Time to do what I always intended to do.

I may have started this blog for the purposes of classwork, but under it all, I intended some day to be a gun blogger.

So, I'll start with My Very Favorite Gun™: my M-14.

Specifications as shown:

• LBR Arms M-14 semiautomatic M-14 receiver
• Sage International enhanced battle rifle stock with stripper clip sight base
• A.R.M.S #22 medium height scope rings
• Leupold VX-3L scope
• Grippod GPS02
• 20 round magazine

Assembled with GI parts by master M-14 armorer Ted Brown

OK, I have the gear. Now what am I going to do with it?

I'm going to shoot it of course!

Let's lay out clearly where I'm starting from: my family was never into firearms of any kind, so I don't have a background from that angle.

I was an officer in the Air Force, but if you think that qualifying with a 9mm Beretta a few times lends any general familiarity with firearms, you've got another thing coming. I'd opine that I learned more about poker while in the Air Force than I did about firearms.

I came to my real passion for firearms courtesy of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the bequest of my Grandfather.

When my grandfather passed on, he specified three things in his will for me:

• A YF-16 roll-out coin (he worked for General Dynamics)
• A framed picture of several F-16 models, including the F-16XL (a company executive-only perk, surreptitiously acquired)
• A Colt 1911 Series 70

My first duty station in the USAF was England, so, obviously, I couldn't take possession of the pistol there.

My second duty station was Hanscom AFB, where I supposedly could take possession of the pistol. Some people would get discouraged by the barriers Massachusetts puts up against firearm ownership. I got determined and pissed off. Once you take the dive, you might as well learn to swim.

So, now I have a rifle, and a fine one. One that, as I required of Mr Brown, could absolutely out-shoot me. My challenge is to rise to the capabilities of my rifle.

So, that is the theme of this blog, when I 'm not digressing off onto tangents: My process of learning to shoot. Eventually, it will also include the progress of my offspring learning to shoot in about 1.5 years.