Newbie on Range:

Last weekend I took my 14 y.o. granddaughter (yes - I DO feel so old at times!) up the pistol club range. - she had told her mum that she wanted me to let her try shooting - so arrangements were made to have a go before the end of her school summer holidays.

We worked through my usual sequence of guns after stressing to her the three Basic Safety Rules .. #1:Treat all guns as loaded at all times, - #2: Never point a gun at anything that you are not prepared to destroy, - and #3: Keep your finger off the trigger until you are set to fire.

We also went through all the other considerations and specific range rules, etiquette, and also stressed about keeping the muzzle pointed in the safe direction at all times, keeping loaded magazines on your person rather than leaving them around etc. etc.

She was very careful and basically safe - but I was interested/concerned to find that her fingers (thumbs) lacked the strength to cock the hammer on my wee Ruger  .22' revolver to shoot it single-action and needed to use two fingers to fire it double-action..(around 12 lbs trigger pull).

I'd neglected to remember that not everyone is as big'n'ugly as me!!

As it turned-out - her favourite guns were my old BSA bolt action .22" rifle and the club gun - a 10 shot S&W semi-auto pistol - both of which she could manage easily and she got through lots of ammo.

- The bigger centre-fire guns didn't appeal at all, although she did try one shot with a 12 gauge shotgun.

Just in case you are getting bored with seeing our New Zealand blue skies in photos (as above), - here's a shot I took today at home to show the sun-burnt grass (it's no lawn!) and there you go - we do get cloud (but no rain yet!).

Marty K.

P.S. I had another visit  in the garden from some California Quail last week - cute wee things.