The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Magoo541 on July 25, 2017, 09:57:34 PM
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Saturday started out normal enough, that is until my wife walked in the house after getting her coffee and announced she wanted her own gun. I played it pretty cool, took my time getting dressed and sipping my coffee before we headed down to the local Sportsman's Warehouse where they have a large selection of handguns. Put an M&P, G19, VP9, LC9, Walther PQ9 (IIRC) and she whittled it down to the VP9, LC9 and G19 before seeing the Battleworn G19 behind the counter. SOLD! I was hoping she would get a Glock, parts everywhere like Mr. Bane has pointed out, but thought she would end up the VP9 or the M&P.
Took her out to the range and coached (just kept her nose over toes and corrected her flinch/finger press/etc nothing too serious) her through 200 rounds at 5 yards, put every round on a USPSA target and the majority were in a stack of 10" ShootNC targets. She has MS and has some hand/body shakes but did great. Loaded her own mags and took a break as needed. I think I put 10 rounds through it and thought it shot great, didn't notice the grip angle ::) I hope and pray that she will be open/able to get some training, Thunder Ranch would be GREAT! She is willing for the most part but her MS causes a lot of anxiety, hasn't been more than a 100 miles from the house in 10 years :-[
I was out Saturday sighting in my new Vortex 1-8, late Father's Day present ;D , and one of the guys I used to shoot USPSA with was out checking some loads. He informed me there is a GSSF match this weekend.... 8)
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I'm happy for you Magoo. I took my ex to the range once. She knew which end the bullets came out (but couldn't keep it pointed away from me). Even though she worked in some bad parts of the city she wasn't interested in guns or self protection. I bought her some pepper spray which I think she kept in her purse.
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Good for her Magoo !
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Good for her and you.
My wife can shoot, has her own revolver but could care less about going to a range much less a match.
I'd go slow on the GSSF match. Maybe just visit and watch other people shoot the first time. Then practice with you as RO on the range, until she feels confident to do it in front of strangers.
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Back a number of years ago (probably close to 20) I took Bunny and my daughter to a nice indoor range we had nearby. Daughter was late-20s/early-30s at the time and had never shot. Since she was living on her own, she had developed a greater interest in firearms for protection. Bunny recognized the importance of self-defense and had also expressed some interest in shooting my Glock 27.
We went through the basic gun safety drill and Bunny stepped up to the firing line. Her ears were on, eyes were protected, and gun was loaded. She picked up the Glock and held it as I had instructed her with both hands placed properly. She slowly squeezed the trigger and fired off a round. At that point, Bunny put the gun back on the bench, stepped back, and started crying as she walked off the range and back into the main waiting area.
No amount of cajoling or coaxing would get her back on the firing line. It was years before she shot another gun, and that was a Single Six at an open air range while she was being carefully coached by Hazcat. For an old Army drill instructor, he can be remarkably gentle.
Daughter's experience was a little different. She stepped up to the line, picked up my Glock, took a two-handed stance, and sent the remaining shots down range (10 yards) and directly into the black. We did a couple more magazines and she only missed hitting the black once or twice. Daughter then went to off-hand shooting and chewed the heck out of the 10-ring. Made me proud.
Bunny still won't go shooting with me, and Daughter is living far away in a state with tremendous restrictions on gun ownership. We have to take commercial aviation to visit her, and the restrictions are so onerous that I won't take any of my guns.
Point is, Magoo, be thrilled with what you have, and go easy on the pressure for more.
Crusader Rabbit
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This was the result of YEARS of watering the seed I planted long ago and the political environment here in Oregon didn't hurt either. She made it clear she didn't NEED a gun but wanted one.
We did talk about getting some training, a 4-hour class is about all she could handle at this point but I did mention Thunder Ranch-a vacation with guns ;D
BTW Alf, I was thinking I would take her new pistol to the GSSF Match since I don't have one ;)
EDIT: I also got the okay to get a caliber conversion for my Dillon 550 in 9mm, should be here Saturday.
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I had an acoustic gig last night and Maggie went off to her Well Armed Women meeting. They're organizing to get out the vote against this asswipe Murphy running for Governor. AND she left me a nice little baggie of fired 357 brass. She loves that 686. So I, Sirs, am a proud husband too.
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I am really happy for her and you :)
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The best advice I can give you is take her too the.range, rent everything she is.intrested in and don't let "what you would pick" influence her.
My wife still does not carry, she is very recoil sensitive(38 with wadd cutters was much even my 20 ga rem 1100 was too much.) her home defence gun is a m1 c with a custom stock(fit too her) she.can shoot it very well(like dump a 15 round mag in a pie plate at 25yards in under 10'seconds with 100% hit ) given how it is basically a 357 mag, I sleep better at night when I am not there knowing the 1st 15 people thru.the.front door are going too have a bad day.
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TAB, see how she likes a Kel Tec PMR 30 .22 mag might not be our choice, but there's a shitload of them .
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we rented one, the grip was too big for her hand.( she uses size 7 glove for work, which is considered extra small for us normal folks. ) she is super protective of her hands.( I would be too) we went thru about 40 or so guns before she decided on the m1c. I was hoping my youth 1100 20 ga would work, but anything bigger then light target loads she did not like. she was not a gun person when we met. which makes sense as she worked at a childrens hospital, and was putting them back together then ones that had been shot in shit hole known as Oakland. hard to be pro gun when several times a month you are putting a young child back together after being shot. more so when you lost one on the table.
once I took her out and showed her they were not evil, it changed her mind.
there are 3 kinds of anti gun people.
1 libtards that hate guns no mater what, you can't change them, don't waste your time.
2 those that have no exp with them, only what they see on the news/ movies( these normally convert to pro gun)
3 those that had a bad exp with gun( rare to convert, but often you can get them back to neutral.)
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The best advice I can give you is take her too the.range, rent everything she is.intrested in and don't let "what you would pick" influence her.
That is almost what I did, we don't have anywhere that rents guns to shoot nearby. I just suggested she stick with a known quantity, like S&W/SIG/Glock/Ruger/H&K/Springfield Armory, no sub-compacts, and she held quite a few before spying the Battleworn G19 and that was it.
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Ya gotta love wives that understand the need for protection and to be able to protect themselves. My wife already owned a G-17 when we got married and since she has bought, in order, a G-17, and last a G-43.
One thing I will say is women do have a LOT harder time finding accessories to carry their firearm. If they don't want to carry in a purse their on body selections are somewhat limited. Since their body build is so different (Viva la difference) it has been almost impossible to find something for her that is comfortable for concealed use. She has settled on the lingerie style holsters for now. Works for me.
It really is good for me to know she is fully capable of protecting herself should she need to and I am not around. I have never tried to influence her choice in firearms (I am still a 1911 fan) and we are now in the process of buying a few acres to build on in an area where we can shoot in our own backyard. At least as soon as I can build a proper backstop.
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She asked me last night if we had any 9mm ammo left in the house, we do but it is all Defense ammo loaded up in my two pistols. So we made another trip down to Sportsman's Warehouse and she picked out some Hornady Critical Defense 100gr Lite (pink label and all), two boxes will give her enough for two mags and to put a couple mags through it as well. When we got home my Dillon 9mm conversion kit was sitting on the porch and I just ordered 5000 bullets from X-Treme (4000 115g RN, 500 124g HP and 147g FN), with the 8lbs of Bullseye I should be good other than primers... next trip or I'll let her search online for the best deal (she likes that stuff).
Now to get the Reloading room set up in my daughter's old room and train her on the art of pulling the handle, rotating the 550 dial and placing the bullets ;D