First range day with Mother and SIL

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bearkitty
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First range day with Mother and SIL

Post by bearkitty »

I got my CHL a while ago. Two years ago maybe? I can't even remember.

'Coming out' to my mother was a little rougher than I thought it would be. Of course my hubby was happy, and we had to have LOTS of long talks with the kiddos about it. There was just something a bit nerve-wracking about telling my mother that I would be carrying a gun. She wasn't opposed to it because she knew that I traveled a lot. She just somehow assumed that it was ONLY for travel and not a daily deal. :roll:

Fast Forward

Mother lost her husband (my parents split when I was 14) and now lives alone. She wanted a gun for Christmas!! So, my brother and I took mom and my SIL to Kay-Jay's. They got to inspect and shoot several different guns. The girls each picked one out, and my brother handed over his credit card for the purchase. I bought the ammo to go along. That was obviously before Christmas. We had our first range day last weekend.

SIL did OK with her LCP .380. I say "OK" because that's a tough little bugger to shoot, and because she's new. She was catching on quickly to being able to load and operate the gun by herself.

Momma shoots like a beast with the FMK 9mm she chose! Getting her to load a magazine and understand the functional aspects of her gun were more of a challenge. She wanted me to just hand it over to her in a ready to fire mode every time she emptied it. She selected this gun because she could rack the slide on it easily. When I asked her to do it that day, she couldn't quite remember how she did it at the store, so we had to re-learn that. When asked at the range desk how many rounds she wanted to shoot she quickly answered 25. Later, she asked "what is a round"? LOL. As soon as we were done she went straight out to buy her own eyes and ears.

Brother and I had fun too. We both shot my 1911 EDC and my Ruger .22 target pistol in addition to the LCP and the FMK. The paper bad guys with the different size holes served an educational purpose too.

I suppose the point of all of this is to say that I was happy to take some special ladies to the range. I was even more happy to be a part of them making a huge choice in their lives and am excited to see where this goes. They are both planning to get CHL's this spring, though neither really plans to carry daily. I hope they change their minds! Baby steps.

Tell me your stories about taking a new lady shooter to the range!
"Awesome" is code word for CC in my house. Cuts down on the kids asking, loudly, in public, if I am in possession of anything that goes bang.
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Re: First range day with Mother and SIL

Post by djthomas »

I will teach my daughter. I will not teach my wife.
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Re: First range day with Mother and SIL

Post by TSiWRX »

bearkitty wrote: Tell me your stories about taking a new lady shooter to the range!
Anna, now just 9, declared as school ended this past summer that she wanted to start shooting "real guns." I started to really drill her on safety the fundamentals the first few weeks, and in the meanwhile purchased a few .22 LR firearms. I got a second-hand .22/45 and 10/22 for me and bought a new CZ 452 for her. The week before her first range session, we spent a bit of time at the Fin so that she could pick out a .22 pistol for herself - something that fit her hands and had sights she liked - and we walked out with a Buckmark Plus (which surprised me: I asked her about the aesthetics, later, and she said that she liked guns that were black metal with wood furniture). A few hundred dollars' worth of ear-protection later :shock: :lol: , we were finally ready.

The following was from our second range trip. I actually failed to take a picture at our first - I was a nervous wreck...... :oops: :lol:

Image

First shot was high.

The bulls-eye was a fluke - two wrongs making the perfect right. :lol:

The group off to 7-o'clock is her actual grouping of 6 shots. I'm hesitant to correct her as she's still growing into the CZ 452. I think she's having both LOP as well as trigger reach issues. Her most recent range trip as well as the immediate previous (trips 3 and 4) saw her groups moving closer to midline: I'm going to wait until she's 10 (and also better able to communicate exactly what it is that she's seeing behind the sights (we are currently focusing exclusively on ironsights, and part of the reason I selected the CZ 452 for her was for its traditional sight package), as I am not entirely certain that she is using her dominant eye - or that she has a dominant eye, now, even) before I really start to take a look at any issues that may truly be there.

