Today was a *LOT* of fun.

Bonnie, the CEO of the company where shootin' buds Todd and Brian
work, gets involved in a charity auction in her upscale community
each year. Since colleagues Todd and Brian are shooters, Bonnie's
offering to the auction is "An indoor range experience shooting real
handguns with two experienced gunslingers. No experience required.
Guns, ammo, safety instruction, coaching if desired and lunch are
provided". I think winning bids are several hundred dollars.

Lit and his wife Anne were this year's winners. I was invited at
the last minute (yesterday), possibly because I add variety to the
selection of handguns to try. But I'm also fairly good at helping
new shooters have a safe and enjoyable range experience and I greatly
enjoy seeing when they do have fun and are pleased with their
shooting.

I'd guess Lit is in his early to mid 50's, Anne late 40's. He was
wearing a sport coat so I think he works in an office somewhere. I
think I heard the word "insurance" used. They were not at all
familiar with handguns so we had a brief familiarization and safety
talk in a conference room first. Todd has a "blue gun", one of those
anatomically correct training models that everyone can see is inert
plastic. Bill's doesn't allow uncased or unholstered guns anywhere
but at the firing points on the range, which isn't surprising, but
they were OK with a blue gun in the conference room. Todd is a good
instructor, particularly about showing people how to grip and hold a
semiauto. He'd said that guns would be moved to and from the points
only by Brian, me or himself. I don't know if I would have thought of
that but it's a very good idea. I mentioned that if a misfire or
jam happens, to gently place the gun on the bench with the muzzle
downrange and call for assistance from one of us. I figured
stovepipes or not-quite-closing-to-battery were quite possible if they
limpwrist. Bonnie bought a bunch of .380, .40, .45 and 9mm ammo
and the party was on. I supplied .357 ammo.

Lit and Anne turned out to be very pleasant and enjoyable people, open
and friendly, wellspoken, good sense of humor. I don't think Bonnie
shot much today; she was mostly stoking magazines for others. I
worked with Anne for part of the time. Brian got her started with his
Walther P22 (.22 rimfire) shooting at a big silhouette at 15 feet.
She did well with it, very well for a first -timer. Then she tried my
Sig P226 9mm. She did well with that too. Enough with the wallpaper
at arms' length for her awready, we changed to a sheet of five 6"
bullseye targets at 25 feet. She wasn't just on the paper, she was
in the 4" dia black of her chosen target about half the time. Her
focus and concentration were total and her shooting was very
deliberate, but what amazed me was her steadiness. The P226 has a
laser on it and that red dot looked almost like it was an LED on the
target.

Then somehow I was working with Lit for a while, maybe Anne was
shooting an XD .40 with Brian on the other lane. He did OK too, not
quite as well as Anne but very good for a first-timer. He had such a
loose grip he wasn't switching on the grip-activated laser so we
worked on that for a bit. He was twitching a bit with anticipation of
each shot, but not badly. He was grouping fairly well, albeit
off-center, but I could see the twitch when he tried to fire another
when he was in fact empty. I introduced him to the 1911 and told
him a bit of the history. He seemed interested. He had a couple of
failures to completely close to battery, and he was shooting factory
ammo so I'm sure that was limpwrist-induced. That pistol has been
as reliable as gravity for me. Once I got him tightened up a bit
the problems ceased. I suggested that he watch my muzzle while I
fired three quick (accurate) rounds bambambam and then try to keep
his muzzle as steady as mine had been. It doesn't really matter if
the muzzle flips a bit, but the firm grip required for accuracy and
proper function of a semiauto does tend to minimize muzzle flip. That
did it! Seeing an old fart do it was all the incentive he needed.
G

Then back to Anne. I figured she'd shoot the 1911 .45 well but
wasn't sure if she'd like it. She fired one round. Her mouth made a
little O and she said "oh!". I said, "what?" She said "oh! I LIKE
it! The trigger doesn't pull as far or as hard as the others."
Correctamundo! Dayum, this gal is a natural! She shot 3 or 4 mags
of that. Then I figured she was ready to have a go with Doc, the big
stainless Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver, should that appeal to
her. I brought Doc to the point in a rug, then slowly unzipped it
and folded the rug open. She looked at that big gleaming revolver and
broke out into a grin. Hm, I guess it appealed to her...

