Well, maybe it’s actually the one-and-only Girls-Only Peep Shoot and Melon Exploding Expo. It was kind of an impromptu thing.
Yesterday, my friends Gerri and Lorri (not their real names) and I braved rain and ankle-deep mud to spend a couple hours at a local quarry blowing away paper targets, those obnoxious little Easter Peeps, and (finally) rotten cantaloupes.
The main purpose of the excursion was to get Lorri shooting again. Between the ages of five and 13 she was quite the marksgirl, taught by a loving father who liked to take her hunting. Then her dad dropped dead. She hasn’t fired a gun in more than 50 years.
Second purpose was “when the boys are away, the girls will play.” Gerri’s husband and sons were gone for the week to Boy Scout camp and she gets restless when “all” she has to do is run a demanding business, serve on every civic board in the county, and take care of herself.
Third purpose was … just because. I haven’t shot my guns since returning to the Pacific NorthWET (and oh my, was it ever soggy) and not too often in the years before that. It needed doing.
So out we went, despite Gerri’s fears that her husband would never forgive her if she took the family firearms out in the rain.
But heck, this is the northwest coast. If you don’t go out in the rain, you don’t go out.
Here’s Gerri with the first trophy of the day: a dead Peep. Nasty little varmint, isn’t it? (G. told me she always wanted to have one of those black bars over her face in a photo; so G., this is just for you.)
And here’s a closeup of the fatal wound. WARNING: graphic content. Not for the weak of stomach!
And here’s L. shooting a Mini-14: We started her out with a .22 revolver, but in no time at all, her childhood skills kicked in and she was happily (and accurately) shooting everything we brought.
Alas, we learned from G. that firearm sexism is still not dead. We’ve come a long way since the days that gun-store clerks would automatically pawn a .25 off on the “little lady” looking for a self-defense gun. But not far enough, apparently. G. told me about a friend of her husband’s who insists — simply insists — that “no woman can shoot a 9-mil.” What he means is that “no woman can shoot any semi-auto” because all women hold guns with limp arms and wrists, preventing the gun from cycling properly.
Well, Mr. Sexist Pig, if you’re out there, here’s G. proving you wrong:
And here’s Lorri. Who’s in her mid-60s, hasn’t shot a gun in five decades, has hands so crippled with arthritis it’s painful to look at them, and has had multiple injuries and surgeries on her neck, back, and shoulders.
L.’s damaged hands shot everything up to my Glock 21, no problem. Here’s a closeup from when she was just getting going with the .22 revolver, but she took on every firearm we had with aplomb. The .45ACP was a bit painful on her arms, she said. But she never even got a case of the flinchies — pretty amazing for someone who hasn’t fired a gun in that long.
Well. So much for that silly myth.
Together, the three of us killed ourselves a respectable number of Peeps:
But the highlight was concluding the shoot by slaughtering a few vicious, slimy, no-good melons:
A good time was had by all. Except the Peeps and melons, of course. But who cares about them?
I’ll return to the series of “Responsibility in a Police State” rants early next week. In the meantime, I’m off to see Harry Potter, then upgrade my operating system. I’m still using Linux Mint 8 (Helena), but Linux Mint 11 (Katya) has been waiting patiently for a couple of weeks. The upgrade really needs doing. If I properly back up and reinstall all the config stuff that needs porting, I should be with you again soon. If I screw up … we’ll see.
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And a thank-you hug to another girly L (and charming J), whose paper targets are still getting happy use after all these years.
Looks like a lot of fun was had. My mother has athritic hands and prefers a single action revolver. She can cock it with the heal of her off hand easier than with her thumb. The rolling effect of recoil is easier on deteriorating joints too.
Outstanding! Well done ladies…trigger time is good time…that butler creek folder works well with the mini eh?
Outstanding. I will admit I had not thought of using Peeps before. I wonder how they’d hold up against a 525-grain 45/70?
If you or yours ever manage to make it up to our neck of the woods (Kenai Peninsula) I would *love* to play host for such a shindig. I may not be able to purely satisfy the girls-only demographic, but I am not above going in drag for such a purpose, either.
I had a good thing going back in Colorado, working with several buddies’ wives and friends, apparently on a reputation I didn’t know I’d acquired, and somehow almost all the ladies I worked with wound up taking to 45s and 308s, with big grins and lots of clangs (and more than once, more clangs than the instructor!). The best was working with one thoroughly magnificent human being whose unusual disability was that the proximal portions of her limbs were very weak while the distal portions were ‘almost normal’; we worked at this for a while and came up with “jackass” variants of most basic positions that allowed her to hit reliably. Not, er, “tacticool”, but functional, and while she understood quite clearly what this skill might mean to her, she was still not expecting to have quite so much fun with it.
I miss that. Although my better half has mentioned a couple of possibles among the folks we’ve met thus far, it just hasn’t seemed to work out yet. The best I’ve been able to manage since we arrived in Alaska was my then-nine-year-old nephew. While that was a blast, I’ll admit I’ve got fingers crossed for more. 🙂
It’s exciting to know that a useful purpose for Peeps has finally been discovered! Great shooting! I probably couldn’t hit a peep unless I was standing at 5′ and using a shotgun.
>>G. told me about a friend of her husband’s who insists — simply insists — that “no woman can shoot a 9-mil.”<<
Sigh……Why is it idiots insist on loudly proclaiming their idiocy to all the world? Once during a defensive hand gun class we had a guy and his wife attending. The guy was a member of the National Guard. He made sure to tell everyone that he already knew how to shoot and was only attending because his wife wanted him to. He also made sure he told everyone he was shooting a manly .45 but his wife was shooting a .380 because the .45 was too much gun for a mere woman. By the end of the class his wife could shoot the .45 FAR better than he could. She consistently shot one hole groups at 7 yards while he could barely manage 6 inch groups. Of course he refused to use the techniques we were teaching because he was using Army techniques. Lord save us if we ever need the NG to defend our borders from thundering hoards of barbarians. Testosterone poisoning does strange things to some guys.
