oldsmellhound

I've been married 8 years and my wife has always been content to let me "go do my shooting thing" or "hunting thing". No interest whatsoever. Recently though, she asked about going along with me to the range out of the blue.

So today we went to the indoor range, pistol shooting. We did a basic gun safety and handling lesson at home, then went to the range. She had never fired any type of gun in her life before, and darned if the first group she shot wasn't a 1/2" group (3 shots) with 2 in the bullseye! This was with my Ruger 22/45 shooting at 21 feet.

I thought it was a fluke, but she continued to average groups in the 1" range at 21 feet. As she got tired she started to get some flyers, so I had her rest a bit. Then she came back for the last group and shot 5 shots into 1.25"!

I was blown away at how good she shot, and she had such a blast- she had a huge smile on her face for hours afterwards. I think she's hooked, now all I need to do is get her to shoot some muzzy's next...

gregrn43

Better watch out smellhound the next thing you know she will be sitting in her own treestand, mine did. I'm glad she had a good time, I enjoy my wife hunting and shooting with me.

UncleNorby

What's great about many women is they don't have preconceived notions about how to shoot. Therefore, they listen and do what they are instructed to do, as opposed to the typical guy, who thinks he already knows it all and fights instruction. Women often are shooting very well early on in the game as a result.

In other words, it's all in the instruction, so you must be doing something right.

Of course, you know she'll shortly be picking out her own guns and such.

Semisane

I can see the future.

a1smokepole

Tell her it will also help your sex life, now I have more guns then I can shoot in a year.

MountainDevil54

How does that work Every month you stay off her, she lets you buy a gun?

cayugad

I found that if you start teaching an inexperienced person to shoot, they often will do very well. Especially if they listen to what you say, and are motivated to shoot against you. That's great that you have a shooting partner.

oldsmellhound

Uh, I don't think so Semi. I'm going to have veto power on any gun purchases in this household.... Actually, I'm a pretty big softie, so if she wants one of those God-awful paint jobs, I might fold after awhile.

I actually didn't give her a lot of instruction- I think she is a natural. I just went over the basics of how to hold the pistol, how to hold your body, the basics of sight picture and trigger control. Now she wants to shoot some rifles....

cayugad

I remember many years ago, I took my nephew out shooting a .22 caliber revolver. We went out in the middle of now where and I did like you.. safety rules, and demanded no fooling around. He shot at some stationary targets and for a handgun was doing an excellent job. I finally decided to teach him some humility and threw a stick in the creek so it could float by and we could shoot at it from high up on the bank. I figured he'd miss that stick over and over. That little bugger took a bead and cut that stick floating by right in two. I was shocked.

So you have to be careful with new shooters. They can surprise you.

bronko22000

I hear this so many times from my cousin who is a NRA certified firearms instructor. He always tells me women are so much easier to teach than women. And normally after a class he teaches, if there are women in it, they normally end up being up there with the top shooters in the class.