Newbie to the range

[joesolo]

Yesterday I took a new shooter to the range. It's been a while since I had to teach someone the fundamentals and watch every move. It was a busy indoor range for what it's worth. My advice from this experience is to teach safe gun handling and the dos and dont's before you enter the range. She did great but I had a couple of tense moments (hot brass down the shirt.......). Yeah you forget to address that stuff if you don't have to think of the basics often.

 

[Reloadron]

My advice from this experience is to teach safe gun handling and the dos and dont's before you enter the range.

Couldn't agree more with that. Once on the firing line it is a little late to start teaching gun safety.

Ron

 

[Armymutt]

I took a classmate out to the range on Friday. She mentioned that she was afraid of guns when we were shooting tranquilizer darts, so I saw an opportunity to bring a fence sitter closer to our side. She had the rules of safe gun handling down, thanks to the class - it was on the exam we had the day before. We reviewed them and I put her behind a bolt action .22LR. Worked from there to a .22 Hornet, then an M1 Carbine, and finally an AR-15. Wanted to make sure she shot that one and understood how it wasn't as scary as the media portrays. She was definitely very open minded, which was great. Finished the morning off with her firing a Sig P226.

 

[TonyDedo]

My advice from this experience is to teach safe gun handling and the dos and dont's before you enter the range.

Absolutely. When I take new people to the range, we always do a safety brief before we hit the range, and whenever possible I include some basic instruction and dry firing. A live range can be very distracting for a new shooter; it's much easier to reiterate things they've already been taught than explain new concepts when you're flanked by ARs doing mag dumps.

A few years ago, when I was more active at taking new shooters to the range (I was on a "educate the masses" mission in Boston) I typed up a little booklet titled "my first trip to the range." It covered safety rules, practical tips and some basic facts and vocabulary. I would email it to new shooters and have them read it first, then bring it along with any questions or concerns.

If I recall correctly, it had a "what to wear" section that definitely mentioned the brass issue, and suggested wearing baseball caps and avoiding anything low cut. Although there's something strangely erotic about watching an attractive woman dig a 9mm shell out of her bra, so long as she's not waiving a loaded gun...