doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Starting a new shooter

I agree about getting the shooter to break a target or two right off the bat. This normally happens with people with some shooting experience but it’s been my experience that someone who’s never shouldered a gun (or shot very little) doesn’t intuitively know how to look down the barrel.

The first four steps take about ten or twelve minutes. These are very rudimentary checks to make sure:

1. The shooter is not cross eye dominant, (remarkably common these days)
2. The gun can be held comfortably by the shooter
3. The shooter is leaning into the gun instead of adopting the classic offhand rifle shooter stance
4. The shooter’s head is positioned so the gun will shoot where they look.

In the case of Cassandra, my student on Saturday, her original head position would have kept her from hitting a target at all had I not corrected it. Her eye was completely out of alignment with the rib by at least an inch in both vertical and horizontal. Looking down the barrel (not recommended to show this to a new shooter after just telling them to never point a gun at something they don’t mind shooting) is the only way I know to ascertain if their head is in the right place. This is why I have a mirror on a post at the 5 Stand. I can have them point at my right eye in the mirror and I can see right down the rib to the shooters eye.

The gun weight is a huge issue with small women and kids. I have the shooter rest the gun on the rail between shots and hold it for them when we are talking. To a hundred pound woman, a six pound gun feels like a 10 pound gun to a 180 pound man. Add that to the fact they aren’t used to holding something in that position and the weight becomes a big thing. Some kids I’ve taught weighed less than 70 pounds.

My wife, Cherie is a strong girl and she doesn’t like guns over seven pounds. By the way, when Cherie teaches, she tells women to stick their butts out and smacks them on the butt when they revert to leaning back.

I think the ideal arrangement, as strange as it sounds is to start shooters who have little upper body strength with a butt heavy gun. It takes the strain off their left arm and the weight in the butt helps to absorb some of the recoil. Weight behind the center of the mass makes the front feel lighter. While experienced shooters need the weight to keep the gun moving smoothly, beginners have trouble getting the gun to move at all.

What you need to start out with isn’t what you need later especially if you don’t have much strength.
The idea of the cast on stock is a good one. I find that most women need a greater amount of drop at the heel as well or, at least, for the toe to be lower. Women seem to need to have the butt higher in their shoulders in my experience.

Jim,
The safety instruction is a given and happens before we step up to a station.

What do you guys think about the stationary target thing? I have mixed feelings but I’ve had problems with folks who just need a little work to shoot where they look.

I also noticed some flinch with Cassandra during our session, I used the old rifle range trick of “ball and dummy” to let her know what was happening without telling her. I just closed the gun on an empty bottom chamber and let her see what happened. We talked about her follow through and the problem went away (we switched to the ¾ ounce loads at that time as well)

The problem of looking at the barrels is a big one. A new shooter has to reference something and yet you don’t want them to “sight” down the barrels. I’ve not quite figured how to approach that except to tell them to focus on the target and see the barrels in their peripheral vision. It’s the best way I can figure how to put it. Any suggestions there?

Do any of you tell a new shooter to shift from a general awareness of the space where the target will go and then switch to a focus on the target when that appears? How do you handle that?