectly adequate, and contrary to what a certain hoplophobic3 politician once said, will not blow the lungs out of someone’s body… unless you’re shooting this stuff:
That is a joke. No, seriously, no 9-mm pistol round is that powerful. If you want a 9-mm cartridge that does that kind of damage, you would need a 9.3x64 Brenneke or a .375 H&H Magnum (9.5x72), both of which are rifle rounds specifically designed for hunting dangerous game, e.g. brown bears.4 Something tells me that said politician has never heard of either cartridge. By the way, rifles chambered in these cartridges are ones that I’d tell any novice shooter to stay the hell away from. I wouldn’t even put a .30-06 (7.62x63) in the hands of a novice, and I ought to know, I own one! It can be fun to shoot, but the other two are not at all fun to shoot unless you’re an absolute unit. Anyway, getting back on track, 9-mm pistol rounds are perfectly effective against garden pests and most dogs (which you will have worry about if you have chickens, ask me how I know), so a pistol or PCC will do just fine, though a varmint rifle chambered in 5.45x39 or something comparable is still preferable. If, however, you have to worry about larger pests like, oh I don’t know, wild hogs, you would need a pretty beefy handgun like a big-bore revolver or a Desert Eagle, neither of which I would recommend for a novice shooter. If you’re worried about hogs, your best option is a rifle, followed by a shotgun. My personal hog rifle is a Henry H010 lever gun in .45-70 (11.6x53R), which, unlike my Savage model 111 boltie in .30-06, actually is fun to shoot… expensive, but fun. That being said, an AK-47 is still a perfectly adequate hog rifle,5 and if one round of 7.62x39 doesn’t take down the pig, just keep pulling the trigger. In the business, we call this “stopping power by volume.” See, despite lever guns having a much higher rate of fire than bolties, their primary disadvantage is the fixed tubular magazine (there are some exceptions such as the box-fed Marlin model 56), and in the case of the H010, it holds only four rounds, so if that’s the type of gun you go for, you had better not miss! Luckily, .45-70 is powerful enough that shot placement isn’t as important as with a smaller cartridge, as I have learned from experience. With hogs, having more ammunition is always a good idea, because hogs travel in groups and are known to be aggressive, charging hunters instead of running away as most animals do.
If you’re not worried about any dangerous game, feel free to skip this paragraph, because this is where I touch on the concept of a “stopping rifle.” A stopping rifle, as opposed to a normal hunting rifle, is for when you need an animal that is charging you to drop dead right now, as opposed to dropping dead after already running you over. A 7.62-mm bullet will kill all but the largest of hogs if you shoot at the animal’s flank and hit both lungs, as is preferable with any animal. That same bullet will also kill a hog if you hit its brain, but you may not be able to pull that off if the animal is charging you, hence the need for a big-bore rifle. A 12-gauge shotgun will probably do just fine on most hogs, but for larger animals, the extra power of a rifle round is an absolute necessity. Some of these reach positively ridiculous dimensions, especially old black powder safari rifles like the 4-bore (26.7-mm). Smokeless stopping rifles are much smaller, such as the .600 Nitro Express (15.7x76R). Incidentally, to avoid getting attacked, hog hunters typically go after hogs at night, at least where that is permitted.
Moving on to proper hunting (as opposed to opportunistic pest control), the most commonly hunted big game animal is white-tailed deer. So, what should you use? Again, this is where I’ll be talking about cartridges rather than guns. Despite a lot of Fudd lore out there disparaging 7.62x39 as underpowered (even I used to believe that), it’s perfectly fine at short ranges. I live in the middle of a forest, so opportunities to take shots at distances greater than 100 metres almost never present themselves. I did, at one point, find a spent case of .300 Weatherby Magnum (7.8x72) while walking through the woods one day, so at some point (probably before I was even born) someone was hunting on my land with a rifle that could take down deer from a mile away (1609 metres). Right, slight exaggeration, and to be fair, maybe he was hunting bears, but even then, it’s way too much! Seriously, why?! Even if you were to clear-cut all the trees (which was the case in this area until about fifty years ago), the terrain is so mountainous that you are never pulling off a shot at long range. Speaking of which, the very existence of .300 Weatherby Magnum debunks another hilarious hoplophobic claim from the dementia patient-in-chief: that .223 Remington (5.56x45) travels five times as fast as any other bullet. You can probably guess where this is going, but here it is: the .223 is actually the slower of the two. A .300 Weatherby Magnum loaded with a 180-grain bullet or lighter is faster than a .223 loaded with a 55-grain bullet or heavier (this includes military loads), with the highest difference in velocity being a whopping 28% in favour of the Weatherby. Only the absolute lightest .223 loads, e.g. 36-grain, are faster than the lightest .300 Weatherby Magnum load (150-grain), and even then, only by about 6%. And no, the .300 Weatherby Magnum isn’t the fastest rifle round, not by a long shot; that’s a contest between .22-250 Remington (5.7x49) and Winchester .220 Swift (5.56x56SR). But of course, this is the kind of stuff that only nerds like me would even know, hence a lot of myths persisting even among people who shoot regularly.
