First time firing a gun...

Hi all,

Yesterday was my birthday and my wife and I went to a local gun range for private lessons. We've have a gun in the house that my father-in-law gave my wife when she went away to college. I never even touched it until yesterday.

After about 45 minutes of instruction (safety, how to hold, press the trigger, load, etc.), we spent about 90 minutes firing various guns. In addition to the .38 revolver we own, we picked a Glock and a Ruger (both semi-auto pistols).

I was a bit worried about the kick, and what it would do for my back. It definitely did cause some pain, but nothing too bad -- and maybe more a result of unused control muscles than anything else.

It turns out that I am a naturally good shot -- either that, or my vast experience with first-person shooter video games :)

Every shot went within maybe 1-2 inches of where I wanted it... and when I held the weapon more carefully (with the "isometric" form the instructor explained), I was dead on. This all was a great joke for my wife and the instructor since I'm Canadian. But I explained to them that Canadians are not so much anti-gun as pro-knife. We just think the American attitudes are too lazy and squeamish. ;)

Well, I'm not advocating that anyone give it a try who has serious qualms -- it is still a scary thing to do if you've never shot a gun. But for those who have wondered about how much their CP might interfere with shooting, or result in too much pain, at least in my case, it really wasn't an issue... even with my main pain area being in my upper back, where muscles related to controlling the weapon's kick are employed. In fact, this may become a regular outing for my wife and I. Bowling, billiards and other causal indoor "sports" are far far more painful than shooting for me, so we might have finally found a hobby we can share.

 

     ...thats great Cogito!   ...one thing that may help with recoil is the "Weaver Stance" ..... I dont have time here to reply more, but will try to get back to you later tonight. Glad you had fun!

  SE

Hi cogito, that sounds like you had a pretty good time. I grew up shooting in competitions with old fashioned black-powder rifles, where you have to poor the powder down the barrel, then shove a lead ball with a lubricant soaked wad down in there, and fire, you'd be lucky to get off one round per minute and that would be if you had everything layed out on a table lol; but it's fun. If the modern pistols becomes too much for your back, you could look into the black-powder realm; there is little to no kick when you're shooting a competition size load, you just have to get the bullet to the target, never really worried about putting enough powder in there to have it penetrate anything. My 50 caliber rifle has less kick than most 22's. Glad you may have found a new hobby, anything to have some fun that works around your health is definitely worth the money.

    ...now I know I'm not feeling well!...I missed your Birthday!

     Happy Birthday buddy! ..I'm just glad you both had a good time, and it sounds like maybe it will be something to look forward to on a regular basis.

   Take care,

    SE

If it wasn't for my hobby of casting and reloading and shooting my firearms at the range,I'd have no social life at all.I load mostly moderate charges for my .44mag revolver,one is to not beat up the gun and the other not to beat up the shooter.

Target shooting is a great sport and great therapy for me.