Shooting is an incredibly empowering journey that builds skill, confidence, and community. But let’s be honest: it can also get expensive. Between ammo, range fees, gear, and training, costs can add up quickly. The good news? You can be a well-prepared, well-trained shooter without blowing your budget.

Selecting the right ammunition is more than grabbing the first box off the shelf it’s about safety, performance, and confidence every time you shoot. Whether you’re new

Giving your gun a little TLC by keeping it clean and lubricated is essential for keeping things running smoothly and safely! Over time, your firearm can get pretty grimy, with dirt, carbon buildup, and debris hitching a ride after each range session. Ignore it too long, and you might find yourself dealing with a pistol that’s creating irritating, if not dangerous, misfeeds, jams, and failure to fire malfunctions. Regular cleaning ensures that every moving part stays in tip-top shape, so your shooting is as reliable as it is safe.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is required gear at all shooting ranges and A Girl & A Gun events. PPE items are selected to protect the shooting sports participant from the shooting range’s sounds, debris, and an individual’s personal health concerns. From basic eye and hearing protection to medical gear and apparel choices, selecting the right equipment and PPE habits ensures the safety of everyone at the range.

Enabling the gun to fire is, oddly enough, the most simplistic task a shooter has to accomplish. The vast majority of effort to successfully shoot the gun is put into safety procedures, stabilizing through grip and stance, visual acuity and sight alignment, and overcoming mental and emotional doubts to enable one finger to finesse the trigger in such a manner that we don’t otherwise move the gun and cause the gun to fire. All the hard work goes into everything done to bring the trigger to the “break” with the most consistency and stability possible. This tiny moment and how we manage ourselves and the gun determine a hit or a miss. Gaining a deeper understanding of how a trigger works allows the shooter to investigate their gun and how they interact with it. Tactile knowledge of the trigger is critical to improving marksmanship, safety, and technical control. 

Whether you’ve inherited a family heirloom, received it as a gift, or simply lost track of the details over the years, identifying your handgun is essential for various reasons, including legal compliance, using the correct ammunition, maintenance, and personal safety. In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps to determine the make and model of your handgun so that you can answer the question, “What model of gun do I have?”