Foreign Exchange Student At The Range

[Richard]

I took Danu, the foreign exchange student, shooting yesterday afternoon. My friend Dave joined us at the range. All shooting was done at 7 to 10 yards. The handguns I took were: a 4” .22 Ruger Standard Model, 9mm Sig P226, 9mm High Power, 357Mag 4” S&W Model 19 (we shot .38 Specials), 44 Magnum 4” S&W Model 629-2 (we shot 44 Specials and 44 Magnums), and lastly a 45 ACP Springfield 1911A1.

I fired the 22 first to show Danu how to operate a semiautomatic pistol. Danu shot it well and soon was ready for larger caliber handguns. He is like many others, his interest is not in 22s.

Next up was the 9mm Sig P226; Danu was interested in this handgun as the Indonesian military is armed with them. Both Danu and I played chase the hole made by your first shot. You aim at the center of the target, fire, and then aim for the hole made by the first shot. I find this an easy way to train people to shoot. Danu was able to keep all shots on the paper and to group his shots reasonably well; he loves this pistol.

Danu was rather complacent about shooting 38 Specials through the 4” S&W Model 19 (M19). I shot this handgun next and it is a joy to shoot. The M19 has a very nice trigger and shoots where it is aimed.

We moved on to the 44 Magnum 4” S&W Model 629-2, Danu shot 44 Specials first and then I let Danu shoot 44 Magnums rounds in it. Again, Danu was complacent about shooting this revolver with 44 Specials but one round of 44 Magnum got his attention. He put the handgun down and said: “No More!”

The last handgun Danu fired was my 45 ACP Springfield 1911A1. The rounds fired in it were 230gr ball. This pistol proved to have too much recoil for Danu to enjoy shooting it. When I fired it, I was impressed with its accuracy potential; I also discovered that I really do not like the sights on this pistol.

I fired a few rounds through my FM High-Power and it continues to be the handgun that I shoot fast the better than any of my other handguns. This weapon is called “the Bastard” because the frame went due to over polishing an area that does not have a lot of metal; a gunsmith (Alex Hamilton) has to put it back together using a FN frame.

My friend Dave AKA 44SpecialDave brought his early Smith and Wesson 44 Special revolvers and the Sig P220 45acp that I sold to him. Dave can do an outstanding job with his older revolvers but he does not shoot his Sig well. I am sure I should coach him on shooting the P220. Remember, I shoot this pistol well but I do not care for the gun itself and that is why I sold it.

Danu takes to shooting like a fly to honey. Why? He listens and does what he is told to do. I am sure that with proper coaching Danu will become an excellent shot.

Regards,

Richard

 

[Hokkmike]

Congrats to you. As an experienced host dad and former rep for many of the exchange oraganizations I can tell you that many do not allow their students to participate in this "dangerous" activity. (you can see that I do not agree, but that is the way it is)

Our 'daughter' left yesterday. Sad time.

 

[ROCKSHUND]

Not an exchange student, but not too far off base.

A few years ago, the aerospace company that I worked for, had a rather massive undertaking in totally changing out the computer system and software, company-wide. As a facility (ours was an aircraft maintenance operation) was to implement the change, a team of SAP coaches and technicians would descend upon the unlucky souls whom upon these changes were to be foisted.

The one who spent the most time with me in teaching me the in's and out's, was a really bright, outgoing Chinese-Canadian gal. Inevitably, we got to know each other to a fair degree, and she seemed genuinely interested that I was/am a shooter. I finally invited her to the county range to shoot a variety of toys, and she eagerly accepted. She'd never fired a weapon before in her life.

Picture a petite little doll shooting a FAL, M1A, 1911, Browning HiPower, and Glock M27 and thoroughly enjoying every minute!!! She even brought a camera and insisted that I shoot a pile of pictures. To quote her, "My mother won't believe this!!!" BTW, she shot damned well with the DSA FAL, off the bench of course.

At least she got a chance to do something that took her out of her politically correct bubble, for once. I genuinely believe that I did her a good turn.

-FNR.

 

[jaysouth]

A couple of decades ago I worked in the Dulles office of a French company. We would have visitors from the home office in Paris about once per week. If they stayed over the weekend, I would take them sheet shooting and pistol shooting.

This became so popular with the frogs in the Euro offices that trips to Dulles were made into employee rewards. I got the company to buy skeet rounds and pistol ammo. They even paid my dues in the the club that I belonged to. When the chairman of the company got hooked, We bought him Beretta 682 and a custom made vest that stayed in my office unless he was in the states. Fortunately we never got audited and I never had to expain to the IRS why $3,000 worth of skeet gun and a custom vest were 'ordinary and necessary' expenditures necessary to running the company.

Soon the annual company picnic took over a skeet range. It was catered with a truck load of gourmet french food, a truck load of wine, a truck load of dessert and a truckload of AA skeet loads and claybirds. We had a good time. The frogs made every contrivance they could come up with to be in the states on picnic weekend.