I discovered that I'd forgotten to pack the powderpuff loads and I
didn't want to send Bonnie out to the store to get a box of .38's
because I don't really want .38's fired from my .357's (cruds up the
cylinder) so I thought maybe we'd just try a magnum and see how
that went. I think my handload magnums are slightly milder than
factory loads, but not much. I showed her how the cylinder works,
how to load ammo and eject brass and had her dry-fire a couple of
times both in double-action and single-action so she'd know what to
expect. I loaded one round, clocked it so it'd be under the pin when
she cocked the hammer or pulled the trigger. She aimed it downrange
and said, "oh, this one is heavy!". I said, " it is, and I think
you'll find that helps you shoot well." She aimed for a while and
squeezed for a while and then BOOM. Thunder, lightning, cloud of
gunsmoke... and bulls eye. The orange bull is less than an inch in
diameter. Her eyes were like saucers. "OH, I LIKE THAT ONE A
LOT!!!" When I saw her deliberately aiming I'd muttered to whomever
was next to me, "oh, this is gonna be good!" They thought I meant
that she'd be rattled by the blast, flash, recoil and smoke. Nope,
when I saw how steady that laser dot was on target I thought she just
might punch orange with her very first round with that revolver --
and so she did.

Some other guys were on the lane between ours and the one Todd and Lit
were using. These guys noted the boom when Ann started with the
..357, a "what the hell was that?" reaction, and then they saw that
unwavering laser dot on the target downrange and they stopped shooting
just to watch with amazed grins. She was drawing a crowd!

She shot several cylinders of .357 Magnum and essentially shredded the
middle of the target. At 25 feet. At one point she reeled in the
target to get a closer look, found a pen and wrote "Anne" under the
target. She said she wanted Lit to see it. When she wasn't looking,
I wrote "Don't mess with" in front of "Anne". She loved it.

Toward the end, Brian always wants a little competition. I think he
likes to show off a little. He got a surprise today. The deal today
was 5 rounds at each of 15 and 25 feet at the same bull, each shooter
having his or her own target. Brian shot Mary's little Sig P232
..380. He's quite good with it. Todd shot either an XD40 or XD45,
I'm not sure which. Lit shot my P226 9mm, Anne shot the .357
revolver. I was going to shoot my 1911 .45 because Todd always
gives me such crap about using a revolver, but Anne said "no, I want
to see him shoot the .357." I didn't pay her to say that, honest!
Todd said "oh, all right" ... and while I was loading up he ran the
target out to about 40 feet. I didn't see him do it, didn't notice
until I looked downrange after loading. I laughed, figured what
the hell I'll shoot it where it is and raised the revolver. Todd
said, "hold it, hold it" and brought the target back to 15 feet. I
looked at it down that 6" barrel and said, "this is ridiculous", ran
it back out to 25 feet and shot all of my 10 at that range.

Brian actually scored the targets this time. And the winnah was
..... Anne! How cool is that? I was second.

I didn't shoot nearly as much as I usually do because the idea was for
Lit and Anne to get as much as they wanted and I was enjoying the heck
out of seeing how much fun they were having. Anne definitely saved
her targets and took them home with her.

We then adjourned for lunch at the mex joint which was also very
enjoyable. As we parted after lunch, they were saying "oh, yeah,
we'll definitely be doing this again next year!" I hope Bonnie
invites me again because I'm looking forward to it.

Supergreat report. Done in the usual foreman tradition.

Bob Swinney
"Steve Ackman" wrote in message
rg...
In , on Thu, 25 Feb 2010
00:06:00 -0600, Don Foreman, wrote:

Today was a *LOT* of fun.

Fun to read about too. Thanks.

--
˜¯˜¯

On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:06:00 -0600, Don Foreman
wrote:

Today was a *LOT* of fun.

