I met Rose through Oleg (who met her through Mike and Laurel last Spring) who got her into modeling.  She’d told Oleg she wanted to learn more about shooting, so he got her and me talking.  It took a while, but we got to the range this Monday.  It was cold, with several inches of snow on the ground, but we managed to get in a couple hours of trigger time.

We went through the safety rules, loading and unloading, manipulating the controls on a Ruger Mark II and a Daewoo DP-51 9 mm, stance, grip, sight picture, trigger control, some thoughts on anticipation (flinching), and follow-through.

Rose explained that since she is a boxer, she knows all about flinching and that it would not be a problem.  When you’re looking at getting punched in the face, you learn self control or it’s over quickly.  Good.  Shooting is very much a mental exercise.  I said that flinching is a problem for everyone, even experienced competitive shooters, and that I’ve seen a new shooter hit the ground halfway to a 10 yard target because of anticipation.

Well, her first ten rounds from the 22 auto all hit the 12″ square target, with one right in the center, from about 10 yards.  Pretty good for someone who’d only fired a pistol once, more than ten years ago.  It doesn’t always happen that way.  Usually we don’t even look at the first target, concentrating more on stance, grip and muzzle control.

She was pretty happy afterward, having hit all the 14 ounce vegetable cans with the 9 mm pistol.  We finished up with an UltiMAK equipped M1 30 Carbine, so she got introduced to the laser transmission hologram (this one had an Old Bushnell Holosight that we’d used for many years of testing at UltiMAK). 

Those vegetable cans didn’t stand a chance.

It was a pretty brief run-through, and Rose was visibly shivering from the cold, but she done good.  Though it is good practice in general, one would be well advised to treat her, especially, with respect.

I failed to tell her that she could be doing about as well at two and a half times the distance, with some more coaching and practice.  25 yards is the minimum distance in the pistol bays at the Kenmore Shooting Range, where I took my instructor training.  They teach beginners there too, and do well with it by all accounts.