pauli
Member
i've just finished a week of hosting and driving a group of 37 of her majesty's subjects (edit: er, 36 brits and one french girl) from dulles airport to the whole hampton area and back. they were over here for butoku sai, a traditional martial arts... event? celebration? but that's not the point. it works for background, however, and of the group this thread is about, all but one are blackbelts in iaido and either judo or aikido... some are ranked in all three. one is also ranked in karate, as was my other student, my own karate instructor. they are all true martial artists, and this made them the best possible students i can think of.
so, monday night we were having a party for them, and the subject of shooting came up... they expressed an interest in going to a range, and three people including myself nearly leapt across the room. it was quickly established that they *really* wanted to try out one guy's ak47, and we'd also bring his glock23 and my p22, plus a variety of shotguns.
well, things turned out a bit differently, since the nra hq range is closed to the public on tuesdays (except for cowboy action shooters, which this group... wasn't), so we went to blue ridge arsenal. this limited us to the handguns, since the shotguns were all 12ga, and they apparently insist on frangible ammo. oh well, two guns was enough.
we spent a good two or three hours there, with me teaching them in groups of three. it's really nice to teach people who already understand how to treat weapons with respect!
we went through a safety speech and brief instructions, and then had them run through a mag in the p22, followed by a mag in the g23 (all at 7 yards). the facial expressions... man. after they'd done that, they each put a five round group into a clean target to take home and compare. these people were GOOD SHOTS! adjusting for an offcenter group, one guy got everything in the x ring. i was quite impressed, given that as far as i know, only one had actually handled a firearm before (excepting my instructor, but he only had long gun experience from way far back). i told them, "it's all about remaining mind," - part of my training and theirs - and they took care of the rest.
after a bit over 100 rounds from the 40 and about the same from the 22, our dojo target was really, really dead. big hole missing from the middle.
a few of us also did some very brief tournaments... two rounds aimed at the head at 25 yards with the 22. most shots were in the head or neck (on a b27 target), which i'd call pretty darn satisfactory given the experience level.
we had no kabooms with the glock (or any other problem, for that matter), and i was quite surprised at how comfortable it was - though it did have a hogue grip on it. the only problem with the p22 was people bumping the mag release lever, as it's in a remarkably stupid spot. it seems like it might be firing slightly to the right. clearly, i'm going to have to suffer through some more range time to diagnose this... poor me.
oh, there was a guy at the other end of the range (er... to our right, not by the backstop... where's that shifty eyed smiley?) with a 44magnum. THAT put some shocked expressions on people's faces... and then big smiles the owner of it let me have an empty casing to show them - kind of him, as i believe he was a reloader - and i got to impress them with the size of the 44 vs the 40, and the 40 vs the 22. i forgot to send them back to england with them... maybe if i write them a letter.
anyway, i just wanted to say how much fun i had teaching a bunch of new shooters. first time i'd been to the range in months, and first time i'd actually used my p22. it really capped off a proper trip to virginia for a bunch of brits. and now my instructor wants to go shooting again sometime
(btw, afterwards we went to outback in... centerville, i think. we had exceptionally good service from both victor, our waiter, and the owner, who came out to talk to us after we'd talked to victor. great job to them, on the off chance they're reading!)
so, monday night we were having a party for them, and the subject of shooting came up... they expressed an interest in going to a range, and three people including myself nearly leapt across the room. it was quickly established that they *really* wanted to try out one guy's ak47, and we'd also bring his glock23 and my p22, plus a variety of shotguns.
well, things turned out a bit differently, since the nra hq range is closed to the public on tuesdays (except for cowboy action shooters, which this group... wasn't), so we went to blue ridge arsenal. this limited us to the handguns, since the shotguns were all 12ga, and they apparently insist on frangible ammo. oh well, two guns was enough.
we spent a good two or three hours there, with me teaching them in groups of three. it's really nice to teach people who already understand how to treat weapons with respect!
we went through a safety speech and brief instructions, and then had them run through a mag in the p22, followed by a mag in the g23 (all at 7 yards). the facial expressions... man. after they'd done that, they each put a five round group into a clean target to take home and compare. these people were GOOD SHOTS! adjusting for an offcenter group, one guy got everything in the x ring. i was quite impressed, given that as far as i know, only one had actually handled a firearm before (excepting my instructor, but he only had long gun experience from way far back). i told them, "it's all about remaining mind," - part of my training and theirs - and they took care of the rest.
after a bit over 100 rounds from the 40 and about the same from the 22, our dojo target was really, really dead. big hole missing from the middle.
a few of us also did some very brief tournaments... two rounds aimed at the head at 25 yards with the 22. most shots were in the head or neck (on a b27 target), which i'd call pretty darn satisfactory given the experience level.
we had no kabooms with the glock (or any other problem, for that matter), and i was quite surprised at how comfortable it was - though it did have a hogue grip on it. the only problem with the p22 was people bumping the mag release lever, as it's in a remarkably stupid spot. it seems like it might be firing slightly to the right. clearly, i'm going to have to suffer through some more range time to diagnose this... poor me.
oh, there was a guy at the other end of the range (er... to our right, not by the backstop... where's that shifty eyed smiley?) with a 44magnum. THAT put some shocked expressions on people's faces... and then big smiles
the owner of it let me have an empty casing to show them - kind of him, as i believe he was a reloader - and i got to impress them with the size of the 44 vs the 40, and the 40 vs the 22. i forgot to send them back to england with them... maybe if i write them a letter.anyway, i just wanted to say how much fun i had teaching a bunch of new shooters. first time i'd been to the range in months, and first time i'd actually used my p22. it really capped off a proper trip to virginia for a bunch of brits. and now my instructor wants to go shooting again sometime
(btw, afterwards we went to outback in... centerville, i think. we had exceptionally good service from both victor, our waiter, and the owner, who came out to talk to us after we'd talked to victor. great job to them, on the off chance they're reading!)
