My wife said she needs me to take her to the range! Help please!

[mettle]

Here words were "Well, if you aren't home and someone comes in, I need to be able to use one of 'those' guns. I guess when we get back (on vacation in FL. right now) you need to take me to Martinsville and show me how".

I was driving, swerved all over the road and struggled to focus on it! woohoo!

Now I'm ready to head home and take her to the range, time to get the 'wheels in motion'!

I was first going to explain safety, 4 steps. Then I was going to explain how all pistols have basics features of operation and what to look for in identifying/clarifying a loaded/non-loaded pistol or not.

I was thinking a Ruger 22/45 and a G19. I had thought of starting her on the Ruger just to break her into the noise and violent event. Since I have 2 19's, I really had thought, depending on her disposition after the range, that one could be the 'home' gun where she and I both know where it is for use.

Any suggestions? Thoughs? She would be VERY turned off by showing a gay video of worthless fags crying over an AR.

Real suggestions, personal experiences and successful ideas would be great.

[techres]

Safety first, then start with .22 pistol and move up. Take 1/3 time on pistols. Then move over to .22 rifle and move up. Take 1/3 time on rifles. Then stop and ask what she wants to do with the last 1/3 of the time.

Don't forget stances. And discuss "stopping" vs. "killing" and basic laws & mindset related to self defense. Do it all in the same professional manner you would an unrelated shooter. She will take this lesson as what all shooters are like so no mistakes, no goofery, and especially no bloody ND!

It does rock, no?

And the next time you take a newbie, take your wife with you and she can feel like an expert.

[Shay]

Danger! Danger! Danger!

Husbands and boyfriends make the worst instructors for their mates. This is especially true of firearms/defense training. All that relationship stuff that exists between a couple comes out in times of stress and uncertainty and training can definitely be a time of stress and uncertainty.

My advice is to find an NRA First Steps or Basic Pistol class in your area and talk to her about signing up. Let someone else take the lead on starting her firearms education.

[Clay]

Originally Posted by Shay

Husbands and boyfriends make the worst instructors for their mates.

I tried to explain this to my wife...... but she doesnt want to go to "some gun class".

[repair]

Originally Posted by Shay

Danger! Danger! Danger!

Husbands and boyfriends make the worst instructors for their mates. This is especially true of firearms/defense training. All that relationship stuff that exists between a couple comes out in times of stress and uncertainty and training can definitely be a time of stress and uncertainty.

My advice is to find an NRA First Steps or Basic Pistol class in your area and talk to her about signing up. Let someone else take the lead on starting her firearms education.

Hey I know a friend of mettle that has tought his own wife, daughter and son to shoot, the kids still speak to him and his wife still sleeps with him.

I would bet he would be happy to teach her, in fact his wife would come with him.

[melensdad]

Got to agree with Shay on this topic.

If you can't get her to a real class, then get a trusted friend who is known for gun safety to teach her the basics. Husbands should not teach wives how to shoot gun or drive cars.

[Bubbajms]

Good point, Shay.. my dad was unable to teach my mom to drive a manual transmission, so they ended up having an outside 3rd party do it..

My wife is an American Red Cross instructor, teaching somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 CPR folks a year and 25-50 lifeguards. I'm a DHS-Certified Instructor myself. We're both good at learning and teaching, and while we *can* teach each other things, sometimes it's better to have someone else do the dirty work

[Soundslikejosh]

Of course you know your wife better than we do, but my suggestion in general is don't overwhelm newbs. You are eager to tell her everything you know about guns, but she's probably isn't eager to hear all of it.

Think about this- If you had to explain to her the most important aspects of shooting in five sentences, what would you say. In high school I had a history teacher who would not allow you to write more than five sentences on an essay answer. His opinion was that if you couldn't convey your message in five sentences, you didn't have a strong enough command of your topic. Now that isn't necessarily true, but the point is brevity. Work on the presumption that you have a limited amount of time before she becomes saturated with new information and you have to stop talking. Be prepared so that when it is time for you to stop teaching (for that day), you have said the most salient things.

This is a whole new experience for the Mrs. and unless she is really digging it, you will lose ground by trying to tell her everything under the sun. As long as you do it correctly, there will be other chances in the future, so don't feel anxious to cover too much info. Remember how slowly you acquired it?

Lastly, if you don't have a lightweight .22 pistol that she can comfortably shoot, call me to borrow one. I lost a lot of ground and had to wait another whole year before my girlfriend would come shooting again because the first time out she shot a G19. Please re-read the last two sentences! I know you said you have a 22/45, but have her hold it at the house and see if she can manage the weight, grip, etc so that your first time out is a success. This is paramount. It is better to hit targets at five yards than miss targets at 15 yards. If the gun is too much for her to manage, borrow something she can work with. I'd be glad to contribute however I can. I've been in your shoes.

Good luck.

[Archbishop]

I took my wife to the range the other day for the first time and decided the only thing I would do is get her used to the idea of the load noises and recoil. Of course basic safety should go with saying. The idea of stances, breathing, etc.? Whatever. The first time to the range is not enough time to develope bad habits, and I thought it was more important to keep the pressure off and focus on getting over the "nerves".
The next time we go we'll go with a another couple who are good friends of ours and he is a good instructor and I'll let him fill in the details.
That's my two cents worth.

[techres]

If your wife is willing to take a class, great. Mine was not willing for fear of embarassment or political fighting, or whatever. She trusted me to be careful and maybe because of the training I do for Appleseed she was willing to trust me not to be a jerk. I dunno.

My wife had to come a long, long way to take a firearm in her hand. She likes to say that I "changed her politics on guns without changing her politics" and for that reason she would have to really know someone well to let them train her.

Normally, yep, trainers train wives better but sometimes that is not an option.