Having toruble teaching someone to shoot.

[dale2242]

Shooting a hand gun involves a number of things to shoot accurately.
The two most important, IMO, are sight picture and trigger control.
She is jumping on the trigger anticipating the recoil.
The noise can also become a factor.
The 22RF suggestion is a good one...dale

[Mr_Sheesh]

Could be yanking the trigger or "pre-ignition syndrome" i.e. pushing the weapon away from her as she anticipates the round firing, doesn't sound like those though;

Could she be closing one or the other eyes, or both, at firing time? THAT won't help accuracy.

The dummy rounds idea is a GOOD one, it will show you what's going on in the first 2 cases; You can tell on the 3rd by watching her eyes.

Usually all guys have to do to get women to be GOOD shots, if she's interested, is be patient and explain things so that they understand.

[DougGuy]

One law of physics you cannot escape, if the boolit hit the ground, the front sight WAS POINTED at the ground. If the boolit hit 2' low, the front sight WAS POINTED 2' lower than the intended point of impact.

Her redemption lies in dry fire, being able to hold the sights STILL and drop the hammer, plain and simple.

[rking22]

All good advice. If she is hitting 14 inches low at 4 yards then the front sight is 1/2 inch misaligned! She is anticipating the recoil/noise and posiably closing her eyes as the shot brakes. Let her shoot a 22 from a rest, then her carry gun rested, and CLOSE. You can video hdr face as she sboots and from the side, then slow it down and watch. A coach that is a stranger to her may help and the dry/live drills. If she is steady in dry fire then you need the live fire to "fix it". Good luck, I have taught many to shoot, my son was the most trying, girls are easy(except wives)

[GregLaROCHE]

Starting with a .22 is a tried and proven way to learn to shoot.

[am44mag]

Thanks fellas for the suggestions. Next time we're able to get out and shoot some, we'll give them a try and see what helps her.

[contender1]

"Not knocking you but but maybe she would do better in this learning phase with a female coach or one that's not close to her . I had similar issues with my woman at an indoor range the first time I took her out shooting . An instructor that worked there looked on as she struggled . He stepped in for about 15 minutes and it was like night and day after that . Sometimes it takes a a new set of eyes on the problem to find the right solution "

The above is quoted for truth.

I have taught MANY NRA Women On Target clinics, RUN by my wife.
Get a proper instructor,,, who is a STRANGER to her. We have taught hundreds of ladies how to shoot,, and the one rule my wife makes is no woman is allowed to be taught by any male figure she is familiar with. In fact, the only men allowed in the classes, are my wife's hand picked instructors for their calm, patient, gentle nature when around ladies. (All are NRA instructors.)
Next,, as mentioned above,, start her out on a .22 as it has almost no felt recoil, and work UP to her handgun.
I could offer a lot more advice,, but there is a lot of good info above too.

[charlie b]

I agree with having someone else teach her. Always the best way, but, not always feasible.

The dummy round is the best way to diagnose. I do that to myself frequently with a revolver. Load three rounds at random, spin the cylinder without looking and shoot. After 40 years and many thousands of rounds I still find myself getting lazy and pulling shots.

My wife had the same kind of problem with rifles. Good sight picture, good trigger, dry fire perfectly. Could not hit anything. Turned out she was blinking her eyes shut just before pulling the trigger. She could not tell she was doing it. The recoil to her shoulder just bothered her so much she has yet to fire a rifle or shotgun without blinking. Yes, even with a .22 rimfire. So, she never shoots a shoulder weapon. But, she LOVES her pistols. She likes full power .357 and .45ACP loads especially. Go figure.

[Loudenboomer]

I teach kids Firearms Safety. One of the first things I look for in new students is eye dominance. I'll never mandate but I always encourage new shooters to learn to shoot what ever eye dominant they are. Sometimes this means Right handed people become left handed shooters and vice versa. It's not as big of a deal with a handgun as a rifle because the extended sight picture will cause the dominant eye to line up. Unless she is closing it! Make sure she is lining up the sights with her dominant eye. Keep it fun. Loyds idea of building confidence with an accurate, small caliber and good triggered gun is a good idea.

[Kenstone]

Put a dummy round or snap cap somewhere in the magazine, along with live ammo, but don't tell her.
You'll see the anticipating recoil trigger jerk when the dummy round is "fired"...and so will she
That's something dry firing a known empty gun won't show.
Pushing/squeezing the trigger can be tiring/hard work that often quickly fatigues a new shooter(and me).
jmo,

[Boolit_Head]

I always took a revolver and would load a couple of rounds then a fired case without them seeing. The first time it goes click and the gun jerks is eye opening to them. I'd then work with them shooting the revolver with me loading live and fired cases randomly till they could control their flinch.

[curator]

am44Mag:

Lots of good information here. No criticism intended, but if you are serious about teaching someone how to shoot why not take an NRA Pistol instructor class that will teach you how to teach this skill before hand? Better yet, find a good NRA pistol instructor and you and the wife attend together. You can take the basic pistol class in part online then contact an NRA instructor (maybe even at your local gun club) for the live-fire portion. The NRA has been teaching basic pistol shooting for nearly a century and they have an excellent instructional method that works. Who knows, you might even learn something at the same time.

[dverna]

Set her up on a bench shooting a scoped rifle. Anything with low recoil will do but I use a .22. Have her master trigger control first. Start on paper to determine if she is yanking the trigger. Then for fun shoot some pills or crackers etc. Keep it fun.

Then an iron sighted rifle to learn sight picture. Same as above.

Muscle memory is a bad thing if she learns to flinch...and she is flinching.


I was a public range one time and a guy was teaching his lady to shoot. The problem was he could not shoot either. She complained she could not hold the darn pistol steady. I offered to help. Had her hold the gun and I put my hand over hers and told her to just aim and I would squeeze the trigger. They look both looked at me like I was nuts. She shot a 2 "group at 7 yards, which was a LOT smaller than either of them were doing. They were dumbfounded. Told them they were both flinching and that little drill proved it.

[Idz]

In my Basic Pistol classes we spend the entire morning handling and dry firing guns so the students get over the 'OMG its a real gun!' nervousness. During live fire I tell them to watch the front sight and press the trigger as slowly as possible. Most of the women are dead-on accurate when they do that. You can buy the NRA Basic Pistol book for about $15 from https://materials.nrahq.org/nra-guid...-shooting.html which covers everything in the class.

[gwpercle]

My daughter came over with a Christmas present , her's not one for me, a S&W 38 special with a Crimson Trace laser sight !
That red dot projected on the target should be an excellent place to start a beginner. Could teach trigger controll first and iron sights next .
The laser came already mounted on the gun but since my eyes are getting old I'm thinking some Crimson Trace laser grips might be just the ticket for me.
We went outside and even in the daylight the red dot can be seen very well.
Gary

[charlie b]

My only problem with lasers is that everyone at the range can see your gun shaking

[jimb16]

I've been an instructor for 37 years. I'm going to mention something that nobody else has mentioned. Look at her posture when she is shooting. Is her head and neck held high and straight up? If she is "scrunching down" on the sights, that would cause the problem that she is having. Make sure she is standing straight with her head held high. Then go thru dry fire routine. After that, using a .22 go thru the live round-dummy round routine til she is comfortable. Also make sure she is not a left eye shooter trying to shoot right handed. Figure out which is her dominant eye then have her shoot with that hand as primary. If she is shooting cross dominant that can cause real problems as well.