David2011
10-02-2015, 04:22 PM
Sorry; this got a little long but a lot happened in a few short hours. A few days ago SWMBO and her friend went to the range with me. We were blessed with a beautiful New Mexico fall day with light breezes and pretty skies. The friend lives in a rural situation and feels the need for self defense against rattlesnakes and two legged critters. SWMBO needs to practice. A variety of handguns were taken including a Single-Six, Ruger Mk 1 semi-auto, a Charter Arms 2" 5 hot .38 and a S&W Airweight "hammerless" Double Action Only .38, a 4" Model 15, 6" Trooper Mk III, a Glock 17, a highly tuned 1911 that shoots only very light loads and a Blackhawk in .45 Colt.
I don't abide by people that hand an inexperienced shooter a gun and let it surprise them so I fire each gun to let my students see what to expect before they shoot. We started out with a safety discussion and demonstration of loading and unloading the Single-Six. We progressed through all of the guns in the next 3-4 hours.
After the .22s we moved to the .38s and .357s. I had loaded up a bunch of powder puff loads of .38 with 2.7 grains of Bullseye for training and a few full house .38 loads (4.0 grains of Bullseye) so they could see what a full load was like. We progressed from the Model 15 to a 6" .357 and then the snubbies, all with the light .38 loads. They tried the full power loads in the 4" Model 15 and the recoil was acceptable to both but SWMBO really complained about the recoil in the snubbie. Her friend was less bothered by the recoil. We discovered that SWMBO no longer has the strength in her strong hand to shoot her DAO Airweight. I tried to talk her into a larger conventional .38 when she bought the Airweight but she thought the Airweight was prettier. She shot the Charter Arms .38 that she could cock first without issue. Both shot a few rounds from the 9mm Glock but neither was overwhelmed with it. Since the friend was needing something for snake loads the autoloaders weren't good candidates but I did want them to be exposed to as many guns as possible in one session. Neither cared for the 1911 because its trigger was too light for them. I built it to be a steel plate gun and the trigger is only 2-3/4 pounds. I should have brought a more standard 1911 with a more normal trigger but the recoil would have been much heavier. Since I had home brewed snake loads for the Blackhawk I had the friend fire a round from it onto a paper target. SWMBO declined to shoot the Blackhawk but the friend jumped on it. She fired a cylinder full of factory level loads and then a cylinder full of Ruger and Contender only loads and was not bothered by them in the least. Funny, every woman that has shot that gun loves it, even with the heavier loads. Since it has a 7-1/2" barrel the recoil is much less of a snap and more of a shove compared to the smaller guns.
After that we worked on stance and accuracy shooting, concluding by them being able to keep all hits on a 7" target at 10 yards; certainly adequate for self defense. The improvements were remarkable in that final 45 minutes or so and we all had a good time.
David
I don't abide by people that hand an inexperienced shooter a gun and let it surprise them so I fire each gun to let my students see what to expect before they shoot. We started out with a safety discussion and demonstration of loading and unloading the Single-Six. We progressed through all of the guns in the next 3-4 hours.
After the .22s we moved to the .38s and .357s. I had loaded up a bunch of powder puff loads of .38 with 2.7 grains of Bullseye for training and a few full house .38 loads (4.0 grains of Bullseye) so they could see what a full load was like. We progressed from the Model 15 to a 6" .357 and then the snubbies, all with the light .38 loads. They tried the full power loads in the 4" Model 15 and the recoil was acceptable to both but SWMBO really complained about the recoil in the snubbie. Her friend was less bothered by the recoil. We discovered that SWMBO no longer has the strength in her strong hand to shoot her DAO Airweight. I tried to talk her into a larger conventional .38 when she bought the Airweight but she thought the Airweight was prettier. She shot the Charter Arms .38 that she could cock first without issue. Both shot a few rounds from the 9mm Glock but neither was overwhelmed with it. Since the friend was needing something for snake loads the autoloaders weren't good candidates but I did want them to be exposed to as many guns as possible in one session. Neither cared for the 1911 because its trigger was too light for them. I built it to be a steel plate gun and the trigger is only 2-3/4 pounds. I should have brought a more standard 1911 with a more normal trigger but the recoil would have been much heavier. Since I had home brewed snake loads for the Blackhawk I had the friend fire a round from it onto a paper target. SWMBO declined to shoot the Blackhawk but the friend jumped on it. She fired a cylinder full of factory level loads and then a cylinder full of Ruger and Contender only loads and was not bothered by them in the least. Funny, every woman that has shot that gun loves it, even with the heavier loads. Since it has a 7-1/2" barrel the recoil is much less of a snap and more of a shove compared to the smaller guns.
After that we worked on stance and accuracy shooting, concluding by them being able to keep all hits on a 7" target at 10 yards; certainly adequate for self defense. The improvements were remarkable in that final 45 minutes or so and we all had a good time.
David