Anyway, 7.62x39 has virtually identical performance to Winchester .350 Legend (9x43RB), which is only a tiny step below Remington .360 Buckhammer (9.1x46R), itself a derivative of .30-30 Winchester (7.8x51R), which is the first cartridge I ever used to hunt deer. This is a far cry from what most Americans use, which is .30-06, followed closely in popularity by .308 Winchester (7.62x51). Why? Well, for the exact same reason that the most popular hunting rifle round throughout the former Russian Empire is 7.62x54R; for decades, soldiers would use their old service rifles as hunting rifles, and in the immediate aftermath of the World Wars, almost every American had one. Over time, purpose-built hunting rifles chambered in this cartridge that everyone was already familiar with displaced pretty much everything else, such as the .30-30 and .30-40 Krag (7.8x59R). Hunters going after different game have always used considerably more exotic cartridges, e.g. the .300 Weatherby Magnum that I waffled on about earlier, or one that I plan to add to my collection at the earliest opportunity: .50-140 Sharps (13x83R), which is what I’ll use when I finally get round to going moose6 hunting (moose meat is delicious). Is it overkill? Hell yeah, even .50-90 Sharps (13x64R) is probably overkill, but the one year that the scope on my deer rifle was broken (this was before I put the 8x42 POSP on my Saiga), I had no choice but to use my hog rifle, and it didn’t do too much extra damage. Besides, I just want an excuse to buy a Model 1874 Sharps, yes I can be petty.
Right, moving on. Once you figure out what gun you’re going to get, it will be time to accessorise. I am a firm believer that everyone should learn to use iron sights… and then immediately put optics on. Your mileage may vary, but I have issues with a lot of scopes - especially older ones, as they tend to be extremely unforgiving - so I prefer scopes that allow continued use of the iron sights, which I prefer to do at short ranges anyway.7 For the typical hunting rifle, this means getting open scope rings. For a Mosin, Kalashnikov, Dragunov, or any such derivative,8 it’s a complete non-issue, because the scope is mounted on the side of the receiver, and there is plenty of clearance to use the iron sights on all three. Even with the veritable Hubble Telescope mounted to this rifle:
…I can still use the iron sights just fine. However, despite usually shooting at ranges where the scope is entirely superfluous, lighting conditions rarely make it easy. Exceptionally bright light makes it hard to see the iron sights, as does exceptionally low light, so the scope does come in handy even at short distances. Fibre-optic sight inserts, such as what I have on my Gamo Shadow 1000 4.5-mm air rifle, make it possible to shoot raccoons right between the eyes in near total darkness at fairly impressive distances without any magnification. The sights you’ll want to put on any gun depend very heavily on the type of shooting conditions you expect. At short ranges in decent lighting conditions, a red dot and flip-up magnifier combination will be fine. If you expect less favourable lighting conditions, spend some extra money on a low-power variable optic (LPVO) instead. These are scopes that have a magnification range of about 1 to 4, meaning that on their lowest setting, they aren’t magnifying at all. Before anyone asks, yes there are variable POSPs, in fact that’s what I originally wanted, but they are damn near impossible to get right now. Why did I go for the 8 power instead of the smaller and lighter 4 power? Well, if you’re restricted to a fixed-power scope for whatever reason, higher magnification is always better for precise shot placement, especially if you have access to the iron sights. Line up the target with the iron sights, and then look through the scope, you should see exactly what you want to shoot at, instead of having to search for it through the scope or, if you have a variable scope, keeping it on a low power and then zooming in when you’ve acquired the target and are finally ready to shoot. Returning to the subject of lighting conditions, one thing that helps a lot more than you might think is an illuminated reticle, in fact, that’s exactly what a POSP is: Прицел Оптический с Подсветкой (Pricel Optičeskij s Podsvetkoj), which literally means “optical sight with under-light.” An actual POSP has only an on/off switch (or, in the case of mine, “вкл[ючить]/выкл[ючить]”), but the Bushnell Engage 3-9x40 on my H010 has five different brightness settings. Despite sounding like some pretty fancy kit, neither optic is particularly expensive; I paid $485 for the 8x42 POSP and $260 for the Engage. Don’t ever let anyone try to tell you that you need a $3000 Leupold or some other prestige-priced German optic to be able to hit anything, you just need to practise.
