On Monday evening I took my 20 year old daughter, my wife and myself along to Marksman Indoor range for my daughter to shoot a handgun for the first time (she is in town from England for a few weeks).
The range was pretty busy, but we got straight in and managed to snag two adjacent lanes
My wife gave the Elsie a thorough work out while I gave my daughter the G19 with the .22 conversion kit on it. I set her target at 3 yards and after the first 3 shots were high she started hitting the middle of the full body target (well in the red anyway). As she was doing OK I swapped out the .22 slide for the 9mm slide and let her shoot a few through that.
I was very impressed with her groups considering it was her first time with a pistol. She didn't like shooting the XD9, but she took my G30 and blew 50 rounds through it and loved it. I shot the XD9 and that is one accurate pistol, it is quickly becoming my favorite target pistol....but the G30 is still my perferred carry pistol. We didn't shoot the Bersa at all. I didn't want to put a new shooter off by having a gun with low profile sights and as 'active' as a compact pistol.
My wife was practicing shooting Elsie both one handed and weak handed. She did well but she doesn't really like shooting it. She reverted to the Glock and tried the same thing with that too.
All told we shot about 300 rounds and had a real fun time. She enjoyed it so much she wants to go again before she goes back home. I have attempted to bribe into staying in the US by offering her a gun if she comes here to live here!
I did manage to shoot a few shots from my Henry .22 Lever action, and man that gun is sweet. Right out of the box it was spot on center shot. I had a sweet little group in the 10 at 7 yards, so I cranked it all the way back to the far wall and was still popping them in the center.
I love shooting that rifle, it is perfect rifle for plinking or for a young 'un to start shooting with. No real recoil and extremely quiet too.
I was pleased that the range had ammo at a reasonable price too (including .380) and if you add in the fact that women shoot for free on a Monday the whole deal cost me $10 for two full body targets and for 3 people to shoot using two lanes.
All told a fun, cheap (apart from the 300 rounds of ammo!) evening. It was a little bit of a long evening by the time I had finished cleaning and oiling the guns but still a most enjoyable family evening.