We're "crawling" in the "crawl, walk, run, jump" steps. She only just now, at our last session (4th session) felt comfortable enough to shoot with a magazine of more than one cartridge in her CZ 452, which has a manually operated bolt. She said she's not quite ready to handle multiple shots with her Buckmark, yet.

She's starting to understand that dealing with the minor discomfort of an ejected, hot, spent case is par-for-course.

On our last range trip, I also learned that I had not taught her that a live cartridge that's hit the floor is of no concern for safety. :oops: We took some time to discuss what actually makes the bullet inflict bodily harm, as well as what may happen to cartridges with impact and fire.


-----


I think that's a wonderful experience you've had, bearkitty. Thanks both for sharing and for asking us to share.

For me, it's been a very special bonding experience.
Last edited by TSiWRX on Tue Jan 20, 2015 7:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Allen - Shaker Heights, Ohio
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Re: First range day with Mother and SIL

Post by Tweed Ring »

djthomas wrote:I will teach my daughter. I will not teach my wife.

Mrs. Ring and her assistant were in a CHL class I taught. The assistant did fine, but early on, I turned Mrs. Ring's instruction over to another trainer.
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Re: First range day with Mother and SIL

Post by Pops Fun »

Hi
This year I took 2 new lady shooters to the range.
My sister and my sister-in-law.
They are both near 60, when talking to my sister one day she mentioned she was afraid of guns but would like to learn to shoot.
The world is a crazy place. Took that as a challenge.
Set a date immediately, as we all know, if you don't set a date it won't happen.
When the time came we went to the basement, open the safe she looks inside and she said you're a gun nut..... lol
i do have a couple guns... :) Went through my safety spiel, handled guns, picked which ones we would shoot and went thru operation.
At the range everything went well. She loaded her gun, started with a ruger .22 and didn't go any further, she enjoyed it but I don't think she is over her fear.
Next time we will move up in caliber. Maybe..... She was a good shot and handled herself well. Preparation...

My sister-in-law, lives in California and we've talked about going shooting a couple of times offhandedly.
When she's in town she is busy big family etc. Finally pinned her down last year.
Again, the basement, the safe, and how many guns do you have :)
Went through my safety spiel, handled guns, picked which ones we would shoot and went thru operation.
She really liked shooting, loaded her own magazines, shot the ruger .22, 9mm and a .45, called her boyfriend and he couldn't believe it.. :)
Things went really well..
I am tickled, 2 new shooters. Now to get my sister to the range again.

Steve
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Re: First range day with Mother and SIL

Post by Mr. Glock »

I taught my daughter to shoot, started with the Crickett 22 when she was 6.
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Re: First range day with Mother and SIL

Post by WY_Not »

Lots of options to instructing children. Two others that I have used with my three are: Appleseed and Hunter Safety Course. All three have been too several Appleseeds with the two oldest actually shooting. Youngest just goes to watch and learn and listen to the history and hang out with family. If you can arrange it, Hunter Safety Course is a good teaching tool also even if they never plan to hunt. Athens Fish & Game Club has a great program every summer, Camp Heritage. Kids spend the weekend and they bring in ODNR instructors to teach the course over the weekend. Club provides tents, food, etc. Just need to supply the kid, clothes, sleeping bag, etc. Can not recommend the program enough.

Want to provide some serious incentive to the kids to learn? My kids shoot their 10/22s at Appleseeds. Have always told them that if they get 180+ consistantly, I'll let them use my AR. Well my oldest took that to heart. Was at an Appleseed and she started hitting mid-180s consistantly but had plateaued there. Unfortunately I didn't have my AR with me that weekend. :cry: Well, to try and get her past that plateau I make the boneheaded comment that if she hits Rifleman I'll buy her an AR. On the very next target she shoots a 198! :shock: Only reason she didn't get Rifleman was because she got flustered on Stage 4 (slow prone) and missed a few shots. If she had gotten just two more hits on that stage and she would have had her patch and I'd have been scrambling to buy her an AR. Thankfully for me and my wallet, it was the last target on Sunday and it was the last event that year.
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Re: First range day with Mother and SIL

Post by TSiWRX »

^ :lol: :lol: Classic!
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Re: First range day with Mother and SIL

Post by WY_Not »

Yeah, that would have been LOTS of fun explaining to the wife that I need to go spend $1000+.
Learn how Project Appleseed is supporting freedom through Marksmanship and Heritage clinics.
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Re: First range day with Mother and SIL

Post by TunnelRat »

bearkitty wrote: I suppose the point of all of this is to say that I was happy to take some special ladies to the range. I was even more happy to be a part of them making a huge choice in their lives and am excited to see where this goes. They are both planning to get CHL's this spring, though neither really plans to carry daily. I hope they change their minds! Baby steps.

