Took wifey shooting....

[WMD]

I bought a 357 Ruger SP101 (2 inch barrel) for wifey a while back. Finally, got some time with her at a range. She has not shot for some time so we started out with a little 25 Beretta. I was quite impressed. She clearly is not afraid to shoot. She handled that Beretta is if she had been shooting it all her life. She was nailing the target.

We then moved to the Ruger. I loaded 38's in ther Ruger and handed it to her. Again, she was nailing the target. 38's in that gun is a good combination for her. The gun has a bit of weight, and with 38's, the recoil is light. She will be packing Golden Saber 38 Plus P's. I need to smooth the trigger pull a bit then she will be all set.

If you recall from previous posts, this 2 inch Ruger is our second one in the house. I have a 3 inch ruger SP101 which she liked so much she took. I have not seen it since! I bought this 2 inch thinking she can shoot both and keep wichever one she likes best. I just want my SP101 back. As it turns out, she is OK with the 2 inch version so that is what she will keep.

Everybody is happy now!

[Bawanna]

My wife just got her CCW this week and I have a detective that's gonna loan me his SP101 for her to try. I got her one in 22 years ago with just this scenario in mind.

I think as you said the weight will soak up some of the recoil. She doesn't shoot often and doesn't care for big boom too much. Again I'll let her decide but I think the Ruger would be a good choice.

She's thinks she's just fine with her 22 but that ain't gonna fly with a fat heavy bullet guy like me.

[TucsonMTB]

Congratulations to you both!

I understand how pleased you must be. My wife finally qualified for her Arizona CCW several years ago with our smallest Kimber at the indoor range where the class was held. She was greatly amused by the reaction of her fellow shooters, mostly guys, to the satisfying "Boom" that 45 ACP makes, especially with good acoustics.

Alas, she does not carry often, but her target hangs prominently in the garage as a reminder of the drill her instructor guided the class through: a double tap to center of mass with follow up shots to either the head or groin. It makes me cringe just to think about it.

[WMD]

Yeah, I hear ya. I remember showing my wife how to shoot early on. She has great natural hand eye coordination. She was doing "point and shoot" exercises and touched 3 holes right in the X! I remember thinking...." what have I done, teaching her to shoot? I hope she never gets mad at me!"

[Bawanna]

Yeah, I hear ya. I remember showing my wife how to shoot early on. She has great natural hand eye coordination. She was doing "point and shoot" exercises and touched 3 holes right in the X! I remember thinking...." what have I done, teaching her to shoot? I hope she never gets mad at me!"

I'll second that "what have I done statement". I console myself with the fact that if mine decides to take me out she'd much prefer a slow painful death possibly by nagging than a quick and painless gunshot wound. She also just has little tolerance for the mess.

[Willieboy]

FWIW WMD, I shot some medium velocity 125 grain Golden Saber .357s out of my 3 inch SP 101 and they were very nice to shoot.

[Bawanna]

The detective just dropped off his 3" SP101 for my wife to try. I'm amazed how closely it resemble and feels compared to the 22 version.
With eyes closed I'd never be able to tell the difference unless I stuck a finger in the barrel.

Darn nice gun.

[MrToad]

Ah, brings back memories.

On our first trips to the wife's rural family farm after we got married was to do some plinking and OC around it. It was where she was taught to shoot by her great-uncle. I brought my Sig P230SL and she brought her 3" Ruger SP101, and spent some time shooting next to the sagging outhouse (yes, there was no running water on the small farm, just a spring on the side of a hill). Good times.

[melissa5]

I'm glad you got your SP101 back and she is happy with hers. Before I switched to semis, I had a 2.25" SP101 that was a pleasure to shoot with .38s. I never tried it with .357s.

[johnh]

My wife is also a great shot. I ran her through the CCW class recently and she was sending round after round through one ragged hole in the target. The other ladies thought she had been practicing. It was only her second time ever firing a gun. I avoided giving her any instruction unless absolutely needed, as I don't want to break whatever she is doing that works so well. Some people are just naturally good at shooting.

