Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Mrs. teaches me to shoot

Well, kinda.

For my birthday, she got me shooting lessons at the range with #2 son. So off we went today - I'm late posting tonight because I was goofing off at the range.

Shot a bunch of stuff - all pistols. Glock .40 (first time), .357 (first time, in both wheel gun and semi-auto), Smith snubbie (first time), Beretta 92 (first time). Lots of fun. That's not the point of the post, though.

We worked on trigger control and the "surprise break" (essentially not being able to anticipate when the BOOM will happen). Yes, I hear you say - everyone knows you're supposed to do this. But knowing it and doing it - ah, there's the rub.

Before we started, Tom (our teacher) asked me at what range I was confident I could repeatedly hit a paper plate. "10 yards," I said somewhat optimistically. So Mr. Paper Plate went out to 10 yards. Oh boy, said I, here's the comeuppance.

Tom reminded me to concentrate on slow trigger squeeze and surprise break. The results were, ahem, gratifying:














Boy howdy, with the snubbie, no less. I don't have a ruler handy, but my thumb covers the group. I've never shot like that before.

The Beretta was interesting. Some of you might remember a previous trip to the range with a Beretta Cx4 Storm. I didn't get along with the trigger. Well, the Beretta 92 has the same trigger. However, this time the voices in my head had this discussion:
Me: I don't like this trigger.

Beretta: BANG!

Me: It went in the same hole!

Me: I don't like this trigger.

Beretta: BANG!

Me: It went in the same hole!












So, maybe Mr. Cx4 and I should have another get together.

Needless to say, I'm pleased as punch. I'd think I was bragging, but as they say it ain't bragging if you can do it. Besides, y'all can look through the Range Report archives if you want to giggle at my marksmanship.

In any case, I have the best wife in the whole world. Can't wait until Christmas ...

Oh, and #2 son? 2" group at 5 yards. He's got to be the best shot in his school, but this is Massachusetts after all. Oh, and one more (weird) thing: seems my dominant eye is my left one, even though I'm right handed. Seems I should shoot rifles like a southpaw. I'll have to try that, but any suggestions are welcome.

4 comments:

doubletrouble said...

Whoa!

Good shootin' friend.

Funny- I'm a righty as well, but left eye dominant. I still shoot rifles righty, & I’ve tried the lefty thing. Old dog & tricks, I’m thinking.

Lissen- I’ve a request to pick yer brain regarding electrical stuff. Do you have an email to which I can address my questions?

Borepatch said...

Thanks - I'm still grinning ear to ear. But one swallow does not a summer make, and all that.

ted at cisco dot com

GunGeek said...

Waaaaay waaaaay back when, I got to reading the Carlos Castaneda "Teachings of Don Juan" books. Among all kinds of other weird things in them, the character learns to switch which eye is dominant. Being young and foolish, I tried it.

It worked.

However, after a couple of weeks of going around with my left eye being dominant, I decided that it made things look too odd and switched back to my right eye.

However, 30+ years have gone by since then and I really don't quite remember what it was one had to do to get that to happen.

Once I got into shooting I was glad that I had kept my dominant eye in sync with my dominant hand.

JD said...

My daughters are left eye right hand too. . . makes teaching them to shoot a real pain. . . I am trying to get them to shoot rifles left handed but that is not always best when they are designed for us right handed folks. . . you get hot brass on your arm = (

Still working on this . . . .