Teaching the Girl Friend to shoot.

[Grandpa Shooter]

Been working with the girl friend teaching her to shoot. She had minimal exposure to firearms previously so I did not have "unteach" anything significant. Started slow and tried various of my small caliber hand guns. Did not seem to make much difference what the gun or caliber as much as sights. She likes my Russian Makarov in .380 and does well with it. Her stance has never looked comfortable no matter how she or I tried to adjust it. She started shooting right handed because she is a righty in everything else.

Yesterday I got out my CO2 training pistols I used when teaching the public and set up a box target with proper backstop on my property. She started out with my semi-auto full size replica and did pretty well keeping everything together, but high. I joked with her about learning to shoot with both hands "just in case". She immediately switched over to lefty just to show me she could do it. Wow, what a difference! Her stance was solid and steady, her feet were naturally spread, her head was up, and arms well extended, but firmly held. She shot waaaay better immediately. I asked what was going on and her reply was: "My right shoulder doesn't hurt this way" Huh? "Oh yeah, didn't I tell you I hurt my right shoulder when I was in nursing and can't hold my right arm up for very long without my neck hurting?" Duh! No you didn't tell me about that. "Oh, well it does!"
Does it hurt doing it left handed? "No, feels fine. I can hold on target a lot better this way"

So much for the last six months. Now we start over lefty! Six months from now I wouldn't want to be a bad guy going after her. I think she is gonna be a shooter!

 

[chris in va]

What about her eye dominance?

 

[M2 Carbine]

I think she is gonna be a shooter!

When I taught my (future) Wife to shoot I told Her that the day She beat me in any kind of shooting contest I would give Her the gun She used and I'd have a trophy made for Her.

I was as proud as I could be that day.

 

[strat81]

"It hurts when I do 'this'."
"Then don't do 'this'."

Glad to have another shooter around!

 

[CountGlockula]

Great job!

Please don't tell me she wasn't holding it like this:

 

[hso]

One of the problems with teaching anyone we're close to off the range is that we don't communicate with them the way we might with a stranger we're trying to help and they don't communicate with us the way they would with someone else.

I was working with the brother of a friend of mine and I kept wondering why his groups were sloppy. He's right handed and he had told me he was right eye dominant and he tested that way. On a hunch I asked if the dominant eye was as "good" as the other to which he replied, "No. My right eyes isn't very good. I have trouble seeing the target and the front sight". I switched to having him shoot like he was cross dominant and his groups tightened up and his speed improved and he got better and better over the course of another 2 hours. Truly amazing at times what you find out after you've invested hours with someone.

 

[Grandpa Shooter]

I was pleased that she can now shoot more comfortably. I think she was trying so hard to please me that she just didn't want to disappoint me. Since she is so sensitive to perceived criticism, it was hard to try to correct her technique. Not that she couldn't shoot pretty well as she was trying. She can already outshoot my Son. It is just nice to know she can do it much more comfortably and therefore enjoy it more.

She really likes my carbines and is deadly accurate with them, shooting right handed. I can shoot either way so it's fine with me if she shoots lefty and righty. Nice to have a woman who WANTS to go with me and who wants to please. Been a long time coming.

 

[jakemccoy]

Grandpa wrote,

Yesterday I got out my CO2 training pistols I used when teaching the public and set up a box target with proper backstop on my property.

Everything else you said was a blur after you said this. I'm jealous.

 

[jlday70]

I just started to teach one of my 20 year old cousins and my 11 year old to shoot the other day....It is always nice when more people want to learn about guns and safe shooting.

 

[Nobody's_Hero]

What about her eye dominance?

That would have been a good thing to find out from the start.

You can be right handed and left-eye dominant.

EDIT: Might not matter that much with handguns as it would with rifles, but it would still be nice to know.