numaone
Member
I went to the range this morning with a female friend of mine who has never shot a gun before. I try to take a new person out each week when I make my weekly expedition out to the Lake City (Osceola) Florida public shooting range. I really like it out there- it's a free range; they have about 18 pistol benches that range from 15-25 yards and 8 rifle stations from 50-200 yards.
We started with a couple of .22s. My Smith and Wesson model 22a was an excellent starting point. After teaching her the fundamental safety rules we started shooting at 7 yards. After watching her and going through a magazine, gave her some tips: bend your legs slightly, keep thumbs pointed at target, remember to breathe, she kept an entire 10 round magazine on the 6-inch target. Not great, but not too bad for first time out. When she was comfortable with the 22, we moved onto my Sig Sauer P226 (40) that I CCW. After getting her used to the recoil, she actually liked that one more than the .22- what's there not to like about a Sig, except for the price?
We moved onto the reliable 10-22 rifle with a Bushnell 3-9 scope ($50 on Amazon) at 25 yards. I had it "zeroed" for 100, so her shots were high. I told her to focus just on the groupings for now. Shooting off a bench with one sandbag, she kept 10 shots within a half-dollar. Then out to a 100 yards. The groups opened up. I told her about parallax and got the groups down to 4 inches or so at 100 yards.
Then we moved onto my baby- A Colt 6940 ($1450 on GB) with a Trijicon ACOG TA31F ($850 new on eBay) with a Wilson Combat Fore grip. We started off at 100 yards and I was spotting. Off a bench, her 3 first shots were within 3-4 inches. Both eyes open, put the top of the chevron on the bulls-eye and boom, 10/10! By the end of the first magazine, we decided to make an "official" 3 round accuracy check. She held 1.5 inches at 100 yards. Needless to say, I was impressed for her first time shooting. She was doing better than some of the "hunters" with 30-06s and with 26" barrels and Leupold 16X scopes out there. This was a fine piece of technology. I took it out to 200 yards. My first 2 shots were within a 1/2". the third opened the group to 1 1/2". I think i can attribute that to my current ability. I have no doubt this is a sub MOA gun. I was shooting PMC bronze 55 Gr 223. No complaints at all thus far! Time to give the gun some cleaning tonight and get it ready for the next weekend.
We started with a couple of .22s. My Smith and Wesson model 22a was an excellent starting point. After teaching her the fundamental safety rules we started shooting at 7 yards. After watching her and going through a magazine, gave her some tips: bend your legs slightly, keep thumbs pointed at target, remember to breathe, she kept an entire 10 round magazine on the 6-inch target. Not great, but not too bad for first time out. When she was comfortable with the 22, we moved onto my Sig Sauer P226 (40) that I CCW. After getting her used to the recoil, she actually liked that one more than the .22- what's there not to like about a Sig, except for the price?
We moved onto the reliable 10-22 rifle with a Bushnell 3-9 scope ($50 on Amazon) at 25 yards. I had it "zeroed" for 100, so her shots were high. I told her to focus just on the groupings for now. Shooting off a bench with one sandbag, she kept 10 shots within a half-dollar. Then out to a 100 yards. The groups opened up. I told her about parallax and got the groups down to 4 inches or so at 100 yards.
Then we moved onto my baby- A Colt 6940 ($1450 on GB) with a Trijicon ACOG TA31F ($850 new on eBay) with a Wilson Combat Fore grip. We started off at 100 yards and I was spotting. Off a bench, her 3 first shots were within 3-4 inches. Both eyes open, put the top of the chevron on the bulls-eye and boom, 10/10! By the end of the first magazine, we decided to make an "official" 3 round accuracy check. She held 1.5 inches at 100 yards. Needless to say, I was impressed for her first time shooting. She was doing better than some of the "hunters" with 30-06s and with 26" barrels and Leupold 16X scopes out there. This was a fine piece of technology. I took it out to 200 yards. My first 2 shots were within a 1/2". the third opened the group to 1 1/2". I think i can attribute that to my current ability. I have no doubt this is a sub MOA gun. I was shooting PMC bronze 55 Gr 223. No complaints at all thus far! Time to give the gun some cleaning tonight and get it ready for the next weekend.
