Med Students at the Range

[atek3]

So, some of you might remember my "hippies at the range" series of posts a while back. Well, I moved away from Berkeley, so no hippies this time. Now it's "Med Students at the Range".

First I took them through the four rules, then basic firearm nomenclature, finally a survey of the firearms I brought.

I started them off with an H&R M12 from the CMP shooting at a steel swinger rack (which they all seemed to enjoy very much). Then I had them shoot a ruger MkII at a paper target (which they of course got to keep). After demonstrating proficiency with those two they moved onto the springfield XD40, Remington 870, Imbel FAL, and enfield. The shotgun was a particular favorite as was the M12.

On to the pictures:

Shooting the M12

Enjoying the 870

M12 brings smiles

More 870

Taking a break between strings

The enfield

Enfields are fun

Explaining how magazines work

My friend getting knocked over by a 3" turkey magnum shell (that was funny)

Explaining the FAL

Girls love the FAL

5 people more confident with guns and happy plus me

Oh ya, forgot to mention. The med school students were nice enough to kick down for ammo.

 

[SoCalShooter]

Woot, nice work, what prompted this educational field trip?

 

[Glockfan.45]

Great job!, Just think if we could each take a group like this once a month . Kudos to you good sir.

 

[torpid]

Great times!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[DWARREN123]

I hope all had a good time and realized the time and effort you put into it.

 

[atek3]

I got my NRA basic pistol cert last year, and I get my rocks off teaching newbies.

atek3

 

[Trebor]

Nicely done.

If you get anyone who appears more "noise sensitive" than other people, try having them double up with muffs and plugs.

 

[ccarnel]

Nice,
When I was in medical school in Tennessee a few of us were taking the regular University Students to the range to shoot.

Hope there were some anti's in the group you converted... everyone seems to be all smiles

 

[WayneConrad]

This thread made my day. Thanks!

 

[MD_Willington]

Awesome...

Looks like you had a lot of fun!

 

[PPGMD]

Cute lady, med student, doesn't mind guns. Wonder if she's single?

 

[Big Calhoun]

Very cool!! Looks like an excellent group with good discipline. The lovely lady in the black sweatshirt...she need any test subjects for any medical experiments she'll be running? Cutie.

 

[DonP]

Daughter's in Med School too

I can't tell you the number of times she has had to straighten other Med students out about guns and gun ownership.

About once a semester some student or another decides to announce to all in earshot, that they just finished their first rotation in the ER and "saw first hand the kind of damage that guns can do, we have to ban them all" type of conversation ensues.

She usually just asks them a question about who was shot and by what kind of gun. The answer is almost always "by the police" or "a rival gang member". They never have a clue as to what kind of gun it was.

Then she asks them if it would be better if it was the cop laying on the table, caught with out his gun or the bad guy. That almost always screws them up. But for the most part they are smart kids and can learn.

Then she lets them know that her father and her entire family are target shooters, including her (a 95 pound 5' 4' waif sized kid). She also knows the numbers from the DoJ on actual rifle crime and the number of children killed by 5 gallon buckets versus guns in the home etc. (I'm trying to get her to disqualify the Kellerman study, but she has so much else to work on these days I don't think her brain has any room left.)

Every once in a while she gets a question about going shooting the next time we are going to the range.

I've told her that the invitation is always open for a new shooters to join us for a range trip, my treat.

It generally starts with a half hour pre-range session at the kitchen table with a .38 snubbie and a .22 BuckMark with a red dot and .22 Marlin Model 60 with a 22 mag scope on it. We do that part at home so you don't have to shout in people's ears at the range with hearing protection on.

We cover the 4 rules and the basics of safe operations for a revolver and semi-auto pistol and rifle. It's also a good time to answer any of the inevitable dumb questions that come up once in a while. "Does this shoot like a machine gun?", then, with a straight face, you have to explain that a Browning Buck Mark is a semi-auto pistol and the idiots on television don't know what they are talking about.

Then range time. If they show an interest, aptitude and safe range behavior we move them up to a Berretta 92 or a 1911 for the fun of it. Targets start around 15 - 20 feet away so they start out on paper and feeling good about their abilities.

I guess my philosophy is that any time and ammo we spend teaching a first time shooter is money well spent for all of us.

 

[Warren]

I bow to you, sir. Excellent.

 

[atek3]

The next additions to the teaching collection will be a scope mount and scope on the M12, a red-dot sighted Ruger 10/22, and an AR-15 with collapsing stock.

The need for length of pull adjustments was quite apparent when some of the shorter girls couldn't reach the forend of the 870 with the butt on their shoulders.

atek3

 

[Sniper4Life]

Cute lady, med student, doesn't mind guns. Wonder if she's single?

+1

 

[hksw]

Excellent.

Where did you get sights for your M12?

 

[Fly320s]

atek3,

If you need help, or a larger choice of guns, gimme a shout. I'm over by Dover, but I can make it all over NH.

Good job.

 

[darkknight]

atek how much did you pay for your FAL and has it been tampered because of CA state laws. I really want an FAL and I saw one for 1500 in the Sacramento area but I didnt look at it closer to see if it was all screwed up because of state laws. So Im just curious about yours.
Congrats on taking people shooting and your doing them a service that they may never fully appreciate it. Your also helping out our cause, keep up the good work.

 

[bclark1]

great job - i've always wanted to do stuff like this, but i'm too poor, so i only get people who already know how to shoot and will pay their share out :/ maybe some day... until then, glad to know you're sewing the seeds of common sense.

 

[Lurp]

Good work. Anytime you can take them time to teach someone new about firearms is time well spent. Many thanks.

 

[Jdoc]

Thats great.......

good job.

 

[atek3]

The sights are PNW rear sight off my Highpower Rifle, the front I think is an RPA, both have gehmann adjustable bits.

I built the FAL up from bits when I lived in the PRK. Imbel Reciever, Imbel parts kit. The reciever was 200, the parts kit was 100, then I spent a small fortune on the 922 compliance parts. I used the 10 round + set screw method to make it non-detatchable... I'm pretty sure that config isn't legal anymore in CA, but it was when i built it.

 

[Wozzer]

Nice work! I've convinced one of my semi-anti friends to go shooting, she ended up loving it. This makes me want to do a little group outing @ my med school too....I'll be a 4th year soon with nothing else to do anyway ;-)

 

[TYY]

Thanks for the bump, I missed this thread the first time around.

I am a med student, and a fellow student and I organized a range trip for our class. Actually we have had two trips to a local indoor range. We had a good turnout of students who had never even touched a gun before. We even converted a few into rabid gun nuts!

Higher education is a very un-gun-friendly environment. We felt it was our duty to educate a little.