A newbie's first shots

[kevin c]

At IPSC practice this weekend I had a brand new shooter, and I mean BRAND new, as in he had never fired a shot before. I didn't know this at first - he came with another, more experienced shooter, had (his friend's) G19 in a holster, and was introduced to me as wanting to learn IPSC. My error in not asking, but it was interesting what happened next.

Once it was determined that it wouldn't be wise to try drawing, moving with gun in hand, reloading, etc., I decided to teach range safety and then some basics. So we went over stance, sight picture, trigger press, etc. One round into the mag and then I had him take aim at a full IPSC target at 15 yards from an unsupported two handed standing position. Bang. The shot goes into near dead center in the A zone. I congratulate him, load another round into his mag, and ask him to do it again. And he does. So does the third round. First three shots of his life go into a dime sized group. I called the line cold, which got the attention of the other shooters, pulled the target and signed and dated it for him. He was quite pleased. We put up another target, and started again. Now that he was trying, and was aware of what he had done, he managed to spend the rest of the box of ammo spraying the berm (he did get one more A, and few shotgun pattern hits elsewhere). And then I had to send him home because he unholstered his gun behind me (I think that he will be back - he shook my hand with a smile and ran around looking for his friend with the target in hand).

Amazing what we can do when we don't let extraneous things interfere with the shooting...

[short_round]

You know ... they said one of the greatest things about Van Gogh (or maybe it was other impressionist - and no Erik I'm sure it wasn't Munch) was that he could paint like a child. Apparently he had to untrain himself to paint like an adult. I wonder if that has any application here.

[Skywalker]

Back in the old days when I was a newbie to shooting (and I mean shooting, not IPSC shooting), I decided to shoot my first match ever: it was a pin bowling match, and I was determined to shoot it with my (only) gun, a SS Colt MK IV series 80, in .45" HP (Italian version of .45" ACP, brass 1mm shorter).

I was given LAMR, STD-BY, beep, then I proceeded to clean the table with 5 shots in what I thought was a decently slow time.

I unloaded, bagged, then started hearing some buzz in the background: the RO told me I had the 2nd best time in that match.

Of course, after being told that, I had never been able to repeat myself in the following strings, thus I ended up quite behind 2nd place ...

[spook]

My office is right above the indoor police shooting range. A couple of weeks ago some university students got a complete tour, including firing some shots on the range. It was great to see how almost every single one of them had a perfect first shot/hit(none of them ever fired a gun before). After that, they pulled shots everywhere.

Just funny to see how easy shooting really is. And how difficult we tend to make it

[L9X25]

I think that a lot of the problems are caused by the instinctual response to the noise and recoil of the guns.

A buddy loaned me an SV Airsoft gun to play with for a few days. My 10 year old son loved it and could double-tap (or triple tap) headshots (on a USPSA target) at 25 feet, seemingly at will. Full targets were never a problem. I'm sure that the reduced weight played a part but the fact that the gun was quiet and did not recoil was a really big help.

Leo

[GRD]

I've had some success getting new shooters to 'return to the womb' of those first few shots by having them hold the gun and pulling the trigger for them. It seems to click the lightbulb on for many people. I don't think new shooters realize how the hold and the trigger press are two completely separate things, or at least they have no concept of how important it is to hold the gun still while they press the trigger, and that and not flinching are the two keys for a new shooter, IMO.

Something else I've done, once - but it worked like a miracle, don't laugh, is sort of 'yell' at them while they're shooting. Not really yell, but talk to them kind of rapid-fire while they shoot a mag or so. The distraction seemed to keep the shooter from 'trying' too hard. I was just saying, kind of loud, HERE HE COMES! GET HIM! GET HIM! JUST SHOOT HIM! It was not only hysterical, but the group was pretty good!

- Gabe