joegerardi
Member
So I get a call from my ex-girlfriend last night. She and I have remained friends over the last 3 years since we broke up, one of the reasons for which was she abhored my guns, something I refused to give in on...
She was about as anti-gun as you could believe. Years ago, her abusive ex-husband came home drunk one night, got pissed that she was sleeping, dragged her out of bed and stuck a loaded and cocked Ruger revolver against her head - with his finger on the trigger - and threatened to kill her. Since then she's never been able to believe that the gun wasn't bad, her husband was...
Fast forward to 9/11: She's now afraid of what might happen, so she gets a Taurus model 85 snubbie. She also buys some Wally World Winchester .38 Spl. JSP ammo. The gun she kept in a drawer in her kitchen, unloaded. The ammo was in her closet, inside her bathroom about 50 feet away. She never fired it...
Fast forward to last night: Where she lives, there's been reports of a stalker. Sneaking into backyards, looking through windows, he's even gotten brazen enough to walk up to women in broad daylight and ask if they'd like to engage in some very rude activities. She's taking a shower, and afterwards, casually looks out her window. There's a guy walking through her backyard, and he fits the description the police have posted, but in truth, it's so vague it could apply to thousands of men, myself included. She lives on a cul-de-sac, with a park behind her. She's freaked. She grabs the phone and calls me. There's really no one else she can call - we moved here together from up north 5 years ago - and explains the situation. I try to talk her down, and ask if her gun's loaded. The answer is still no... Eventually, she asks if I'd come over and spend the night. She knows I'll be carrying, and also asks me if I'd show her how to shoot today. When I got there, I asked to see the Taurus, assuming that for the last 3 years she's never oiled it, or done anything. I was right: no visible rust, but when I rubbed CLP on it, some light surface rust comes off, so I clean it thoroughly. (Note: The 85 has a beautiful bluing job on it, and seems like a very well-made pistol.)
So I spend the night, (in the guest room dammit, but that's another story...
) and this morning we head down to the DNR range. I had grabbed my Walther P22 and a brick of CCI Mini-Mags, and my brand-spanking (for me) new Colt 1991A1 I picked up used at the gunshow yesterday for $500.00 and some ammo I have for it. (See my other thread "Gun show success - used Colt 1991A1" in the Handguns: Autoloaders section.)
This morning, after I take her to breakfast, we hit the range. It was really crowded, but we managed to get a lane with a table. She's still afraid of guns, and I've been trying to tell her that they're just tools. She admits to me that she's a little afraid of tools too! I found that rather funny, considering that this is a woman who can skim-coat a wall plumb by eye, (truly!) and spends so much time working on her home herself...
Anyway, I go through all the safety rules with her, range safety, what to do in the event of a FTF, etc. Then I loaded up the P22 and offered it to her, slide back and safety on. She wanted me to shoot the first mag to see what it looks and sounds like, so I obliged. I had set up a pair of targets at 15 feet - no sense trying to get her to shoot at a greater distance, and 15 feet generally gives me good results when teaching a newbie. The P22 is such a fun gun to shoot. I popped all 10 into an area about 4", which to me is just fine for a plinker. I load it again, leave the slide back, safety on, and start showing her the grips with her hands on the pistol. She had a little problem with thumb placement in a 2-hand hold, but got it with some manuvering by me with her thumbs. I went over sight picture, stance, and safety again, and hit the slide release. One last comment on sight picture, and I raise the safety and tell her she's hot, (pun intended) and to go ahead...
Her first shot was way high, but WAS on the paper. I was using 8x11 targets I had printed off the computer, and frankly, all I wanted her to do was hit the paper. I explained that we're talking self-defense here, not superb marksmanship, and the paper is to be considered COM of the BG. Anything there was a good hit. As her fear of EBG's slowly subsided, she actually started hitting the targets on the page, and even better, she was hitting the targets she was aiming for!
After 30 rounds of the P22, I told her we were moving up to her gun. I loaded it, and explained the difference in the manual of arms between a semi and a revolver. I shot it first, to get a feel for the recoil (I've never shot .38 before, so I wanted to give her an idea of the recoil relative to the P22.) It's a nice pistol. I only loaded 4 each time, figuring that if I teach her to keep the hammer on an unloaded chamber, she would consider it a little safer. I was able to get about a 4" group with it at 15 feet using those tiny sights. I had her shoot it single action to begin with, again figuring that good target succes will bolster her confidence. Interestingly, she was more accurate with the .38 than she was with the .22, and the recoil fazed her not at all. Now she's starting to ask where her rounds are hitting. She's also starting to hit the targets with some regularity, with generally 1 flyer out of 4, but all still on the paper. After a bit, I explain that she's got to try double action, because that is what - most likely - she'd need to use in a furball.
