2nd Range visit for the wife and I

[RobertY]

First off a HUGE Thank You to Burt, another member here.

Second off I know that I have said I would never step foot in Farnsworth again. But... they have a range. Albeit it was hot, but it was cheaper than others and located in the right spot to get to. hehehe...

Burt invited the wife and I a few weeks back to go to the range with him so that he could teach us some fundamentals and get some shooting in with different hand guns. Well yesterday it came together and we met him at Farnsworth. Here are the results.

Before we even began the shooting we went to "school" as the wife called it. LOL! NOT a bad thing! We were shown an array of hand guns (one with a cool laser thingy on it) that was pretty impressive. The first things he taught us was:

1) ALL guns are LOADED even if you unload them yourselves or by another they are still LOADED.

2) Never point a gun at something that you are not willing to lose or destroy.

3) Never put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to fire.

4) Memorize and remember the above

He also showed us the proper grip to use. That took some practice by itself. We were also shown a few things that we could work on to get us pressing the trigger instead a pulling and yanking it. He also told us how we could build up the muscles that we needed for better shooting... ie trigger finger and the arm muscles required to hold the hand gun out. Once those muscles are more toned the shaking as we pull the trigger will ease. He also went over the proper way of loading a hand gun both revolver and pistol. And whoops! Found out that I was taking a gun wrong and my trigger finger was in the wrong spot when holding the gun with out it on the trigger. Now I know better.

I know... I know... this is all old school stuff to you all and I am trying not to bore you. But it is new school stuff for us.

Now we got to shoot some. I was handling a .357 loaded with .38's. It had a 3 dot sight system that I really liked. I have never seen that before. I was pulling the hammer back and then firing because I figured out that it takes a lot less pull to do it that way. LOL! One thing that I found out was that with a full pull my shots always went to the right of the target spot. He did explain to me that it was because the grip being to big for me and I was pushing with my thumb. (was not a factory grip) Guess I was doing that to try and get a better grip. The wife and I do have small hands, plus I got short stubby fingers.

hehehe...

Penny was firing a .22 target revolver. Dern that barrel was long! She also said it was heavy for her. After she fired several rounds I heard dry firing. He was working with her on proper trigger pulling instead of yanking.

Next we got to fire I think it was a 9mm with a 3 dot sight system. He said it was a 9lb pull on the first shot, then 3 1/2 pounds there after. I swear peoples... that was a 50 pound pull trigger the first pull! Time to do finger exercises. hehehe... The accuracy of that one was amazing though. I was very pleased with the tightness of my grouping. BUT! I did not like the amount of pull it took. Plus after the first pull it was easier but I could not get exactly when it would go BANG like I was able to do with the .357. So that one was a mixed bag for me. For Penny she did not like it at all. She fired just 2 rounds.

After the firing was done (running low on time) we talked. It was a nice experience and I feel that we will both be more comfortable at a range next time we go. He said practice practice practice.

Amazingly he offered to put up with us again. I can not believe he apologized because he forgot to go over dominate eye with us. He does not know how much he did teach us in that one session. We will be taking him up on his offer. He said next time he will bring different ones for us to try.

So once again a BIG Thank You to Burt!

[Trekbike]

Another good report. Glad to hear you're getting good help. It's hard to remember all the things that become second nature after you've been around guns a long time. Your past several reports have helped me to remember that when deal with someone new.

One additional gun rule to add to your list...be sure of your target and what is beyond it.

Good luck, have fun, and stay safe.

[Guest Glock23ForMe]

That's awesome... What a nice guy. Good luck to you... And there is an easy way to do the "dominant eye" exercise that I posted up a while ago. If I do remember, it had a DDP picture in it...

I will try to find it.