From: [v--n] at [netcom.com] (Victor Tan) Newsgroups: rec.guns Subject: New Gun Owner Part 5 Date: 11 Jul 1994 20:29:38 -0400 Yes, this is part 5. Hope it has been worth your while so far. Practice Session ---------------- Guess what guys, I don't shoot alone anymore. I've managed to get my lady to begin shooting. Of course, it wasn't my regular Glock 22 (.40S&W) that she shot but it was a beginning. Actually, it all started quite a while ago when I first got Paxton Quigley's book "Armed and Female". A couple of stories in it helped hit home the importance of how females are so often victims of men or gangs. Somewhere between that and getting an acknowledgement to at least learn to shoot was a lot of patience. The truth is that she was frightened to hold a gun and the thought of pulling the trigger was 'not-for-women'. After seeing me practice dry-firing quite a bit she got used to having it around. I slowly waited and shared my firing range experiences with her. For safety and defense reasons, she felt that she should at least learn to operate the darn thing by me showing her the motions. Well, that developed into a show-and-tell session on parts of the gun (eg slide, magazine, trigger, barrel, recoil spring etc). After 3 or 4 sessions of increasing familiarity and complexity, she learned to touch and hold it without fear although she had a healthy respect for pointing it in a safe direction. No ammo throughout all this time was ever put into the gun. Things she learned along in approximate order were loading the magazine with bullets. Inserting the magazine with a good tap and finally racking the slide. I also taught her (with an unloaded weapon) how to pull the trigger and the sight picture. She was _very_ impressed about the cycle that a semi-auto goes through when I explained it. I have to admit that towards the end I did load the Glock with live ammo myself to show her how it looked loaded and how to check for herself. The first time to the range she never shot and that was the way I agreed with her. A lady's comfort is crucial if you ever want her to learn to shoot. She didn't want to shoot before she was ready and that was OK. We picked a weekday so that there wouldn't be that many shooters at the range. She did help staple the targets, activate the motors to bring the targets up and downrange etc. She could see I was having fun and with a few other shooters there she understood a little more about what it all was. Well, a few days ago we went again and this time I rented the Browning Buckmark (.22LR) and she tried it out after I shot 10 rounds. The bark of the Buckmark was worse that the bite. Almost no recoil but a respectable POP! Compared to some of the stuff other people were shooting in the other lanes, she got confident and comfortable. Total, she probably put about 40-50 rounds that day downrange. This may seem like me making a mountain of a molehill for some of you but I do think of this as a significant development. In summary, my suggestion for those of you hoping to get your SO to learn shooting: 1. Get Paxton Quigley's book and put it somewhere where she might be tempted to read it. 2. Dry-fire so that the sight of the firearm is familiar. 3. Talk about firearms and successful defensive uses in the media once in a while. Don't mention or get pushy about her learning. 4. If she doesn't like Clinton, tell her how he is grabbing guns and is such a <fill-in-your-choice>. 5. When she does come to the point that she want to learn how to 'operate', take your time and break it up to 2-4 sessions if necessary. Revolvers should take less time and sessions. 6. Take her to the range but don't ask her to shoot. 7. The rest is up to you. All this has come in hindsight and is IMHO so YMMV. Ammo ---- I've been shooting 2 kinds of ammo recently. The Winchester USA stuff and the Speer Lawman and both in 180gr FMJ or TMJ for my Glock 22. Does anyone have personal experience with both and do you notice that the Speer stuff seems to kick harder. After 100 rounds or so out of the Buckmark, I get a little fatigued with the concentration and it seems that shooting the Glock makes the recoil feel like a hammer hitting at the gun. Is the Speer stuff hotter? On a related note, I picked up some Remington .22LR HPs at Walmart. It came in a 550 rounds cardboard box for $8.57. Cheap for HPs around here. Left vs Right ------------- I'm a right hander but left eye dominant. I use the Weaver stance and decided to try left side shooting. One thing I notice with my Glock trigger is that there are 2 stages, a light pull phase and a heavy pull phase at the end before the trigger breaks. With my right hand and index finger, the index finger is stronger and more sensitive to pressure differences of the 2 phases. What ends up happening when I do slow fire is that it 'knows' to pull the first phase quickly, stops at the beginning of the second phase and squeezes gradually from then on. When I switched to my left hand, the index finger couldn't tell when the second phase started so the entire trigger squeeze was smoother from beginning to end. I shot a few rounds with my left hand and it actually seemed to be more accurate! Does anyone out there have similar experiences or know why this may be so? Anyway, that is it for this segment. I don't know when the next part will come out or what it'll be about. Hope you like it. - Victor Tan Front Sight. Press. Front Sight. Press.