Another week, another slate of bad laws and good events.
You, of course, know the drill. Leave the comments.
Had a bit of fun yesterday, was able to talk to a young lady from Brazil. She went shooting for the first time now that she lives in the US.
Quote: It was very scary.
She’s been invited to go shooting and she got to see some video of my kid shooting. She’s looking forward to a day at the range if she ever makes it over here.
When was the last time you were able to take a new shooter to the range?
What was the best response you’ve ever had from a new shooter?
What was the scariest at the range incident you’ve encountered?
Been a while since I got to corrupt (heh heh) a new shooter. It was her first class and first time. Very nervous until I told her she was on the right side of the gun. Instant change and center hits. Much improved after a few go rounds with different stages. Rewarding to see.
A not-quite-new-shooter anecdote, from some decades back…
GF (at the time) and I headed off to the range, as we often did, and I brought along a co-worker. He wasn’t exactly a new shooter, having been in the Army some years earlier.
His pistol experience consisted of “familiarization”, which apparently consisted of being handed an M1911A1 and a loaded mag, emptying the weapon at a target, making no holes in the paper and not even seeing where the bullets hit the berm, and being proclaimed “familiarized”.
At the range, I handed him a slightly modded 1911 and a loaded mag, coached him on grip and sight alignment, and watched him put the first three shots through the 10 ring. Got him pretty well hooked.
(Meanwhile, my diminutive GF was happily blasting away with her own 1911.)
Back in 1972, I took my wife out in the back yard to teach her to shoot her new Colt Police Chief 38. She invited her boss and his wife to go along. I stood there and explained the whys and hows of shooting, the Four Rules, speaking loudly, thinking he and his wife were listening, wrong. I watched that clown hand his wife, a first time shooter, a 22 single action revolver and tell her to point and shoot. She shot once, pulled the hammer back to shoot again, stopped, dropped the muzzle straight down, turned to say something and shot herself in the instep. He grabbed her, I got between them and my wife. All three of them start screaming and wanting to rush to the hospital, then got pissed when I started picking up all weapon related material. They shut the fuck up when I explained she wasn’t going to die from that shot, this was my families back yard and kids of all shapes and sizes were around at odd times and I was not going to leave that shit laying around, so go on your own or not, but shut your stupid mouths and I would be done sooner. The boss and his wife never spoke to me again, which broke my heart,,,,,,not. Hard but effective lesson for my wife, she turned into a good, safe shooter. I learned, 1. Don’t get around stupid people with guns. 2. Don’t “think” someone is listening, make them listen or walk away. 3. Stand close and explain how much it would hurt if they tried to turn around with a gun in their hands when I’m around.
“how much it would hurt if they tried to turn around with a gun in their hands”
OK, another anecdote. Not mine; heard long ago from a guy I’ll call Frank (’cause that’s nothing like his name), about his time as a non-com in the Canadian Army.
Frank was out at the range, teaching cadets the basics of whatever SMG they were using at the time.
One cadet experienced a malfunction, and, in true cadet fashion, turned around while not only holding the gun but actively working the trigger.
“Hey, Sarge! Why won’t this thing shoot?”
Frank promptly decked him… and only then realized that the base CO was standing right behind him.
“Sergeant! Why did you strike that officer?”
(Oh, crap. Striking an officer: serious hard time.)
“Sir! The officer-trainee pointed a loaded gun at me and pulled the trigger!”
“Carry on, Sergeant.”
The range masters in my military training, punched the trainees without any compunction. Listen or learn the hard way, our choice.
Site seems to have stopped loading images on Firefox mobile. Working just fine on vanadium tho funny enough.
Probably a me problem.
My story didn’t happen at the range. A friend had been given a gun. She came over to have me inspect it and let her know what it was and give her safety and instructions.
I’m standing beside her as she reaches into her purse and pulls this thing out and turns, starting to point it at me.
I grabbed it over the slide and had it in my hands before she finished the move. I have no idea that I could do that. She was shocked and upset and explaining it wasn’t loaded.
We went through safety training and no more issues.
Too many people don’t understand that guns can still be loaded, even if you think they are not.
A friend, Vietnam combat vet/ex Texas State Trooper, smart man(I thought), waited in his car while went into store. When I came back out, he had his 357 Colt out. As I got in, he opened the cylinder, dropped the loads out (did not use the ejector), flipped the cylinder back closed, spun it and asked if I wanted to play Russian Roulette. Before I could even think, he put it to his head and pulled the trigger. It went off.
The police and his dad checked the gun, to see if a round would hangup, to help rule out suicide. About 8 out of ten times, a round would stay in the cylinder. Amazingly, not always the same hole would hang.
After all these years, don’t even start pointing a weapon like a fool around me, I get real upset.
Not a scary story, but kind of funny. Back in the 70s we visited my mom’s uncle in a rest home. He was a WWI veteran. We took him out for a meal, and drove out in the boonies for a while with him explaining the history of the area. We stopped at an impromptu range and asked him if he wanted to do a little plinking and he agreed. We had a little Ruger Bearcat, a shrunk down .22 single action revolver, not the most accurate pistol I’ve ever shot. Uncle used a one hand grip, his palsied hand shook enough that the barrel moved a couple inches with each shake. Every time he pulled the trigger the tin can target at about 20 feet went “tink.” He out shot both myself and my dad. Don’t mess with old guys sometime they can really shoot.
I have NEVER taken a new shooter out, who did not LOVE shooting.
I’ve been taking new shooters to the range on a weekly basis for the past decade. The best response is almost always the same response new shooters express after they realize that the gun is a tool which they are able to responsibly, legally employ, should life produce unfortunate lethal threats against them. And the most frightening range incident I’ve witnessed is when a shooter has a lapse in mental concentration while the range is cold, and walks up to the firing line, loads the gun with personnel downrange, all while seeming to not hear commands to stop and put the gun down. And when they finally realize all the yelling is directed at them, they sweep the muzzle past-onto everyone near them as they panic while putting the gun down. It’s happened a few times over the years but never resulted in tragedy.
“Quote: It was very scary.” — scary to whom? The new shooter? The instructor? Do tell…