Team Smith & Wesson's Julie Golob and Jerry Miculek are legends in the shooting sports. He's the fastest shooter in the world. She's one of the winningest women in competitive shooting. Like most competitive shooters, though, what they want more than one more trophy for their own overcrowded mantels is to see you bring home the first one for yours. That's a lot more possible than you might think. After all, everybody starts somewhere and you'll never know how good you could be unless you try!
So what do you need to know to get started in the shooting sports? Well, the first thing you'll want to do is look at the different types of competitions to see what sounds like "you." In addition to all the different kinds of shooting sports to try—which are too many to name here—you'll want to learn about the divisions in each sport. Generally, there are two: open and production.
What's the difference? As you'll see from this terrific video from S&W's GUNSMARTS series, it's almost as simple as it sounds. (The operant word in that sentence is "almost.") A "production" division is basically a competition in which you're shooting a gun that hasn't been modified since it left the manufacturer. An "open" division is one in which you're permitted to bust out all the ballistic bells and whistles. Whether you choose to upgrade or go out of the box, there's a shooting sport (and a gun) for you. Â
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