newbie needs help!!

[scottiemom]

hey y'all! I have just become the proud owner of a Smith & Wesson .357 magnum and learned to shoot for the first time last week. My sweetie is an avid shooter (who also makes my boolits just for me using 158 grain, tumble lube SWC) and decided I needed to learn to shoot. I have to confess, I have never had so much fun in my life!! any advice for the novice shooter?? BTW - not to brag but I hit the 10x range about 80% of the time - the rest were still on the target though!! Many thanks for your input -

[floodgate]

scottiemom:

WELCOME! We NEED the lady shooters here, too - I think BullshopMom is getting a bit lonely! Starting out with your own .357 puts you in the "serious" league for sure!

And I've warned the gang never to bet against a lady at the range or cruising at the dump; Bev "won" my original "Brown Bess" flintlock musket 50+ years back, when I made the mistake of betting she couldn't hit a beer bottle at 30 paces with a smoothbore - she nipped the neck off just as nicely as you please. We may get a bit "salty" at times, but will try to restrain ourselves.

Doug Elliott

[MGySgt]

Welcome aboard -

Shooting gets funer all the time. The more you shoot the more you want to.

Drew

[Bigjohn]

Welcome aboard, scottiemom.

Best thing I can suggest is range time and heaps of practice. Depending on what your shooting discipline is will determine what other practice you need but initially; it's watch the sights and squeeze the trigger.

I find it is a bit like learning about computor the more you do something the faster you became as you repeat the lesson. It works for me! :-D

:drinks:

John.

[Lloyd Smale]

My best suggestion i could give you would be to look in your area for a IPSC or ppc league. Most all of them have womens divisions now and there will be people there that will bend over backwards to help you learn. It takes ALOT of practice to get good with a handgun and you are at a time right now thats critical for your learning. Alot of us self taught guys picked up many a bad habbit that took years to break. You can learn right, right from the git go! Good luck to you and welcome to the cast bullet forum.

[Murphy]

Scottiemom,

Welcome to Castboolits.gunloads.com Ma'am. Always a pleasure to have a new member join the site.

As to your question about any advice to a novice shooter.

It seems that you already have a pretty good instructor at hand. If you are placing close to 80% of your shots in the 10X ring, you're doing great. This will improve to even a higher percentage of 10X ring scores over time.

Start out up close to your target, as your scores improve and you're comfortable with them, increase your range. Vary your practice sessions to keep them 'fun', but at the same time educational.

Murphy

[Dale53]

scottiemom;
Welcome to the club! To be a truly "Independent woman" you need to learn to cast and reload as well as shoot. Your "sweetie" seems like the right kind of guy. Get him to teach you "both ends of the sport". You WILL learn to enjoy the whole thing.

All the best,
Dale53

[pumpguy]

Scottiemom, Good advice from Murphy. Start close until you get really good. Shoot until you are almost bored at one range and then progress back from there. Do not make the mistake a lot of us guys make and feel like you have to do what the guy next to you is doing. Work steadily at your own pace and be willing to take advice. Casting and loading is almost as much fun for me as shooting. Give it a try. By the way.... WELCOME!!!

Chris

[Nueces]

scottiemom,

A most hearty welcome! And please don't apologize, this is the perfect place to brag, and you're going to want to as you get good. Also, we (I think this is true) are really interested in hearing how someone new to shooting experiences getting into casting and reloading. Some folks think guns are about power (as in, over others), but another view has it be about mastery. Please feel free to talk about it here. Especially if you say 'y'all' again. :-D

Mark

[MT Gianni]

I would echo the previous post and add get some snap caps and practice dry fire. Try to eliminate wobble and jump at the trigger fall. With an empty gun, practice following wall seams and ceiling seams straight across and up and down. Pick a spot on a picture and practice target aquisition by seeing how long it takes to get sights on it. remember safety while doing this. The late Col. Jeff Cooper told the story of shooting a hole through his gas meter while "dry firing" once. when asked the inevitable question "What in the He** did you shoot the meter for?" he replied " thats what I was aiming at when it went off". Make sure that you are constantly unloaded but nothing beats practice dry or at the range. Gianni.

[birdhunters]

Practice makes Perfect.....Welcome aboard and please encourage other women to join in our sport. It's tons of fun.

[Bret4207]

Welcome ma'am. My advice? Front sight, front sight, front sight! Thats what you have to look at. As long as the front site is on target the rest is bound to follow.

[scottiemom]

WOW - you guys sure know how to make a girl feel welcome!! Thanks for all the advice and encouragement - it is much appreciated. I'd love to learn to cast and reload one day and I know nothing would make my guy happier! Right now, I am happy just learning how the gun works and focusing on not hitting anything but the target!! Thanks again for the kind words!

[NVcurmudgeon]

Welcome, Scottiemom. Are you a Scottish Terrier fancier or do you have a child named Scottie? I have taught the basics of shooting to a number of men, women, and children. By far, the most gratifying students are females because they have no cowboys and Indians misconceptions to get rid of. You will learn fast if you really want to. Those who have advised concentrating on the front sight are right on. Tom Selleck used the line, "front sight in a fight" playing the part of a police chief teaching a young cop. (My wife was all ready to run away with Selleck, until I came along. Like to broke poor Tom's heart.)

[mooman76]

Welcome to the board. We need another poit of view not to mention women are the fastest growing numbers in the shooting sport and we need all the support we can get. I always say I have yet to find someone that walks away from shooting their first time and says they don't like it!

[454PB]

Welcome to the forum, scottiemom.

My wife had fired a .22 at her father's elbow, but was intoduced to other (and bigger) firearms by me. I also taught my sisters and other lady friends to shoot handguns. It has been my experience that women are intuitively better shooters than men, and I really don't know why. My wife owns her own Ruger GP-100, and is an extremely good shot. She has fired my bigger handguns, all the way up to .454 Casull, but prefers the .357 magnum. She has also bagged many deer over our 38 years of marriage.

I was never able to get her interested in handloading, and casting is out of the question. If you develop an interest in either of those endeavors, you will be a truely exceptional woman!

Have fun!

[9.3X62AL]

Another "Welcome Aboard", Scottiemom!

You made a fine choice with the 357 Magnum for a centerfire handgun. There is no handgun-oriented venue that such a platform can't serve at least reasonably well.

"Ditto" to the idea that women make more intuitively-focused shooters than men. I served as a rangemaster for a lotta years, and women take about half the time and ammunition that men do to get to a given level of competency/skill.

Like you, my wife has me for the boolit-casting and reloading end of the shooting equation. She is a SIG-Sauer autopistol fanatic. Between us, we have 6 daughters, most of whom shoot with some frequency.

My youngest sister is a LT on my former agency (I retired in 2005), and she also serves as that agency's firearms training program coordinator through the local community college.

In my family--female shooters are well-represented and quite active. As someone mentioned above, women and girls are the fastest-growing segment of the shooting market at present, and as a community of shooters we ignore their needs at our peril. While not many women frequent this board, be assured that your input and presence is most welcome, and we would like the numbers of female shooting hobbyists to expand here apace.