Who doesn’t like free gun stuff? In our first edition of free gun stuff Friday we are highlighting a few free apps, books, and targets for your shooting pleasure. Shooting is an expensive hobby, so free stuff is always appreciated.
Some Learning
Ever hear of Project Gutenberg? It’s a massive project that takes books that have entered into the public domain and produces free digital E-Books. You can find all your favorite classics with a good degree of selection. What’s neat is finding some interesting old school firearms manuals. This free gun stuff is a little more entertainment based, but they are fascinating free reads.
I found five old school manuals that are really interesting. Some of the advice is well… dated. Anything written in the 1880s is going to be a tad dated, but reading them is fascinating for a few reasons. Manuals like ‘The Modern Pistol and How to Shoot It” By Walter Winans offers some of the same advice you’d see here on Gunners Den.
Gems like this stand out.
“Always press straight back on your trigger, do not push it off to the left, or jerk at it.”
Plus who doesn’t like to read opinions of dueling from a time when dueling was actually happening? These books are a fascinating look back at the gun culture of yesteryear and the ideas related to handguns. You can see what’s evolved and what’s staid the same. Fr example when talking about safety and not leaving guns about, Walt had this to Say
If the pistol is loaded, someone is sure to get shot by a fool. Both the owner who left the loaded pistol about and the man who fired it “not knowing it was loaded” are equally to blame.
Aiming firearms in “fun” at people is not empty-headedness solely but a form of hysteria.
It is done by the same people who laugh when at a funeral, or commence to rock a boat in “fun” and cause so many drowning accidents.
The best thing that can happen to such people is for them to “clean a pistol not knowing it was loaded” and shoot themselves.
Here are 5 books for your reading pleasure
The Modern Pistol and How to Shoot It by Walter Winans
Automatic Pistol Shooting by Walter Winans
Pistol and Revolver Shooting by A. L. A. Himmelwright
The Modern American Pistol and Revolver by Arthur Corbin Gould
Hints on the Use and Handling of Firearms Generally, and the Revolver in Particular
BY LIEUT. H. ONSLOW CURLING
Free Targets
There are tons and tons of free targets out there for you to print at home. However, there are some truly dedicated to tactical training and are extremely well designed. These targets are designed by Sage Dynamics and can be printed on standard printer paper. Free gun stuff like targets are some of the reasons I love having a Wifi connected printer.
They are called the Vital Anatomy targets and highlight the portions of the head and chest. These targets are simple, high visibility, and best of all free. The chest portion highlights the lungs, heart, and spine of the target. The headshot targets highlight the vital T zone of the head. The Blue highlighted portions represent critical areas and the red highlights the vital sections of targets.
Go to the bottom of this page to find the targets and print them at home
As an evolution of these targets, the gun blog Kit Badger designed his own targets with a similar theme. These present a side view of the target and designed in the same style as the Sage Dynamics targets and can be found here.
Apps for All
There are two apps that I use for training that I really love. One is totally free and one is free with a premium mode. If you have a smartphone you should at least try these two free apps
The first is a simple IPSC timer that can time your shots, split your par times, etc. It works really well for a free app. Sure sometimes it doesn’t pick up your shot and you really need to make sure you calibrate it. The app is very basic, but also very free. It’s not accurate enough for an actual match, but accurate enough for a free app and for training purposes.
The Second is the Dry Fire Drill App. This app provides you with a number of dry fire drills that put you under a strict timer to complete the drill.
You can set up a prep time to get ready and when the app beeps you go. Beating the timer is the goal. Its a dry fire drill app so you can use it at home when you can’t make it to the range. You can pay for the premium mode if you want, and make your own drills if you choose to.
Both Apps are available on iOS and Android.
Free Gun Stuff Friday
Here is a little free gun stuff for Friday to increase your shooting skills, your speed, and accuracy. Plus you can learn a thing or two about firearms, and the evolution of technique, as well as timeless advice.