I've been around a lot of foreigners and the only one that declined a chance to shoot was a middle class englishman.

 

[jaysouth]

A couple of decades ago I worked in the Dulles office of a French company. We would have visitors from the home office in Paris about once per week. If they stayed over the weekend, I would take them sheet shooting and pistol shooting.

This became so popular with the frogs in the Euro offices that trips to Dulles were made into employee rewards. I got the company to buy skeet rounds and pistol ammo. They even paid my dues in the the club that I belonged to. When the chairman of the company got hooked, We bought him Beretta 682 and a custom made vest that stayed in my office unless he was in the states. Fortunately we never got audited and I never had to expain to the IRS why $3,000 worth of skeet gun and a custom vest were 'ordinary and necessary' expenditures necessary to running the company.

Soon the annual company picnic took over a skeet range. It was catered with a truck load of gourmet french food, a truck load of wine, a truck load of dessert and a truckload of AA skeet loads and claybirds. We had a good time. The frogs made every contrivance they could come up with to be in the states on picnic weekend.

I've been around a lot of foreigners and the only one that declined a chance to shoot was a middle class englishman with upper class airs.

 

[1911Tuner]

Exchange

What's realy amazing is how shocked some foreign visitors are at being "allowed" to freely transport and use guns at a firing range...or just out in the boondocks/down by the crick.

"They really let you do this? Wow!"

Some are even nervous at the prospect of loading a half-dozen or more pistols and rifles into the toolbox in the truck bed, and almost don't seem to believe that it's just that easy...like we're gonna get'em in deep trouble if we get caught.

 

[progunner1957]

"They really let you do this? Wow!"

GOD, I love this country!!!

 

[MatthewVanitas]

We had a bunch of foreign-exchange students come by the UT Austin campus range this past semester. Primarily Aussies and Spaniards, though that may be more a reflection of the demographics of the exchange program than of interest in the range.

This fall, we'll do some outreach early on. Not sure if the bureaucrats who run the program will like us advertising our club, but if we can get at least one or two of them to come, the word of mouth will bring in a sizable chunk of the rest.

Aussies, in particular, seem to love shooting.


-MV

 

[mljdeckard]

When I was in high school, Southern Utah University in Cedar City hosted an international gymnastics competition, inviting the national teams from Russia, The Ukraine, Romania, etc. (This was as the Cold War was in the process of ending.) Friends of my family hosted four female gymnasts for a few days, and they spoke a fair ammount of english. While the were driving through town after the first day of competition, they saw rifles in gun racks in pickup trucks, and they were alarmed. We asked them what was the matter, and they basically were offended that these people had heard there were Russians visiting town, and had decided to carry guns around to protect themselves because of it. We tried to explain to them that this was a normal thing here. (The trucks were beat-up chevys with ranch supplies in the back.)

My friend, whose father was wealthy, and a dealer and a collector, had a vault in his basement. They were flabbergasted indeed, not only to see how many guns he had, but also that he had an example of every single Russian-issued rifle from the century, and let them handle them. We told them that we would love to let them shoot some, but they didn't have enough time. Looking back, I don't think we even made a dent in their conditioning that regular people can't be trusted to have guns.

I have had the chance to invite several friends of mine from Europe to shoot and hunt with me.

 

[tuckerdog1]

My wife works for a Japanese high tech company. It was a startup when she got hired 17 years ago. There were a handful of Japanese that were here longterm, to get the company up and running. But there was also a steady stream of Japanese that came Stateside for short terms ( week to a month ) for specific projects. It became a populer MUST, to go to the range with me & my wife, and let them shoot whatever I had at the time. There were always the 22s, a Walther PPK/S, had various 38/357s ( Trooper III, 686, SP101 ), a couple 9mm's ( Taurus PT99, Glock 17 & 26 ) a S&W 29 ( They'd always be grinning & say Dirty Harry, Dirty Harry ) a Mossberg 12 ga with a pistol grip, and later a Freedom Arms 454. We always took a lot of digital photos for them to take back to Japan with them. They always had an absolute blast. They could not wait to get back to Japan & show the pictures to the folks back home. It made me feel good to be able to provide them with a chance to do something their friends back home would almost certainly never be able to do. And they had the pictures to prove it.

Tuckerdog1

 

[redneckdan]

I'm a range officer at the MTU pistol club. Michigan Technological University draws students from all over the world. We do have a lot of foriegn students visit the range. The majority are very safe shooters and the occasion screw ball is usually due to language barriers, these lucky individuals are promptly turned over to the university public safety department. Most of the new shooters have a blast the first time they visit the range and many come back. One shooter from mexico actually grew enough in shooting skills to became a 'range officer understudy', we let him run the range while we supervise, he does a damn good job too.