Grace's first time. (pics and range report)

[Black Majik]

Hi all,

So today after work I took Grace shooting for her first time. She has never shot a gun before, nevertheless seen one in person. When I told her that we'd be going to the range today, she was so excited that she was so jittery the whole way to the range!

Of course, I've explained the 4 rules to her prior to arriving at the range, as well as the guns she'd be shooting. She listened diligently and took down everything I had said to her.

First up was the Colt Government with the Marvel .22 Conversion Kit. She enjoyed shooting this gun, since there wasn't much recoil. I could see that the noise bothered her the most as other guns were being fired around us. But for the most part she did quite well. At 7 yards she would get a few holes on the bullseye of a sillhouette target. As she shot more and more however, her shots were starting to appear low and left

Grace shooting the Colt Government w. Marvel .22


Next up was the SIG Sauer P226. For some reason women love this gun. This turned out to be her favorite gun. She was surprised by the recoil and noise that this made compared to the .22. But after shooting this awhile, she started to improve. It took her longer to shoot well with this gun, but eventually after telling her to overcome the recoil she started to shoot better and better.


Grace shootingt he SIG P226 9mm


Now up at this point, I've noticed that she was starting to flinch more, so I had her dryfire. I even taught her what slack was on a trigger, and this definitely helped with her shooting! She eventually started to get more shots onto the bullseye of the sillhouette target.

I asked her if she wanted to try the .45 ACP. She gleefully answered yes, So I let her shoot a round off the Les Baer. The recoil was more than she expected, but she still found it somewhat pleasant to shoot. Her first shot with the 1911 .45 was dead center on target, but started to heavily drift low and left. She decided to stick with the SIG P226

Grace shooting the Les Baer 1911 .45 ACP


What I've noticed though, her first shots with ANY gun towards the end of the range session were DEAD CENTER, then it'd start to drift to the left, and eventually low.

After some practice getting back to the basics with the .22, she eventually started to get used to shooting and her shooting improved dramatically. I'm proud of her, she did quite well towards the end of the day with the Colt .22 and SIG P226.

Grace's target with the Colt .22 at 7 yards


Grace's target with the SIG P226 at 7 and 10 yards. She loved this gun!


She was so excited that she went shooting that all she did at dinner was ask questions about her shooting. We examined how she did and she even asked when she could go shooting again.

Slowly but surely, I'm happily converting a Californian to our side...

Hope you enjoyed the range report.

 

[Catshooter]

Isn't that just great? I bet you had even more fun than she. Good on ya.


Cat

 

[Moonclip]

Does the other woman you took shooting last time and posted about here know about this one? Women like Sig Sauers? I'll have to remember that.

 

[Beetle Bailey]

What? Where's the Glock?

BTW, I wish you had told me that women dig the SIG 226. . .

 

[Ryder]

Better late than never

 

[ingram]

Good job.

Does she know you posted this?

 

[Standing Wolf]

Good for both of you!

 

[pete f]

A question, I took a woman shooting and at the end of the shooting strings she too was shooting low, so the next time i let her shoot, i only loaded 4 rounds in the mag and then four more in the next one, That seemed to help. Seemed she was determined to empty the gun before putting her hands down like i had been doing. I did not realize I was doing that. so the question is, was she lowering her arms and resting while shooting or just holding the gun up the whole time and shooting till the mag was empty?

I would just say your friend seems about the same size as my friend and may be a couple pounds of metal hanging out there on the end of her arms is just too much to hold for that long.

 

[pax]

I would just say your friend seems about the same size as my friend and may be a couple pounds of metal hanging out there on the end of her arms is just too much to hold for that long.

That's a good observation -- and one reason among many to encourage new shooters to load one, shoot one for a good long time before allowing them to load a full magazine.

The classic reason for low/left shots is a flinch. What was probably happening with Grace (btw, good range report, Majik) was that her first few shots were shot without a flinch because she wasn't yet familiar with the aversive stimuli from that particular gun. As she fired more shots, her body began to expect and then to anticipate the sensation of firing the gun, resulting in a flinch.