[TucsonMTB]

My wife is also a great shot. I ran her through the CCW class recently and she was sending round after round through one ragged hole in the target. The other ladies thought she had been practicing. It was only her second time ever firing a gun. I avoided giving her any instruction unless absolutely needed, as I don't want to break whatever she is doing that works so well. Some people are just naturally good at shooting.

True! And, at the risk of stating the obvious, please let me say that you and I both are very fortunate to be married ladies who match that description. I know several guys who would be much happier if their wives were as supportive of their shooting enthusiasms as ours are. Life is good.

[TheTman]

I wish I could get my wife, (soon to be ex-wife) to take defense seriously. When I moved out I left her my 20 gauge youth model, had her shoot a half box of shells to get familiar with it. Also left one of my .38/357's loaded with 38's, and let her shoot and become familiar with that. Sadly, I ended up bringing them all to my apartment. She had put them all away, into a gun locker and then stuck a chest of drawers in front of it so you couldn't get the door open without moving the chest of drawers. This was all in a closet, and it would have taken much too long to get to anything had she had real trouble on her hands. I did leave her a .22 rifle and .308 rifle in a gun rack in my office, which she will probably never look at. I guess her world is populated with good fiaries and unicorns, cause she sure doesn't think she needs any type of defense, other than a bb gun. This is in a farmhouse, out by itself, although there are neighbors across the street and across the creek. At least the neighbor across the street keeps a good eye on things for her. I wouldn't feel so bad about the situation, if she didn't have my two daughters living with her. I've tried for 24 years to get her intrested in shooting and self defense, and she just has no interest in it. Even when we lived in the city, with a drug dealer selling LARGE amounts of cocaine (like pounds) and there was a drive by right across the street. The druggie would take off for a week, and come home, and every type of fancy Mercede's and convertable's and such would be lined up and down the street full of those Blood and Crip looking thugs. I had no idea the amount of poison he was moving, until he got busted and the cop showed me and his neighbor a whole trunk full of white powder wrapped up in clear plastic. The dealer's neighbor was a Fireman and EMT and happened to know the cop watching the evidence, so he let us have a peek. It looked like the equivalent of about half a dozen 50lb bags of dog food, have no idea how much it really was, but at least the neighborhood calmed down some after they put him away.
I expect to get a frantic phone call in the middle of the night some time and hear she is hiding from burgalars, or worse. Hopefully she had already called 911. I imagine it's going to take something like that to open her eyes. I hope and pray if anyone does break in, they do it during the day when no one is home. Then perhaps she'll snap out of her unicorns and rainbows world and see the ugly reality we sometimes live in. Sorry for the rant. I'm just jealous of those of you with spouses that understand that the world can get ugly sometimes.
I guess now that I've cleaned and oiled the guns, I could put the .38/357 and a shotgun back in my office, which is a safe room with concrete walls and ceiling with a steel door, and If I ever get that call in the middle of the night tell her to get her and the kids into the office/saferoom, and tell her where I the guns are.

[TucsonMTB]

It sounds like she might accept advice from someone else more readily.

At the risk of preaching to the choir . . . if you have any mutually trusted friends who would be willing to convince her to have a few family emergency drills where anyone at home heads for the safe room, taking cell phones with them to call the police after they lock the door, it would be better than calling you for instructions. Yeah, you don't get to be a hero, but I suspect you can live with that.

If police response is not likely to be faster than someone can break into the safe room, whatever firearm she feels she can handle could be stored there. That way she could announce to anyone breaking in that she is armed, which may discourage them or slow them down long enough for the police to arrive.

Just my two cents. Best of luck!

[TheTman]

That's a good idea TusconMTB, I'm still on good terms with her brother. He's a fireman, and probably has some good stories to scare her from talking to his cop buddies. He might be the one to call in and talk to her and get her to do something like that. Thanks for the idea.

[TucsonMTB]

Thanks for the kind words, Tom! Her brother sounds like an excellent choice. He almost certainly understands the need to practice emergency responses so that everyone clearly understands what to do, making the process as automatic and successful as possible. Your family is fortunate to have the two of you looking out for them.