Coordinated and confident
By MARJ LAW
“Drat it! Why didn’t I bring a .22 or maybe a .380 to the range today?” I’m thinking, mentally kicking myself. It’s Wednesday morning at 9:45, the time we usually meet at the range. Joe and I practice shooting and we help anyone who’d like assistance or just plain moral support on this day.
Today, we are meeting Maggie. She’s a newbie. And all I brought in the way of handguns is the Kimber R7 Mako and the Smith & Wesson Equalizer because Joe and I plan to compare them. Not that these aren’t great guns. They are. But I’d like to have the easiest shooting guns when we’re introducing someone new to the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office range.
“I did take a class about 5 years ago,” explains Maggie, who is petite, thin, and small-boned. This information doesn’t help much. I took a class at the Tallahassee Fairgrounds for concealed carry. We were handed a .22 revolver and told to pull the trigger one time. We hardly learned how to handle a gun. So today, I had low expectations and even wondered if Maggie should shoot. Maybe she ought to wait until I bring a lower-caliber handgun to the range.
But Maggie is up for it. She is willing and open to shoot.
“The Equalizer is one of Smith & Wesson’s 9mm handguns,” I explain. “It’s great for mature people, or those with arthritis or other hand difficulties because of the ease of jacking the slide, ease of pulling the trigger and the very light recoil. On top of the gun, we’ve placed a green reflex sight. I prefer the green to the red dot, because the green, to me, is crisper.
On the other hand, this Kimber R7 Mako has a red dot. Many guys practically genuflect when they hear the name Kimber. Don’t let it sway you. It’s just another 9mm handgun: about the same size as the Equalizer. And yet it will cost $2-$300 more than the Equalizer. I find the Mako to have a sharper kick than the Equalizer.”
This information hasn’t put off Maggie one bit.
We discuss “hot” and “cold” and what they mean. We make sure she has ear and eye protection. We show her how to have a firm grip, and how to keep her index finger off the trigger until ready to shoot. I suggest taking a deep breath, letting it go and then squeezing the trigger. Perhaps Maggie has done this before. She nods and follows direction perfectly.
To let her have a sense of the gun, I shoot the Equalizer first. All shots hit the target, but none in the bullseye.
Then it’s the Kimber Mako. “Remember,” I warn her. “This one has a sharper recoil.” I’m warning her of the kick (in case I don’t hit the target).
Blam! Bullseye!
I put the Mako down. “That’s all I’m shooting today!”
Then I hand the Mako to Maggie. She takes a firm stance and grips the gun.
“Good!” I encourage. “But watch your thumbs. Do not cross them behind the slide. Yes, it feels natural to do so, but the slide returns sharply. If you cross your thumbs, you run the risk of ripping that tender area between thumb and index finger.”
She moves her thumb immediately, so that both thumbs are on the same side of the frame.
“Aim, take a breath, let go and squeeze.”
She does exactly that.
Blam!
Her bullet hits right on the hole I had just made in the center of the target! Fine shooting!
“I did what you said, but pulled the trigger after I let go of my breath and held it,” she says to me.
“That’s exactly what you should have done.” I reply. I think her background in yoga has probably kicked in and helps her with breath control.
Maggie shoots a few rounds with the Kimber and a few with the Equalizer.
“Which do you prefer?” I ask.
Maggie prefers the Kimber. She shoots it better than the Equalizer and she finds it to have less recoil. She finds the trigger pull easier and trigger travel to be short. She prefers the grip and finds racking the slide to be easy.
Maggie is confident and coordinated when shooting. It’s a pleasure to work with her.
Next, we’re off to the long gun portion of the range. Maggie has a 20-gauge youth shotgun (she is petite), but no ammunition.
Joe has brought his scoped 44 Magnum breech-braked carbine. The scope has crosshairs with a luminescent dot in the center. Joe explains to Maggie that she should lay the center dot onto the center of her target.
Maggie is left-handed, but is going to shoot this carbine right-handed. She moves it around, while looking through the scope. Finally, she has it aimed the way she wants.
Blam!
I pull out my binoculars to see if she hit the target. Can’t see. I adjust the binoculars.A bunch of tiny holes appear in the center of the target!
“You nailed it!” calls Joe.
Right after this trip to the range, Maggie plans to purchase several items. She still needs her own eye protective goggles (we had a pair for her to borrow), shotgun shells and a patterning target. I open my range bag and show her a first-aid kit, one stack and two stack UpLulas, lens cleaner, packets of tissues, two small tool kits, notepaper, targets, a comb, a nailfile, and lip gloss.
She grins.
“You may want a range bag too. Put in whatever makes you feel comfortable at the range,” I suggest.
“What kind of choke does her 20-gauge come with?” I ask Joe. “Or, what does she need?”
He says for distance, a full choke is best. For middle distance, she can get a modified choke. And for the shortest distance, an improved cylinder will give the widest spread of shot.
We hope to see Maggie at the range soon. She has a natural ingrained sense of discipline and coordination.
“When do we shoot again?” she asks.
It was a great day.
Marj Law is the former director of Keep Wakulla County Beautiful who has become an avid shooter in retirement.