Glad to hear you have a G21. I love mine.
Leaving aside my ex, who though by no means a large woman insisted on renting and shooting a Desert Eagle .50, as well as on buying and shooting her own .44 Magnum (she was a better shot than I was, including with those two guns), I’ve seen tiny women fire a 1911 in .45 ACP with perfect aplomb and a great deal of accuracy.
Indeed the person with the worst muscle tone of any adult I’ve ever known was able to shoot a .45 quite adeptly.
Beyond the (still-real) sexism we also have persistent myths about recoil. Until you get up to crazy levels – I’d probably at least try a Freedom Arms SA in .454 Casull – or unless you have physical issues, dealing with recoil’s simply a matter of proper grip and stance.
Into the breach once more… I’ve noticed that a lot of woman (maybe even a majority) and some men can’t shoot an auto pistol once they become fatigued. Not to out any female cops of my acquaintance, but I just had a chance to see this last weekend with an issue Glock 23.
My current girlfriend walks four miles a day and goes to the gym 5 days a week (kettlebells twice a week, yoga twice a week, and circuit training on Fridays). She does fine, so it’s not everyone, but few women I know of are like her (actually, I’m not like her ;), she has physical gifts that only a handful of 50 plus women and men possess. If you’re one of those persons who is physically strong than this won’t apply to you. Arthritis and other conditions, including ageitis, can lessen our strength in finer muscles like the hands and forearms. I urge all woman who own auto pistols to get training and shoot late in the day so at least they will know what the problems are. Adrenalin and time will make us all tired, much more tired than I ever see written about, and this leads to “interesting” quirks of the particular shooter coming out. Anyone under serious stress for longer than 5 minutes will begin to feel the effects. OK, I’ve had my say, cleans yourself of my heresy until your feminist panties return to the unbunched.
I would be interested in knowing which guns Lorri tried that strained her neck and shoulders the least. That’s where I’m weakest.
Great replies — as usual!
Ellendra — The .22 revolver was the gun Lorri seemed to shoot most comfortably. But OTOH, she was also unbothered by a S&W revolver loaded with .38 special, a 9mm Ruger, and the .223 rifle. In fact, the only gun she said caused her discomfort was the Glock 21. But then, she didn’t shoot any of the firearms for a sustained period. We switched around a lot.
“Arthritis and other conditions, including ageitis, can lessen our strength in finer muscles like the hands and forearms. I urge all woman who own auto pistols to get training and shoot late in the day so at least they will know what the problems are. Adrenalin and time will make us all tired, much more tired than I ever see written about, and this leads to “interesting” quirks of the particular shooter coming out.”
I have to agree with EN here. Later in the day is a bad time to shoot. And carpal tunnels with weak, painful thumbs, plus arthritis in my fingers, make pistols hard for me to pull the slide mechanism. Same is true for cocking my .357 revolver, but I’ve learned to use both forefingers to fire without cocking first. Not the best technique, but at least it gets the trigger pulled fast, and without double-action, which is better than firing slow or not at all. (Easier to use a rifle, actually.) I’ve had no trouble with recoil, and accuracy has not diminished — if anything, it’s improved.
(Don’t worry about sexism, EN; reality is more important. To all weak women: if the shoe fits, wear it — and learn to compensate.)
Tell “Gerri” that her soon-to-be-Montanan cousin thinks she is the coolest! I loved this post, Claire. God bless all of you mountain women for showing all the prissy girls out there HOW IT’S DONE! 🙂
My mom has a aging Charter Arms .38 special that she used to shoot on a fairly regular basis with no problems. My grandmother had a Snake Charmer .410, a oddball 28 guage(hard to find ammo for),and a 16 guage(all of them were essentially pest control). Both could be considered average size women. My cousin Houdie used to be well under a hundred pounds(at about 5’4″, and fired large caliber pistols/rifles of all kinds(my uncle had dozens of guns).
Almost all of the female types I’ve known-family, friends, or otherwise, also carried knives..(one was a Swiss Army Knife with truly vile magenta colored handles..)
“a woman can’t handle a 9mm”? that used to be “…can’t handle a .45, either way, “horse pucky”. my daughter was shooting my m1911a1 .45 at age 14, she later bought her own govt. model 9mm and still has it at age 40, along with a 9mm ruger p85. some years ago a female friend came visiting down from canada, we took her to the local range, she’d never fired a handgun before, she fell in love with my .45 and was righteously annoyed to learn she would not be allowed to buy or own one at home in canada. my wife prefers a .380 but thats her her choice, she feels the .45 is a little big for her hands, but we’ve got enough guns in the house that she can try out anything she wishes. a “gun for a woman” is any gun she likes and is comfortable shooting.
further thought, i suspect that “a woman can’t handle…(insert gun name/caliber) goes to “i carry a big man’s gun to match my big man ego.” problem with that is one of these days some gal is going to step up to the line with her favourite .45 long colt, .45 acp, .44 magnum, .357 magnum 9mm para or what ever, and righteously clean his clock, and make it look easy.
After shoulder surgery, my wife could no longer shoot her Ruger .357 Magnum, but she does fine with a Bersa .380. My daughter does well with a Glock 17. My daughter-in-law shoots a .357 Magnum (don’t know the make). If any gun dealer ever tries to palm off a “ladies gun” on them, my advice would be to go to another store, where they’ll be respected.