Tell me your stories about taking a new lady shooter to the range!
Thank you for sharing your experience. I am much encouraged. I know what a joy it was to take my daughters out to be trained.

Image
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Re: First range day with Mother and SIL

Post by hutsona »

So... does it count if YOU'RE the lady shooter and you take a GUY to the range to learn how to shoot? :) I got to do that New Years' Eve. :D
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Re: First range day with Mother and SIL

Post by Bama.45 »

I took my wife, then fiance out last year..She hadn't shot since she was little..I started her out on a .22 revolver to get her used to pulling a trigger..Then she wanted to shoot my 1911..Which she did surprisingly well at shooting..But I could tell it was too much for her and she didn't like shooting the .22..Said it wasn't enough gun :lol: ..So I got the Glock 19 9mm..She did really well with it..But said she wants to try something in a lower caliber..So I'm taking her to Point Blank Sat where she can try out some smaller caliber guns...She likes my AR too..She did extremely well with it as well..She went through about 90 rounds pretty quick lol.
"Lord, make my hand fast and accurate.
Let my aim be true and my hand faster
than those who would seek to destroy me.
Grant me victory over my foes and those who wish to do harm to me and mine.
Let not my last thought be 'If I only had my gun."
And Lord, if today is truly the day you call me home
Let me die in a pile of empty brass."
Amen




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TSiWRX
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Re: First range day with Mother and SIL

Post by TSiWRX »

hutsona wrote:So... does it count if YOU'RE the lady shooter and you take a GUY to the range to learn how to shoot? :) I got to do that New Years' Eve. :D
I think that's just fine. :)

It was a female classmate who got me back into shooting after nearly 10 years of not having done so.

Nothing romantic - she's married and I was about to be, too. :P It just so happened that her desk was across from mine in our commons room, so we were each among the first friends we made in our new school.

Her husband had quite a nice collection for a guy in his early 20s, but also had the disturbing habit of collecting Hi-Points. :lol:
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Re: First range day with Mother and SIL

Post by Bama.45 »

TSiWRX wrote:
hutsona wrote:So... does it count if YOU'RE the lady shooter and you take a GUY to the range to learn how to shoot? :) I got to do that New Years' Eve. :D
I think that's just fine. :)

It was a female classmate who got me back into shooting after nearly 10 years of not having done so.

Nothing romantic - she's married and I was about to be, too. :P It just so happened that her desk was across from mine in our commons room, so we were each among the first friends we made in our new school.

Her husband had quite a nice collection for a guy in his early 20s, but also had the disturbing habit of collecting Hi-Points. :lol:

Oh jeeze, Hi Points :shock: :lol: ..They're ugly as homemade sin..But I have seen them go through hell and still run lol.
"Lord, make my hand fast and accurate.
Let my aim be true and my hand faster
than those who would seek to destroy me.
Grant me victory over my foes and those who wish to do harm to me and mine.
Let not my last thought be 'If I only had my gun."
And Lord, if today is truly the day you call me home
Let me die in a pile of empty brass."
Amen




U.S. Marines 01-07



~The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.~ Thomas Jefferson
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Re: First range day with Mother and SIL

Post by TSiWRX »

Bama.45 wrote:But I have seen them go through hell and still run lol.
That was his point.

He laid out his D'eagle .50AE next to a row of his Hi-Points.

He said hat he'd cry if he lost his D'eagle - but that he could lose all of those Hi-Points and still not care. :lol:
Allen - Shaker Heights, Ohio
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