Teaching a new shooter

**ljj870** · October 1st, 2016, 04:17 PM

Hey everyone,
my girlfriend wants to learn how to shoot, she wants to learn on my AR-15, which I have no problem with, I actually think it will be the best for her, adujustable and all. It's a 5.56/.223 so it shouldn't kick her but any other suggestions on teaching?

**Smilez226** · October 1st, 2016, 06:48 PM

Don't let her shoot you.

**JAKIII** · October 1st, 2016, 07:10 PM

Get a 4'x4' piece of cardboard and paint a big bullseye in the middle. Set the target at 50 yards or less, depending on whether you have iron sights or glass. Draw a picture on a piece of paper to teach her the proper sight picture. Keep it simple... 1) controlled breathing, 2) proper sight alignment and 3) trigger control. She will feel good and gain confidence about the holes she makes (anywhere) on the 4'x4' piece of cardboard.

Lather, rinse and repeat...

**mbinpa** · October 1st, 2016, 07:15 PM

Spend a while dry firing before actual shooting. Dry firing will allow you to properly train in postioning, safety, breath and trigger control, sight alignment, and safety. Unfortunately, most people just hand the rifle off with a couple of rounds in the mag and tell the newbie to pull the trigger. Not knowing what to expect causes all sorts of bad reactions - causing fear and the newbie will have to overcome the fear before they can learn. Dry firing lets her get comfy with the trigger and feel before getting into recoil and noise.

Whatever you do don't laugh at anything she says or does wrong - it will discourage her.

**ljj870** · October 1st, 2016, 09:23 PM

thanks for the great advice so far, we have been dry firing it, I have one of them special dry fire rounds for the rifle, I do my best to answer her questions or we google the answer together, but I she always get's an answer with no laughing I'm always keeping a straight face. and the 50 yard target idea is pretty good, I have optics on the rifle plus a green laser for it, so I'm hoping that will help with getting used to the sights( the optics themselves are non electronic they are traditional glass sights).