kirby
Member
First off, there will be no pictures.
I'm a new gunnie. I told her that I was picking up a new handgun last week and she kinda stopped the conversation and it went something like:
"Her:Oh. Hmmm. How many do you have?"
"Me: 2"
"Her: Oh. What do you do with them?"
"Me: Well, I'm new at this, aiming is hard and I want to get better. So I spend a lot of time at the shooting range."
"Her: They have shooting ranges up here?" (up here is Northern California.)
"Me: Yup, anyone can walk in and just start shooting up the place!"
"Her: Hmmm. Well. Does [wife's name] go?
"Me: Yea, she's not a big a nut as I am, but she likes it."
"Her: Okay....well...I really want to try that. What do I have to do?"
...and off we go. We spent an hour with her handling the guns unloaded and with snap caps at my house. I explained how the range would work. Basics of sight alignment and sight picture that I could remember from my NRA First Steps class. I tried my best to not fall into Mother/Son and instead be patient, answer all her questions and generally do things in the order she wanted to go.
I'll pause here for a question...
I explain the four rules (I didn't call them that. Sounded too official). So, here I am saying "all firearms are loaded. never let the muzzle point at anything you're not willing to destory, etc." Then I think it's important that she become familiar with handling the guns and that requires quite a bit of "waving around" so she can see various parts like the slide lock or magazine releae. She instinctivly wouldn't cover me with the muzzle, but we did point the muzzle lots of places besides the wall I had designated the "safe direction". I didn't see any way to do it otherwise. There was a lot of hands on manipulation of the firearm while she figured out what worked for her. Now, I KNOW the gun was unloaded because either the action was open or I had just closed it after checking it was unloaded. But I felt wierd explaining "the rules" then having to break them to show her various parts of the gun. Any ideas?
We went to the indoor range and when we walked to the shooting bays, I thought I almost lost her. As soon as we walk in, there's a load blast. She froze and looked at me like: "I'm done!" I ushered her back in the "air-lock" and explained that we really could be done now. I'd shot over the weekend and was happy to go home now. (I know her well enough to know how this would turn out). She plays her part and says: "I'm not going to be the chicken, I want to have fired one from each gun". (.22 and a .40).
So we march back out and I discover that she HATES the noise from other shooters. She flinches every time they fire. But, when she's aiming downrange she doesn't flinch at them and she doesn't flinch when she fires. Well, she flinched the first time, I tricked her and gave her an unloaded magazine for her first shot. I watched the flinch, told her to let the BANG surprise her and she wouldn't miss. Later, she explained that while aiming she didn't hear anything at all.
We had a great time. She shot a lot of .22 probably 20 rounds of .40. Her fear of the .40's bang went away after about the 2nd shot. Overall shot was pretty consistently in about a 6" group at 7yds with the .22. Of course, I couldn't hit keep any sort of group with my .40, inspiring all kinds of confidence. Really, I haven't shot worse than that ever.
Some notes:
- Spend time with the firearms first. That helped a bunch. She was really uptight about looking stupid at the range and having handled them first helped a bunch.
- Be ready to leave/stop/give-up at any time.
- Fire first. Mom was REALLY nervous about the sound. She started with watching me from behind the safetly line, then moved up to be right next to me while I fired over the course of 3 shots. The downside to that based on seeing that she was CONVINCED the .40 was going to hurt her wrists. It didn't but there was apprehension there.
- At 7 yards at my local range, you can't always see the holes, especially with a 22. If you can see them, a new shooter can't see their 5th, 6th, 10th shot. They need feedback. Get a shoot-n-c or visishot target.
- Watch that muzzle. I got caught up helping her find her shots and wasn't watching the muzzle. Nothing happened that I saw, but I wasn't looking at all for at least one magazine.
- Start with one shot in the magazine, explain that no matter what happens after that first shot, they'll have an empty handgun. Also explain that you will not let them do something unsafe. That's why you're staying with them in the lane.
- Know when to shut up. At first she didn't remember all the steps to setting the gun down (drop the mag, lock the slide). She would look and I would tell her what to do, being specific if I needed to. After a bit, she was doing it right away but I was still coaching her.
