My first husband was a serious gun nut, and into black powder weapons, as he took part in Civil War reenactments.
And the funny thing is that he never really did well with them when "fighting" for the Union, but when they asked him to switch sides and represent one day for the short-handed Confederacy, he found his stride, and never switched back.
Anyway, he taught me to handle weapons, well, and within a fairly short period, I could field strip a Colt .45 Government Model Mark IV (my primary shooter), clean it and reload, in under a minute.
He gave me that gun and others when we got married, and he used to drill me on it, on a regular basis.
At the time we lived in Hawthorne, California, and went shooting at the police range in nearby El Segundo, where the owner took me under his wing. My first grouping wasn't bad, and when he discovered that I had literally never fired a pistol before that day, he spent a fair amount of time helping me to improve my stance and grip, and giving me pointers.
That said, I come from a long line of excellent shooters. My mom was a marksman, growing up in New Mexico, and my oldest sister used to be the dove hunting champion among their hunting friends in Texas, which as you know is a serious marksmanship skill.
My favorite gun was one we bought together for me, which was a British Webley .455 breakopen service revolver, which I absolutely loved. The gentleman I purchased it from gave us two cylinders for it, one for the original .455 ammo, and one for .45 ACP, which made it a whole lot cheaper to practice!
I no longer own guns, but I always loved target shooting, and had a blast while I was doing it regularly.
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I could never get the "hang" of dove hunting. Man, to be able to have that Webley now! I bet is shot as smooth as a Cadillac!
I started teaching my daughter to shoot when she was about 10 or so(22 now) and she always shot whatever I was shooting. I'd have grown men complain about shotguns or .45 ACP and there was my little girl slinging lead like it was nothing! lol I taught my wife to shoot all of the guns in the house and I bought her a S & W m& P Shield 9mm as a concealed carry gun.
Thanks for coming by and commenting.
As a woman of small frame, 5' 2" tall and, at my proper weight, around 100 - 115 pounds, I always found my Mark IV and the Webley about the easiest guns to shoot accurately, as because the guns were relatively heavy, they had virtually no recoil.
They were great guns for small women, though clearly, not as great for concealed carry.
Gary had a .357 magnum that I didn't like nearly as well, because the charge was more powerful, while the gun was far lighter, and it was therefore harder to control. And nowhere near as accurate, which was mostly the sights, though the weight played a role.
And the one time he had me shoot his .45 magnum, which was a Ruger .44 magnum bored out to accept .45, I was NOT amused. He did not bother to inform me what I was shooting, and quite frankly, I damned near dislocated both shoulders, because I held it like I held my .45 ACP, which was NOT adequate to the power of the weapon.
I pretty much considered him a big fat jerk that day.
I should also note, in case you haven't figured it out by now, that I'm a history buff, and love historical weapons, which is why I was so in love with the Webley. And yes, it was a pleasure to shoot, though it's sights weren't quite as accurate as the Mark IV, so for defense I would have definitely have chosen the latter.
Then again, the Webley I had was a post war mashup of spare parts, so they basically took whatever spare parts were around and made a gun. Not one of the serial numbers matched. But still, it was a formidable weapon, and a pleasure to shoot.
That was the onely one I got pissed about. When we split up, Gary took back all the guns he gave me, which since most had been his long before we got together, I had no problem with him taking them back.
But the Webley I chose, we bought it for me, and when he took that one too, I considered it stolen. And still do.
My true love is a 17th century wheellock, but to date, I've never gotten the chance to work with one.
And, naturally, they are nowhere near as accurate as modern weapons, but what works of art! Truly marvels of engineering in their day.
My daughter is small framed as well and she preferred the heavier guns too.
I would have been livid about him taking the Webley! My first wife did something similar with a few bonzai trees I had raised and trained...exes! lol
Yeah, I was pretty livid at the time, but at the same time, when weighing getting the Webley back versus having to have further contact with him . . . I was willing to let it go in order to not have to see him. ;-)
Lol I understand completely!