Taking risks and overcoming adversity

A

Al Thompson

Staff Alumnus
Well, it wasn't that bad. :)

Have a friend who asked me to get his wife up to speed on self-defense with a handgun.

I laid out my MO. Hubbies and wives are OK - just not together. I go to pick her up - he tags along. Major problem. He wants to be sure she knows what she's doing as he has taken a new job requireing extensive travel.

They show up with an RG in .38 special.

I supply ammo, muffs, glasses and training. (I'm NRA certified) He is a bit overbearing (typical type A male). Just like the rest of us.

We get through the classroom portion. No problems. She gets up to speed with my .22 revolver. He watchs and is silent. She starts with the RG - I switch her to my M13 3 inch HB.

She puts 30 for 30 158 swc's in the A zone of an IPSC target at 7 yards. He has eyes like golfballs. She progresses from single shots to doubles to a full cylinder.

His testosterone takes over - he shoots a cylinder full and scatters them all over the target.

She puts her last cylinder full in the head.

He asks - can you teach me how to do that?

She "graduates" to my kimber .45 with 230 gr. loads. She puts 2, then 7 in the A/B zone. Turns to hubbie and says - "This is a real gun - when are we getting one?"

My feet have not touched the ground for a couple of hours. Some days it's all worth it. :)

Giz
 
2 observations

1- Women will surprise and delight you in the craziest situations.

2- You did a nice thing. It is completely possible that you have introduced another person to our sport and our way of thinking. She will probably want to practice and show the old man up.
This will help make her proficient enough to possibly save her life someday.

You should be proud.




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"Any world that I'm welcome to.....Is better than the one I come from"
 
I'm also an insructor (police) and have noticed that "machismo" at times greatly inhibits training. As red blooded American boys we think we are born shooters I guess. So to train someone without preconcieved notions that they are a pistolero is rewarding.
 
I have privately trained several women in the use of the handgun and like Gizmo99, have found that for the most part, they are excellant students. I suspect that it all stems from childhood games. As boys, we played with toy guns and having learned from all those Westerns (if you're old enough to have watched them), snapped our guns. Girls played with dolls and didn't have preconceived notions or bad habits to break.

It's absolutely a delight to watch a woman develop their confidence with firearms. Now, the next step is to enroll them into the Second Amendment Sisters or MotherArms.
 
I tend to find that women are better shots than men if the gun is comfortable to them. Why? I dunno. Maybe because men get macho at the range. I shoot better than my girlfriend but I have been shooting alot longer than she has.

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Shop Smart! Shop S-Mart**** That's right I'm a gear whore and proud of it***
 
Trained a messa women, and by and large prefer them to men as students. Better eye hand co-ordination, more willing to listen ,less to unlearn. Guys spend way too much time getting ideas from TV, women don't try to shoot with the handgun sideways like Wesley Snipes,etc.

Also, had a connection with a rape vic support group for a while. Taught 5 survivors over the course of a couple years to shoot well. Motivated students....
 
Well, the saga continues. The lady previously mentioned called earlier and asked if I would teach her Mother.

She was also so thrilled at getting comfortable with a handgun (quote - what a blast!) that she's been calling her girl friends about it. Seems the empowerment is sort of overwhelming.

One of these days I'm going to start charging money. (nah) :)

Al
 
Agreement here on the women surprising you.

I've been taking my wife shooting. On our last trip, she put ten rounds of .22 into a group about the size of a silver dollar at 5 yards. :eek:

I've been taking my daughter and my step-son from my first marriage shooting. The other day, I get a humorous email from my EX-wife as follows:

Why a handgun is better than a Woman

1. You can buy a silencer for a handgun.
2. You can trade a .44 for two .22's.
3. You can have a handgun at home and another for the road.
4. If you admire a friend's handgun and tell him so, he will be impressed and let you try a few rounds with it.
5. Your primary handgun doesn't mind if you have a backup.
6. Your handgun will stay with you even if you are out of ammo.
7. A handgun doesn't take up a lot of closet space.
8. Handguns function normally every day of the month.
9. A handgun won't ask, "Do these grips make me look fat?"
10. A handgun does not mind if you go to sleep after you're done using it.
11. You can have more than one handgun living in the same house without having problems.
12. A handgun doesn't care how big your trigger finger is.
13. A handgun won't tell all of its friends if you are a "little fast on the trigger"...

Regards,

Ledbetter
 
Hi Giz.
Congratulations introducing another to the world of shooting...and saving her from a potential bad experiance that would turn her from shooting forever.
Since you have more experiance in this area than I do, I was hoping you could give me some advice. My wife (the lovely young lady you met at Dick's the other day) has only a passing interest in firearms. She is 100% in support of the 2nd amendment and will argue anyone down when it comes to gun rights (incluing her ulta-liberal mother..I'm so proud). She isnt afraid to hold or be around guns, but getting her to actualy fire one is like pulling teeth. I dont want her to do something she is afraid of or dosnt want to do to avoid any negative impresions of guns. She is very farmiliar with how to operate all of the guns I own. She know the proper grips/stances and how to make them function. However, her live fire experiance is limited to a few hundred rounds of .22 from a revolver and a magazine or 2 in my Sigma .40 and Glock 10mm. Out of the few round she did fire, they were all very accurate and quite controled...even with full powered 10mm defence ammo. When i'm sitting around cleanig my guns or something I'll sneak in a few dry fire leasons on sight picture, presentation, grip, etc..so I wasnt too suprised that she could hit well (given the eqivilent of 10-12 NRA basic pistol classes taken in our living room..lol). She comented that the recoil was way less than she imagined and not at all uncomfortable..but you could tell she just want having fun. I'm confident that in a bad situation she would know when to deploy a gun and how to use it effetively. Please note..she dosnt carry. But i keep a loaded gun in the car and ofcource in the house. What I want to know, is how can I work around her timid nature towards guns? A really good set of earmuffs helped, but i found out that its not the noise or recoil that scares her. Its the gun itself that is intimiating. Some have suggested getting her a smaller, prettier, pocket style gun. To me this is like learning to eat for hte first time with chop-sticks. I think a small gun, while less intimidating to look at, would be more so when it came to live fire.
I apreciate any advice you guys can give. I think it may just be a matter of time though. I tought my friends GF (who had never fired a gun and thought they should all be banned..period) how to shoot last weekend. She is quite proficant with my Carbon-15 and Glock pistols (her fav's) and hooked for life now. Her and my wife are good friends, and I think the estrogen challenge will soon end her timidness.
Jason
 
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