NOTE: all targets were shot from 7 yards standing.
I was going to the range Sunday morning and the wife woke up and asked where I was going. I said, “the range.” She said, “I wanted to go too,” and I said, “well, get dressed and come with me!”
We brought four guns with us: her Ruger SR-9C, my RIA 22TCM MS 1911, and my Bersa Thunder 380 Plus. Of course, I was carrying my Grand Power P11 in a concealed fashion, too…that went with us.
We arrived and she had to take a gun safety orientation class. It was also crowded but we didn’t have to wait long for an open lane.
We decided to shoot her Ruger first. It had never been fired before and she’s owned it over a year. It was cleaned and lubed (by me) and ready to fire. We loaded the ammo (she’d never done that before…for a handgun, at least) into the two mag that the handgun came with (one 10-round and one 15-round mag). I gave her a quick summary on how to hold her gun and to not put her finger on the trigger until she was ready to fire. She knows proper sight alignment already (she’s retired US Army). Then, to demonstrate the proper hold and trigger discipline, she stood beside me and I squeezed the first round out of her handgun. The round went right into the red. That is a testament to the gun’s trigger and sights because that normally doesn’t happen with me…it usually takes me a few mags to warm up.
I then gave her the handgun and she shot her first two handgun mags ever:
All but 5 of those are probably kill shots. And one of those in the red is mine (the one that’s to the direct left of the X)! We ended up firing 100 rounds out of the SR-9C. The ammo was Remington UMC yellow box (mega) FMJ. There were no failures whatsoever.
I ended up firing more ammo from her gun than she did. Here’s my target:
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Next, we fired my 1911. I fired the first shots so she wouldn’t be surprised. She was still surprised. I told her it was loud and shot out fire. I think she thought I was exaggerating. After the first two shots, she said, “OK, this gun is loud!” She later (after the range) said she was intimidated by it. She shot it extremely well. She loved the heft and the fact that the weight negated the recoil (never mind that it’s going to be a soft shooter anyways). I took video of her shooting this gun and I was honestly flinching the whole time due to the muzzle flash. The guy the next lane over kept looking over, probably mentally saying, “WTF is that?”
We fired 59 rounds of 22TCM with no failures whatsoever, although she kept unintentionally enabling the safety, which makes me wonder if it’s not positive enough in engagement…IMO, one should not be unintentionally enabling a safety.
I didn’t get a snapshot of the target but here’s some footage of her shooting the 22TCM:
Our time was running out so we had to decide on shooting only one of the two guns that still hadn’t been fired. She decided to shoot my carry gun, the Grand Power P11, a sub-compact. We only fired 36 rounds out of the P11, but I think she loved this gun just as much as the 1911. She loved the lack of recoil. I later showed her why it had no recoil…I showed her how the barrel rotated. And she was very accurate with this gun too. Here’s the target:
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I shot the last mag of the day, from the P11:
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She said she wants a sub-compact. I have a few sub-compacts she’ll probably shoot: a Sig Sauer P320C slide on an SC grip module; a Springfield XD9 Mod 2 9mm; a Bersa Thunder 380 Plus (not really a true sub-compact). And she’ll probably end up renting some range guns to get a feel for what sub-compact she enjoys shooting.
We’re going to try an outdoor range this weekend if it isn’t too cold.
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Other happenings:
I ordered 3 mags for my P11 from Cheaper Than Dirt. I ordered 3 12-round mags. They sent me 3 15-round mags. I double-checked the receipt and sho-nuff it says that I ordered 3 12-round mags. I was a bit pissed. I do not want the hassle of having to ship these back while waiting for them to send me the correct mags. I opened one mag’s packaging and inserted it into the P11. It fits fine, although it’s long and hangs out of the gun by an inch or so. It’s fine for the range but not fine for carrying. I guess I can keep them for range duty and use the two that came with the gun as carry mags. :/
I also ordered 4 Jagemann 15-round mags for my Glock 19. My Glock came with 3 10-round mags. They’re supposed to be good mags. We’ll see. They were cheap @ approx $11 apiece.