Awesome experience with a total newbie!

[ScottRiqui]

Last week, my wife and I went to the range with one of her fellow teachers. She's a resident alien from Morocco, currently working on her U.S. citizenship. She'd never handled a gun before in her life, much less fired one, and she wanted to see what it was like.

She came over to our house before the range session, and we laid out all the guns and went over basic safety rules, handling, operation, loading/unloading (using snap-caps), sight picture, etcetera.

When we got to the range, she was great. Other than requiring a gentle reminder once to keep her finger out of the trigger guard while changing magazines, she obeyed all the safety rules. We gave her her choice of whatever she wanted to shoot. She started off with the Walther P22, then progressed to a pre-Model 10 S&W .38 Special, then a Springfield EMP .40 S&W, then a 20-gauge Remington 870 with slugs and then the AR-15. After trying everything out, she went back to the .22 and .38 for more - a LOT more.

We were concentrating on form and having fun rather than her absolute accuracy, but she kept everything center-of-mass all day, from 3 yards out to 25 yards. The AR got heavy for her after about 30 shots standing, but she's pretty small (about 5'2" and maybe 100 pounds), so I'm impressed she did as well as she did - my AR is not light.

It's amazing how well someone can shoot when they have no bad habits to overcome. She was exceptionally good about her stance, and squeezing the trigger smoothly and waiting for the "surprise shot" each time. I don't know who's more excited about her next range trip - her or my wife and I!

["JJ"]

Nice! Sounds like a great day! I had a similar trip last week with my 20yr old daughter. She had never handled or fired either. Took instruction very well & had a nice target as a souvenir! She quite small also, under 5'! So she was partial to the P22 as well. I love that gun for that reason. It is very user friendly! Thanks for sharing your story!