Went shooting today

[Chairboy]

My wife turned to me this morning and asked "Wanna go shooting?"

Last week, as I took my FAA checkride, she took a firearm safety course.  I've wanted her to learn gun safety for a while, but she's been nervous around anything with a trigger for her whole life.  I've wanted to take her shooting, but she sees me build flamethrowers, go fast on my motorcycles, and do other things with electronics, rockets, and explosives, and somehow she gets it in her head that I'd be some sort of maniac with guns.  I try to tell her that guns are one thing where I'm a complete safety nazi, but my use of the word 'nazi' doesn't seem to reassure her as much as you'd think, so it's been a bit of an impasse.

A few months ago, I'm trying to think of the right gift for a nephew (on her side) who lives in a pretty chaotic house.  His dad hunts, but some of their decision making skills are uneven, so I decide that a gun safety course would be a good investment.  I realize that I can kill two stones with one bird, so I sign him up along with my wife, and I tell her 'he should go with someone else since he's only fourteen, why don't you take him?'  She agrees, and her class goes great.

This whole last week, she was talking about how much fun she had shooting.  She never realized how much fun it was to shoot targets, and the guns aren't as loud as she thought, and on and on and on.

This morning, she suggests we go shooting together.  After the course, it turns out that she signed us up at the range for a couples membership and she wants to use it.

So we get her mom to watch the kids and head off to the Barons Den.  We check in and rent a Beretta 380 and Beretta 9MM.  We went into the range and alternated fire, one gun at a time.  Both of our grouping were ok, but we were mainly getting a feel for the guns.  We both liked the 9MM much better then the 380.  The Beretta 380 actually jammed on us because of a poor chambering.

After the jam, we asked about other 380s to check out and got the Sig Sauer.  It felt better then the Beretta, but both of us preferred the Beretta 9MM still.  

Finally, we rented a Walther P22, and we both fell in love with it.  It's a .22 caliber (I can actually hear some of you laughing through the internet) but the feel of the gun was great, it was easy to keep on target, and we both liked the size.  My wife is getting her concealed/carry permit next week and we're shopping for the right gun for her to have available while closing our restaurants late at night.  

Afterwards, we make a point of closing out our tab before we look at their gun sales section so we won't  be tempted to buy on sight.  Watching Kaydee look at the different pistols was like watching a kid in a candy store, except the candy fires bullets.

We're going to go out to the range whenever we can and work on our marksmanship.  Since I'm running out of appendages to buy jewelry for her (Ring, check.  Earrings, check.  Necklace, wristband, watch, check.  Uh, 'other', check.) I'm happy to have a new gift area!  We're going to keep trying out new pistols, and next time a holiday or good gift opportunity arises, I think I might get her her own pistol.  

We have some good challenges surrounding keeping our children safe with guns in the house, but with two parents that are super safety conscious and knowledgeable, I think we'll do ok.

Pretty exciting times, and I'm sure glad my wife love me.  

[Chairboy]

A bit of a distraction at the range, someone was firing a Thompson sub-machine gun a couple stalls over.  It was really funny, their target posters were really easy to discern because they were the ones with a bunch of vertical lines of bulletholes in them.  I guess the barrel on something like that would have a slight tendency to rise...

[nsty1]

My wife and i like the 380 better,my wife was the same,super afraid of them,all it took was one time at an open field with a huge back-stop and lotsa cans and bottles,can't keep enough ammo around the house but her best toy is an american -calico M-100       100 rounds of 22 in a cylinder-top feed with a scope.
I get to clean the weapons afterwards

[Maverick]

Chairboy,

Since you both like the 9mm I suggest you search for a pistol(s) in that chambering. You'll do more practicing with it if you enjoy it. There are great ammunition choices for both plinking, serious practice and defense uses.

Since your wife did the class, will you be going next? How about a CCW course or is it an option in your state?

I prefer Glocks but there are other quality weapons in that caliber.

[Chairboy]

I'm taking the class next.  I've grown up with guns, but it's the holes in your knowledge you DON'T know about that get you in trouble, so I'm going to take my mother-in-law and we'll both attend the next class I can schedule us for.

This class is the same as a CCW class, it's both gun safety and what's needed for a concealed carry, hence the ease with which my wife is getting hers next week.  She takes her certificate down to the courthouse, fills some forms out, and gets the permit.

[StarOfAfrica2]

Get her the 9mm.  If she's comfortable with it, there is no reason in the world to go with a .380 or a .22, except price.  Well, and ammo availability on the .22.  Get one that is simple to operate, reliable, and give yourself some peace of mind.  

In my experience, you need a high quality gun in the .380 to prevent jams due to the low velocity (and sometimes low quality) rounds it fires.  Spending the money for a good quality .380, you could have bought a very nice 9mm that would be just as reliable for less.  As for the .22, anyone who has ever done much hunting with .22s will tell you that eventually, you get misfires.  Some brands are worse than others, but eventually even the best quality rounds will have a misfire (mainly due to the way primer is swirled into the casing on rimfire cartridges).  Not quite as bad as a jam, but still time consuming to clear.  Not to mention that misfires have dangers all of their own.

