Tell us about your most recent trip to the range etc. with a new shooter.

[FROGO207]

As the post states - how did the trip go? Convert a new shooter or convince someone to rethink what they already had an opinion on? They have a fun time? Was it a good trip in your experience? I love taking someone to the range and setting the hook as they say. Proving an anti wrong is the best feeling of all. Tell us the dirty details.

MY LAST
I took a co-worker and his teenage son to the range last Sat. We started with the .22 pistol, shot several different firearms and ended with a 45.70. Had a blast. The son had to ask why the 10-22 had a 25 round mag.. Thought it was unnecessary for more than 5 rounds :banghead: so I said less reloading time and we had to help the ammo companies stay in business.
Shows what the schools and media try to teach the younger generation.

 

[M2 Carbine]

The last new shooter at my range was this young lady. She is a friend of my good friend's daughter (I'm also teaching the daughter to shoot).

The girl's Mother is anti gun, so the girl had never even touched a gun before.

I started her off with a Ruger 22/45 and inside an hour she was shooting a 38 S&W J Frame while moving right and left and backpedaling.


She was doing so good, with all COM hits but three shots high, I told her, "Now standing at 10 yards you must put all 5 shots in the head".
She started a smiley face.



The second day I gave the girl my 45 Kimber and several magazines.
After shooting the Kimber I told her, just for fun, I'd run her through the Texas concealed carry course qualification. 50 shots, all timed, 3 yards to 15 yards.
Even though by now the girl had not shot 15 yards, had not shot timed fire and was shooting a strange gun, she shot a 242/250.


To say the young lady really enjoys shooting is an understatement.

 

[BCCL]

Yesterday, I took two friends out with some pistols they both inherited from parents, that they had never shot.

The husband had a 37 Airweight that had belonged to his father,and his wife had a late 50's Colt Woodsman Target that was her fathers.

He had shot some, but never this revolver, and she had never fired a gun at all.

A gotta say, if your gonna learn, a Colt Woodsman is a slick pistol to learn on!

 

[dovedescending]

tried to convince my sister-in-law that she needed to send my nieces my way for some fun, but they're just not interested. not anti's, just not interested.

fixing to take my brother's friend before she goes back to britain at the end of the school year. she's looking forward to it.

 

[Mikhail Weiss]

Last time I did that, the new shooter, who thought she was only interested in learning enough to be safe and reasonably accurate – and believing that she'd likely shoot for no more than a couple of weeks – ended up liking it so much she bought two guns, visits the range regularly, and wants to buy more guns and ammo.

She had fun. Lots and lots of fun. And did better than she had expected, too.

All in all, a pretty successful session.

 

[Leafy Cronmer]

Took a very close friend shooting for the first time a few months ago. He loved it we stuck to handguns, I brought a few different calibers so he could get a feel for each one. Had a great time and sure enough a few weeks later he told me he was buying his first gun a Para Ordinance GI Expert.

We also played a few rounds of trap 2 weeks ago, and may have also given him the bug for long guns.

 

[Medusa]

I've brought out new shooters a few times, they have not been anti's, but rather uneducated on the issue, yet eager to learn. So here are pics of last couple of such happenings.

My wife

She did quite well, being able to put a whole mag in one burst into a human torso @100m, of course the bipod and weight of the gun helps. What I've noticed, is that pretty much all the girls I've taken out end up shooting better than me

Couple of family friends/almost-family-members (future docs), I've always tried to introduce some fun-guns to them, for something to be remembered for a long time, they all are quite eager to go out again, but when it's warm and dry Because every time it's either cold and snowy or raining.

And our typical ride for the events:

Last time also included camping near the peat bog where the range is, as it was planned to be a shooting weekend away from any civilization, my girl and I plus a friend and his girl, we had to put our 2 tents into an old abandoned shed with holed roof and everything. It seemed to be a local culture center, some rubbish, cigarette butts, somewhat rude seatings and everything.

Girls had a small doubt that what if someone comes would it create problems, I had to point out that the number of loaded weapons was higher than the number of us 4. What was also different was that a storm broke out that night, being quite windy and raining like h€ll - remember the holes in the roof? It also turned out that it is possible to cook a very tasty chicken meal with field stove and alcohol burner.

 

[M2 Carbine]

Great pictures Medusa.

When I saw the girls in the snow the first thing that popped into my mind was "Red Dawn".

 

[Kevin5098]

I volunteer as Line Safety Officer and help with beginner shooting classes at a local state operated range. I see quite a few new shooters. The people in the classes are, for the most part, great. The ones who show up to shoot with no previous training or experience can be pretty scary. We work with them as much as possible, but still have the other 19 firing points to watch. I especially enjoy the handgun classes when the new shooter starts off not even on paper, and ends up with OK groups.

 

[mbopp]

My Liberal Democrat daughter shocked the he!! out of me when she asked if we could go shooting. We've been out twice now, she's getting pretty good with the old Remy 521 .22. Next it'll be the .308 with mild loads.

 

[Medusa]

When I saw the girls in the snow the first thing that popped into my mind was "Red Dawn"

Thanks for kind words. Yeah, it crossed my mind too, both of them are good shots, but one managed to get along very nicely with any precision rifle (the one with Savage 10/Choate on pic), well enough to hunt bottlecaps at 100m in twilight (when the mentioned pic was made).

It would suck, really, to be shot at by either of those girls.

 

[recoiladdict]

I was a new shooter just a couple months ago.

Last Tuesday, I took my mom to the range for the first time. I wouldn't call her a new shooter (had shot extensively in high school), but she hadn't been in more than 30 years and couldn't remember what to expect.

I let her shoot my GP100 in .38 and she did a great job, keeping every single shot inside the outermost ring of the target (8 inches across), even out as far as 15 yards.

I loaded a single .357 load into the cylinder and placed the gun on the table and invited her to give the stronger recoil a try. She handled it just fine. I always try a new cartridge by loading just one in the cylinder. That way I don't double shoot and kill myself or someone else if I can't handle the recoil. After learning about a woman that did just that with a .45 and shot herself through the neck, it seems prudent.

She'll be shooting again very soon!

Now I just have to get my fiance to feel the same way...

 

[Tenacious B]

Today I was the 1st time pistol shooter at the range. (I'm more of a rifle kind of guy)

I rented a few guns trying to figure out which one to buy. Of course, I want to buy one of each.

Found out that the XDm was basically my favorite of the auto-polymer style pistols, the Glock seems to spit shells right into my head, and revolvers are cool. I'm kind of leaning revolver, but there are still some more 9mm guns to try out.