Anyway, I meant for this to be an introductory primer, not an entire book, so I’ll wrap it up here, and in my next Gunstack entry, I’ll prattle on about something else. Seeyas!
For example, Russia has a law restricting people to owning only smoothbore weapons for the first five years of holding their firearms license. Everyone I’ve ever spoken to about it agrees that it is by far the dumbest of all the Russian gun laws. Another example is that some US states do not allow the use of rifles for hunting, so if you live there, your “do-everything” weapon will have to be some kind of shotgun.
In particular the US because the 39-cm (15.35-inch) barrel legally makes it a restricted SBR. Also, I’ve heard that these were fairly popular in Canada before being banned.
Hoplophobia is the irrational fear of firearms, but there’s some interesting etymology here. Though the origin of the term is uncertain, I would guess that it comes from “hoplon,” from which the word “hoplite” is derived, and, of course, “phobia.” My reasoning is that hoplites were Ancient Greek citizen-soldiers, and hoplophobes have occasionally admitted that they don’t hate weapons, they just hate the idea of ordinary people having them, rather than just specific government agents.
In order to prevent you from being overwhelmed by all these numbers, here’s what they mean: in the metric system, cartridges are designated as nominal (which is not always actual) bullet diameter by case length, the latter rounded to the nearest millimetre. There is no consistency with Imperial designations other than nominal bullet diameter, for example, .45-70 Government is so-named because it’s a .458-inch bullet propelled by 70 grains of black powder when it was originally developed for the US military, but .30-06 Springfield is so-named because it’s a .308-inch bullet introduced in 1906 by the Springfield Armory. Generally speaking, the longer the case, the greater the powder charge, though I should point out that there is a good bit of variation because of bottlenecked cases having different body diameters. To use the two examples here, 9.3x64 Brenneke is shorter and fatter than .375 H&H Magnum, so the latter isn’t noticeably more powerful than the former. There are also suffixes such as SR, R, and RB, which stand for “semi-rimmed,” “rimmed” and “rebated rim,” respectively. The latter means that the rim is smaller than the case diameter, which is done so that changing the barrel of a rifle to shoot a larger cartridge does not also require changing the bolt head. Rebated rims are the most recent development and not all that common, preceded by rimless and semi-rimless cases, and all cartridges above a certain age are rimmed, e.g. 7.62x54R, which was developed in 1891, or the aforementioned .45-70, developed in 1873.
But only in the Americas. Siberian hogs get a lot bigger than American ones on account of the fact that they have fewer people shooting at them, and are thus free to live long enough to reach gargantuan sizes. In addition to the usual big-bore rifle cartridges, there is one cartridge currently used by Russian special forces that would do the trick quite nicely: 12.7x55 SC-130. Besides, you must be on your guard, for there are older and fouler things than hogs in the cold places of the world.
“Elk” to Eurasians. Do not ask me why.
For the military, that’s under 200 metres. For me, that’s under 50 metres because I am horribly nearsighted and a deer’s lungs make for a considerably smaller target that an adult human body.
Contrary to popular belief, the SVD is not an AK derivative. The existence of the Romanian PSL seems to be the origin of that confusion, as it actually is a scaled-up AK. It’s not as accurate as a real SVD, much less its civilian version, the Izhmash Tigr, but outside of Russia, it’s a fraction of the price and a lot easier to find. Another SVD alternative is the Serbian Zastava M91.
Overwhelmingly informative and infectiously enthusiastic. 😁
The best gun is one you can shoot accurately under pressure. So get what you like and practice, practice, practice.