Majik did the right thing encouraging her to dryfire between strings. That often helps delay the development of a flinch. The more times the trigger is pulled without the aversive stimuli of noise/recoil, the better a chance the new shooter has to avoid the flinch altogether.

Another thing that helps is to encourage the newbie to think only about focusing on the front sight and pulling the trigger smoothly -- not to allow themselves to think about the shot firing or where it will go when it does. Sometimes a flinch develops because people try to make the shot fire, rather than simply letting it fire when it does. As long as the shooter is truly surprised when the shot goes off, they won't flinch.

It sounds like Grace had as good and pleasant an introduction to firearms as anyone could hope for. Good work, Majik!

pax

 

[phoglund]

Excellent work Majik. It looks like a good time was had by all and a new shooter is introduced to the joys of firearms. Even more important is that it is a female shooter. That is a good thing on so many levels. Keep up the good work.

 

[rangerruck]

going all the way back to Solomon, he told us that society goes as the way women allow it to go. think of all the social ills this country has now startng with no prayer in schools and the sexual revolution. We NEED to get more women shooting, bad!

 

[John G]

I love seeing/reading/hearing stories of new shooters. Well done!

 

[Fred Fuller]

Good job, Grace!

And good on yer for giving her the chance, Black Majik. Keep it up...

lpl/nc

 

[Number 6]

Hey Black Majik, we shoot at the same range.

 

[Jubei]

Good goin' Black Majik,

Nothin' like a little bit of information and experience to help cure the ignorance of a non-gunnie.

Besides that, she's pretty cute.

Jubei

 

[tegemu]

WELL DONE Grace. The Lee Precision circular chart, and other circular charts that analyze why you are hitting in various zones on targets, all say that hits in the low left, about 7 o'clock position are caused by "Jerking or Slapping Trigger." I immediately recognized the problem as I have the same problem. Once I started to concentrate on squeezing, not jerking, there was a marked improvement. Mucho dry firing also helped - concentrating on the front sight (As we are supposed to all the time) and making sure that the front sight remained perfectly centered in the rear sight when the hammer dropped, generated a marked improvement. The next time you are at the range, try letting her dry fire some and see if her front sight takes a slight nose dive down and left at hammer drop. Sure sign of jerking the trigger.

 

[AirForceShooter]

Well Done.

AFS

 

[Tequila_Sauer]

My advice, keep her away from that Sig if you value shooting it yourself.

After firing it, my g/f has been eyeing up mine for the past few range trips. She already took the friggin' CZ, she's not taking the Sig. I won't have it, I tell you.

 

[V4Vendetta]

"I love seeing/reading/hearing stories of new shooters. Well done!"


+999999999

 

[Bullet Bob]

Give that woman a S&W (revolver).

 

[NineseveN]

3 things:

1. Great report. Nice job and I am gald she liked it and you both had fun.
2. Girls do really dig Sigs, it's no myth!
3. Nothing like taking a pretty girl and giving her a handful of iron to play with all day. Find one like that and marry her.

 

[PaulTX]

Excellent first outing! It's hard to tell for sure from the pictures, but it looks like she needs to adjust the position of her thumbs.

 

[beaucoup ammo]

Bravo, Black Majik!

That's what it's all about! To paraphrase Steely Dan:"Perfection and Grace..it's the smile on her face!"

Getting in the water is the only way to learn to swim!

Take Care

 

[KC&97TA]

That isn't Iron Sites shooting range in Oceanside is it?

My wife doesn't like the "plastic" guns, she's true to the 1911 .45 and the 92FS, she won't touch another hand gun.

I'll warn you ... I took my wife to the pistol range a few times, next thing I know she was on a rifle and pistol team and wanted a NM AR-15 and a NM 1911 build ... I got her the AR first, the .45 is comeing ... but she's out shooting me now

 

[Black Majik]

Thanks guys and gals.

Does the other woman you took shooting last time and posted about here know about this one?

Nope.