Bonnie, the CEO of the company where shootin' buds Todd and Brian
work, gets involved in a charity auction in her upscale community
each year. Since colleagues Todd and Brian are shooters, Bonnie's
offering to the auction is "An indoor range experience shooting real
handguns with two experienced gunslingers. No experience required.
Guns, ammo, safety instruction, coaching if desired and lunch are
provided". I think winning bids are several hundred dollars.

Lit and his wife Anne were this year's winners. I was invited at
the last minute (yesterday), possibly because I add variety to the
selection of handguns to try. But I'm also fairly good at helping
new shooters have a safe and enjoyable range experience and I greatly
enjoy seeing when they do have fun and are pleased with their
shooting.

I'd guess Lit is in his early to mid 50's, Anne late 40's. He was
wearing a sport coat so I think he works in an office somewhere. I
think I heard the word "insurance" used. They were not at all
familiar with handguns so we had a brief familiarization and safety
talk in a conference room first. Todd has a "blue gun", one of those
anatomically correct training models that everyone can see is inert
plastic. Bill's doesn't allow uncased or unholstered guns anywhere
but at the firing points on the range, which isn't surprising, but
they were OK with a blue gun in the conference room. Todd is a good
instructor, particularly about showing people how to grip and hold a
semiauto. He'd said that guns would be moved to and from the points
only by Brian, me or himself. I don't know if I would have thought of
that but it's a very good idea. I mentioned that if a misfire or
jam happens, to gently place the gun on the bench with the muzzle
downrange and call for assistance from one of us. I figured
stovepipes or not-quite-closing-to-battery were quite possible if they
limpwrist. Bonnie bought a bunch of .380, .40, .45 and 9mm ammo
and the party was on. I supplied .357 ammo.

Lit and Anne turned out to be very pleasant and enjoyable people, open
and friendly, wellspoken, good sense of humor. I don't think Bonnie
shot much today; she was mostly stoking magazines for others. I
worked with Anne for part of the time. Brian got her started with his
Walther P22 (.22 rimfire) shooting at a big silhouette at 15 feet.
She did well with it, very well for a first -timer. Then she tried my
Sig P226 9mm. She did well with that too. Enough with the wallpaper
at arms' length for her awready, we changed to a sheet of five 6"
bullseye targets at 25 feet. She wasn't just on the paper, she was
in the 4" dia black of her chosen target about half the time. Her
focus and concentration were total and her shooting was very
deliberate, but what amazed me was her steadiness. The P226 has a
laser on it and that red dot looked almost like it was an LED on the
target.

Then somehow I was working with Lit for a while, maybe Anne was
shooting an XD .40 with Brian on the other lane. He did OK too, not
quite as well as Anne but very good for a first-timer. He had such a
loose grip he wasn't switching on the grip-activated laser so we
worked on that for a bit. He was twitching a bit with anticipation of
each shot, but not badly. He was grouping fairly well, albeit
off-center, but I could see the twitch when he tried to fire another
when he was in fact empty. I introduced him to the 1911 and told
him a bit of the history. He seemed interested. He had a couple of
failures to completely close to battery, and he was shooting factory
ammo so I'm sure that was limpwrist-induced. That pistol has been
as reliable as gravity for me. Once I got him tightened up a bit
the problems ceased. I suggested that he watch my muzzle while I
fired three quick (accurate) rounds bambambam and then try to keep
his muzzle as steady as mine had been. It doesn't really matter if
the muzzle flips a bit, but the firm grip required for accuracy and
proper function of a semiauto does tend to minimize muzzle flip. That
did it! Seeing an old fart do it was all the incentive he needed.
G

Then back to Anne. I figured she'd shoot the 1911 .45 well but
wasn't sure if she'd like it. She fired one round. Her mouth made a
little O and she said "oh!". I said, "what?" She said "oh! I LIKE
it! The trigger doesn't pull as far or as hard as the others."
Correctamundo! Dayum, this gal is a natural! She shot 3 or 4 mags
of that. Then I figured she was ready to have a go with Doc, the big
stainless Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver, should that appeal to
her. I brought Doc to the point in a rug, then slowly unzipped it
and folded the rug open. She looked at that big gleaming revolver and
broke out into a grin. Hm, I guess it appealed to her...

