An interesting shooting experience

**PennsyPlinker** · July 24th, 2010, 08:39 AM

Some of you will know that I delight in taking new shooters to the range. And a very few of you have met my good friend Haim, who lives in New Jersey, but hails from Israel. Haim did some time in the IDF, something which he does not speak about much, but he does enjoy shooting with me, especially the .22 LR guns. So when he called me to tell me his 25 year old daughter was coming to visit from Israel, and that she wanted to go shooting, a number of thoughts went through my mind.

My first thought was she would be some sort of commandoette, fresh from experience on the front line of the war against terror in her small and violent country. Then I got to thinking, what if she outshoots me!?!

I had visions of her showing up and field stripping all my guns faster than I could even watch, and then reassembling them again, only to shoot ragged holes in the bullseye from the hip. Then I settled down and wondered how much English she spoke.

It was the English thing that proved to be the hard part of the day, and even that wasn't bad. I took a variety of guns along with me, and met them at a convenient point close to the club. My friend introduced us to one another, and it was off to shoot holes in tin cans. We can do that at the one club where I belong. Her English was somewhat limited, and my Hebrew is very limited (read and write only), so Haim did a lot of translating. She would start a sentence in English, finish it in Hebrew, and then look at him. He would look at me, and then finish it up. For my part I kept my instructions as simple as possible so as not to confuse either of them.

She did have time in with the IDF, but saw no combat, as she was in a support unit. I do not know if the women are routinely assigned that way or not, but in her case, her shooting experience was pretty much limited to their equivalent of basic training. I explained that I was as her sergeant when it came to instruction and following directions. She laughed, but got the point. After reviewing basic gun safety, I started her off with a lever gun. Then we moved her to a semi auto (Ruger SR-22) and finally, a revolver and a Ruger Mk II semi. She was having a blast.

Speaking of blast, her father decided he wanted to shoot my .45 Colt revolver. After he ran through a cylinder, she stepped right up. This girl was all of 90 lbs and barely 5' tall. But she had the grip down right, and off she went. The sequence was sort of like this:

BANG! "Wow!"

BANG! "Wow!"

It was kind of funny hearing her exclaim "Wow!" after every shot. After she was done, she handed the revolver to me and did a little dance with a huge grin on her face. It turned out she like the Ruger SR-22 the best of all the guns, and must have run through 300 rounds or better all by herself. It kept me busy loading, that was for sure. And in the end, the language barrier was no problem at all. She followed all the safety instructions I had given her,and gave me no cause for concern. Of course, who knows what they may have been saying about me when all that Hebrew was flying thick and fast.

All I know though, is both of them went home with huge grins, and she promised to come shooting again next time she is in America.

**blankexistance** · July 24th, 2010, 09:20 AM

Awesome story.

**cgbudde** · July 24th, 2010, 09:49 AM

Sounds like another great day at the range, and an excellent job at international relations.

**ungawa** · July 24th, 2010, 04:01 PM

Great story and a great day. Haim seems like a good guy.

You never do get over the grins, do you? That's the best part

**Metz** · July 24th, 2010, 04:22 PM

Great story! Not to mention, I ran quite few rounds thru .45 Colt revolver today. It indeed does have a WOW factor. Not to mention, it's dead on balls accurate. So I totally understand the girl.