Now this is where women piss me off. DA is supposed to be harder to shoot accurately that SA. She lets fly, and nails the dead friggin' center of the target. I mean, she took out the little printed circle, and perfectly replaced it with a hole. What pissed me off more was after this load, all 4 holes were touching.
She had a very satisfied look on her face...
DAMMIT!
Right after that, "COLD!" was called, and the gentleman and lady in the next lane - shooting a marvelous Thompson Center Cougar Hawken rifle - came over to congratulate her on her good shootin'. We walk out to the target, which I take down to give her, and I put fresh ones up.
She's even comfortable loading the gun now, and closing it on the empty chamber properly, so it's time for me to enjoy myself a little. I grab my 1991A1, and start loading up a mag for it. I just picked it up yesterday. I was planning on a project 1911, but this one had everythig I was looking for - right down the the same brands of add-ons - so I grabbed it. The only thing different from what I would have gotten is that it has a skeletonized hammer, rather than a Commander hammer, but for the $500.00 I paid for it, that's no big deal. I'm using some old ammo that my neighbor gave me when he left the PD due to coming down with MS.
I tell her she's going to hear a loud bang from this thing, and start shooting...
Now, granted, it was only 15 feet, but I have NEVER before put all 7 rounds into one ragged hole! DAYUM this pistol is accurate. I tore the bullseye right out of the target, and now it was my turn to get stares, but this time from the lanes on either side of us! Someone had replaced the plastic trigger with a serrated match trigger that broke at 4-4.5 Lbs. - right where I like it, and had tuned it properly. I was in heaven. 3 more mags and I put it away. The term "boringly accurate" was humming through me head.
So, she finished up, and we left. On the way home, she commented on how fun it was, and that she thought shooting was a great stress reliever. She didn't come right out and ask, but she intimated that she would like to go shooting again. She's also going to have the pistol loaded and in her nightstand drawer from now on...
1 down, about 50 million more to go...
..Joe
She was about as anti-gun as you could believe. Years ago, her abusive ex-husband came home drunk one night, got pissed that she was sleeping, dragged her out of bed and stuck a loaded and cocked Ruger revolver against her head - with his finger on the trigger - and threatened to kill her. Since then she's never been able to believe that the gun wasn't bad, her husband was...
Fast forward to 9/11: She's now afraid of what might happen, so she gets a Taurus model 85 snubbie. She also buys some Wally World Winchester .38 Spl. JSP ammo. The gun she kept in a drawer in her kitchen, unloaded. The ammo was in her closet, inside her bathroom about 50 feet away. She never fired it...
Fast forward to last night: Where she lives, there's been reports of a stalker. Sneaking into backyards, looking through windows, he's even gotten brazen enough to walk up to women in broad daylight and ask if they'd like to engage in some very rude activities. She's taking a shower, and afterwards, casually looks out her window. There's a guy walking through her backyard, and he fits the description the police have posted, but in truth, it's so vague it could apply to thousands of men, myself included. She lives on a cul-de-sac, with a park behind her. She's freaked. She grabs the phone and calls me. There's really no one else she can call - we moved here together from up north 5 years ago - and explains the situation. I try to talk her down, and ask if her gun's loaded. The answer is still no... Eventually, she asks if I'd come over and spend the night. She knows I'll be carrying, and also asks me if I'd show her how to shoot today. When I got there, I asked to see the Taurus, assuming that for the last 3 years she's never oiled it, or done anything. I was right: no visible rust, but when I rubbed CLP on it, some light surface rust comes off, so I clean it thoroughly. (Note: The 85 has a beautiful bluing job on it, and seems like a very well-made pistol.)
So I spend the night, (in the guest room dammit, but that's another story...
) and this morning we head down to the DNR range. I had grabbed my Walther P22 and a brick of CCI Mini-Mags, and my brand-spanking (for me) new Colt 1991A1 I picked up used at the gunshow yesterday for $500.00 and some ammo I have for it. (See my other thread "Gun show success - used Colt 1991A1" in the Handguns: Autoloaders section.)This morning, after I take her to breakfast, we hit the range. It was really crowded, but we managed to get a lane with a table. She's still afraid of guns, and I've been trying to tell her that they're just tools. She admits to me that she's a little afraid of tools too! I found that rather funny, considering that this is a woman who can skim-coat a wall plumb by eye, (truly!) and spends so much time working on her home herself...
