Took my wife shooting for her first time today

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Smaug

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She tried four guns:

- Ruger Mk. II Target
- Charles Daly Hi-Power (9 mm)
- Sig P365 (9 mm)
- Marlin 60

I gave her some instruction; it took her awhile to realize what I meant by “flinching” and “anticipating the recoil”.

When the HP was empty, I cocked it and asked her to dry fire it. She did, and I could see she was jerking it down severely. She didn’t get it. I showed her what she was doing, then showed her what it was supposed to look like. THEN she got it.

Immediately, she went from shooting every time down in the dirt or blasting the poor wooden target stand to getting all shots on an 8x8” Target paper at 7 yards.

She has a couple other things we need to think about:
- Her hands aren’t strong enough to hold onto the slide of a 9 mm with having her hands all over the ejection port too.
- Her arms aren’t strong enough to rack the slide properly. I tried showing her the technique of using the chest muscles to rack it, but she could not get the hang of it.

With the Hi-Power, it was iffy. With the P365, there was no chance.

Aside from an old Beretta Tomcat or something, she’s starting to look like s revolver girl. One thing though: she’s right handed and left eye dominant. Tough break.

She’s looking forward to visiting every month.
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With a brand-new shooter I would tentatively plan to bring from tbe car only a .22 rifle, plus a .22 handgun.

But a gun in a larger, fairly low-power chambering would be brought from the car only if the “student” showed no more signs of flinching, limp-wristing or discomfort due to noise.

One nice benefit of an Action Pistol range is that the noise is much less than under a covered area-

-never Mind the really Amplified Blasts of Indoor shooting ranges. Only talking about Handguns…..

That (often) terrible indoor thunder probably makes many New shooters avoid any future visit.
 
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Took my wife shooting once when we were dating, she shot bottle caps at 15 yards with a Glock 23. I asked her were she learned to shoot, “Was in a mandatory military camp when I lived over seas”

Was like, 4-Real??? we married 10 months later at the courthouse, was like, Not letting this one get away.
 
Great report, thanks for sharing.

I took my wife to the range a long time ago and after shooting a few autos (Colt 1911 and Taurus PT99) came to the conclusion there is no way she can safely or reliably operate a self-loader. Since that day she has always carried a J frame .38.
 
she’s right handed and left eye dominant. Tough break.
How about point shooting?

Once natural point-of-aim is established (POI synchronized with POA) with eyes closed, eyes open point shooting eliminates eye dominance on gun sights - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...hose-with-vision-issues.891558/#post-11989239

Examples of eyes closed natural point of aim:





At 10:00 minute mark of this video, Mojo explains and demonstrates "natural point of aim" (With eyes closed) from draw. At initial range session, I have people synchronize their natural point of aim by NOT adjusting their grip but only adjusting at the shoulders and waist to align POI with POA. And once their natural point of aim is synchronized, they are surprised when they are able to produce fairly tight groups at multiple targets still shooting with eyes closed - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/flinching-drills.864546/page-2#post-11416785

 
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The tendency to shoot quickly and spray shots with a semi-auto is acquired easily. Load one at a time in the magazine and watch accuracy improve. Rapid fire will be more effective when sight picture/ trigger squeeze are perfected. Load 2 in the magazine to practice double taps when single shot groups tighten up. Saves on ammo also.
 
Attaboy to you for getting you wife to go shoot for the first time. However I would have stuck with 22 only for the first time and until she has learned the basics. Then I would have moved up to the 9mm. Lots of difference with a pooty litle 22 and a 9.
 
Congratulations!

I took a girlfriend shooting. I wanted to start her with a revolver so I loaded a .357 with some powder puff 38 loads. It was easier shooting than a .22, made big, easy to see holes in the target, and operated single action. She really enjoyed it. Maybe you should look into buying a big revolver.

Woo-hoo! New gun time!
 
