Went to the range with nephew

[stargazer65]

My wife and I and our kids were staying with our niece and nephew down in Atlanta. Our nephew was sitting quietly and reading, but his ears perked up when my wife mentioned that she had a carry permit, but we haven't bought a handgun yet. Next thing we knew he started pulling out his guns and showing them. The next day we trucked off with him to a local indoor range while his wife watched our kids. We shot a Glock 19, a Kimber .45 1911, and a Charter Arms snubnose revolver in .38 Special. My wife liked shooting the Glock 19 the best of the three. I liked shooting the Kimber.
Now we are not the bet of shots yet. We had holes all over the paper, partly we are just getting used to the feel of different models. But at least we were shooting the paper. My wife pointed out that the whole inside of the range looked like swiss cheese. Holes in the ceiling tiles, side walls, even one on the entryway door. What's up with that? Have you seen people shooting that wildly at ranges?

[Creeper]

You and the wife will get there... practice practice practice. Get yourself a .22 target pistol... you'll get lots of inexpensive training in fine gun control. It's all about breathing, sight alignment and follow thru.

Ceiling tiles... that is usually a poorly controlled select fire weapon, or someone who doesn't know when to stop pulling the trigger on a semiauto.

Side walls... "accidental discharges" and/or general stupidity.

Entry Door? I'm leaning toward general stupidity.

Shooting a gun is easy... proper range etiquette, which is sadly in short supply these days, needs to be taught and learned.

C

[output]

I have often wondered how many of the same holes inside the range got there myself…kind of like skid marks on the sides of the highways. If only we knew!

Creeper is right on, you will both get better with practice. A .22lr will help you get loads of practice in while being inexpensive. Most importantly have fun and take a few classes.

[oldkim]

Yes, don't be surprised at all those holes. Just remember we all started off someplace.... some just way too early for their own good.

There are a few ranges here and one has a hole right at the gun counter, another one has one through the gun counter.

It's called basic gun safety and common sense. But common sense is not common to new or irresponsible gun owners.

Have fun and be safe. Keep practicing and do take a gun course of some kind to work on your marksmanship skills. You can practice but if you don't know what or how you are suppose to practice - it's just going to take you a lot longer. Learn how to shoot well early and you'll have more fun making those shots count.

[KSFreeman]

Holes in the ceiling tiles, side walls, even one on the entryway door. What's up with that? Have you seen people shooting that wildly at ranges?

There are several explanations for what you are seeing:

1. "John Wayne-ing": people will bring the gun up and cast it out like a fishing rod (Ken Hackathorn calls this "Zebcoing"). Their fingers enter the trigger guards early and put holes in ceilings.

Another variation is people "riding the recoil". People, who match television and movies, will allow the pistol to recoil above their heads, finger on trigger will cause pistol to discharge into ceiling.

2. "Malfunction=No Longer Firearm": Pistol will malfunction/misfire, people think that the Four Rules no longer apply and will point the pistol 90 degrees to stare at pistol like duck in thunder. Hangfire or finger on trigger while clearning malfunction makes a hole in side of range.

Learn the Four Rules, make them part of your character, and then get to class.

Shoot straight, yankee shooter.