I discovered that I'd forgotten to pack the powderpuff loads and I
didn't want to send Bonnie out to the store to get a box of .38's
because I don't really want .38's fired from my .357's (cruds up the
cylinder) so I thought maybe we'd just try a magnum and see how
that went. I think my handload magnums are slightly milder than
factory loads, but not much. I showed her how the cylinder works,
how to load ammo and eject brass and had her dry-fire a couple of
times both in double-action and single-action so she'd know what to
expect. I loaded one round, clocked it so it'd be under the pin when
she cocked the hammer or pulled the trigger. She aimed it downrange
and said, "oh, this one is heavy!". I said, " it is, and I think
you'll find that helps you shoot well." She aimed for a while and
squeezed for a while and then BOOM. Thunder, lightning, cloud of
gunsmoke... and bulls eye. The orange bull is less than an inch in
diameter. Her eyes were like saucers. "OH, I LIKE THAT ONE A
LOT!!!" When I saw her deliberately aiming I'd muttered to whomever
was next to me, "oh, this is gonna be good!" They thought I meant
that she'd be rattled by the blast, flash, recoil and smoke. Nope,
when I saw how steady that laser dot was on target I thought she just
might punch orange with her very first round with that revolver --
and so she did.

Some other guys were on the lane between ours and the one Todd and Lit
were using. These guys noted the boom when Ann started with the
.357, a "what the hell was that?" reaction, and then they saw that
unwavering laser dot on the target downrange and they stopped shooting
just to watch with amazed grins. She was drawing a crowd!

She shot several cylinders of .357 Magnum and essentially shredded the
middle of the target. At 25 feet. At one point she reeled in the
target to get a closer look, found a pen and wrote "Anne" under the
target. She said she wanted Lit to see it. When she wasn't looking,
I wrote "Don't mess with" in front of "Anne". She loved it.

Toward the end, Brian always wants a little competition. I think he
likes to show off a little. He got a surprise today. The deal today
was 5 rounds at each of 15 and 25 feet at the same bull, each shooter
having his or her own target. Brian shot Mary's little Sig P232
.380. He's quite good with it. Todd shot either an XD40 or XD45,
I'm not sure which. Lit shot my P226 9mm, Anne shot the .357
revolver. I was going to shoot my 1911 .45 because Todd always
gives me such crap about using a revolver, but Anne said "no, I want
to see him shoot the .357." I didn't pay her to say that, honest!
Todd said "oh, all right" ... and while I was loading up he ran the
target out to about 40 feet. I didn't see him do it, didn't notice
until I looked downrange after loading. I laughed, figured what
the hell I'll shoot it where it is and raised the revolver. Todd
said, "hold it, hold it" and brought the target back to 15 feet. I
looked at it down that 6" barrel and said, "this is ridiculous", ran
it back out to 25 feet and shot all of my 10 at that range.

Brian actually scored the targets this time. And the winnah was
.... Anne! How cool is that? I was second.

I didn't shoot nearly as much as I usually do because the idea was for
Lit and Anne to get as much as they wanted and I was enjoying the heck
out of seeing how much fun they were having. Anne definitely saved
her targets and took them home with her.

We then adjourned for lunch at the mex joint which was also very
enjoyable. As we parted after lunch, they were saying "oh, yeah,
we'll definitely be doing this again next year!" I hope Bonnie
invites me again because I'm looking forward to it.


Don
Not sure that this one is really OT. g Lots of metal being 'worked
with' and 'moved arround'. (well. . . that last one assumes you were
using metal slugs ;-) ). Thanks for sharing. I always look forward
to a "Foreman Tale".
Bob
rgentry at oz dot net

Don Foreman wrote:
Today was a *LOT* of fun.

Bonnie, the CEO of the company where shootin' buds Todd and Brian
work, gets involved in a charity auction in her upscale community
each year. Since colleagues Todd and Brian are shooters, Bonnie's
offering to the auction is "An indoor range experience shooting real
handguns with two experienced gunslingers. No experience required.
Guns, ammo, safety instruction, coaching if desired and lunch are
provided". I think winning bids are several hundred dollars.

