Just purchased my first gun today

[baekacaek]

I just bought my first gun! Purchased an AR15 online at grabagun.com (don't have it with me yet; it's being delivered to a local FFL right now). I wanted to thank the community here for answering my questions and helping me so far.

I plan to take it to a local outdoor range, probably Sunnyvale rod and gun club, to zero it in with a scope that I bought separately. Any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated! especially regarding the shooting range. This will be the first time shooting a rifle for me.

P.S. I already have everything prepped up: got the FSC, bought a DOJ approved safe and a rifle carrying case with a lock. Just need to get some ammo

[Jimmybacon43]

Congratulations! what kind of Ar15 did you buy?

[Cal10]

Congrats, and have you thought about what to buy next?

[baekacaek]

Congratulations! what kind of Ar15 did you buy?

Thank you! I bought a Smith & Wesson MP15T. I liked the tactical rail and wanted something below 1k. It seemed to have good reviews, and Jerry Miculek being a user of it had some influence on me too, I guess

[baekacaek]

Congrats, and have you thought about what to buy next?

Haha, of course I have . But I probably won't be getting it any time soon; trying to save up some money. My next gun will most likely be a shotgun that I can take to trap shooting.

[FromTheGrave]

Congrats!! You won't regret it!

[Grakken]

Nice! Gratz!

Now this next step is very important. Get a
friend of yours who doesn't own any guns, into guns! Educate and recruit. :-)

[baekacaek]

Nice! Gratz!

Now this next step is very important. Get a
friend of yours who doesn't own any guns, into guns! Educate and recruit. :-)

I have put a ton of effort into educating my wife that "if guns kill people, then pencils misspell words." I think shes slowly starting to accept the fact that guns aren't "evil." and if responsibly owned, can do good. Thankfully, now we have one less ignorant citizen

My friends are slowly getting into guns as well because of me

[bigbearbear]

Congratulations!
Which FFL did you use and how much did they charge you?

My recommendation would be to go to Los Altos instead of Sunnyvale if you're going on a weekend. Los Altos is much larger and have a lot more lanes for you to sight in your rifle. They have a couple of 25 yards sight-in only lanes that will let you quickly get your shots on paper. You can than move to a 50 or 100 yard to fine tune your zero.

Bring along some tin cans and plastic bottles with you too (max 1 gallon in capacity), after you have the zero dialed in and get bored with punching paper, you can move to their 100 yard or 50 yard tin can range and use your AR-15 to blow up cans and bottles. As far as I know, this is the only range in the Bay Area that lets you do this.

Remember to bring your own targets, staple gun and staples. You can get those at the range but its cheaper to bring your own.

A couple of items you should consider getting:
1. Magazines with UBBT installed, this lets you do quick mag change if you plan to use your AR for home defense. You can get them from Thordsen Customs, they're based in South San Francisco, since you're in the Bay Area, you'll receive your order like next day or so. Here's an example:



2. Get yourself a brass catcher like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Caldwell-122560-Brass-Trap/dp/B00EB5OU06/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1428449899&sr=8-4&keywords=Brass+catcher

Do not throw your brass away even if you don't reload, its like throwing money away! Some ammo vendors have "brass exchange" program in which you can send your used brass to them for credits.


Good luck and enjoy!

[baekacaek]

Congratulations!
Which FFL did you use and how much did they charge you?

My recommendation would be to go to Los Altos instead of Sunnyvale if you're going on a weekend. Los Altos is much larger and have a lot more lanes for you to sight in your rifle. They have a couple of 25 yards sight-in only lanes that will let you quickly get your shots on paper. You can than move to a 50 or 100 yard to fine tune your zero.

Bring along some tin cans and plastic bottles with you too (max 1 gallon in capacity), after you have the zero dialed in and get bored with punching paper, you can move to their 100 yard or 50 yard tin can range and use your AR-15 to blow up cans and bottles. As far as I know, this is the only range in the Bay Area that lets you do this.

Remember to bring your own targets, staple gun and staples. You can get those at the range but its cheaper to bring your own.

A couple of items you should consider getting:
1. Magazines with UBBT installed, this lets you do quick mag change if you plan to use your AR for home defense. You can get them from Thordsen Customs, they're based in South San Francisco, since you're in the Bay Area, you'll receive your order like next day or so. Here's an example:

http://siterepository.s3.amazonaws.com/2675/m320rd.jpg

2. Get yourself a brass catcher like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Caldwell-122560-Brass-Trap/dp/B00EB5OU06/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1428449899&sr=8-4&keywords=Brass+catcher

Do not throw your brass away even if you don't reload, its like throwing money away! Some ammo vendors have "brass exchange" program in which you can send your used brass to them for credits.


Good luck and enjoy!

Wow, thanks! Will definitely check out Los Altos range instead, and bring some cans

I went through Metal Dog Tactical. Found some good reviews on Yelp and decided to try them out. They charged $75 for FFL transfer.

Regarding the magazine, what does UBBT stand for? I assume it has to do with the little thing that sticks out for bullet button? As for the brass cases, do you know of any vendors around the Bay Area that have the exchange program?

[desertjosh]

Cool! Congratulations, and welcome to gun ownership. I'd suggest to sell the brass on this site. Cash for more ammo. Also, way to go for educating your wife! This is an awesome site, full of knowledge.

[tankton]

Nice! Gratz!

Now this next step is very important. Get a
friend of yours who doesn't own any guns, into guns! Educate and recruit. :-)

That's how my best friend got me into this hobby

[bigbearbear]

Wow, thanks! Will definitely check out Los Altos range instead, and bring some cans

I went through Metal Dog Tactical. Found some good reviews on Yelp and decided to try them out. They charged $75 for FFL transfer.

Regarding the magazine, what does UBBT stand for? I assume it has to do with the little thing that sticks out for bullet button? As for the brass cases, do you know of any vendors around the Bay Area that have the exchange program?

$75 is not bad, I might use them for my next purchase. Thanks for the info.

UBBT stands for Ultimate Bullet Button Tool, it is a product name from Thordsen Customs, for that little piece of metal protruding from the magazine.

[sl0re10]

I just bought my first gun! Purchased an AR15 online at grabagun.com (don't have it with me yet; it's being delivered to a local FFL right now). I wanted to thank the community here for answering my questions and helping me so far.

I plan to take it to a local outdoor range, probably Sunnyvale rod and gun club, to zero it in with a scope that I bought separately. Any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated! especially regarding the shooting range. This will be the first time shooting a rifle for me.

P.S. I already have everything prepped up: got the FSC, bought a DOJ approved safe and a rifle carrying case with a lock. Just need to get some ammo

ok; a couple tips. Don't forget about parallax when trying to zero the scope. If you shoot 20 feet away to zero it and switch to 80 for your actual shooting... but the scope has a 40 foot parallax rating... well; won't work. Gets tough when if you start at the min (like 40 or 50) but can't hit paper.... to zero.

Second... if you pretty much get dialed in but can't hit the bullseye it could be you or the trigger or ammo... pulling in a certain direction. I usually give up fiddling with the scope settings and just manually compensate. Shooting too high to the right today? Shoot a little low to the left and leave the scope as is... but that's me.

[Exospeed]

Congrats, have fun with it and be safe.