Justin Buist

Two weeks ago a friend of a friend asked me about handgun training at a birthday party. He’s in his 40’s himself and his mother recently took a class required in Michigan to obtain her CCW permit. That got him thinking that maybe he should learn a little about handguns.

So, he asked about classes offered by the same shop (Silver Bullet Firearms) that his mom took her class at. I basically told him that they’re good folk in my experience, I’m taking a class with them at the end of this month myself, and I trust she got good info there. Oh, and they offer a $60 basic intro to handguns there.

But… if you want I’ll be happy to give you an intro if you buy a membership at my local range. It’s $60 and good for a year. Unfortunately I’m not allowed guests on the range, and its members only, but I can make that $60 fee worth your while.

So, our schedules aligned and he came over Saturday around 11am to get started. I did a basic run-down of the safety rules when handling guns and starting showing him how various handguns worked. He’s a really smart fellow so he just soaked it all in and I only had to correct him once on the “finger on trigger” rule but that was in my basement, the pistol was pointed at a cement wall, and I had already verified it as empty. That’s about the safest safety violation you can have, and like I said, it was the only one all day. Well, I did say “Muzzle!” once on the pistol line, but he was still only pointed 30 degrees off the line. I’m rather anal about muzzle discipline when on the line. There’s never a good reason to be more than 15 degrees off from the line of fire.

After about 20 minutes of fiddling with various guns in the basement I noticed his hands were a bit shaky. Nerves. That’s understandable. Here’s a guy that’s never shot a gun before and he’s in my gun room with about 8 pistols out on the cleaning table, a rifle in the corner, random boxes of ammo all over the place, and he’s trying really hard not to do anything stupid. I don’t blame him for being nervous.

When I saw that I figured we should start with some long guns. They’re easier to shoot, a bit more forgiving when it comes to aiming, and appear to be safer on some levels. So, I started whipping out the long guns.

Basically, when I’ve got a newbie down in my gun room and I’m pulling potential guns out for a range trip I’m just waiting for them to say, “I have to shoot that!” I don’t care what their reasons are. Seen it in a video game? Looks like something John Wayne used? Think GLOCK is the ultimate handgun ever? We’ll shoot it. I aim for customer satisfaction.

Funny thing was, the only gun that interested him was a Ruger Vaquero in .44 Mag w/ a 7.5″ barrel. I’ll get to that later.

Having not gotten a “ZOMG! MUST SHOOT!” out of him for anything but the Vaquero I decided that my Marlin 1894C and AR-15 (Bushmaster Dissipator) would do for the long guns. Nice easy shooting guns, no real recoil, and as American as apple pie.

For the handguns: Walther P22 (god I hate this thing more every time I shoot it), a CZ-75B, S&W 1911SC (he did show some interest in this), and of course the Vaquero.

We set up on the 25 yard range with the 1894C and I we shoved some .38 specials in there.

Reaction: ZOMG! This is fun. Hey look, I actually hit the target!

Then we shoved some .357 magnum hunting loads in there.

Reaction: ZOMG! That made some noise and kicked a bit. Cool!

We then moved to the rifle range to prevent annoying the pistol shooter on the 25 yard range and setup targets at 50 yards for the AR-15.

Reaction: ZOMG THAT THING IS LOUD! This is fun! Hey look, I actually hit the target!

Off to the 7 year pistol line to fiddle with the handguns. Naturally the P22 was first.

Reaction: Okay, I’m hitting paper. That’s good, right?

Then the CZ-75B.

Reaction: Still on paper. Hey, this is fun!

Then the Vaquero. I have no idea why I bought this gun. I ran through 6 rounds of 44. spl with it and my accuracy was absurdly horrible. I just don’t like revolvers, and something with a barrel that long and the silly wood grips just doesn’t fit my hand at all. I hate it.

So, naturally I let him load it up with 3 rounds of 44. spl and 3 rounds of MagTech .44 Magnum. I warned him.

Reaction: Fuck that noise. My hand hurts. Got anything else?

So, we finished off with the S&W 1911SC.

I’d say it was a successful trip. He asked if we could do it again in another month. Hell yeah we can! I think next time we’ll dink around with some shooting on the 100+ yard range and maybe play some trap.