What information is missing? / What should I write next?

[pax]

Hi everyone,

Most of you know by now that I'm working really hard at putting up a website for women who are new to shooting. My goal is to provide answers to the most common questions new shooters ask -- with links, references, and plenty of clear explanations to help them along the path. My target audience is women, but the information should be good for everyone.

The website is at www.corneredcat.com and I've been working on it pretty steadily since late spring.

Could you all take a look at it, and let me know what articles you think I should work on next?

What areas are most in need of additional information or clarification?

What subjects are missing? What could I cover better?

Are there links to good web pages that should be there and are not?

Please post here, or drop me an email (you can get the address from my THR profile, or through my pages.)

Thanks,

pax

 

[News Shooter]

Wow!

Except for the color
It's GREAT!!!!

Nice work..one of the best and most different sites I've seen.
I'm looking forward to reading it more closely when time, especially the
Christianity parts.

Your time was well spent!

 

[f4t9r]

Great job !!!!
did not see anything right off and looks like you covered most everything.
I will look deeper and let you know. Very nice site

 

[pax]

I like compliments. Compliments are good -- they make me smile and they're good for my ego. But ...

Not fishing for compliments here, honest! Would rather hear from people who think there's stuff missing, or badly done, or flat-out wrong.

Silly of me, I know. But I really do want to hear it.

pax

Disapproval is a very important factor in all progress. There has really never been any progress without it. -- James Henry Breasted

 

[cosine]

I think your site looks great! I've learned a lot from it, and the only thing I have to say is hurry up and write the rest of the articles! I can't wait to read it. Personally, I'd like to see some of the articles under "Holster Safety" written so I can learn something about that.

 

[Bobhwry]

I know your not trolling for compliments but you have done a very good job!! Went to a gun show this weekend and saw alot of women buying guns. Unfortunately most were buying what I would describe as novelty, mouse guns with pink grips.Most manufacturers are dominated by males and cater to their needs . I think they are missing the boat! Gun sales to women is growing alot. So maybe something on what women really look for in a gun and what manufacturers should do to meet their needs other than pink!!!

 

[ugaarguy]

Pax, maybe a section for recoil sensitive and/or disabled shooters? SM and others have done up some great threads here, even just linking some of those threads would be a good start. Or maybe some of the folks here with firsthand experience would be kind enough to write a contributing article for you? Outside of that I think you're doing a great job with the site, and several folks I've referred to it agree.

 

[M.E.Eldridge]

Perhaps something on C&R firearms or the process of aquiring a C&R license? C&R licenses allow one to purchase various firearms from across the country and have said firearms sent directly to one's door. Some places also give dealer discounts to customers with C&Rs.

 

[knoxx45]

Thats a great site

I liked the part about "racking the slide". I think that a lot of people will benefit form your hard work.

 

[loumarch]

Pax,

I think the site shows a lot of thought in the design and navigation part. I think your site would benefit from some minor design changes, most notably some different colors to break up the topics.

The site is definitely ready for prime time. It's chock full of information, real good information.

 

[Car Knocker]

I've been slowly working my way through the site (lots of good information there) and I don't recall (or I haven't got that far yet) anything about handling the situation if a person who's carrying gets made (her cover garment gets flipped up by the wind, etc.) nor anything about dealing with the police during a traffic stop/auto burglary/etc.

How does the armed woman deal with dating?

How about a section on what to expect on your first trip to a gunshop? First trip to the range? How to screen/select either?

A section on self-defense ammo selection and purchase? Practice ammo too.

Maybe something about RKBA and the continuing struggle.

History and etiology of gun control.

 

[Spot77]

I like the addition to the Eddie Eagle Rules: "What if you really, REALLY want to touch the gun?"

That's exactly what a kid is thinking...."Oh man.....I know I shouldn't.....but I really want to!" I know my son thinks just like that.


Good job!

 

[lastcavalier]

A compliment and a suggestion

First, thank you for the work you've done. I'm relatively new to shooting and I've found several of your articles very useful for learning the basics. I had searched and found information piecemeal before, but having a consistent source (with pictures!) has been a huge help.

Second, I read your "Rack the slide" article after I took my lady-friend shooting my pistol for the first time and she kept making me do that part. However, she also had a great deal of difficulty cocking the hammer (to avoid the DA trigger pull, which also gives her some trouble). I'm thinking that may be a small hands vs. big pistol problem, but if you had any tips for that it would be greatly appreciated.

If not, I can always just use that as an excuse to purchase another (smaller) gun.

 

[scout26]

Excellent site !!!!

In the movies it's called continuity, and it's a small pet peeve of mine.

Pick one term: Gun, Firearm or Weapon. As a former Army officer, and weapon is what soliders carry, a gun is something that requires more then one person to operate (as in a "crew served machine gun" or an "artillery piece").

Firearms, to me, are devices used by civilians, for sporting purposes and self-defense.



And you get change back with my .$.02.

 

[sm]

pax,

email sent to contact author

Anyone know if Contact has a brother named Fiction?

 

[Sam]

PAX
I think you should do something on fitting holsters to ladies.

Single biggest equipment issue my students have.
Guy holsters aren't made to fit women(unless they happen to be built like a guy)

Maybe some links to holster designers who specialize in fitting ladies too.

Sam

 

[Librarian]

My wife is a new shooter - first time today. I just sent the link to her, and we'll talk.

