I took Christine from
(a)musings to the range for her very first time yesterday. It was supposed to be her and her husband, but he was feeling under the weather so she went solo. That's okay - it means we'll just have to reschedule another trip for him later. Darn it, more shooting... And then once more for each of their two kids. Gee, I'm all busted up about this, can't you tell? *g*
We started out with my standard safety lecture; we went over the four rules and why each rule is important; we familiarized her with the different firearms we'd be shooting; I went through my entire safety and gear spiel. I remembered to bring snap caps this time, and we practiced loading, chambering, and unloading a revolver and a semi-auto. We also ran through some firing exercises with the snap caps to get a feel for the trigger pull, etc.
Finished up with a quick overview of Weaver and Isosolece stances, body positioning, etc. Ran through how to line up the front and rear sights, how to position the front sight on the target, etc. I started off with paper plates as the target only - I explained that a lot of times, first time shooters will get discouraged if they don't hit the X ring every time. The paper plate eliminates that somewhat - people still want to hit the middle - by making the goal to get all shots on the paper plate rather than in a certain ring or level.
We started off the shootie goodness with the Smith & Wesson Model 17 in .22LR:
Then the Smith & Wesson Model 422 in .22LR:
I managed to catch the 422 cycling, kinda neat shot. The red dot sight was a little tricky in full sunlight; additionally, the 422 was being pickier than usual with the Federal copper-plated ammo.
Next up, the Ruger Security Six with .38 Special:
Caught this in full recoil. Gotta love centerfire revolvers!
And the Browning Hi-Power in 9mm:
It seemed to me that the Hi-Power had a bit of a kick to it, which was odd, given that I've shot a much smaller, much lighter 9mm in the S&W model SW99c. The magazine disconnect has GOT to go...
After the pistol intro, it was time to break out the rifle. For the first outing, I opted for the Remington Model 572 in .22LR:
The Remington was, as I expected, a big hit. It's a LOT easier to score hits with a rifle than a pistol under pretty much any condition; a rimfire rifle with a short slight and a long sight radius is just more fun than should be legal (NOTE TO BRADYS: That's just an expression...)
The quote of the day came while she was shooting the Remington, actually. I was in the next lane over, prepping the next round of shooting, when I heard what can only be described as a shout of pure joy - she had put her very first round right through the "X" in the center. There's something to be said for the thrill of hitting a bullseye...
One last picture:
We shot up an entire box of Federal bulk .22LR. Not bad for three people - friend and commenter brad_in_ma and I had already scheduled a range trip today when Christine asked about going. I checked with both parties and all were amenable to sharing the trip. Brad was absolutely indispensable in that he provided a (much) less-than-gun geeky perspective on shooting - I highly recommend having a new(er) shooter help out with a brand new shooter to pick up things you might overlook.
Thanks brad!
And thanks Christine for asking to come shooting. She mentioned that it was one of the things to "cross of [her] list"; I hope it's more than that, of course; I hope that my tutelage made her first experience a positive one!
That is all.
Yes, that is exactly what it looks like - a bayonet that attachs to the equipment rail on a handgun. Talk about something that's as useless as tits on a bull... That thing barely looks like it could skewer a Teletubby, let alone a Pokemon...
