Saturday, we visited a couple from church. They had invited us to supper & asked us to come early to do some shooting.
In particular, the husband & father wanted some informal instruction for his wife who had never fired a weapon in her life. I started with a little talk about safety & range protocol, then showed how to make sure a weapon is cleared.
Then I took the wife to the standard police target and introduced her to my Airsoft pellet gun which is configured like my Gov't Model. From a distance of about 12 feet, I let her fire pellets at the target, using the Fairbairn method of point shooting.
Then we moved up the actual .45. She and my wife took turns, and both did well.
For me, the highlight of the day was when my wife & I got to shoot our Ithaca Model 37. We've had it for a year (see here and here), and -- believe it or not -- had not yet had a chance to try it out.
At a home-defense distance of about 20 feet, I had no problem putting all rounds in the torso of the target. My wife did almost as well.
Even our hostess fired the Ithaca. She was surprised that she suffered no after-effects from the recoil. (The secret, as you know, is to hold the butt tightly in the pocket between your deltoid and your pectoral muscles.)
One notable phenomenon is that the #8 birdshot hit the targets just like a slug. At that short distance, they had not yet shed their plastic wad, so there was zero spread, and the load hit as a solid mass.
This means that, for home defense, you will simply waste your money buying slugs or 00 buckshot. A solid mass of #8 will do the same job for a lot less $$.
All in all, we spent almost 6 leisurely hours talking and burning up some pistol & shotgun ammo. Nothing facilitates Christian fellowship like the smell of gunpowder -- unless maybe it's a cigar or a pipe.
In particular, the husband & father wanted some informal instruction for his wife who had never fired a weapon in her life. I started with a little talk about safety & range protocol, then showed how to make sure a weapon is cleared.
Then I took the wife to the standard police target and introduced her to my Airsoft pellet gun which is configured like my Gov't Model. From a distance of about 12 feet, I let her fire pellets at the target, using the Fairbairn method of point shooting.
Then we moved up the actual .45. She and my wife took turns, and both did well.
For me, the highlight of the day was when my wife & I got to shoot our Ithaca Model 37. We've had it for a year (see here and here), and -- believe it or not -- had not yet had a chance to try it out.
At a home-defense distance of about 20 feet, I had no problem putting all rounds in the torso of the target. My wife did almost as well.
Even our hostess fired the Ithaca. She was surprised that she suffered no after-effects from the recoil. (The secret, as you know, is to hold the butt tightly in the pocket between your deltoid and your pectoral muscles.)
One notable phenomenon is that the #8 birdshot hit the targets just like a slug. At that short distance, they had not yet shed their plastic wad, so there was zero spread, and the load hit as a solid mass.
This means that, for home defense, you will simply waste your money buying slugs or 00 buckshot. A solid mass of #8 will do the same job for a lot less $$.
All in all, we spent almost 6 leisurely hours talking and burning up some pistol & shotgun ammo. Nothing facilitates Christian fellowship like the smell of gunpowder -- unless maybe it's a cigar or a pipe.
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