Smith-Corona made guns?!

PWC said:

[QUOTE="old lady new shooter, post:

This is a tangent, but I'm curious to know why.

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First, recoil....causes flinching. Noise is worse than a .22 or .38. It is natural to push the gun away when anticipating the shot; the shoulder rolls forward causing the muzzle to go down (check the lower baffles)
Grip is all important to keeping the sights aligned during recoil. Generally a lower recoiling handgun is easier to learn the fundimentals on. USAF basic training used the M1 carbine, which was easy to qualify with. After my Combat Control assignment, the M3 wire stock was harder than the carbine, but not bad. The 1911 scared me to death, remember I had never shot a handgun til then. My instructor for the .45, was a past member of the USAF Pistol team, lucky for me. What he could do with a 1911 at 50 yds........[/QUOTE]
My experience is not the same as yours. My sis wanted to learn to shoot, and we started with a .22 pistol for an hour or so. Then we went to the 1911, and she wanted one. After shooting 50 rounds of that, we went to a .40 Glock. one round and she was done with it.
The recoil impulse of the .45 is more of a push, which she found tolerable, compared to the sharper snap of the.40. I talked her into believing that recoil is inevitable, she should just ride it without interference.
She never did develop a flinch, and still shoots with me occasionally.

I've always found a 1911 in 45 to have a surprising amount of muzzle rise and recoil, but for whatever reason I have shot every one I've ever picked up like a laser.

someguy2800 said:

I've always found a 1911 in 45 to have a surprising amount of muzzle rise and recoil, but for whatever reason I have shot every one I've ever picked up like a laser.

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Kiddo's girlfriend and him moved into a new house in a not so fantastic part of town......they want a gun......now my kid has shot about everything I owned up to the time he moved out....his girlfriend a few things here and there....country people....

Out comes the buffet of hand guns....Everything from a 25 to a 45....wheel guns, and automatics.

Now this girl is 100lbs soaking wet with rocks in her pockets.....med student (what she sees in my kid I will never know....love no figuring) and she shoots everything.

Long story short....unless you want to hear more....

This girl is ringing a 12" plate at 25 yards 4 out of 7 times with a 1911....not bad for never toughing that gun before....thought it was not bad at all.....she hated the 92FS.....too fat, and is actually looking for an all steel 38 wheel gun.
Even it it was more snappy then the 45....

We talked pros and cons to different types of gunz.....but that will dive into other areas.....I just wanted to say that this small girl had no issue with recoil, muzzle flip....she was back on that plate in under 10 sec....fast for a first timer, no issues with limp wristing it....there is a lot of mass in a 1911....that helps.

I find that teaching a new shooter to handle a handgun is easier with a double-action revolver, shooting mild target loads. I stand at the right side, and a little behind, so I can watch the hammer as they pull through. I teach them to dry-fire first, so they can get the feel of the amount of force required and what it takes to stay on target. Then, I skip=load a cylinder with three rounds and three empties, and spin the cylinder before I close it. Any flinch is readily apparent to me, and usually to the shooter. Push-flinches are the most common and the barrel dips down.

After a few cylinders worth of skip-loading, the student is usually able to keep from flinching. If they back-slide with full magazines, I have them do the skip-loading again.

I'm of the opinion that dry-firing is very valuable regardless of whether we're talking about DA revolvers or SA semi-autos.