Monday, December 21, 2009

Carrie

This past weekend, after a long hiatus, I finally took a woman to the range to introduce her to shooting. Lucky for me, it was the Unforgiving Minute blogger TD's girlfriend, Carrie. TD and I have been friends for a while now and I was delighted when he asked me if they could come visit for sushi and shooting. I'm still not entirely sure why he didn't want to teach her to shoot himself (something about "bad habits" and such.) But whatever - I was happy to help.

TD and Carrie arrived in Willoughby on Friday night and we met them at the brewery. After dinner, we headed back to the house so everyone could meet the cats (Ronan, mostly, because he's such an attention hog, but Oona did put on a spectacular catnip show.) We also had a little firearm show-and-tell and discussed the 4 Rules with Carrie, who dazzled us all with her brilliance by reciting them back - in order - after only hearing them once.

The next morning, after fortifying ourselves at Waffle House, we headed to the range. I used a Ruger Mark II and a Taurus revolver (both .22s) to show Carrie the basics. We discussed the difference between semiautomatics and revolvers, single action vs. double action, stance, and how to properly hold a pistol.

I really liked how Carrie not only really liked shooting, but also was interested in the how's and why's of shooting. She asked questions that I had never even thought of, like "What makes .38 special so special?"

Once she was satisfied with the answers, was ready to shoot. She is fearless and a naturally good shot. After I noticed she was flinching a little from anticipating recoil, I told her to squeeze the trigger as slow as humanly possible and it worked like a charm - just like that, she was back on target.

She tried every pistol we brought, and even liked shooting the .357. Future recoil junkie, I know it.


I have a feeling that TD and Carrie are going to be having quite a few date nights at the range.

21 comments:

Old NFO said...

Thanks for taking the time and working with her! The more the merrier :-) You're just trying to get more recoil junkies... we 'know' that :-)

Robb Allen said...

Mooooltipass.

Sorry.. had to say it ;)

Great job. Looks like a good weekend for taking newbies to the range!

Caleb said...

That hard chromed CZ looks awfully familiar.

Mike W. said...

Awesome job Breda!

And Waffle House! I am jealous. I haven't been since the NRA Con.

Jay G said...

Good on ya Breda!!! W00t!

You know that every time a GunChick is born, Sarah Brady dies a little more on the inside...

Anonymous said...

Both you *and* Robb help a new shooter. Awesome!

Are people taking David Codrea's New Year's resolutions to heart? He posts links to his Gun Rights Examiner articles on his War On Guns blog.

His third suggestion was "Take a new person shooting"

I did during my Thanksgiving break, but kind of blew it due to rushing before sunset. Forgot to break out the .22 and started her with the .45. :-( She fired one shot and nearly panicked and hand me the gun quickly (though, thankfully, safely). Now I have a cleanup job, regarding the fear factor.

Alan said...

Hey! It's Leeloo!

Awesome!



Word Verification: muzzin

(Suspiciously similar to wuzzle)

Mike W. said...

You know that every time a GunChick is born, Sarah Brady dies a little more on the inside...

Good God Jay, the thought of Sarah Brady as an undead zombie scares the hell outta me!

A Horse Thief said...

Sarah Brady as a zombie in the Zombieland sequel. Thanks guys, now I have to explain to my coworkers why I can't stop laughing.

Robert McDonald said...

I love taking people to shoot for the first time, but it's something I have not done in a while. Good job, Breda!

LabRat said...

Oh, love that orange hair!

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

QT

Sevesteen said...

I can understand having someone else teach your SO to shoot. The guys I shoot with can tell my wife the same thing I've been telling her, but she can hear it better from them.

West, By God said...

Orange hair chick with gun == double awesome win.

ASM826 said...

It's called .38 special because it was considered an improvement on the earlier cartridge, the .38 Long Colt.

The .38 comes from the diameter of the loaded case, not the bullet diameter.

The Wiki article has more, and I think that was a great question, I learned something when I went looking for the details.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.38_Special

Buckshot said...

Breda,

On first viewing the pictures, I said "Wow, not observing the dress code for the range, going to be a burn scar here".

On looking more closely, though, it looks like some "field expedient" wardrobe modifications to keep the burn away?

Is that why we see the scarf and the pins in the scarf and sweater?

We have had a couple of burns ont he CCW range lately. One woman took high necked T-shirt to be a V-necked T-shirt that did not hang too low. OOPS, did not work.

Another took a hot case down the sleeve of their coat, .22 case landed on the back of the wrist. Never seen that one before in my life!

We try and warn them, but you can only do so much. The only option would be to keep tyvek coveralls handy.

Buckshot

Zendo Deb said...

You have to love the .22 for starting new shooters.

Anonymous said...

Robb got what was hanging in the back of my head.

Good job on the instruction, she sounds like a natural at it.

Jim

Skip said...

OK, orange hair, orange muffs, a little blue to match the siver pistol, is Oleg there?
Good on ya lady!

Eric said...

Shooting *and* sushi, wow, Ohio rocks.

Anonymous said...

Well done. TD is a wise man.

They are local to me so maybe I'll meet at the range some time as well.