[Chairboy]

We have plenty of shopping to do still.  We'll try out some more 9MMs for sure.  One big factor is size.  There are real tiny 9MMs, but finding the right combination of quality, gun feel, weight, performance with a small 9mm might be trickier then doing the same with a 22.  Like I said, as much as we liked the Beretta 9MM, we both liked the P22 even more.

Of course, this is just 'so far'.

[NUKE]

Ruger .22 pistols are pretty nice.

[lazs2]

Have you tried any of the 38/357 revolvers?   Huge selection.  no jams and very accurate.  

Also... try a makarov.   cheap to shoot without reloading for it and Commie strong and reliable.   I have a PPK in .32 that I like too.

You owe it to yourself to shoot a quality .45 auto like a Kimber or High end Sprigfield or Wilson etc.

The guns I enjoy the most are my 44 mags and the Kimber .45  I reload for both of em so they only cost like $4 a box for ammo.

You can by makarov ammo new for $5 if you buy it by the thousand.   9 mm is dirt cheap these days too but it is sure to rise in price and they are a pain to reload.

I like plinking more than target work but do belong to an outdoor range.

lazs

[FX1]

Do yourself a favor and dont get a walther it has major design issues and will jam on you and misfire more than most rimfire pistols. I had one last year and sold it after the first brick because of jams and misfires. Ruger are they way to go i put 60,000 round out of my old mkII and am very happy with it. In every brick of .22 their are 2 misfires in their but if you buy stingers i have never had a misfire with cci. This weekend i fired 1000 rounds of federal lightings and had 2 rounds that were bad. I like those odd's for $7.90 a brick.

[Rafe35]

Originally posted by NUKE
Ruger .22 pistols are pretty nice.

Yeah, they are nice gun that my grandparents gave it to me for early christmas last year, but plan to buy two 1911 Colt .45 "US Army/US Marines" this early fall and it would be worth to fire.  

[Jackal1]

Originally posted by Chairboy
 It's a .22 caliber (I can actually hear some of you laughing through the internet)  

Not laughing here. Proabaly overall some of the best plinking times are had with the .22 . Cheap, very accurate within it`s limits and tons of fun.
I`ve had, at one time or another quite an assortment of handguns. 357s, 45s, 9s, 38s, one 32 long and .22s . My current house gun is a .380.
The .22 is also probably one of the most underestimated caliber for puposes other than plinking in the right hands.
Tap-Tap...Worked for the Mossad.

[Chairboy]

Originally posted by Jackal1
The .22 is also probably one of the most underestimated caliber for puposes other than plinking in the right hands.
Tap-Tap...Worked for the Mossad.

Thank you, exactly my thought as well!  

My wife and I talked about it, and one thing we agreed on was that if we had to carry a Desert Eagle something around, yeah, we'd be able to take down low flying aircraft, but the hassle of carrying 10lbs of steel around would result in us simply not wearing it as often.

I'd rather have an imperfect weapon available all the time then the perfect weapon some of the time.  It just takes one wrong time to leave it at home because it gets in the way for you to regret it.

Also, unlike law enforcement types, my wife needs to be able to actively work on things like dough mixers, make food, etc while carrying.  If she has some hog on her that gets in the way, it's just not gonna happen.

[FX1]

A .22 will make someone think about what they are doing fast. I shoot hogs with a .22 and lets say they dont like it. I can put 10 rounds of .22 into ya before 4 hit you with my sti 38super.

[StarOfAfrica2]

Originally posted by Chairboy
We have plenty of shopping to do still.  We'll try out some more 9MMs for sure.  One big factor is size.  There are real tiny 9MMs, but finding the right combination of quality, gun feel, weight, performance with a small 9mm might be trickier then doing the same with a 22.  Like I said, as much as we liked the Beretta 9MM, we both liked the P22 even more.

Of course, this is just 'so far'.

Never said .22s were BAD, its just that you need to consider the entire package.  A misfire can be dangerous, not just time consuming (although I have yet to have one go off after, in 20+ years of shooting .22s).  And yes its true that with good quality ammo you dont get many, but even at 2% thats 2% too many in a carry weapon.  Personally, I'm with Lazs; but as you hadnt said anything about revolvers, I chose not to bring that argument into it.  I much prefer a nice .357, and shoot .38 specials or .38 +P rounds.  I also prefer frangibles for a home defense weapon, but thats another argument I dont want to start lol.  I know Lazs doesnt agree with me on those.  Its something you might want to consider though.

Anyway, there are plenty of lightweight 9mms out there perfect for concealed carry.  I personally recommend Para Ordnance http://www.paraord.com/  This one is only 24oz and was designed originally for .45ACP, so it handles just about any 9mm you can throw in it smoothly.  http://www.paraord.com/product/product.html?id=74

You should especially look at the "Stealth Carry" line they have out.  They do make nice bobbed-hammer revolvers too.