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NJdiverTony

Took the wife to the range last night!

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The wife and I had a date night last night... So after dinner she shocked me with a question: "Do you want to go to the range?". That caught me off guard as she has always been pretty indifferent and almost bordering on anti, regarding my interst in guns! So we went home and I packed up the range bag with a couple of pistols, and also my .22 rifle and we went to the range. She did great with the rifle, considering this was her first time ever shooting a gun in her entire life...

 

Then let her try my Beretta 92, but it was a bit much for her and she was a little intimidated by it, so she went back to the rifle and had a blast with it... The smile on her face at the end was priceless... She had a lot of fun! I'm planning on picking up a Ruger Mark III when my PPP's are ready in the coming weeks... I plan on bringing her to the range again and think she will have a blast with that.

 

The whole thing is just funny, because if you knew my wife you'd never be able to imagine her shooting a gun, or even wanting to shoot a gun. I think I have succeeded in converting her to the dark side of the force! Haha!

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Tony my wife was the same, not anti just no interest. She came shooting the first time for my birthday as a gift to me. Now she loves to come and shoot. She just doesn't care for the AR as it is loud. I bought a 10/22 for her and she even shot Keith's Desert Eagle in .44 mag. I am now trying to get her to get her FID. It is an amazing and welcome turn around. Enjoy it.

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Just a word to the greatful guys getting their wives & girlfriends to go shooting: Sometimes they appreciate a .22 Ruger and stop there, while others get bored and reach for a center fire HG and it's too much for them to handle the recoil of an auto. Especially that nice light, compact new one that YOU just got! SO here's a suggestion: get a .357 revolver with 4" tube and start 'em out with mid-range 148 grain wad-cutters, then teach them .38 Spl 158 gr. regular target, and then .38+P home defense rounds.

 

My wife of almost 30 years LOVES my Model 19 & Model 586 S&W revolvers and KNOWS how to use them. The Girls like seeing the big holes of the wad-cutters & SWC rounds, and can handle the recoil of the .38's without the complexity of DA first pull/SA after, slide-racking or other "muscle-required" things (like clearing a limp-wrist stove-pipe) that us guys take for granted.

 

Self defense is as much of a mindset as anything else. If she can handle that snappy light auto and actually HIT with it, great, but if not, she'll have a lot more fun and be better at defending herself when you're not around if you put something in HER hands that instills self confidence when she puts it in her hand! Replacement rubber grips feel nice in HER smaller hands. And this way you both get to play with another gun :maninlove: .

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Awesome, the best advice I can give is to let the wife try lots of different handguns, including Glocks, PPQs, Springfields, (plus metal guns) and get her to choose the gun she wants rather than force something on her. The H&K P30 and Gen 4 Glock are both very gentle recoil wise in 9mm and have pretty reasonable ergonomics and interchangeable grip sizes for smaller hands.

 

For example MrsWombat was not interested in revolvers and had a strong affinity for:

  • Sig P228 (due to the TV show NCIS and Leroy Jethro Gibbs)
  • 1911s (because of how they look)

 

I therefore helped her find about 10 used P228s and she then choose which specific one she wanted based on price/condition etc. For the 1911s it was a little trickier so I came up with a list of the different manufacturer/models that have 1911s in 9mm and that have alloy frames (to make it a little lighter for her). She likes the two-tone designs hence the ones she finally chose.

 

She now owns a P228, Springfield EMP and a Kimber 1911 all in 9mm and enjoys shooting them (and to some degree cleaning them).

 

You can always get softer shooting 9mm ammunition for her while she gets used to it, alternatively there are some .22 pistols (albeit the ammunition is a bit less reliable that may put her of shooting).

 

hth

 

TheWombat

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Wife heard me make a noise when I read about trying the .44 mag Desrert Eagle.

 

Wife: What?

Me: oh nothing guys talking about the wives and GF's going to the range with them and how they enjoy it when they go.

Wife: Well, they should tell them there is a shoe sale.

 

lol. SHe has been with be twice. Partial to the Ruger MkIII but I have brought some starting load 9mm reloads and she had no issues with that.

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Thanks guys... The .22 lr will be good for my wife to start with... Just the fact that she even went to the range and shot my Marlin .22lr is a HUGE deal. If you knew her, then you'd realize why that is... She's a total girly-girl and guns were so foreign and outside her norm. The closest she had ever come to a "gun" was that her dad owned a BB gun a long time ago. I grew up around guns as my dad was an avid hunter/outdoorsman, so for me they have always been part of my life.

 

Once I get the Mark III, I'm hoping that she'll like that and will then warm her up to the sport slowly and steadily. She's the type that has to go slow... You can't force her to jump right into something or then she'll just shut down and never try it out again. Do I ever see her getting so into it that she'll ask to go to the range frequently? That would be really cool, but in reality I don't see that happening... For me, it's enough to see her realize that guns are fun and not something to be afraid of. If she gets into it and enjoys it more than I think she will, then that's a bonus!

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