Took a first time shooter to the range

[27hand]

I have to say, I was very surprised when my 29 YO daughter expressed an interest in wanting to carry a gun. Very surprised indeed. She fits all the criteria of being a tree hugging, gluten free, near vegetarian, holistic healing, hippie child.

She does a lot of hiking, camping and driving by herself (trip to San Diego, up the coast and back by herself).

A while back, we reviewed the 4 safety rules quite few times. We addressed stance and grip. I gave her my red gun to practice handling it.

We finally had a couple hours of free time that allowed us to make plans to get out to my gun club.
I told her to bring a ball cap with a bill and why it had to face forward.

While setting up targets, I asked her what those safety rules were and she nailed them.

I fired one round of 9mm to test out the hearing protection before starting.
She is very noise sensitive so had to have her put some foam plugs in before putting on my Dillon HP1's. That solved the noise issue.

I reviewed stance and grip showing her how to have as much surface area of her hand on the grip as possible to stabilize the gun. We did kind of a combination Weaver, Isosceles stance with a bit of push/pull. She felt more comfortable locking her dominant arm. I had shown her pictures of sight alignment and sight picture after determining she was right eye dominant.
I had her dry fire and hold the trigger to the rear while I reset the system so she could hear and feel the reset. I told her for each shot , she should have 2 sight pictures and explained that reacquiring a second sight picture immediately after the shot breaks is called follow through.
I told her to focus on the front sight and that it should be clear enough that the rear sight and target were not quite in focus. I also told her that pressing through the trigger should result in a surprise break of the round going off.
We touched on loading and unloading but more as we went along.
I showed her how to orient the mag in her hand with a finger on the tip of the bullet. That in doing so, she would know which side is front, with a bit of pressure down would indicate if the mag was fulled charged or a partial, that if a bullet was protruding too far, she could flip it out or press it back in. Showed her the back of the mag flat to the flat in the mag well and seating the mag sharply. We also went over how to grip the slide behind the ejection port so her hand didn't block it.
After the preliminaries, we got into business

I put an Advantage Arms .22 conversion onto a Glock 23 and she did well enough that after about 20 rounds, I thought to move her to a Glock 19.

She did OK with the 19 but struggled with the slide on my Kahr P9 Covert

The S&W 66 with .38's she shot really well but did even better with the Colt 1991A1 even though it was a bit large for her.

Since we really only had a few hours, I also brought some water filled gallon jugs.
We moved back to about 10 yards for these.
I had her shoot with ball ammo and saw that the jugs barely moved when hit. I had her shoot my Glock 32 with a .40 bbl and carry ammo and watched the jug blow apart a lot more, explaining how hollow point ammo reacts differently than ball. I pulled out the Redhawk to show her what that bullet would do just for comparison.

All in all, it was one of the better days I've ever had at the range. I may have only fired a dozen rounds or so.

She did very well with muzzle awareness, keeping her finger out of the trigger guard while not shooting and fired some pretty close groups.
The coolest thing was to hear her say " I can't wait to do this some more".
I'll be buying her a pistol and hopefully some training which she sees is completely necessary. I wish my buddies would think like her.

A really great first time shooter experience for old dad.

[bluetrane2028]

Sounds like a great day.

[stainless]

Good job 27. Sounds like a great day with your daughter.

[Bellerophon]

Sounds like you did an excellent job in your instruction and created another 2A supporter.

Strong work.

[Qtrborecrazy]

Now you just got to take her hunting.

[Don Quixote]

Great to hear. Maybe there is hope for my daughter. She is 12 and has ZERO interest in shooting.

[27hand]

Thanks guys. I believe she saw the need for where her interests lie. Eventually, we will increase distance, start with presentations, touch on malfunction clearance and get the LTCF.
Don, it may take some time but I always let her know that I was ready for whenever she was.
This may be the key to getting my wife to come along. Ha. Ive been telling her for years that id like to have her get familiar with firearms.
Man, what a day that would be.

[JoshIronshaft]

Over the past year I took about 20 first time shooters to the range, all women except for 2. Most were women in their 20's or a little older. I think something is happening! Soon men will be kept underground and used for breeding purposes only!!!

[Rosco the Iroc]

Now this is a quality thread. So much win. Great job keep it up. Both 27hand and Joshironshaft.

[ianb1116]

27hand and Jonironshaft,

I need a few suggestions from you guys. I've taken my girlfriend shooting probably about 5 times. She's shot a glock 23, FNS-9L, XD-45, S&W K22, and single action army (among various rifles). Surprisingly, she seems to like the revolvers most. I think this is because of the recoil factor in semi's. However, overall, she's still less than comfortable with it all. Truth be told, I think the G23 scared her a bit.

I'd like to get her her own gun that she can practice and become proficient enough with. I stressed the importance of really knowing one gun over kind-of knowing 10. However, every time the topic is brought up, she seems to hesitate and reject the idea. I think she's still uncomfortable with the idea of owning a gun (even though I own >10 and we live together).

Do you have any suggestions as to how to get her more comfortable with shooting in general and a suggestion as to what might be a good starting point for a low-recoil, comfortable pistol that she can confidently use?