Learning from friends
Joe and I are generally at the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office range on Wednesdays around 10 in the morning. When it becomes Florida hot and muggy, we’ll show up closer to 9:30. We stick to this time because our friends and new shooters know to meet us then.
It’s more fun to shoot with friends. We share information about handguns and we often share each other’s guns as well. This is a fun learning experience. I like to see different features on different guns. Usually, friends offer their guns for us to shoot.
Our friend, Greg, brings a Bursa Thunder this particular Wednesday. His Bursa is a compact 9mm handgun.
“What made you interested in this Bursa?” I ask, having shot a Bursa sometime in the very distant past.
“I like its features,” he states.
“And what are they?” I ask.
“I like that when you throw the safety,” and he shows me a manual safety, “the hammer drops down and is prevented from firing. Throwing the safety de-cocks the hammer.” He demonstrates by moving the safety lever and I watch the hammer drop.
“What else do you like?” I wonder.
“I like the load indicator on the top of the slide.
When you pick it up from a drawer (or anywhere), you can slide your finger over the top of the gun and you’ll find out instantly whether or not it is loaded. A lot of people keep their handguns next to them in a nightstand. Is the gun loaded? With a quick swipe over the slide, you’ll know right away.”
The next gun Greg lets me shoot is his compact Kimber Ultra Crimson Carry .45. It has a 3-inch bull barrel. When it’s a “bull barrel,” it’s a super thick heavy barrel. This can reduce vibration, and improve accuracy and reduce muzzle rise.
But still, it’s a short-barreled .45. I bet it’s going to kick hard, hard, hard.
“I don’t find the recoil difficult,” Greg explains. “It feels about the same as my compact 9mm Bursa.
I look at Greg. He’s a tall man with big bones. He doesn’t find the recoil to be any more difficult to manage than he does his Bursa, but I have my doubts. In my experience, those short-barreled .45s pack a wallop.
“Would you like to shoot it?” he asks.
“Sure!”
He grabs a magazine and starts loading it for me. After about fourrounds, it’s taking a lot of strength, even for him, to push in those last few rounds.
“Would you like to try my UpLula?” I ask.
“I’ve never used one,” he says but he’s game to try.
“Place the UpLula over the magazine. Now, squeeze the UpLula and, still squeezing, push it down over the magazine. Plop a round onto the ramp. Now, un-squeeze the UpLula and the round will remain in the magazine. Bring it up over the mag, and then you do it all over again until the magazine is full.”
He plops in a round, and then another. There’s a big smile on his face.
“I need to get one of these!” he says excitedly as he finishes loading.
“You can get one for your single-stack magazines, and another for your double-stack mags,” I suggest. “They’re about $50, more or less, but they are well worth it.”
Now he hands me his Kimber. I realize a lot of guys practically genuflect when they hear the name Kimber, but I’m more concerned about caliber and size than the name.
Planting my feet, gripping hard, and letting my breath out, I shoot.
Blam!
Egad. Ow. Ow.
He grins down. “Go ahead! Shoot some more!”
Is there any choice?
Shooting once and then once again, I put the gun down.
“How did you like it?” he asks. “Would you like to finish the magazine? Isn’t it about the same as shooting the 9mm Bursa?”
Looking up at him, I say: “Maybe for you, with your big bones. For me, it’s got a heck of kick!”
Turning away from him, I shake out my aching shooting wrist. Turning back, I say: “You were interested in .380 carry guns. We brought three here for you to try: the Sig Sauer P238, the Smith & Wesson Shield .380 EZ, and the Ruger Security .380. Let’s see which one you like the best.”
Since Greg had expressed wanting a very small .380, the first one we give him to try is the micro compact Sig Sauer P238. Since he has large hands, we put a magazine in that allows for extra pinky room, so he’ll have no “pinky dangle.” It holds eight rounds: the same as the flush-mount magazine.
He aims.
Blam! He turns and looks at us.
“Not bad. It’s really small, and I still hit the target!”
Next, we hand him the Ruger Security .380. It’s not as small as the Sig. At about an inch longer than the Sig, it’s a compact instead of a micro-compact gun. This handgun came with both the 10 and the 15-round magazines. We put in the 15 round mag because it gives him a bit more grip room.
He hits the target a few more times.
“That’s good,” he comments.
Last, Greg shoots the Smith & Wesson .380 Shield EZ.
Right off the bat, he likes loading the EZ, because it loads like many .22 handguns. You pull down a button on the magazine and plop in the rounds. It’s much easier than pushing your thumbs against the magazine spring; where each round requires more strength as the spring compresses more and more.
He aims and shoots.
Blam!
“I don’t see anything. Where’d he hit the target?” I ask Joe.
“Marj, Greg knocked out the X-ring!”
I look again. Sure enough, there’s no X-ring left. And that was his very first shot with the EZ!
Greg has a big smile on his face.
“Which of the three .380 handguns do you like the best?” I ask, guessing the response.
He shoots them all well, but he does shoot the Smith & Wesson Shield EZ the best. That does it for him.
“I like the way it loads, and I sure like the way it shoots,” he says.
“So, if the Great Gun Fairy were to drop down and say that she will give you one of these three handguns, which will it be?” I ask.
“No question. I’ll take the Smith & Wesson EZ. But first, I’m going to get a couple UpLulas!”
Marj Law is the former director of Keep Wakulla County Beautiful who has become an avid shooter in retirement.
