One of my wife's best friends has been asking about taking her to the range, as she's never shot a handgun before. She's shot rifles (lever action!) and shotguns, but never a pistol. So, I gave her my 10-minute safety briefing, made sure she understood The Four Rules, and went over the operation of my wife's revolver, and when I was sure she was confident and safety-minded enough, we went out to the range.
She picked up on shooting pretty fast, but both she and my wife were having some trouble shooting the full-load 357 Magnum rounds I brought with us. I have to admit I'd never fired any of this particular load from Fiocchi in her gun, and I think I'll save the rest of them for my Marlin 1894C!
They were loud and rowdy loads in my wife's gun, BIG BOOM and a lot of muzzle flash, so I went back into the store section of the range and bought a bag of 38 Special reloads.
MUCH better for both of the ladies, and pretty soon I was headed back into the store to buy another bag of 50.
They both had a ball, were very safety-minded, and after we finished, my wife's friend was asking the counter guys about handguns. I let her try my Kimber 45ACP, but besides the fact that she has trouble loading the magazines, she didn't care for the recoil.
So, I introduced another lady to handgun shooting, and she loved it.
I also got to run about 50 rounds through my Marlin 60 autoloader 22LR, and while it cycled all the ammo I fed through it just fine, the sights are WAY off. It consistently shot high and to the left, but held very tight groups at 7, 15, and 20 yards, the limit of the indoor range. I could literally put all 14 rounds in the magazine in a 2" or smaller circle without really trying, but the circle was always high and to the left.
I'll spend some time looking into this on Sunday when I clean the guns we used tonight. I'm a little bummed, because it shows excellent potential with the tight groups, but has me scratching my head as to why it's so consistently off.
Heading out to the TRW Amateur Radio swap meet tomorrow morning to pick up some bits and pieces, and then I'm going to finish getting the $$##!!@@ new storm door hung on the back door of the house.
Have a good weekend!
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<i>The Fisher Saga</i> Continues - Act III -
Been working on this post since right after Thanksgiving. I'm making very good progress on the Fisher, and will most likely power it up...
Yep another non-convert to Fiocchi... I think they load their rounds hotter than one else out there! And it's NOT just the .357 it's any ammo they load!
ReplyDeleteYeah, they definitely go BOOM when you hit the bang switch!
ReplyDeleteProbably be really good stuff in my Marlin carbine, but a bit too hot for shooters that don't have a lot of experience.
*I* didn't have any trouble with it, but my wife didn't like it, and her friend was all over the target with it.