A question, I took a woman shooting and at the end of the shooting strings she too was shooting low, so the next time i let her shoot, i only loaded 4 rounds in the mag and then four more in the next one, That seemed to help. Seemed she was determined to empty the gun before putting her hands down like i had been doing. I did not realize I was doing that. so the question is, was she lowering her arms and resting while shooting or just holding the gun up the whole time and shooting till the mag was empty?

I would just say your friend seems about the same size as my friend and may be a couple pounds of metal hanging out there on the end of her arms is just too much to hold for that long.

Good observation Pete, she did shoot her string of fire. But as you can see from the P226 target, she only shot around 4 rounds per magazine. She did shoot through the whole magazine before stopping, but I made sure she took some breaks and took her time since I know shooting for the first time can be fatiguing. That might also be a reason why Grace's first shot was always on center, and then slowly drifting, but its either her arms were getting tired or she was flinching or both. I'll have to find out on our next range session.

That's a good observation -- and one reason among many to encourage new shooters to load one, shoot one for a good long time before allowing them to load a full magazine.

The classic reason for low/left shots is a flinch. What was probably happening with Grace (btw, good range report, Majik) was that her first few shots were shot without a flinch because she wasn't yet familiar with the aversive stimuli from that particular gun. As she fired more shots, her body began to expect and then to anticipate the sensation of firing the gun, resulting in a flinch.

Majik did the right thing encouraging her to dryfire between strings. That often helps delay the development of a flinch. The more times the trigger is pulled without the aversive stimuli of noise/recoil, the better a chance the new shooter has to avoid the flinch altogether.

Another thing that helps is to encourage the newbie to think only about focusing on the front sight and pulling the trigger smoothly -- not to allow themselves to think about the shot firing or where it will go when it does. Sometimes a flinch develops because people try to make the shot fire, rather than simply letting it fire when it does. As long as the shooter is truly surprised when the shot goes off, they won't flinch.

It sounds like Grace had as good and pleasant an introduction to firearms as anyone could hope for. Good work, Majik!

pax

Thanks Pax for the detailed response. I started Grace off in the beginning with a single shot to get her used to firing a firearm for her first time and also to teach her basic shooting technique. I only let her load more until she was ready, and for the most part the most she shot through a sting of fire was four or five rounds. I let her load up the .22 all the way however since she became quite comfortable shooting that for a long period.

Explaining sight picture was pretty easy, I told her in the beginning to focus on the front sight, and how to line up the front and rear sight. Seemed she got the concept down pretty quickly.

When I began to realize she was flinching, I tried to teach her the slack on the trigger, which the P226 had quite a lot of. The dry fire exercises definitely helped, as I showed her how it the gun should not move when the trigger was pulled. Of course, I also explained the concept of squeezing the trigger vs. pulling straight back. I was happy to see however that towards the end of our shooting session her shooting improved quite a bit. I'm guessing she became more and more comfortable.

I'm proud of her though, she seemed to have done quite well for her first time.

Hey Black Majik, we shoot at the same range.

This was at the On Target range in Laguna Niguel, was that the range you were thinking of?

Give that woman a S&W (revolver).

Unfortunately, the S&W 686-4 PP was at home, I didn't want to confuse a new shooter between the autoloader platform and the revolver platform. Next time though!

Excellent first outing! It's hard to tell for sure from the pictures, but it looks like she needs to adjust the position of her thumbs.

Excellent observations Paul. I noticed that partway through the shooting session also! I tried to have her shoot with her thumbs above each other pointed at the target, but it seems she interlocks her strong thumb under the weak thumb. I'll have to get her to correct that next time.



Thanks everyone for your replies. I'm really starting to realize that there are many people that are interested in shooting, but they dont really know who else to ask unless you ask them if they'd like to join you at the range. I find it most satisfying teaching someone new how to shoot since for many (especially in California) it might be a sorta "taboo." But that's the whole fun in this sport, not many people know about it, and you'll get two responses when people find out. Either "what a gun nut!" or "that's cool! I wanna try!" Its usually the latter

I'm hoping to bring more shooters to the range so stay tuned for more range reports!