Looks like you both learned something. She learned the basics of handgun shooting and you learned that all those fancy autoloaders just aren't girl guns. I've been thru this same process with my wife and other ladies over the years. What I've found is that teaching them to shoot with a .22 revolver is the best first step. Also, let them shoot at something "reactive", like a coke can. Paper targets are boring, but when that can is jumping around or she sees the bullets hitting the dirt low, left, etc, she really pays attention to how she's aiming. Also, a flinch can be detected and fixed pretty easily by only putting 2 or 3 rounds in the gun. She can see immediately if she's flinching when the hammer falls on an empty chamber. When she's ready, let her shoot a nice K frame .38 revolver. More noise, a little bit of recoil, but it really smashes cans. Lots of fun and now she's shooting a serious gun. Once she's mastered that, then let her try a J frame .38. More recoil, harder to shoot accurately, but much easier to have with her and carry around. One thing I learned the hard way was NOT to recommend a Ruger SP101 for ladies. Those things have such strong springs in them that it's hard for ladies to cock the hammer for single action, and really hard to shoot double action. With a S&W K or J frame, and probably a Taurus imitation, this problem goes away. Good luck, and have fun!
 
Also, you don’t have to start her off with a .22. It’s ok to go big like 9mm. They are not little delicate creatures that can’t handle recoil. Women have a high pain tolerance then us men. I mean, they give birth to children.
 
she’s right handed and left eye dominant.

I have several friends that are cross dominant. There are very easy solutions. It isn't that difficult to switch to the hand on the dominant eye side. It is also easy to rotate the gun so the sight is in front of the dominant eye. OR put a piece of tape over the eye opposite the hand and retrain to the R/R.

Did you point out that "tea cupping" was incorrect?
 
I'd suggest a ruger wrangler to start.

Then maybe an old model 10 pencil barrel Smith.

The skinny barrel seems to make a big difference for new shooters with wrist or arm strength issues, it's light to hold out there and very inherently accurate.

Nothing wrong with revolvers. Imo they are still up to the task and come with some benefits that are often overlooked.
 
Interesting. Normally first time women shooters are better than men.

More classroom before range time. I learned that decades ago. By the time they get to the range, they should know all the safety rules, gun handling procedures, loading/unloading, operation of the firearm. They should be very familiar with it, competent (safety and handling wise) and confident before the first cartridge is loaded and fired.
 
Great report, thanks for sharing.

I took my wife to the range a long time ago and after shooting a few autos (Colt 1911 and Taurus PT99) came to the conclusion there is no way she can safely or reliably operate a self-loader. Since that day she has always carried a J frame .38.
We had a talk last night, and she can’t imagine “carrying a gun on my hip”. She’s very feminine. I told her there are other ways, like hip packs, but she’s not keen on the idea.

It is young in her shooting career though, so we’ll just take our time. I don’t want to push her too hard and ruin it.
 
First thing to figure out is she right handed left eye dominant. If she likes shooting then a Smith with the ez slide might make it more enjoyable. A revolver might be her thing who knows. Her wanting to go makes new toys easier to justify.

Yeah, she’s right handed, left eye dominant. It’s going to be a hard pistol life for her.

i was hoping she’d like a .22 rifle, but they’re too heavy; she hasn’t got much upper body strength.
 
The tendency to shoot quickly and spray shots with a semi-auto is acquired easily. Load one at a time in the magazine and watch accuracy improve. Rapid fire will be more effective when sight picture/ trigger squeeze are perfected. Load 2 in the magazine to practice double taps when single shot groups tighten up. Saves on ammo also.
Good idea. …but she can’t rack the slide reliably.

i was loading five at a time, to get a feeling for the reloading process without burning too much ammo.
 
Great job! Being left eye dominant and right handed with a handgun is actually easy. Also before she develops a bad habit you should teach her proper grip. Using cup and saucer for any period of time will only make it harder to adjust to proper grip. Kudos to you!
 
Attaboy to you for getting you wife to go shoot for the first time. However I would have stuck with 22 only for the first time and until she has learned the basics. Then I would have moved up to the 9mm. Lots of difference with a pooty litle 22 and a 9.

i was thinking that bringing nines might’ve been a mistake, but she liked it better than .22. We’ll see. My Mk II isn’t ejecting reliably now; might need new extractors. A new .22 might be on the horizon. Maybe a Neos or something more combat-like in style.
 
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