I have hesitated posting this here, but can't resist. This was written & happened two weeks ago:
For years I have been hoping my wife would come to the range with me someday. About a year back, she began making mention of coming "sometime" but I did not push and neither did she.
A bit of background: she comes from a family where dad had guns but kept them hidden. Mom does not really like guns. My wife never was exposed to them and was scared when I brought the first one home...
Fast forward years and we have a gunsafe full of evil black rifles, I carry daily, and today she decided that we needed to hire a babysitter and take her to the range.
Her only real concern was her hands which have tendon issues and was clear that light trigger pulls were a must.
So off to the range we went with a truckload of fun: (3x AK's, 1 AR, 1 S&W 66, 1 Kimber, 1 J-Frame). And then problem 1 arose:
My range was under 5+ feet of water!
No joke. 20 minute drive to find the range was unusable.
Time to re-tool. The babysitter was good for another 4 hours so we had to choose between an in door range 40 minutes further on (Pop's Guns), or an outside range 1 hour away (Riley Conservation Club). So we headed to the in door one even though we would not be able to get the rifles running.
We had a nice drive and get to Pop's Guns to find that half their bays are out of order and there is a line. So we wait. I figured at any moment my wife would call it off, but she stuck it out. As it turns out she got to meet some nice young people also waiting who were as far from her "bubba" fears as possible. It was the perfect day to run into a young couple wearing Ani DeFranco t-shirts!
1 hour we wait.
Then we get our turn. We get to our bay. I load up the 66 with light 38 loads and the guy with the glock next to us opens up. My wife jumps out of her skin and again I think we are ready to go early. Nope, she stays even though she jumps every time the glock fires. I point out she is jumping less each time and that the room is an echo chamber.
So I put one round in the 66 and find out she has problems with it's weight. We work on that and then she lets go the first round. BANG! It is far more than she expected. And far, far louder. She is more than ready to go, you can see it in her eyes, yet she refuses to leave.
She lets me let loose with the Kimber and when I turn back she is still there and no longer jumping when the glock guy fires. She wants to fire the 66 one last time but is sure she does not like it. And that is exactly what happened.
So, I suggest we rent a smaller gun and see how that goes. So 2 minutes later with a Walther P22 in hand she is banging away and doing well. In fact, she is liking it!
We ended up putting a good amount of .22lr down range and she felt really good about it. We only packed up to leave because 4 thuggish guys showed up to shoot and I was done. (Happily too as 3 minutes later I see one of them clearing a doublefeed with finger on the trigger and firearm pointing at his buddy).
And the coupe de gras - on the way home my wife asks how much .22lr costs. I tell her it is cheap to shoot and she corrects me - "Not the Ammo, the gun. Can we get one to keep?"
I told her I would get one tomorrow.
Then the UBER coupe de gras - "If I end up with a gun at some point, should I just get a carry permit this week? Is the lifetime permit expensive?"
I teared up.
Today SHOULD HAVE gone so very wrong. But with the right woman, even the worst series of events can go exactly right.
For years I have been hoping my wife would come to the range with me someday. About a year back, she began making mention of coming "sometime" but I did not push and neither did she.
A bit of background: she comes from a family where dad had guns but kept them hidden. Mom does not really like guns. My wife never was exposed to them and was scared when I brought the first one home...
Fast forward years and we have a gunsafe full of evil black rifles, I carry daily, and today she decided that we needed to hire a babysitter and take her to the range.
Her only real concern was her hands which have tendon issues and was clear that light trigger pulls were a must.
So off to the range we went with a truckload of fun: (3x AK's, 1 AR, 1 S&W 66, 1 Kimber, 1 J-Frame). And then problem 1 arose:
My range was under 5+ feet of water!
No joke. 20 minute drive to find the range was unusable.
Time to re-tool. The babysitter was good for another 4 hours so we had to choose between an in door range 40 minutes further on (Pop's Guns), or an outside range 1 hour away (Riley Conservation Club). So we headed to the in door one even though we would not be able to get the rifles running.
We had a nice drive and get to Pop's Guns to find that half their bays are out of order and there is a line. So we wait. I figured at any moment my wife would call it off, but she stuck it out. As it turns out she got to meet some nice young people also waiting who were as far from her "bubba" fears as possible. It was the perfect day to run into a young couple wearing Ani DeFranco t-shirts!
1 hour we wait.
Then we get our turn. We get to our bay. I load up the 66 with light 38 loads and the guy with the glock next to us opens up. My wife jumps out of her skin and again I think we are ready to go early. Nope, she stays even though she jumps every time the glock fires. I point out she is jumping less each time and that the room is an echo chamber.
So I put one round in the 66 and find out she has problems with it's weight. We work on that and then she lets go the first round. BANG! It is far more than she expected. And far, far louder. She is more than ready to go, you can see it in her eyes, yet she refuses to leave.
She lets me let loose with the Kimber and when I turn back she is still there and no longer jumping when the glock guy fires. She wants to fire the 66 one last time but is sure she does not like it. And that is exactly what happened.
So, I suggest we rent a smaller gun and see how that goes. So 2 minutes later with a Walther P22 in hand she is banging away and doing well. In fact, she is liking it!
We ended up putting a good amount of .22lr down range and she felt really good about it. We only packed up to leave because 4 thuggish guys showed up to shoot and I was done. (Happily too as 3 minutes later I see one of them clearing a doublefeed with finger on the trigger and firearm pointing at his buddy).
And the coupe de gras - on the way home my wife asks how much .22lr costs. I tell her it is cheap to shoot and she corrects me - "Not the Ammo, the gun. Can we get one to keep?"
I told her I would get one tomorrow.
Then the UBER coupe de gras - "If I end up with a gun at some point, should I just get a carry permit this week? Is the lifetime permit expensive?"
I teared up.
Today SHOULD HAVE gone so very wrong. But with the right woman, even the worst series of events can go exactly right.
Great story. 
, and congratulations on a great range day and a better lady. 
So right then, we had a show-and-tell session and I explained how to check, load and unload everything I had at the time, and the 4 rules of gun safety. No interest in live fire, and I didn't push the issue. Some time passes, and she comes to me with another revelation. "I should probably learn how to use one of your guns, in case someone breaks in while you're not home." Well, if you're going to hold the door, least I can do is oblige you by walking through... 
