Me and friend taking our wives shooting for the first time

[Lucky Strike]

So i've gotten into shooting for about a year now and in the past year have compiled a mini arsenal (XD9sc, GP100, Witness Match, Single Six, 870, modded 10/22).

My wife is kind of anti gun and would never want to go shooting....it was a big accomplishment just to get her to let me show her to safely unload my guns. I'm thinking she doesn't want to shoot or handle guns because she's scared which i suppose i understandable if you've never done it.

I kept telling her that it wasn't safe to have guns in the house if she didn't know how to shoot them. She said she'd consider it after she finished nursing school (finished last month and starts work in Sept which means i'll have a lot more money to buy guns!) but still was unsure. My friend has a very similar situation with his wife and we finally got them to agree to try it together, I guess they feel more comfortable with the other there.

Going out to my grandpa's farm today which has a very nice steep hillside for shooting into. Taking all my guns and my friend will take his (XD9tactical, 10/22) and we'll hopefully have them enjoy shooting by the end of the day. I'll start them off teaching all the safety basics and then probably start with the Single Six and have them work their way up from there as they get comfortable.

I'll let you guys know how it goes.

 

[TylerDurden]

My only suggestion, after being in a similar boat, is to heve them - carefully - dryfire first.

Also, maybe shoot the gun yourself first. That way they are assured that nothing evil will happen if the shoot it themselves. They also get the idea that guns are NOT like on tv (little recoil).

I like the idea of working up in caliber.

Enjoy.

 

[glockman19]

Dejavu.

Yes. teach the four rules, proper handeling, dry firing before going.

Good Luck.

 

[JackBurtonJr]

Never, ever, no matter if they do the absolute dumbest, most incredibly unsafe thing in the world do you raise your voice to them in anger.

Keep that smile plastered on your face no matter how painful it becomes.

It really is better to have a neutral third person present because at some point in time it can change in a second from "shooting" to "husband/wife confrontation" and a referee can help center things again and get them back on track.

Yeah, I'm cynical but I've seen it happen far too many times.

 

[Pat-inCO]

Jack makes an EXCELLENT point. You teach your friends wife and have him teach your wife. Unless of course, you want to be divorced.

You will expect more from your wife than is reasonable. He will expect more from his wife than is reasonable. You, on the other hand, will expect only what is reasonable from his wife, and he will expect only what is reasonable from your wife.

Like I said, unless you want a divorce - or worse, a wife that refuses to have guns in the house (grounds for divorce).

 

[Soybomb]

Remember you're not out for accuracy or to learn to be a good shooter, just to be a safe shooter. Be sure the slide isn't going to bite, be sure the 4 rules are followed, past that just have fun. Start with 1 round in the magazine only to be sure there are no surprises, dropped guns, turning around etc. Keep it short, 30 minutes an hour tops.

 

[Wedge]

I taught my wife, yes it can be done. I have been told I am a pretty good teacher. Patience is a virtue, remember that!

Here are the rules to follow to have a successful first outing.

1) Safety - always keep an eye on the new shooters. I actually rarely shoot when out with new shooters. I only shoot if they are tired and want to take a break (but don't want to leave).
2) Listen to them! Note above, if they want to leave, pack it up and go home. You can always go back later.
3) GRIP! Make sure they have a proper grip. First it is a safety issue on an autoloader and second they'll never even come close to hitting the target if the grip is poor.

4) MOST IMPORTANT (besides safety) is HAVE FUN!!!

Edit to add: Reactive targets are best since it sounds like you are on private land. Shooting balloons, cans and clay pigeons at 5 yards always gets everyone excited. Hitting a milk jug at 25 yards with a rifle makes everyone happy too Just clean up your mess so they don't mind you coming back!

 

[Trebor]

I second the idea that "You teach his wife and he teaches your wife."

I'm an instructor and I've seen problems caused by the husband/wife dynamic on the range more times then I can count.

It's not always a yelling and screaming match. Sometimes it's just the fact that one spouse will listen closer to a different person then they will their own spouse.

 

[pax]

Trebor is right on target.

Probably the biggest problem with that husband/wife dynamic is that (without external supervision) it can lead to some really dangerous situations. It's not just about having fun, and it's not about learning to shoot. It is about staying safe.

If he is aware that telling his wife to stop doing ____ will result in his wife being unhappy with him, he's less likely to enforce that specific safety rule consistently; he's more likely to let it slide "just this once" rather than risk frustrating her. And that's a recipe for disaster right there.

pax

 

[SapperMapper]

This was my wife's second time in her life shooting a shotgun:

Shooting clays

It can be done, with positive results. Just be patient, and I think it's a good idea to teach each others' spouses.

I almost typed, "it's a good idea to swap wives." Ooops.

 

[JTW Jr.]

I almost typed, "it's a good idea to swap wives." Ooops.

depends on who's guns are better

 

[guntotinguy]

I taught my wife, yes it can be done. I have been told I am a pretty good teacher. Patience is a virtue, remember that!

I helped to teach my wife..she learned very fast and always observes rules of safety.I can say now she is helping others in the way I tried to help her...

 

[Lucky Strike]

Some good advice all around....i like the idea of teach each others wives. Just waiting for my friend and his wife to show up and then we're heading out.

