You don't have to be a good shot to think shooting handguns is a blast. But it helps to have expert help and instruction, especially on the one subject that is likely to make novices and their mothers nervous: Safety.

Everywhere you go for training or shooting events - whether at the Oregon Firearms Academy's training site south of Brownsville, the Saddle Butte range of the Albany Rifle & Pistol Club or the indoor range for shooting sports at Oregon State University in Corvallis - you don't do anything without being drilled in the safe handling of firearms.

The most obvious rules: Never point your gun anywhere except at what you intend to shoot. Keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to fire.

Another iron rule: Every gun is loaded unless you have personally checked and made sure that it's not.

Question: Someone makes sure a pistol is unloaded and hands it to you. Now is it loaded or unloaded? Answer: Even though you've just seen the other guy check its breech, it's loaded until you have personally opened it up and made sure it's not.

On this afternoon, mindful of rules of conduct such as this, more than a dozen guys ranging in age from 14 to well north of 60 have gathered in Bay No. 3 at Saddle Butte. They will spend the next couple of hours taking shots at bowling pins set on plywood tables some 50 feet downrange.

But before anybody touches a gun, Paul Manghelli, a 29-year-old engineer who works in Albany, and his dad, Bill, go over the precautions. No handling of guns except at the firing line. When the command is given, no pointing anywhere except straight downrange.

Shooters take turns blasting the five pins each off the tables and then hitting a steel target. The best ones take six shots. (Don't ask how many rounds I had to fire.)

When the pins and the target are down and your turn is over, this is the routine: Point your firearm downrange, rack the slide to empty it, and then somebody stands behind you and makes physically certain - by sticking his pinkie in the open breech - the gun is unloaded before telling you to put it in its case.

Safety, always safety first.

The shooters this day range from an Albany schoolboy to a grizzled Corvallis lawyer. The guns range from the boy's .22 Ruger, which sells for a couple hundred dollars, to several Les Baer .45s of the 1911 style that cost thousands.

The competition, friendly as it was, is over, and the summer evening turns to dusk, but the shooters set up the battered pins a few more times.

Then it's time to clean up. Spent brass is gathered up. The splintered pins go back in their cardboard boxes, and the battered plywood goes back in the shed.

You can spend an evening in lots of other ways. But if you like a little noise - well muffled through your mandatory ear protection - and the smell of smokeless powder, you can't spend a couple of hours having any more fun.

AN ARSENAL OF INFO FOR NEW SHOOTERS

Equipment and expense

People who seriously pursue shooting for sport or relaxation are willing to spend all kinds of money, but to get started or just to see if you like it, you don't have to go hog wild.

If you're interested in handguns, the smallest and least expensive models from reliable makers cost between $200 and $300.

You may have read that for various reasons - prices of copper and other commodities, wars in South Asia - the price of ammunition has soared. But that depends.

For plinking with a .22, a box of 100 bullets is around $5 or $6. Heavier calibers cost more, and some much more.

Comparative shopping

One handy location to check out equipment and prices all in one place is a big gun show. One such is coming up Sept. 27-28 at the Linn County Fair & Expo Center, sponsored by the Albany Rifle & Pistol Club.

The two things all shooters need are protective glasses and ear muffs or plugs. At ranges and organized shoots, they won't let you do anything without your "eyes and ears."

Join the club

A good place to find out more in the mid-valley is the Albany Rifle & Pistol Club.

Mike McCarter is the club's executive director. He says the club exists largely to encourage recreational shooting.

"It's not just about deer hunting or personal defense," he says. "It's also just for fun."

Is it dangerous? Not when the rules are followed. McCarter says recreational shooting is no more dangerous than riding motorcycles or skiing.

For more on the endless variety of shooting sports - from airguns and youth activities to numerous disciplines for handguns, rifles and shotguns - and even something called "cowboy action," which kind of resembles a costume party with guns - McCarter can be reached at 619-0038.

The club's website is www.arpc.info.

Other organizations

Also available in the mid-valley:

• Lebanon Shooting Range, 580 Main St., is an indoor range for pistols and .22 rifles. Phone 258-3222.

• Albany Gun Club is a trap shooting range at 35305 Hwy. 20 S.E. Information, 928-5003.

• For students at OregonState University, there's the OSU Rifle Team, which encourages newcomers and can be reached at osurifle@gmail.com.

• Oregon Firearms Academy, with offices in Lebanon, has professional instructors giving classes at its training center in rural Linn County all year starting with basic handgun handling. Phone 451-5532.