Hi all,
I'm new to this forum and I would like to introduce my wife to shooting without turning her off to the sport. So, I'm looking for sound advice on how to introduce a gentle city girl into the sport. If you or your loved ones can share any related experiences they will be greatly appriciated.
start her out with something with low recoil, a .22 lr handgun or rifle.... hearing protection, etc...... make it fun for her, no pressure.... women often turn out to be naturally good shooters.....
First off, if you ever get her out shooting, DO NOT GIVE HER A HAND CANNON. Give her something mild to shoot. Like a .22 or 9mm. Not a .357 magnum with 158gr. magnum loads, not a 44 magnum with magnum loads etc., etc.,..
As to how to get her to a gun range, start off by going to a gun show. Let her see there is a different side to shooting then most people who aren't into or that don't have guns think.
Introduce her to it casually.
When you go shooting, tell her your going and you'd like her to go with you some day.
If you have access to the outdoor channel, DVR all the shooting shows as they usually make sure to show women shooters. Let her see women can shoot and can not only be good at it and make a living at it, but, they can have fun at it and doing it also.
Tell her Irlene Mandrell, yes one of the Mandrell sisters, shoots. Google it and or other information regarding female shooters and leave the info lying around where she can see it. And if she asks, well you can do one of two things. Tell her the truth, you were hoping it would make her curious about shooting because you'd really like to go shooting with her and involve her in that part of your life and give you something else, something new to do as a couple? Or you can tell her you printed the information because woman shooting guns turns you on and maybe she'll get into it because she wants to be the only woman with a gun or that shoots guns who tuyrns you on. lol
Another option is this. WOMEN LOVE CLOTHES. So take her to a S.A.S.S. event. Where the men and the woman dress the part.
I'm sure others will chime in as your thread is seen.
__________________ "My next door neighbors two dogs have created more shovel ready jobs then Obama has." - Gary Johnson
Last edited by GlockMeister; 02-22-2010 at 01:17 AM.
If you have access to a professional course, get her signed up. You can not afford to be emotional about gun safety except for a firm emotional motivation for gun safety, whatever it takes.
Learning about gun safety has no room for tempers, impatience, prejudices, attitudes, peeves, or anything of the sort that come up in relationships. This is a matter of life and death.
On the flip side, women are known to be very good students of firearms when professionally instructed.
5 years ago I'd have given different advice. I introduced more than one young lady relatively early on in our relationships, and each time, without fail, it went smoothly. Parents and in-laws were a completely different story, and I don't know if it would have been as easy for my wife after being married for years.
(I advise against premarital sex, but emphatically for premarital gun training.)
If your wife can not take an order from you without question (Q&A can come after the guns are down), and when in doubt freeze and ask for help, she needs to learn from someone else. Eye rolling should be cause for immediate dismissal.
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I completely agree with starting with something mild to medium. Mild might mean a heavier gun that recoils lightly due to weight.
I'd feel more comfortable handing a lady a 1911 than a Makarov for that reason. Full size 9mm is good.
22LR is good too, but it should be jam-free. Jams freak women out. Manually operated is a good idea.
Women also tend to favor handguns over long guns, but then the safety training becomes more critical - it's easy to accidentally sweep a firing line with a handgun.
If you have an AR with a collapsible stock, that's probably a really good choice. Women often have different ideas of comfortable length then we do.
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Trust is earned, not... GIVEN away. - Worf
Make it fun for her too. Blow up balloons and tack them to a target at 25 yards...let her bust em with a .22 LR...
Set up a sawhorse and let her shoot coke cans and 2 liter bottles full of water...
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I started with my wife (of 30 years) by taking her through the CCW course with me. I didn't feel experienced enough to try to teach her handgun safety properly. I bought her a Ruger P95 for the course because of the small caliber and low recoil plus heavy pistol so it wouldn't scare her off. She shot oldjarhead's P22 and liked it a lot better so I got her one of those right after the course. Everything we've done since then has been target. Hunting would be a big turn-off for her. Anything that inferred people shooting would probably be a big turn-off too, so I don't talk much about SHTF stuff. For the few times she goes, I keep targets close so she can get some satisfaction from being on paper. Next project will be the .223 AR. She might actually like it because recoil is really low and the gun is lightweight and easy to handle.
good advice above. one thing that was not mentioned was the actual weight of the fire arm. I have taught many women and children to shoot and a lot of times there were complaints about the gun being too heavy (sometimes even a .22) to comfortably hold up long enough to get the proper sight picture. I also stress that you should make it a fun experience. once they get bored, they will lose interest. start with close & easy targets. (preferably ones that react like ballons or jugs filled with water) seeing first hand how a bullet explodes a full can or water jug also impresses them with the damage a bullet can do, making them pay more attention to your safety breifing.
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start her out with something with low recoil, a .22 lr handgun or rifle.... hearing protection, etc...... make it fun for her, no pressure.... women often turn out to be naturally good shooters.....
like the M44 Nagant.......
She'll just love you for that one.
