Educational Zone #12 - Teaching a Lady to Shoot

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Educational Zone #12 - Teaching a Lady to Shoot - Page 1

I have always enjoyed teaching ladies that are not "gunny" how to shoot. They are great students. They listen and don't already think that they know it all, and follow instructions.

I've never trained a non-gunny lady to shoot that didn't shoot really well, right away.

My niece Jennifer asked me if I would teach her to shoot a handgun.

The first item to address is: What gun to use.

Many will mistakenly advise a non-gunny lady that they need a 9mm semi-auto. I believe that this is a mistake.

Even worse than the 9mm auto, a lot of guys will buy their wives a "lady's gun", like a .380 or .25ACP. Small little guns have a much shorter sight radius (and usually fairly rudimentary sights), but the little caliber demands that shot placement be exact.

Most non-gunny ladies will not remember how to work a semi-auto if they are scared in the middle of the night. The best gun for a non-gunny lady is the double action revolver, preferably in .38 Special.

Jennifer's Dad had a Ruger .38 Special SP101 and that's the one I recommended for her to use.

Before we started, we briefly discussed safety. Then we were ready to shoot.

First, we will show how Not to grip a pistol.

Some folks suggest supporting the shooting hand by gripping the shooting wrist with the off-hand.

This accomplishes absolutely nothing.

WRONG

Even thought Dirty Harry used this grip in his first movies, it still stinks as a way to support a pistol.

It is the wrong way to do it.

Some folks suggest using the off-hand on the bottom of the pistol grip.

This also is the wrong way to do it.

WRONG

This does very little to support the handgun.

The proper way is to do this...

Pushing forward with the shooting hand, hold the other hand in front of the grip and pull back towards the shooting hand.

CORRECT

Using isometric pressure, this will allow a firm grip and support by the off-hand.

This is a pic from the left side.

Some might suggest a "higher" grip on the pistol, but Jennifer had a fairly weak grip and had trouble pulling the double action trigger unless she gripped the pistol low.

When she gets used to shooting more, we will improve on her grip some more.