Took my wife shooting for her first time today

[.308 Norma]

Now you can buy more guns for her of course.

Trust me - there's a downside to that when you're married 51 years to a woman that loves guns, hunting and shooting as much as you do. Our gun safes are full, and we don't have any room in this house (which we've lived in for 42 years) for more safes.
Truthfully though - I wouldn't want it any other way.

 

[Smaug]

Do a Google search with the name Antoaneta Kostadinova, nee Boneva. She's an Olympic class pistol shooter, and she is also right handed, left eye dominant, which hasn't hindered her career. Another left eye dominant pistol shooter who comes to mind is Roberto Di Donna. He won Olympic gold in Atlanta 1996.
BTW you might consider getting a nice pellet pistol, which you can shoot at home. With an air pistol one may practice the foundations of pistol shooting - hold, aim, trigger - without the distraction of recoil and loud noise. Also cheaper to shoot a lot than any centerfire gun or even a .22. A CO2-powered single/double action pellet revolver handles almost like a real firearm and is plenty accurate.

I’m actually quite the airgun fan, and I have a very nice Daisy Target grade single pump pneumatic pellet pistol.

Good thinking!

I have a Crosman CO2 revolver that isn’t terrible, but the DA trigger will be too heavy for her.

 

[Rubone]

I just want to know how you ever got married in the first place without this having occurred, or at least been discussed before. Or was it an arranged marriage and you were total strangers?

 

[Jim Watson]

she’s starting to look like s revolver girl.

Did you expose her to a revolver?
If she can't rack the slide of a 14 lb automatic recoil spring with both hands, can she pull a 10 lb double action with one finger?

Artificial assistance.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BFMD9TU/ref=twister_B084T8KLL3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[ms6852]

WOO! 100yards! Your really Good!

I’m good for about 15 - 20 yards. I need to practice my Elisjsha Dicken Drill.

I would like to say I was good but not really, I was consistent getting 5 out of 7 rounds on the paper plate but never got 6 or 7.

 

[Mark_Mark]

I would like to say I was good but not really, I was consistent getting 5 out of 7 rounds on the paper plate but never got 6 or 7.

if you don’t mind me asking.. how old are you?

 

[ms6852]

68 @Mark_Mark

 

[tws3b2]

Big mistake. Wish I'd never let my wife shoot the first time. Now she "ALWAYS" wants to go with me.

 

[citizenconn]

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

I'm ignorant on why this would be and would appreciate someone explaining it to me, really. I write left-handed but am ambidextrous with most all other activities including shooting pistols. I'm left eye dominant and shoot better right-handed than I do left-handed.

I always center the pistol with both eyes open and then (sometimes) just shut my right eye no matter whether I'm shooting right or left-handed. Because I'm more precise with things like scissors with my right hand; I'm a bit more accurate pistol shooting righty as well. But I haven't ever felt it was a big ordeal or even an inconvenience.

With scoped rifles its more practical for me to shoot left handed as my left eye has the better vision of the two due to an accident. But with open sights I can shoot either way almost equally well, as long as I am wearing magnified shooting glasses (some things about getting old stinks). I can shoot a scoped rifle right handed using my right eye if need be just as long as I acquire the target with both eyes open first. A lot of times I shoot with both eyes open to get a better field of view anyway. I tend to have more righty rifles than lefty because my shooting/hunting partner is right handed and older than me by 20 years and stubborn.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong in the way I approach shooting pistols. Can someone help me out here?

As an aside, I took my wife shooting for the first time since we were married a few months ago. She grew up shooting with her Grandad on a Colorado ranch where she shot a couple pistols and shotguns. She told me she thought she was terrible at it because except with the shotgun she could never hit anything. Well I tested her and it turns out she is right handed, left eye dominant. No one ever checked her before. Once I showed her how to compensate for that she has been shooting gangbusters at the range.

 

[Resist Evil]

My wife has always been 5'2'', small-handed, and a little heavy. She is not easily impressed with things that might intimidate others and just gets to work. She took a brand-new Beretta 92fs and shot down bowling pins at 15 yards, never having shot before. Her favorite handgun is a Nighthawk Custom in .45, the specs of which she chose herself. She doesn't love to shoot, but she doesn't mind it if I can get her to go. She has difficulty racking some semi-autos, but by holding the firearm close to her upper chest, she can get the leverage needed most of the time. I've taught her the basic stuff about handgun shooting, reinforced with training, and she's very comfortable shooting.

No matter the newbie shortcomings in your wife's shooting technique and current physical ability, time, patience, effort, and desire will get her where she wants to go. It's wonderful you could have her go to the range to begin with. Good luck!

 

[bdickens]

but she can’t rack the slide reliably.

 

[hso]

anybody ever try Cup & Saucer. it’s not bad! but it’s not fast

It is terrible and every trainer that teaches pistol will put a stop to it because it introduces wobble.

 

[hso]

What’s “cup and saucer?”