__________________ Commen Sense and Critical Thinking are an absolute joke in today's society. Yes I am talking to you!
Make it fun for her too. Blow up balloons and tack them to a target at 25 yards...let her bust em with a .22 LR...
Set up a sawhorse and let her shoot coke cans and 2 liter bottles full of water...
Add fruit and veg to the target list. You can get a very satisfactory explosion from a tomato or a potato hit with a hollowpoint.
And for things like plastic bottles: get yourself a bag of powdered lime like you'd use on the lawn or the garden, add a tablespoonful to the water and shake it up before you set it out as a target. It provides a better contrast downrange and there's no doubt when you hit it, even if you use .22 solids that just pass through.
Clay birds from the trap range stood on edge make good pistol targets, too. Again, they explode nicely when hit, especially if the hit isn't dead center. They're small enough to make hitting them a challenge and the explosion will give her great satisfaction. Heck, at my gun club we put them on the 90 meter berm and plink at them with centerfire rifles!
I primarily teach women women and i can say a lot of people here have givin similar advice about size of weapon but at the same time dont make it to small either! a 9mm is just about right in most cases . i found that any time .22LR was used the women never got excited about coming back.
one of the other things i saw in an ealier post that holds definately true is NO PRESSURE.
on the first day for the really skitish ones we dont even use targets until after a box or 2 has loosened the women up. then a big target like a B27 just to show them that the bullets are going in the right direction.
each person is diferent when it comes to how much hand holding they need so to speak but funny enough its very common to see women out perform men by day 2 or 3 when they become comfortable.
my ex wife for example . she was army at the time but had never been trained with side arms only an m16. so i checked out one of our 1911 from the armory and we went out to one of the abandoned ranges ( where i was stationed at the time they had a lot of run down ranges that none have used since Vietnam).
long story short , by the end of the first box at 25 meters she was getting 3 inch groupings in the 9 -10 ring. the next day 2 inch groupings all in 10 ring.
( its a damn good thing when she was angry she grabbed a knife and not a gun or i would not have servived HAHA).
my point is that while it may take being careful with them getting out the gate they have just as much potential if not more so that us manly men , so dont underestimate them
I have taken 6 women to shoot who have never even held a firearm before. Started all of them on the .22 revolver. 5 of the 6 ended up shooting my .357 and likeing it the best. The other was my neighbors daughter and she stuck with the .22.
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I start women out on the .380. Loud enough to get them excited, but low recoil as not to cause inaccuracy. For rifle, I usually bring a .22 Marlin 795 AND an SU-16 in 5.56 (.223) NATO. Both are VERY light and the women seem to do well with them.
Most women are no more nervous about firearms than a man who has never shot, they sometimes show it more though.
Women tend to listen better than men and will proceed to chew the center out of the target.
First off, if you ever get her out shooting, DO NOT GIVE HER A HAND CANNON. Give her something mild to shoot. Like a .22 or 9mm. Not a .357 magnum with 158gr. magnum loads, not a 44 magnum with magnum loads etc., etc.,..
I took my gf out shooting yesterday. First time she's ever shot a gun. Started with my SKS, I fired 10 rounds and then loaded up the gun and stood behind her and held her as she held and fired the gun and did this with my CZ-52 pistol as well. She had alot of fun and so did I.
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The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun.
—Patrick Henry
When I went through my CCW class there were 6 or 7 women in the group of 13 or so...
One woman was totally inept: couldn't grab a revolver by the grip 2 out of 5 times. :-)
She would aim downrange and then hide her face as she fired the pistol.
End of class, we all called her "Deadeye" and she was shooting .357's and loving it.
From teaching my sister, cousin and a few others to shoot, I have this general feeling that women like revolvers better than any other type of pistol.
I always gave them the option of starting with my 10/22 to start with basic gun safety and etc. Then they want to move into pistols or shotguns usually. With the pistols, my dad has a .38 special that is perfect for learning IMO. Then if they want to shoot shotguns, I'll hand them my SxS 20ga. and let them shoot a still target. From there it's all a matter of what they want to do. If they want to shoot my .308, I'll set them up on a bench and teach them everything they need to know about it.
I generally find that the whole starting small and then working big works very effectively. I never deny them a chance to shoot any of my guns, because I feel if I do that, I'll be denying them something "the boys" do but women are not allowed to do. Most of the time this gun basic gun safety course I give is followed by their interest in the right/sport to shoot and in turn its leads to them taking an official course and purchasing a gun of some type for protection/sport.
Mind you, most of these girls were country/southern girls (except my sister) so they already knew that guns were not for doing harm, but for protection and well being.
Good luck with your wife! I hope it works out!
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Then if they want to shoot shotguns, I'll hand them my SxS 20ga. and let them shoot a still target.
I also had my 12ga with me as I had just gotten it the day before and so I shot 3 rds out of it first and asked her a 2nd and 3rd time if she wanted to shoot it. She said yes and so I stood behind her and she shot the first one A-OK. She pumped the slide and the 2nd shot didn't go so well as she was wearing an extra coat because it was extra cold and because of the recoil...well anyways the recoil jarred her arm but she was ok.
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The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun.
—Patrick Henry
