average_shooter
Member
Hey all, I haven't posted in a while as I've been traveling for work all summer. But I thought I'd share a story from this weekend.
So I have a friend who had mentioned to me in the past that he would like to learn how to shoot (aside from the little Boyscout shooting experience he had years ago) and he was really wanting to get his wife some experience as she had never so much as held a firearm before. When he mentioned this I immediately offered my services, explaining that I had access to a good chunk of private property on which to safely shoot without the distractions or cost of a formal indoor or outdoor range and I had access to a variety of firearms and calibers for them to try. I also explained that all ammunition would be provided, their only costs being travel and some food for the day. Well, this weekend they took me up on my offer.
The first thing on the agenda was going over general safety (including The Four Rules) and expectations and a question-and-answer session to dispel any misconceptions or concerns. Once we were all on the same page we prepped the range, got hearing protection on and commenced to have a great time.
I started out with a nice little bolt-action .22LR squirrel-getter. My friend had a pretty easy time with it right off and once we figured out his wife is left-eye-dominant and got her comfortable holding the rifle on her left shoulder her groups tightened up instantly and the two both shot really well.
The next step was a lever-action pistol caliber carbine, which my friend really took a liking to. They both shot that well and handled the slight recoil increase just dandy. So I decided to step it up.
The AR-15 carbine. Oh boy, my friend's wife loves that thing now. (Go figure, it was the most expensive firearm I had there
) A bit bigger "boom," little recoil, and she was all smiles. She touched off the first round and turned around (keeping the rifle pointed down-range) and said something to the effect of "Whoa... hehehe, I want to do that again!" So I said "Go ahead." About half way through the mag she asked when she should stop, I told her "Whenever, but you've got twenty in the mag." She went through the whole mag... then another one. My buddy liked the AR alright, but preferred the lever-action.
Next was handguns.
First up was a Ruger in .357 Mag shooting .38's. We went over the basics of grip and stance, smooth trigger pull and follow through. After they got familiar with it I did the "comparison" of .38 and .357 by putting one of each in consecutive chambers. My friend looked like he was thinking he knew what to expect, but the bigger boom of the .357 shook him into a grin. "Yeah, that's a little more powerful" he said. And when his wife did the comparison shot she really got a big grin from the bigger boom of the .357.
Next step was semi-auto, a G26 (9mm). I gave a little speech about the importance of grip and avoiding slide-bite, and neither got bit at all. So, here's where we found her new favorite handgun. More grins and chuckles and holes in the targets. My friend liked it, but the short grip didn't fit too well for him. His favorite was the last.
The venerable 1911 in .45 ACP. My buddy fell in love with it pretty quick. It fit him well and he handled it real well. When his wife shot it she was able to get through a whole magazine and enjoyed it, but she said the grip felt a little too big and hard to get a good hold of. The Glock fit her much better.
So after we had gone through everything I opened it up to a free-for-all of sorts. Anything they wanted to shoot again I had plenty of ammo (except I was trying to steer them away from the AR with limited and expensive to replace ammo supply) so they wanted to shoot the AR again. They were both content with another 20-round mag and my buddy put a few more rounds through the lever-gun.
At the very end I offered an 870HD in 12ga. I explained that recoil would be pretty stout compared to everything else they had shot, but if they wanted to try it they could. My buddy stepped up and put a few rounds through it, including a slug. He handled the recoil fine but definitely felt it after a while. His wife finally decided to try one round of birdshot. That was enough for her, but she was glad to have the experience.
All in all, we had an awesome time. Everyone was safe and showed great enthusiasm. We didn't go through too much ammo as we took lots of breaks to get snacks, we talked about every firearm and caliber there, I took time to go over safety for each firearm handled, and we took time to check targets often. So I ended up bringing way too much ammo, but that's okay because I haven't kept up on restocking from previous outings.
I know, "this thread is worthless without pictures," but I haven't gotten permission from them yet to post any. If I do, I'll post them.
So I have a friend who had mentioned to me in the past that he would like to learn how to shoot (aside from the little Boyscout shooting experience he had years ago) and he was really wanting to get his wife some experience as she had never so much as held a firearm before. When he mentioned this I immediately offered my services, explaining that I had access to a good chunk of private property on which to safely shoot without the distractions or cost of a formal indoor or outdoor range and I had access to a variety of firearms and calibers for them to try. I also explained that all ammunition would be provided, their only costs being travel and some food for the day. Well, this weekend they took me up on my offer.
The first thing on the agenda was going over general safety (including The Four Rules) and expectations and a question-and-answer session to dispel any misconceptions or concerns. Once we were all on the same page we prepped the range, got hearing protection on and commenced to have a great time.
I started out with a nice little bolt-action .22LR squirrel-getter. My friend had a pretty easy time with it right off and once we figured out his wife is left-eye-dominant and got her comfortable holding the rifle on her left shoulder her groups tightened up instantly and the two both shot really well.
The next step was a lever-action pistol caliber carbine, which my friend really took a liking to. They both shot that well and handled the slight recoil increase just dandy. So I decided to step it up.
The AR-15 carbine. Oh boy, my friend's wife loves that thing now. (Go figure, it was the most expensive firearm I had there
) A bit bigger "boom," little recoil, and she was all smiles. She touched off the first round and turned around (keeping the rifle pointed down-range) and said something to the effect of "Whoa... hehehe, I want to do that again!" So I said "Go ahead." About half way through the mag she asked when she should stop, I told her "Whenever, but you've got twenty in the mag." She went through the whole mag... then another one. My buddy liked the AR alright, but preferred the lever-action.Next was handguns.
First up was a Ruger in .357 Mag shooting .38's. We went over the basics of grip and stance, smooth trigger pull and follow through. After they got familiar with it I did the "comparison" of .38 and .357 by putting one of each in consecutive chambers. My friend looked like he was thinking he knew what to expect, but the bigger boom of the .357 shook him into a grin. "Yeah, that's a little more powerful" he said. And when his wife did the comparison shot she really got a big grin from the bigger boom of the .357.
Next step was semi-auto, a G26 (9mm). I gave a little speech about the importance of grip and avoiding slide-bite, and neither got bit at all. So, here's where we found her new favorite handgun. More grins and chuckles and holes in the targets. My friend liked it, but the short grip didn't fit too well for him. His favorite was the last.
The venerable 1911 in .45 ACP. My buddy fell in love with it pretty quick. It fit him well and he handled it real well. When his wife shot it she was able to get through a whole magazine and enjoyed it, but she said the grip felt a little too big and hard to get a good hold of. The Glock fit her much better.
So after we had gone through everything I opened it up to a free-for-all of sorts. Anything they wanted to shoot again I had plenty of ammo (except I was trying to steer them away from the AR with limited and expensive to replace ammo supply) so they wanted to shoot the AR again. They were both content with another 20-round mag and my buddy put a few more rounds through the lever-gun.
At the very end I offered an 870HD in 12ga. I explained that recoil would be pretty stout compared to everything else they had shot, but if they wanted to try it they could. My buddy stepped up and put a few rounds through it, including a slug. He handled the recoil fine but definitely felt it after a while. His wife finally decided to try one round of birdshot. That was enough for her, but she was glad to have the experience.
All in all, we had an awesome time. Everyone was safe and showed great enthusiasm. We didn't go through too much ammo as we took lots of breaks to get snacks, we talked about every firearm and caliber there, I took time to go over safety for each firearm handled, and we took time to check targets often. So I ended up bringing way too much ammo, but that's okay because I haven't kept up on restocking from previous outings.
I know, "this thread is worthless without pictures," but I haven't gotten permission from them yet to post any. If I do, I'll post them.
