I think this is way cool in that it happened today on Christmas Eve.
To start the story:
My wife grew up on a horse ranch and packed a rifle from the time she was 9 years old against 2 leg, 4 leg and slithering dangers while on the trail. When she moved away from home for college the rifle stayed and she hasn't picked up a firearm since. She never shot a handgun and in discussions she said she didn't like the idea of them. Wouldn't go with me to the range, just wasn't interested.
I've slowly been getting her attuned to the idea of her need to get comfortable with a pistol for self/home defense. I'm occasionally away from home overnight and I kept insisting that she get at least familiar with one of mine enough so that she could fire off a few rounds as a last resort. I'd work safety lectures, tales of SD stories I've read and so on into casual conversations. She slowly, reluctantly agreed that maybe it might be a good idea. Timing hasn't been right for her to go to the range due to a busy schedule.
In the meantime I got to thinking that maybe she should get her first taste of handguns with a .22, not my .45, .380 or 9MMs. She's not one for loud noises and I didn't know what her reaction to recoil would be.
So yesterday, while out shopping I stopped by my favorite LGS and lo and behold they had a screaming deal on the S&W 22A. I know, not a great pistol but at $199.00 for the 5.5" barrel and 2 mags, NIB I could not pass it up. I also picked up two 100 round boxes of Stinger and figured that would be plenty for a couple of first time out range trips.
This morning we got up and realized that we were completely caught up on Christmas preparations and had nothing that needed doing all day. We ate breakfast and I told her "Get dressed, let's to drive out to the farm (belongs to my boss) and look around". I loaded up the truck toolbox with all my stuff, target stand, the new .22, ammo, and so forth.
We get there and I tell her today is the day she starts. I spent probably 45 minutes on safety, basic functionality, safety, procedures, safety, how to load the mags, safety, ballistic basics, oh, and safety. She's a smart cookie, very graceful and deliberate in every movement she makes so right away I was impressed with her natural tendency to "keep her booger hook off the bang switch" and muzzle awareness. I know, corny but it fits here.
So, we get the target set up, ear protection and safety glasses on and I load one round. She's nervous but lines up on target and pulls the trigger.
"Wow, that wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be". OK, I load 2 rounds. She goes through those. Then I fill the mag. She finishes them off so we take a break. She's getting excited. She has a room full of tennis, barrel racing and bowling trophies so she has this real instinct to be competitive and find a challenge and tackle it.
Now the questions start flowing. About 30 minutes into it she's way over my head on technicalities and I'm running out of answers.
Next thing you know she's burned through all 200 rounds and we're out. "You only bought 2 boxes?" she asks. I reply, well, yeah, all I've got is some 9MM stuff and my XD. She expresses a concern that she is scared of the 9MM cause she thinks the recoil will be too much. I load one round and she carefully pulls off a shot, again nervous. After the shot she stands there a second and in a quiet voice she murmurs "That's cooooollll".
So, she burned 2 boxes of 100 count Winchester white box 9MM.
Then we loaded up and left..............to go to Walmart, fight the Christmas crowd back to the Sporting Goods department and I'm now out $135.00 for more 9MM WW and Blazer .22.
I have created a monster I believe. If she keeps this up she's gonna have to buy equipment and do her own reloading.