I'd really like to have my wife take an 8hr beginners handgun course that a local sheriff's dept. training center offers. Four hours of classroom and four hours range time. I took this course when i first bought my first gun and even though i thought i knew stuff i learned a lot from it. I still have the paperwork/handouts from the class and remember the way the instructor taught everything so i'll try and emulate that. A good portion of the classroom time was spend on the grip using rubber guns....i thought i'd do the same but with just the frame of the XD or the Single Six with cylinder removed (since it involves me standing in front of the barrel pushing/pulling their hands/the gun to ensure their gripping properly).

There was however a boyfriend/girlfriend combo in the class and even though she made it through the classroom part fine once we hit the range the sound of the gun and such made her break down and start having a panic attack so she left the class.

Just wanna make sure this doesn't happen to my wife cause i don't wanna spend $125 on a class if the first sounds of gunfire are going to totally freak her out. I figure i'll get her over that "first time jitters" today and then depending on how things go have her take the class sometime this fall.

 

[scrat]

Ok Lucky strike we will be looking forward to a good post when you get back

 

[Dookie]

Out of curiosity, how many hear have had their wives or girlfriends teach them?

It was great when my gf, now ex, asked to shoot my SKS she had never even held a firearm before.
I started her on my 10/22

 

[Huddog]

MY wife goes shooting with me about once every six months. She is well aware of all safety rules and does nothing stupid with the gun. What really get me is that if she concentrates she can usually out shoot me after about the first magazine. I guess it takes her the first one to get used to the recoil again. I really wish she would get more into it, I keep trying to get her to let me buy her a gun for herself that she can love and take care of. Good luck, maybe your wife will learn to love it but hopefully she will at least be more accepting.

 

[AJM]

Similar situation with me. My wife had no interest or experience in firearms. I didn't push it, but shared interesting gun related articles and occasional threads from THR to show that gun-enthusiasts weren't nut-cases.

She eventually came to the conclusion that she should at least learn how to safely handle firearms if they were going to be in our house. Given that I wanted her first experience to be a good one, I signed her up for a handgun safety class at a nearby gun range where I had taken a couple classes. She talked a friend into taking it with her. While they were in the class, I had to spend 4 hours on the range (darn it all! ).

The upshot is she enjoyed the class, learned the safety rules, and now wants to go shooting with me!

 

[Leanwolf]

Start off with a .22 handgun and fire a lot of cartridges!

Then after she/they have mastered the fundamentals, move them up to larger calibers.

(Some people disagree with that and like to start women out on .44 Magnums, but I like to start new shooters off easy. JMHO.)

L.W.

 

[bps3040]

Start off with a .22 handgun and fire a lot of cartridges!

Then after she/they have mastered the fundamentals, move them up to larger calibers.

(Some people disagree with that and like to start women out on .44 Magnums, but I like to start new shooters off easy. JMHO.)

I started my wife this way. She has her own XDsc9 now and shoots my .40. I did not even shoot the 1st time i took her. Let her shoot and have fun.......and keep a smile plastered on your face,lol

 

[pax]

Lucky Strike ~

Sounds like you are doing the right thing and have a good handle on it. Let us know how it goes!

pax

 

[Lucky Strike]

Turned out to be a very fun day. We were in a big open grass seed field that had already been harvested, shooting into a hillside (at paper targets held by homemade PVC target stands). Both wives were nervous but very willing to follow instruction (which made things easy), no husband/wife dynamic spats to slow things down.

Started out telling them the four basic rules, then with them just handling the frames of our XDs taught the proper grip and such.

Had both start out on the Single Six first without any ammo going through the entire procedure from loading to pulling the trigger and then would repeat with live rounds shooting at paper targets targets. Followed this procedure for all the guns as we moved up the calibers.

Both seemed to be enjoying themselves and you could sense a feeling of accomplishment as they shot each gun getting some pretty good accuracy (we were shooting at about 15yds).

After we finished with the handguns we moved to the 10/22's for some 50yd spinning metal target shooting. Both were scoped and mine has a harris bipod. It was very cool seeing our wives shooting from the prone and sitting positions making the targets spin.

Ended things up by blowing peaches and water bottles up with the 870. Both shot the and blew things up but complained that the recoil was a bit rough.....good thing i went with 2-3/4" loads.

Like I said before both were very willing to learn once we started which was great. Both kinda had bad attitudes as we were driving out there so our big worry was that one or both would shoot the Single Six a couple times and say "There i did it...can we go eat dinner now" but both had a good attitude and had grins on there face after they got over the initial nervous "Bang" with each gun.

Another good thing was that both were very safe and followed all safety protocols that I laid out. Actually the only one that broke a safety rule was me


After they were done and just kinda sitting there talking, me and my buddy were doing some clay pigeon shooting with a hand thrower as well as hitting thrown water bottles (which makes for a nice mist). Well while I was shooting some small birds flew by over head and I instinctively swung 120 degrees to my left to get a shot at them which unfortunately had me swing the gun over where they were sitting. Good thing though was they called me out on my safety mistake.

Just as we were done it started raining so we had good timing....packed things up and went out to dinner. Both seemed to have a good time and hopefully we can get our wives out shooting now more with us in the future.

My buddy's wife even said "you need to get a revolver like that" (referring to my Single Six) to him after taking some 50yd shots (and hitting the metal spinner with one of the shots!) with it....pretty much exactly what one could hope for in an outing like this considering 6 months ago she was really against him buying his XD.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Fun. Safety. .22s.

Safety. .22s. Fun.

.22s. Safety. Fun

Fun, .22s, Safety.

Safety, Fun, .22s

.22s, Fun, Safety.

Keep it short, too. Any questions?