Shooter Review #1

January 11, 2015

A friend’s girlfriend brought her two daughters to the range yesterday 11 and 14. While I was initially concerned due to the fact that, aside from my son (8), I have never had kids I don’t personally know on the firing line, however, I forgot one thing:
…These are Southern Girls.
From the .22lr, to the .40cal, 12-gauge…there was not one issue of safety at all, and the accuracy was better than some adult shooters I have seen…
…Then the 14 year old got her hands on the Mosin-Nagant.
She had made it a point to say only once that she wanted to shoot it, but the statement masked an ability which impressed the small crowd which had gathered once we transitioned to the rifle range. While loading from the stripper clips (the “salo” types mentioned previously) gave her grief, hand loading was quick, and round after round was sent towards the steel target we were fortunate enough to have from leftover shooters. If there was any question about who wanted to shoot next, she waited approximately a half a second before quickly saying,”No? Ok, I’ll keep going.”
For a first time shooter on a rifle probably older than her grandparents, she pinged the 100 yd target about 75% of the time and when the last round disappeared into the already-set sun, she was about as disappointed as a starving vegetarian at a butcher shop.
So… the Mosin has another fan, and the 14 year old has a bit of research due to me about Lyudmila Pavlichenko before she gets to shoot again…
Yet another way to inspire the next generation of historians.