A good time was had by all, although I'm not sure if he's itching to do it again or just considering it a neat experience. He's really not a gun guy, and he's pretty reserved in general.
My brother-in-law is in town for awhile with little to occupy his time, so I told him I'd take him shooting if he wanted. He eventually took me up on it. After explaining the basics of the particular guns to him I just stood by and got him started with each one whenever he showed interest in it and shot one of the others in the meantime. It was an indoor range, so I warned him ahead of time that it would be loud, and I spent some time acclimating him to things so he would be comfortable with range protocol and the sound of Magnum rounds fired indoors.
The guns:
Stainless Blackhawk in .357
SP101 in .357
NEF .410
Yugo AK47 with underfolder stock
I started him off shooting .38 Specials through the Blackhawk and moved him up from there on occasion to give him a varied experience. He kept returning to the Blackhawk and those .38s, and he shot some pretty good groups with that combination, even on his first cylinder. I let him try the SP101 with .357s with the warning that shooting it very much after being spoiled by that nice Blackhawk would likely induce a flinch, due to the DA trigger, strong recoil, and big muzzle blast. He shot it twice and backed away with "yeah, I think that one's a little much for me". To his credit he did try it and went back to shooting .357s in the Blackhawk (he had shot up all my .38s by then
). The range only had one box of 20 rounds for the AK and the underfolder stock fit him poorly, so he only shot it a couple times, but I made sure he did so he could tell his anti-gun buddies that he shot an AK47 and it was no big deal. He thought it was pretty cool, too bad it fit him so bad. It fits me surprisingly well, but he'd have had more fun with a standard stock.
He didn't seem to like the .410, but that was the point of bringing a variety of guns to try.
I don't own a .22, nor do I own an autoloader, so if he wants to try some other stuff next time I'll just bring a couple guns and rent a Glock 9mm and a Mark III.
Just thought I'd share that experience. It's rare that I get to introduce someone to the shooting sports.
gp911
My brother-in-law is in town for awhile with little to occupy his time, so I told him I'd take him shooting if he wanted. He eventually took me up on it. After explaining the basics of the particular guns to him I just stood by and got him started with each one whenever he showed interest in it and shot one of the others in the meantime. It was an indoor range, so I warned him ahead of time that it would be loud, and I spent some time acclimating him to things so he would be comfortable with range protocol and the sound of Magnum rounds fired indoors.
The guns:
Stainless Blackhawk in .357
SP101 in .357
NEF .410
Yugo AK47 with underfolder stock
I started him off shooting .38 Specials through the Blackhawk and moved him up from there on occasion to give him a varied experience. He kept returning to the Blackhawk and those .38s, and he shot some pretty good groups with that combination, even on his first cylinder. I let him try the SP101 with .357s with the warning that shooting it very much after being spoiled by that nice Blackhawk would likely induce a flinch, due to the DA trigger, strong recoil, and big muzzle blast. He shot it twice and backed away with "yeah, I think that one's a little much for me". To his credit he did try it and went back to shooting .357s in the Blackhawk (he had shot up all my .38s by then
). The range only had one box of 20 rounds for the AK and the underfolder stock fit him poorly, so he only shot it a couple times, but I made sure he did so he could tell his anti-gun buddies that he shot an AK47 and it was no big deal. He thought it was pretty cool, too bad it fit him so bad. It fits me surprisingly well, but he'd have had more fun with a standard stock.He didn't seem to like the .410, but that was the point of bringing a variety of guns to try.
I don't own a .22, nor do I own an autoloader, so if he wants to try some other stuff next time I'll just bring a couple guns and rent a Glock 9mm and a Mark III.
Just thought I'd share that experience. It's rare that I get to introduce someone to the shooting sports.
gp911