I'm a new gunnie. I told her that I was picking up a new handgun last week and she kinda stopped the conversation and it went something like:
"Her:Oh. Hmmm. How many do you have?"
"Me: 2"
"Her: Oh. What do you do with them?"
"Me: Well, I'm new at this, aiming is hard and I want to get better. So I spend a lot of time at the shooting range."
"Her: They have shooting ranges up here?" (up here is Northern California.)
"Me: Yup, anyone can walk in and just start shooting up the place!"
"Her: Hmmm. Well. Does [wife's name] go?
"Me: Yea, she's not a big a nut as I am, but she likes it."
"Her: Okay....well...I really want to try that. What do I have to do?"
...and off we go. We spent an hour with her handling the guns unloaded and with snap caps at my house. I explained how the range would work. Basics of sight alignment and sight picture that I could remember from my NRA First Steps class. I tried my best to not fall into Mother/Son and instead be patient, answer all her questions and generally do things in the order she wanted to go.
I'll pause here for a question...
I explain the four rules (I didn't call them that. Sounded too official). So, here I am saying "all firearms are loaded. never let the muzzle point at anything you're not willing to destory, etc." Then I think it's important that she become familiar with handling the guns and that requires quite a bit of "waving around" so she can see various parts like the slide lock or magazine releae. She instinctivly wouldn't cover me with the muzzle, but we did point the muzzle lots of places besides the wall I had designated the "safe direction". I didn't see any way to do it otherwise. There was a lot of hands on manipulation of the firearm while she figured out what worked for her. Now, I KNOW the gun was unloaded because either the action was open or I had just closed it after checking it was unloaded. But I felt wierd explaining "the rules" then having to break them to show her various parts of the gun. Any ideas?
We went to the indoor range and when we walked to the shooting bays, I thought I almost lost her. As soon as we walk in, there's a load blast. She froze and looked at me like: "I'm done!" I ushered her back in the "air-lock" and explained that we really could be done now. I'd shot over the weekend and was happy to go home now. (I know her well enough to know how this would turn out). She plays her part and says: "I'm not going to be the chicken, I want to have fired one from each gun". (.22 and a .40).
So we march back out and I discover that she HATES the noise from other shooters. She flinches every time they fire. But, when she's aiming downrange she doesn't flinch at them and she doesn't flinch when she fires. Well, she flinched the first time, I tricked her and gave her an unloaded magazine for her first shot. I watched the flinch, told her to let the BANG surprise her and she wouldn't miss. Later, she explained that while aiming she didn't hear anything at all.
We had a great time. She shot a lot of .22 probably 20 rounds of .40. Her fear of the .40's bang went away after about the 2nd shot. Overall shot was pretty consistently in about a 6" group at 7yds with the .22. Of course, I couldn't hit keep any sort of group with my .40, inspiring all kinds of confidence. Really, I haven't shot worse than that ever.
Some notes:
- Spend time with the firearms first. That helped a bunch. She was really uptight about looking stupid at the range and having handled them first helped a bunch.
- Be ready to leave/stop/give-up at any time.
- Fire first. Mom was REALLY nervous about the sound. She started with watching me from behind the safetly line, then moved up to be right next to me while I fired over the course of 3 shots. The downside to that based on seeing that she was CONVINCED the .40 was going to hurt her wrists. It didn't but there was apprehension there.
- At 7 yards at my local range, you can't always see the holes, especially with a 22. If you can see them, a new shooter can't see their 5th, 6th, 10th shot. They need feedback. Get a shoot-n-c or visishot target.
- Watch that muzzle. I got caught up helping her find her shots and wasn't watching the muzzle. Nothing happened that I saw, but I wasn't looking at all for at least one magazine.
- Start with one shot in the magazine, explain that no matter what happens after that first shot, they'll have an empty handgun. Also explain that you will not let them do something unsafe. That's why you're staying with them in the lane.
- Know when to shut up. At first she didn't remember all the steps to setting the gun down (drop the mag, lock the slide). She would look and I would tell her what to do, being specific if I needed to. After a bit, she was doing it right away but I was still coaching her.