Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Testing the user

I took a co-worker shooting this weekend. She has two guns, but had never shot either of them. She wound up bringing only one, an Arminius .38 revolver--She didn't know how to unload the other.

The Arminius is a K-Mart special sort of gun, almost literally--under another name, it was sold at K-Mart back in the day. This one wasn't obviously horrible, but it also wasn't as well-finished as a Smith or Ruger. Rather than the traditional cylinder release, you pulled the ejector, the grips are plastic, and the trigger pull is a good bit harder than I am used to.

The experience shows how important it is to test fire any gun you may be relying on for self-defense--She has arthritis, and was unable to pull the trigger double-action with one finger, and unable to cock the hammer. She had no problem with any of my guns, including my double-action-only J frame revolver. Usually I'd say a revolver is an excellent choice for a non-gun person. Not in this case, with this combination of person and gun. The only way she was able to fire it was to use the index finger of her support hand to help, and it took her several seconds to shoot.

Her other gun is some sort of mousegun-She thinks it is a Browning .25, but is unsure. I'm going to recommend that she sell them off and buy something she can shoot, in a 9mm or larger caliber.

3 comments:

  1. Good post.

    If you don't mind an unsolicited suggestion, get a look at that other gun she has and unload the damn thing!

    James

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  2. If she didn't live so far, I would. The ex that gave her the guns refused to unload them or to show her how.

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  3. "The ex that gave her the guns refused to unload them or to show her how."

    What a dirtbag!

    James

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