Teaching anyone the proper way to handle and shoot a firearm is rewarding. Had a personal experiance with that myself yesterday. A little background.
A very good friend of mine approuched me last year and asked if I might be willing to teach his wife how to shoot. I told him sure, no propblem since I've taught several people to shoot.
(insert the sound of the Mack truck coming up behind you at 65mph)
Heather, my friends wife, was DEATHLY afraid of guns. When she was 9 years old her older brother was shot in the back of the head and neck by her father in a hunting accident. From the details I got, her brother had wandered off during a hunt and was out of sight from everyone else. A bird was flushed and her dad took a shot at it not realizing her brother was just on the other side of some bushes that were there and got shot. To this day she still gets very emotional about the whole thing, so she had some serious baggage I had to deal with.
Well we started talking about guns last year. At first she would start crying after talking about them for maybe 10 minutes or so, and would turn into a train wreck, but she would always come back and talk to me and she kept telling me that she really wanted to get over this fear of hers. After about 6 months of just casually discussing firearms which during those conversations I was always stressing safety and having a healthy respect for guns, and assuring her that because of her experiance she would ALWAYS remember safety and that's a good thing, she finally agreed to come over to my house for a lesson.
First time she came over I had most of my guns laying on the living room floor. None of my large bore stuff, but just the weapons I would be letting her shoot at first. She was very nervous when she walked in and saw all that stuff laying there. We had a couple cups of coffee, and just sat there on the couch and talked about whatever. That first lesson I didn't even ask her to pick up a gun, I just wanted her to be in the same room with them. We did this a few more times and then one day she asked me to show her one of my pistols. That was the first time she had even held a real gun in her hand.
This type pf thing went on for the last six months and the more comfortable she got being around them the more she handled them and asked questions. I taught her how to clear the weapons, how NEVER to accept a weapon from anyone if the chamber was not opened and cleared. I taught her to break them down and clean them, discussing all the parts and what the function of each part is for. I got dummy rounds for all of them so she could practice loading and unloading them.
Yesterday everything came together for her. I took Heather to the range for the first time. I took my Ruger 10/22 and my PT-99 9mm pistol. I got on the line with my .22 and fired about 20 rounds letting her watch me so she could hear what it sounded like and see that it's not going to recoil hard. Then I let her try. I had her only load one round at a time and fire so she would be forced to clear, safe, and reload the gun after every shot. After a couple of shots she was starting to have fun with the Ruger. We went though a box of ammo and then I got my pistol out. She got very nervous at that point but she stayed right there behind me watching everything I did, even though she knows how to operate that pistol. The size of the round scarred her and she thought she wasn't going to be able to handle it.
Well I fired some rounds off, then set it on the bench and told her it was her turn. I reminded her again (for about the 100th time about propper breathing, hand placement and sight picture). She loaded 1 round, took aim and fired. Hit way low and left. The gun almost jumped out of her hand, even though I told her to expect that the first time. She cleared it set it down and walked back from the line with tears in her eyes because she was so scarred. I thought we were going to have to leave, but I kept my cool and paitence and let her take a minute to collect herself. I went over and talked to the range master and gave him anouther heads up that I was teaching a very scarred woman how to shoot and to just bear with us down on that end of the range. (those guys at the range were very cool as well. The didn't put anyone within 4 lanes of us all day
)
I got back to Heather and asked her if she wanted to try again or pack up and leave and thats when she got detirmined to do it again and do it right. She picked it back up, loaded a round and fired again. This time it was just a little high and left. I tapped her on the shoulder, our prearranged signal that I wanted to tell her something, so she cleared the pistol and set it down so I could talk to her. I told her I noticed her knuckels were turning white because she was gripping the thing so hard and that she needed to relax her hands just a bit. I showed her again how to properly hold the grip so she would push the gun around and told her to take anouther shot.
3rd shot of the day was a 10 ring low and right. When I saw it I kinda yelled it out a little bit and when she turned to look at me I gave her a thumbs up and said great shot!!! That's when I got the grin from her and knew she was hooked.
She ended up shooting almost 2 boxes of ammo out of a handgun she was convinced she wasn't going to be able to shoot. She caught herself a couple of times trying to anticipate the recoil and stopped, would take a deep breath and line up again and fire. Any shot she made that wasn't center mass was either a little high or a little low but ALL of them were in the vertical center of the target. After the first 2 rounds she never tossed one left or right for the rest of the day.
3 hours of range time, 100 rounds of 9mm downrange, 100 rounds of .22LR downrange and we have a brand new shooter in the club. She LOVED it!!!! She is so proud of herself for doing it and doing it right. I'm proud of her for going through with it and getting over her fear and being an outstanding student, and I'm proud of myself for keeping my patience for a year while teaching her.
After we got done she wanted to go look at guns in the store
When we met up with Kevin, her husband, yesterday evening for dinner he asked if he could finally buy a gun to keep in the house and I had to laugh when she told him, "You can get one after you buy me a Lady Smith in 38spl. They have a really nice one at the store that I like alot."
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!! She's still a little nervouse but now she KNOWS that guns aren't evil, she can handle a weapon safely, and most of all when done right it's alot of fun. One of my best days ever at the range and I think I only fired maybe 40 rounds all day.
