The Gun Counter

My friend's daughter teaches English as a second language. She had 3 international college students who were interested in shooting - one Russian and 2 Spaniards. One Spaniard from Catalonia and one from Madrid.

We sat them down and asked what they felt about guns - any nervousness? A bit, but the interesting thing was they all said they wanted to feel the power of it. To me, that kind of speaks to what firearms represent to them, maybe.

One of them thought that if you were driving around, you had to be very polite, or an American would shoot you. Another thought that if you went to Texas, anyone could shoot you for any reason. We tried to dispel that - imminent death or serious bodily injury only, and all that.

The Russian seemed a bit more reserved about the whole topic; the Spaniards a bit more open.

We went over the 4 rules and why they're important. They're swimmers, so I asked, "When you're at swim practice, do you just splash around and float on your back, or do you train the way you'll compete?" That seemed to help with the idea of why we follow all 4 all the time. Incidentally, one of the Spaniards had competed in the Olympics for Spain. Had a tattoo and everything.

We split them up on 2 ranges - one shotgun and pistol, one rifle. I ran rifle. I had 2 .22's set up as Liberty Training Rifles - one with Tech sights and one with a scope. We were shooting steel at about 70 yards because that's what my buddy's range has. They got lots of hits which was satisfying.

Then I brought out the Mosin, so they could "feel the power." You should have seen the eyes light up after the first shot for each. It's an M38 with original sights, but some of them were still ringing steel with that. One of them shot down the support. It was getting toward dusk with the second group, and they were catching the fireball on video.

My buddy's son had a CETME. It was having sight trouble, so I'm not sure they got any hits with that. He was directing them shooting that while I was behind the line. But, each student got to shoot a rifle from his homeland.

We talked to them all in a group afterwards. They all had fun. They felt more comfortable.

The University they attend is about a mile from my house. I told them that if they want to go shoot handguns indoors, let their ESL teacher know and she'd get ahold of me. I'd provide handguns, ammo, targets, and range fees. One of the Spaniards said, "How about tomorrow?" I he may take me up on it, and he may bring the other one.

All in all, a good day.

Bravo! Well done Sir, well done.

Huzzah! Having 'native' weapons for each of them to shoot was quite the nice happenstance!

g-man wrote:Huzzah! Having 'native' weapons for each of them to shoot was quite the nice happenstance!

We planned it that way.

Damn, even better! Guess I missed the level of pre-planning involved. I really should find a decent local range for doing these sorts of things, should they come up.

Or a buddy with 80 acres.

Have those sorts of connections elsewhere, haven’t gotten them lined up here in CA yet...

Congrats, and thank you for putting forth the effort to spread the word!

Part 2 - The young fellow that I thought would take me up on my handguns indoors offer...did. So, John, Claire (his girlfriend who had never shot), buddy's daughter (his ESL teacher), and I were off to the range.

I met them at my office first for a safety brief since Claire had never shot before. I figured it would be easier there than at the range or on a street corner. I let them handle about a dozen handguns from tiny to large and told them each to pick 2. The winners were: Ruger Mark II, S&W Shield 9, S&W 686, and a Ruger Blackhawk in 357. They also liked my CZ 75 D, and since it would be there anyway, they got to shoot that as well.

As we were signing waivers, the range guy said, "These 2 are under 21. They need a guardian." OK. I signed as dad for the day.

Once they got a better feel for grip and stance, they shot better. I was noticing a lot of anticipating recoil, even when Claire was shooting 38. I had her try some dry fire to work that out, and she got even better. They each ended up with targets they were proud enough to take home.

John got to feeling his oats with the 686. He said he wanted to see me shoot 3 at 7 yards.. So, I popped them off. I hadn't shot that one in a while, so the first one was about 1-1/2" left, then a 9, then a bull. He took more time and got a bull and (2) 9's. Little smartass.

He asked how far he could shoot it. The range goes to 25 yards, but he liked the look of the target better at 15. He shot 6, then had me shoot 6. He scored 27, and I scored 41. I guess that makes me a smartass, too.

We went through a box of 357, 2 boxes of 38, 2 boxes of 9, and I don't know how many of .22 since buddy's daughter was running that one. They had a good time. Lots of smiles.

New shooters are fun.