Anyway, I go through all the safety rules with her, range safety, what to do in the event of a FTF, etc. Then I loaded up the P22 and offered it to her, slide back and safety on. She wanted me to shoot the first mag to see what it looks and sounds like, so I obliged. I had set up a pair of targets at 15 feet - no sense trying to get her to shoot at a greater distance, and 15 feet generally gives me good results when teaching a newbie. The P22 is such a fun gun to shoot. I popped all 10 into an area about 4", which to me is just fine for a plinker. I load it again, leave the slide back, safety on, and start showing her the grips with her hands on the pistol. She had a little problem with thumb placement in a 2-hand hold, but got it with some manuvering by me with her thumbs. I went over sight picture, stance, and safety again, and hit the slide release. One last comment on sight picture, and I raise the safety and tell her she's hot, (pun intended) and to go ahead...
Her first shot was way high, but WAS on the paper. I was using 8x11 targets I had printed off the computer, and frankly, all I wanted her to do was hit the paper. I explained that we're talking self-defense here, not superb marksmanship, and the paper is to be considered COM of the BG. Anything there was a good hit. As her fear of EBG's slowly subsided, she actually started hitting the targets on the page, and even better, she was hitting the targets she was aiming for!
After 30 rounds of the P22, I told her we were moving up to her gun. I loaded it, and explained the difference in the manual of arms between a semi and a revolver. I shot it first, to get a feel for the recoil (I've never shot .38 before, so I wanted to give her an idea of the recoil relative to the P22.) It's a nice pistol. I only loaded 4 each time, figuring that if I teach her to keep the hammer on an unloaded chamber, she would consider it a little safer. I was able to get about a 4" group with it at 15 feet using those tiny sights. I had her shoot it single action to begin with, again figuring that good target succes will bolster her confidence. Interestingly, she was more accurate with the .38 than she was with the .22, and the recoil fazed her not at all. Now she's starting to ask where her rounds are hitting. She's also starting to hit the targets with some regularity, with generally 1 flyer out of 4, but all still on the paper. After a bit, I explain that she's got to try double action, because that is what - most likely - she'd need to use in a furball.
Now this is where women piss me off. DA is supposed to be harder to shoot accurately that SA. She lets fly, and nails the dead friggin' center of the target. I mean, she took out the little printed circle, and perfectly replaced it with a hole. What pissed me off more was after this load, all 4 holes were touching.
She had a very satisfied look on her face...
DAMMIT!
Right after that, "COLD!" was called, and the gentleman and lady in the next lane - shooting a marvelous Thompson Center Cougar Hawken rifle - came over to congratulate her on her good shootin'. We walk out to the target, which I take down to give her, and I put fresh ones up.
She's even comfortable loading the gun now, and closing it on the empty chamber properly, so it's time for me to enjoy myself a little. I grab my 1991A1, and start loading up a mag for it. I just picked it up yesterday. I was planning on a project 1911, but this one had everythig I was looking for - right down the the same brands of add-ons - so I grabbed it. The only thing different from what I would have gotten is that it has a skeletonized hammer, rather than a Commander hammer, but for the $500.00 I paid for it, that's no big deal. I'm using some old ammo that my neighbor gave me when he left the PD due to coming down with MS.
I tell her she's going to hear a loud bang from this thing, and start shooting...
Now, granted, it was only 15 feet, but I have NEVER before put all 7 rounds into one ragged hole! DAYUM this pistol is accurate. I tore the bullseye right out of the target, and now it was my turn to get stares, but this time from the lanes on either side of us! Someone had replaced the plastic trigger with a serrated match trigger that broke at 4-4.5 Lbs. - right where I like it, and had tuned it properly. I was in heaven. 3 more mags and I put it away. The term "boringly accurate" was humming through me head.
So, she finished up, and we left. On the way home, she commented on how fun it was, and that she thought shooting was a great stress reliever. She didn't come right out and ask, but she intimated that she would like to go shooting again. She's also going to have the pistol loaded and in her nightstand drawer from now on...
1 down, about 50 million more to go...
..Joe
