Schrag4
03-03-2016, 02:52 PM
I'm not completely in my wife's head, but I think she has historically viewed my insistence on carrying, even when at home, to be a bit paranoid. Well, recently she changed her mind because someone down the street had their house broken into during the day, and she works from home and is there alone while the kids are in school and I'm at work. I came home for lunch a few times and found that she had taken to bringing one of the guns with her from room to room. I was most-pleased, to say the least.
I asked about her thoughts on carrying, and she expressed a desire for something considerably smaller - something she could actually carry while wearing yoga pants or the like. I told her she wouldn't enjoy shooting a tiny single-stack 380, but it would probably be the best option for her needs. This all coincided with Ruger's apparent push to unload a bunch of LCPs, so we went down to Cabelas and picked one up. (Actually, we put our name in a couple of weeks ago because they sold out so quickly, but they called us back about a week later to say they had one.) The salesman there was sure to let her know that this gun is not fun to shoot, just like I had already done.
Enough back-story. Last night we were able to make it to the range to try it out. I've only convinced her to go to the range a few times, and this time I decided I was going to set her up for success. I put a B-27 target (silhouette of a person) at 3 yards. She had me shoot it first. The sights are minimal, but seemed adequate so I went for headshots, which were no problem with that gun at that range. Then she shot it. The first shot was good, but the second was pretty low, still a hit but at the bottom of the target. She was doing what she has done in the past, anticipating the recoil. After another round, something beautiful happened: She pulled the trigger, but not far enough, and yanked the gun downward. At that moment, something clicked in her mind. She knew she was anticipating, but I guess experience trumps everything because from that moment on, she stopped anticipating! Her 5-shot groups with that gun went down to fist-sized at 3 yards.
We only shot 50 rounds through the LCP (she shot 30, I shot 20). The gun was, indeed, uncomfortable to shoot, but I had no lasting pain (no sore thumb or fingers, or anything afterward). She said it wasn't as bad as everyone was making it out to be. The trigger is long and a bit heavy, but I didn't find it gritty or anything - it was fine. The sights, like I mentioned, are minimal. They are just black like the rest of the gun, so you have to contrast them against a lighter target if you're going to use them. I'm considering putting a dab of white paint, or something, on the front and rear sights to make them easier to pick up. We had no stoppages of any kind last night, which is a good sign IMO given that it's not broken in at all yet.
Here's the funny thing. The other gun we shot was a Ruger SR9c - we finished up with it. In the past, she had said it had "too much recoil," but after shooting the LCP, she mentioned how soft-shooting the 9mm was. She had anticipated recoil badly with that gun in the past, but last night, she was shooting great! By that time we had moved on to a "Range Skill" target - the one with the colored shapes and 7 "bowling pins" at the bottom. Her last 2 5-shot groups were about 2 and 1.5 inches, respectively, right on the little black square in the middle of each shape she was targeting. I know that's no great feat for many of you at 3 yards, but I'm pretty darn proud of how she shot last night! I'm also thankful that she's finally coming around to taking her personal security very seriously.
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TL;DR: Ruger LCP is quite shootable, and my wife made a couple of breakthroughs: 1) she decided to start carrying and 2) she suddenly is giving me a run for my money at the range.
I asked about her thoughts on carrying, and she expressed a desire for something considerably smaller - something she could actually carry while wearing yoga pants or the like. I told her she wouldn't enjoy shooting a tiny single-stack 380, but it would probably be the best option for her needs. This all coincided with Ruger's apparent push to unload a bunch of LCPs, so we went down to Cabelas and picked one up. (Actually, we put our name in a couple of weeks ago because they sold out so quickly, but they called us back about a week later to say they had one.) The salesman there was sure to let her know that this gun is not fun to shoot, just like I had already done.
Enough back-story. Last night we were able to make it to the range to try it out. I've only convinced her to go to the range a few times, and this time I decided I was going to set her up for success. I put a B-27 target (silhouette of a person) at 3 yards. She had me shoot it first. The sights are minimal, but seemed adequate so I went for headshots, which were no problem with that gun at that range. Then she shot it. The first shot was good, but the second was pretty low, still a hit but at the bottom of the target. She was doing what she has done in the past, anticipating the recoil. After another round, something beautiful happened: She pulled the trigger, but not far enough, and yanked the gun downward. At that moment, something clicked in her mind. She knew she was anticipating, but I guess experience trumps everything because from that moment on, she stopped anticipating! Her 5-shot groups with that gun went down to fist-sized at 3 yards.
We only shot 50 rounds through the LCP (she shot 30, I shot 20). The gun was, indeed, uncomfortable to shoot, but I had no lasting pain (no sore thumb or fingers, or anything afterward). She said it wasn't as bad as everyone was making it out to be. The trigger is long and a bit heavy, but I didn't find it gritty or anything - it was fine. The sights, like I mentioned, are minimal. They are just black like the rest of the gun, so you have to contrast them against a lighter target if you're going to use them. I'm considering putting a dab of white paint, or something, on the front and rear sights to make them easier to pick up. We had no stoppages of any kind last night, which is a good sign IMO given that it's not broken in at all yet.
Here's the funny thing. The other gun we shot was a Ruger SR9c - we finished up with it. In the past, she had said it had "too much recoil," but after shooting the LCP, she mentioned how soft-shooting the 9mm was. She had anticipated recoil badly with that gun in the past, but last night, she was shooting great! By that time we had moved on to a "Range Skill" target - the one with the colored shapes and 7 "bowling pins" at the bottom. Her last 2 5-shot groups were about 2 and 1.5 inches, respectively, right on the little black square in the middle of each shape she was targeting. I know that's no great feat for many of you at 3 yards, but I'm pretty darn proud of how she shot last night! I'm also thankful that she's finally coming around to taking her personal security very seriously.
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TL;DR: Ruger LCP is quite shootable, and my wife made a couple of breakthroughs: 1) she decided to start carrying and 2) she suddenly is giving me a run for my money at the range.