Lit and his wife Anne were this year's winners. I was invited at
the last minute (yesterday), possibly because I add variety to the
selection of handguns to try. But I'm also fairly good at helping
new shooters have a safe and enjoyable range experience and I greatly
enjoy seeing when they do have fun and are pleased with their
shooting.

I'd guess Lit is in his early to mid 50's, Anne late 40's. He was
wearing a sport coat so I think he works in an office somewhere. I
think I heard the word "insurance" used. They were not at all
familiar with handguns so we had a brief familiarization and safety
talk in a conference room first. Todd has a "blue gun", one of those
anatomically correct training models that everyone can see is inert
plastic. Bill's doesn't allow uncased or unholstered guns anywhere
but at the firing points on the range, which isn't surprising, but
they were OK with a blue gun in the conference room. Todd is a good
instructor, particularly about showing people how to grip and hold a
semiauto. He'd said that guns would be moved to and from the points
only by Brian, me or himself. I don't know if I would have thought of
that but it's a very good idea. I mentioned that if a misfire or
jam happens, to gently place the gun on the bench with the muzzle
downrange and call for assistance from one of us. I figured
stovepipes or not-quite-closing-to-battery were quite possible if they
limpwrist. Bonnie bought a bunch of .380, .40, .45 and 9mm ammo
and the party was on. I supplied .357 ammo.

Lit and Anne turned out to be very pleasant and enjoyable people, open
and friendly, wellspoken, good sense of humor. I don't think Bonnie
shot much today; she was mostly stoking magazines for others. I
worked with Anne for part of the time. Brian got her started with his
Walther P22 (.22 rimfire) shooting at a big silhouette at 15 feet.
She did well with it, very well for a first -timer. Then she tried my
Sig P226 9mm. She did well with that too. Enough with the wallpaper
at arms' length for her awready, we changed to a sheet of five 6"
bullseye targets at 25 feet. She wasn't just on the paper, she was
in the 4" dia black of her chosen target about half the time. Her
focus and concentration were total and her shooting was very
deliberate, but what amazed me was her steadiness. The P226 has a
laser on it and that red dot looked almost like it was an LED on the
target.

Then somehow I was working with Lit for a while, maybe Anne was
shooting an XD .40 with Brian on the other lane. He did OK too, not
quite as well as Anne but very good for a first-timer. He had such a
loose grip he wasn't switching on the grip-activated laser so we
worked on that for a bit. He was twitching a bit with anticipation of
each shot, but not badly. He was grouping fairly well, albeit
off-center, but I could see the twitch when he tried to fire another
when he was in fact empty. I introduced him to the 1911 and told
him a bit of the history. He seemed interested. He had a couple of
failures to completely close to battery, and he was shooting factory
ammo so I'm sure that was limpwrist-induced. That pistol has been
as reliable as gravity for me. Once I got him tightened up a bit
the problems ceased. I suggested that he watch my muzzle while I
fired three quick (accurate) rounds bambambam and then try to keep
his muzzle as steady as mine had been. It doesn't really matter if
the muzzle flips a bit, but the firm grip required for accuracy and
proper function of a semiauto does tend to minimize muzzle flip. That
did it! Seeing an old fart do it was all the incentive he needed.
G

Then back to Anne. I figured she'd shoot the 1911 .45 well but
wasn't sure if she'd like it. She fired one round. Her mouth made a
little O and she said "oh!". I said, "what?" She said "oh! I LIKE
it! The trigger doesn't pull as far or as hard as the others."
Correctamundo! Dayum, this gal is a natural! She shot 3 or 4 mags
of that. Then I figured she was ready to have a go with Doc, the big
stainless Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver, should that appeal to
her. I brought Doc to the point in a rug, then slowly unzipped it
and folded the rug open. She looked at that big gleaming revolver and
broke out into a grin. Hm, I guess it appealed to her...

