Six Gun Swede

Should be the name my lovely darling wife takes if she ever decides to take up Cowboy Pistol Shooting. I finally got her to the range yesterday. What a wonderful experience teaching her and helping her overcome her fear of firearms.

Her fear harkens back to when she was younger. As a young girl, back home in Sweden, the only thing she ever fired was a BB gun. And, just like the movie, she got popped by a ricochet. Fortunately, it did nothing to those baby blues. She has had an aversion to guns up until she met my family.

It all started about a month after we started dating. On our way to Navasota for a day of dove shooting, dad was playing with a .357 in the backseat. I am driving and Mrs. Shooter is in the passenger seat. The look on her face was priceless when dad passed her the pistol and asked if she had a problem with guns. She got over that and an up close encounter with the barrel of a 20 ga. to marry me and share my hobby.

She is still hesitant to pick up my 5" XD-40 (affectionately named Roscoe), claiming it is too big for her hands. I did borrow dad's J frame .38 and his Glock 9mm. While I can say she was fair with the .38, Mrs. Shooter was dead-on-balls accurate with that Glock. Of course, this was her first time ever. She still has a long way to go before she is completely comfortable and relaxed around guns. I hope I taught her proper safety and fundamental skills. She was taking her time (LIKE I SHOULD BE DOING!!!) and using her dominant eye. Basic rules applied; focus front sight, breathe and relax, squeeze the trigger.

I will take a pic of the silhoutte and let you decide for yourself how well she did. She was very proud of herself, and rightly so! She stated that the fear is now overcome, although she is still a little hesitant. This calls for a new gun! I need to go and celebrate this wonderful occasion. Maybe that nice S&W686 I have been drooling over. Or, I can go with the neat little Walther P22 with compensator. But what color of Walther to get? Maybe the purple one. Yeah, that's it. Something that she can color coordinate with. Of course, you know what they say about black, throw on some pearls and you are ready for formal wear! (thank you Robin Williams!)

Shooter say bye-bye!