Off hand under butt of gun. Also called "teacup".

OTOH, this is proper pistol grip

 

[hso]

As to cross dominant techniques -
https://gunsmagazine.com/discover/the-cross-dominant-eyes/

 

[Walkalong]

After 58 years of shooting I am embarrassed to admit that I am not familiar with this term.

Don't be, it's not taught by any reputable trainer.

 

[Sniper66]

I bought a Browning 1911 .22 for my wife's retirement gift. It is small and fit her petite hand easily. She did ok with it, but discovered she liked my other pistols better. BTW, the Browning sights are difficult to see. I sold it and bought Ruger mk3 22/45 gold color. She loves it and shoots it very well. What really made a big difference was her taking a gun safety/shooting course with two other women and a highly skilled shooter/teacher. Some of the things I tried to teach her were included in the class and she absorbed it quickly. She also got to see other options. Glad to hear your wife is enjoying it so much. Good on ya!

 

[Ks5shooter]

Awesome Love to see new shooters especially when it's family. It is a slippery slope though, you will find you are buying twice as many guns now. It's a good thing. And remember like I tell everyone else who is afraid of guns or doesn't understand them I let them know " it is not illegal to defend yourself. "

 

[Bfh_auto]

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!

That's how I started my wife. I didn't own a 22 pistol at the time.
My 357 became hers until I bought her one.
I found getting her in the proper stance. Helped her with flinching because her body was eating the recoil instead of being rocked back before squeezing the trigger.

 

[Smaug]

I think the next step is to take her with the SP-101 and some 38 Special and see how she shoots that.

I showed her how it works; how it doesn’t require racking the slide and such. (She caused my Hi-Power to FTE a few times by limp wristing)

 

[Riomouse911]

Sweet!

My wife is not anti gun, but she has zero interest in shooting or gun stuff. I wish I could get her to go shoot with me sometime.

My son is the opposite, he loves to shoot. Friday was his first time learning about and shooting a few of my center fire autos. We started with my .22 LR Glock 44, then moved to;

9mm Glock 34,



Ronin 1911



and CZ 75 P01.



I caught him flinching a couple of times, but for a 16 yr old he did good for his first time with these widely different guns.

Keep it up, she will get better as she continues to shoot .

Stay safe.

 

[Mark_Mark]

Sweet!

My wife is not anti gun, but she has zero interest in shooting or gun stuff. I wish I could get her to go shoot with me sometime.

My son is the opposite, he loves to shoot. Friday was his first time learning about and shooting a few of my center fire autos. We started with my .22 LR Glock 44, then moved to;

9mm Glock 34,

View attachment 1094642

Ronin 1911

View attachment 1094644

and CZ 75 P01.

View attachment 1094643

I caught him flinching a couple of times, but for a 16 yr old he did good for his first time with these widely different guns.

Keep it up, she will get better as she continues to shoot .

Stay safe.

Same! my wife came into my reloading room, that’s decorated with rifles, She was like, Going to War? She don’t have any interest in guns either, but knows how to handle and shoot them. I was tested a AR pistol out in federal land, and her only question was, “How much did that mag dump cost yah” lol

 

[J-Bar]

One possible reason for “teacupping”: many women have long fingernails. When gripping the pistol correctly, the fingernails of her strong hand may dig into the support hand, especially during recoil. I’m not defending teacupping, just saying I have felt fingernail bite myself if I let them get too long. Getting a woman who is proud of her long nails to trim them short just so she can shoot “properly” might be a task. Getting different grip scales could make it more comfortable.

 

[gyp_c2]

No one ever checked her before. Once I showed her how to compensate for that she has been shooting gangbusters at the range.

Try your best to not inflict her with pre-conceived weaknesses that she may not have.
My son suffered from my ignorance of his cross eye dominance until I discovered it after taking a course offered by an instructor that had the same condition. After that simple recognition he settled into a great and confident shooter.
He DID change to shooting rifles lefty.

 

[Riomouse911]

Try your best to not inflict her with pre-conceived weaknesses that she may not have.
My son suffered from my ignorance of his cross eye dominance until I discovered it after taking a course offered by an instructor that had the same condition. After that simple recognition he settled into a great and confident shooter.
He DID change to shooting rifles lefty.

Does CED cause the right handed shooter to hit to the right when shooting a handgun? My son was hitting 9-8 rings to the right of the X-10 rings most of the time he was shooting.

His bit of anticipation flinch would send some shots low, bit he was consistently hitting to the right the whole shooting session.

Stay safe.

 

[ford8nr]

Congrats on getting her out to shoot. My only suggestions are have her shoot a .22, auto or revolver until she comfortable and competent. Removes the noise and recoil factor. Have her refine her grip, no tea cupping, to help manage recoil and have her in a neutral (upright) or positive (lean forward) stance. Pic looks like she's leaning backwards. Best thing my wife wanted to do is take a lesson with someone else even though I'm an instructor. Sometimes the same advice from someone not your spouse is better received.