M&P 15-22, wife's first time shooting ever

[CS1983]

Got this rifle for a cheap trainer a while ago ( high volume reflexive firing, etc.) -- keeping it simple, keeping it relatively stock. Only change I've made so far is I swapped out the factory stock with a magpul takeoff from my SPR since it now has a PRS stock. I may put on a red dot to bring that aspect in line with my AR pistol, but have yet to make the decision.

My buddy also got the same one and yesterday we took out our wives to the free range in BV. Been married almost three years and she just now has gotten up the willingness to shoot -- likely made easier by finally having a female shooting partner.

Night before my wife and I went over the basics (safety, parts of the weapon and their basic function, how to hold, etc.). Buddy did the same with his wife. Did some dry fire work with both women on my regular AR, since rimfire doesn't afford that opportunity. Both were slapping the trigger and had to be shown that it's a squeeze, not a slap.

At ~10 yards, using Aguila 40gr copper plated solids (functions well in this rifle, including with rapid firing), here's my wife's first time shooting a real gun, ever; with irons:



center = zero process -- still a little low/right but good enough for establishing consistency, then on to 6 in lower right, 3/3 top r and low l.

Buddy's wife put out similar performance, though her target was a little worse for wear as I hadn't understood that she didn't understand proper sight alignment explanation and we had to re-zero -- turns out using the bottom of the front sight is not nearly as effective as the tip. Her husband is a former Marine, so he is going to go over PMI stuff with her in more depth at home.

The 15-22 is quickly becoming my favorite gun to take to the range. Highly economical, user functions are close enough to a real AR to afford mag change training, etc. Did around 100 rounds of reflexive training with my buddy at the whopping cost of $8. Even with junk ammo in a regular AR, that would have been what... $30? I estimate at after 1k rounds, this thing will "pay" for itself.

By the end of it, my wife was really confident and was reminding buddy's wife of things like "No, your bolt's already back so when you put in a fresh mag just hit the bolt release".

Both were docile and thus highly teachable. Once she gains some more confidence, I'm going to send her to a class to get nitty gritty and repetitious.

Next time I think I'll introduce her to the savage bolt .22 w/ a can. we'll work on more dry fire w/ the regular AR too.

[Snowman78]

Sounds like a great time, thanks for sharing!

[vossman]

They're great guns, looks like your spouse did well too.

[pickenup]

Great that you finally got her out there.
Now watch out, some ladies are naturals. They could be out-shooting you in no time. LOL

[Shooter45]

Good job! I bought my mother one and she shoots it amazing. This one is very picky on ammo and loves the cheap stuff from Remington printing just under 1" at 50 yds. Keep taking your wife out and make it fun; she'll get very expensive but worth it.

[cstone]

Great that you finally got her out there.
Now watch out, some ladies are naturals. They could be out-shooting you in no time. LOL

Most women that I have shot with aren't burdened with the ego that I apparently carry everywhere into everything I do. While my wife still isn't interested in firearms, she routinely out shoots me with a recurve bow. Like Yoda said, size matters not. Being teachable is an awesome skill.

Good on you CavSct1983. Be safe.

[Shooter45]

+1

[CS1983]

I fully expected it to be awful, so when she started putting down consistent groups I told her our next goal is to get her to SDM status. She wants to learn how to operate the shotgun next. Glad I bought a bunch of low recoil buckshot on sale (will start her out on bird shot -- she saw some guys shooting clays and said, "that looks way more fun than the guys sitting there on the long range".) I don't think she'll say that when she finally plinks a steel prairie dog in the head at 500 meters.

[Shooter45]

Keep it up man and good job. Teach her right and she'll get good fast. As said earlier in the post, women learn shooting faster then men most of the time because they listen and don't have the ego about another man telling them how to do something.
Here's a picture of my fiances target at 600 yards last year. Her first time on a bolt gun..

[CS1983]

Nice! That's good shooting.