I discovered that I'd forgotten to pack the powderpuff loads and I
didn't want to send Bonnie out to the store to get a box of .38's
because I don't really want .38's fired from my .357's (cruds up the
cylinder) so I thought maybe we'd just try a magnum and see how
that went. I think my handload magnums are slightly milder than
factory loads, but not much. I showed her how the cylinder works,
how to load ammo and eject brass and had her dry-fire a couple of
times both in double-action and single-action so she'd know what to
expect. I loaded one round, clocked it so it'd be under the pin when
she cocked the hammer or pulled the trigger. She aimed it downrange
and said, "oh, this one is heavy!". I said, " it is, and I think
you'll find that helps you shoot well." She aimed for a while and
squeezed for a while and then BOOM. Thunder, lightning, cloud of
gunsmoke... and bulls eye. The orange bull is less than an inch in
diameter. Her eyes were like saucers. "OH, I LIKE THAT ONE A
LOT!!!" When I saw her deliberately aiming I'd muttered to whomever
was next to me, "oh, this is gonna be good!" They thought I meant
that she'd be rattled by the blast, flash, recoil and smoke. Nope,
when I saw how steady that laser dot was on target I thought she just
might punch orange with her very first round with that revolver --
and so she did.

Some other guys were on the lane between ours and the one Todd and Lit
were using. These guys noted the boom when Ann started with the
.357, a "what the hell was that?" reaction, and then they saw that
unwavering laser dot on the target downrange and they stopped shooting
just to watch with amazed grins. She was drawing a crowd!

She shot several cylinders of .357 Magnum and essentially shredded the
middle of the target. At 25 feet. At one point she reeled in the
target to get a closer look, found a pen and wrote "Anne" under the
target. She said she wanted Lit to see it. When she wasn't looking,
I wrote "Don't mess with" in front of "Anne". She loved it.

Toward the end, Brian always wants a little competition. I think he
likes to show off a little. He got a surprise today. The deal today
was 5 rounds at each of 15 and 25 feet at the same bull, each shooter
having his or her own target. Brian shot Mary's little Sig P232
.380. He's quite good with it. Todd shot either an XD40 or XD45,
I'm not sure which. Lit shot my P226 9mm, Anne shot the .357
revolver. I was going to shoot my 1911 .45 because Todd always
gives me such crap about using a revolver, but Anne said "no, I want
to see him shoot the .357." I didn't pay her to say that, honest!
Todd said "oh, all right" ... and while I was loading up he ran the
target out to about 40 feet. I didn't see him do it, didn't notice
until I looked downrange after loading. I laughed, figured what
the hell I'll shoot it where it is and raised the revolver. Todd
said, "hold it, hold it" and brought the target back to 15 feet. I
looked at it down that 6" barrel and said, "this is ridiculous", ran
it back out to 25 feet and shot all of my 10 at that range.

Brian actually scored the targets this time. And the winnah was
.... Anne! How cool is that? I was second.

I didn't shoot nearly as much as I usually do because the idea was for
Lit and Anne to get as much as they wanted and I was enjoying the heck
out of seeing how much fun they were having. Anne definitely saved
her targets and took them home with her.

We then adjourned for lunch at the mex joint which was also very
enjoyable. As we parted after lunch, they were saying "oh, yeah,
we'll definitely be doing this again next year!" I hope Bonnie
invites me again because I'm looking forward to it.

Great story, don. thanks for sharing

On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:50:57 -0800, Bob Gentry wrote:




Don
Not sure that this one is really OT. g Lots of metal being 'worked
with' and 'moved arround'. (well. . . that last one assumes you were
using metal slugs ;-)

You're right about that, several pounds of lead went downrange and
there was a LOT of brass on the floor before we were done.

Don Foreman wrote:

On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:50:57 -0800, Bob Gentry wrote:




Don
Not sure that this one is really OT. g Lots of metal being 'worked
with' and 'moved arround'. (well. . . that last one assumes you were
using metal slugs ;-)

You're right about that, several pounds of lead went downrange and
there was a LOT of brass on the floor before we were done.


There is a lot of metalworking involved in reloading. Loved the story!

Wes