 

[Dr.Who]

Kathy,

Looking Good....

 

[Soybomb]

How about a section about home defense? Something for the women that live in a place where they can't get handguns or would feel more comfortable with a long gun over the handgun? A little talk about youth 20ga shotguns or something perhaps.

Its a great site, the only other suggestion I would make is I think it can be cleaned up and modernized somehow. The design structure just seems a bit dated. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't do any better, but maybe someone here is a design wizard and could suggest a way to make the table of contents area a bit less overwhelming.

 

[pax]

Thanks everyone! Keep them coming ...

So far article suggestions have been:

* holster safety

* what women really look for in a gun (other than pink grips!)

* recoil sensitive / disabled shooters

* C&R info

* different colors to break up information (loumarch ~ Did you mean use a different color for each "chapter" of articles? What were the other design issues you spotted?)

* dealing with getting made (see http://www.corneredcat.com/Social/oops.htm and http://www.corneredcat.com/Social/11thCommandment.htm -- do these need to be expanded?)

* dating

* 1st trip to gunshop / range

* selecting gunshop / range

* self defense ammo selection & purchase (see http://www.corneredcat.com/Words/Caliber.htm -- is that too overwhelming?)

* RKBA / history of gun control (mmmm ... actually, politics is one area I haven't covered at all. Dodged it on purpose. Maybe I want to reconsider that.)

* home defense / shotguns

******

Sam ~

See

http://www.corneredcat.com/Practical/StraightTalk.htm
http://www.corneredcat.com/Words/HolsterTalk.htm
and
http://www.corneredcat.com/Personal/links.htm#Holsters


Scout26 ~

Continuity of terms: gun, weapon, firearm, handgun, pistol.

I pretty well use these terms interchangeably for a reason -- it's because I don't want the pages to read like a droning-voiced instruction manual, but more like a chat with a friend. I have tried to mix up sentence length, paragraph length, word choices, etc for that reason, but you make a good point about continuity.

Does anyone else have any thoughts about continuity of terms? I'm interested in batting this one around a little bit.

lastcavalier ~

My best suggestion for you and for her is to get equipment that fits. Equipment that does not fit is probably the most common reason women give up on learning to shoot -- it's just darn frustrating trying to learn a difficult new skill when you can't reach the gun's controls, and you can barely manage the trigger pull because you're trying to pull DA with the barest tip of your finger, and it hurts your wrist when you fire because you have to crook your wrist around a gun that's too big.

Soybomb ~

I agree that the table of contents is overwhelming. I thought breaking the articles down into "chapters" would help that problem a little bit, but it doesn't seem to have done so.

If anyone has any ideas about that subject, I'd love to hear them. Doesn't mean I'll necessarily jump on them right away, but I'm not against changing the entire structure and presentation if it would make the information more accessible or at least a little less overwhelming. Since it's my first web page and I've never taken a class, I fully expect that there are "obvious" things I haven't done that any first-year student would have known.

Keep the ideas coming, please.

pax

 

[Sylvan-Forge]

Pax,


Since you want critical review, I will do my best in brief time to find something wrong or missing. Not so easy on an already Great Site!!!

Ok,
Maybe a link to some cleaning procedures in : Safety/cleaning4rules.htm.

Hmm, OK, you've got pictures in some places for the visual-learners.
Here are some places where pics are missing, IMO :

Safety/empty.htm and FirstGun/TryOnGun.htm : semi-auto pic
KidsAndGuns/Storage.htm : a couple safe pics maybe
ShootingBasics/alignment.htm : sight alignment diagram or pic

Maybe some pics showing various cartridges next to playing cards or something universal. Pic of a couple different snap caps thrown in too.

Gear/LaserGrips.htm : pic of laser-grip
A pic of a laser in use would be cool.



That's all I can see for now.
Great work so far, Pax!

 

[holepuncher]

Great site. No time to check it all out now.

I think there are some issues in the section "clearing a misfeed" - pulling the trigger and nothing happens.

Most here know this is a potentially dangerous situation. In a casual situation it is wise to keep the gun pointed in a safe direction for a short period before doing anything.

Also some autos do not have an extractor so racking the slide will not eject an unspent round.

 

[gcerbone]

Pax,
First of all, great site.

In the kids and guns section, I would put in somethig about the relative dangers of kids and guns. Namely, that your kids are much more likeley to be injured in a myriad of ways before they will injure or kill themselves with your guns. The statistics are mind blowing. Kids are more likely to drown in 5 gallon bucket then they are likely to accidentally kill themselves with a firearm.

 

[Bruce333]

I see nothing about "squibs" (rare with factory ammo I know, but I have seen it myself), defined or how to know you had one/what to do.

Hmm.. You defined "Failure to Fire" as "A Failure to Feed, after it is discovered". Failure to Fire could also be a Squib or a dud or a light primer strike.

 

[Len]

Two things, globally speaking, that I appreciate about your site:

First, the site itself is very well organized, easy to navigate, good load times, judicious use of graphics. Very nicely done.

Second, in reading the articles, one of the most important things you've accomplished is a climate of well-reasoned thought! As I read along, your style is succinct, friendly and sensible. You've avoided the preachiness, patronizing and confrontational attitudes that are commonly found in "gun-writing," and still get the point across.

All the time you must've spent on this thing was not wasted! Excellent work.

Len.