Monday, January 17, 2005
The False Promise of the .22.....starting new shooters with major calibers
Benjamin over at Reasonablenut has a very interesting post up about the dangers of starting a new shooter out with a .22 rimfire.
Another reason I have for agreeing with the idea of starting new shooters out with a big bore is that for many of them it is simply more fun. My 11 year old son Nathan is a good example. I have one of the neatest .22 revolvers ever made: a Colt Frontier Scout. It looks and feels like a 3/4 scale Peacemaker -- because that's what it is. I think it's a blast to shoot and assumed my kids would like to shoot Dad's "cowboy gun." Wrong. Nate prefers to shoot a .45 acp.
Nathan with "his" .45 - note the ejected case in the right foreground.
Now before both of my readers (Ha! There are that many?) send me nastygrams telling me how letting him shoot a full size .45 at his age will cause wrist damage, terminal flinching, an itchy flaking scalp and that not so fresh feeling, I'll explain my twist to the "big bores for newbies" game.
I reload. I reload a lot. A typical day at the range for myself and the two kids involves several thousands of rounds. Don't get me wrong....there is no "spray firing from the hip" allowed. Every shot counts. There are 3 of us shooting and we shoot all day. All day. Dawn to dark all day. No matter what John Kerry says, I'm far from being rich. I have to reload in order to afford to shoot as much as I do.
This gives me an advantage.
My usual .45acp load is 4.7 grains of WST with a 200 grain lead semi-wadcutter. This load produces 875 fps from a 5 inch barrel and easily meets the requirements for a major power factor in IPSC competition. I run a Wolff 18 pound recoil spring with this load.
For the kids, I load 3.5 grains of Bullseye with the same 200 grain lead semi-wadcutter. This lowers the velocity down to 625 fps and requires a 12 pound recoil spring. If I remember correctly, this load doesn't even break the threshold for an IPSC minor power factor.
If all these numbers don't mean anything to you, let me just say that I've cooked up some special light loads for the .45 that my kids shoot. Loads light enough that I had to change the springs inside the gun in order for it to still function.
I did something similar for the .357 that my daughter likes to shoot. The powder puff .38 special loads that I developed for her actually have less recoil than the .22 Frontier Scout. I apologize for not having any pictures of Kathy shooting a 6 inch N-frame Smith and Wesson (think Dirty Harry). I'll get some ASAP.
Nate at work
Why do I go to all this trouble? Why not just hand the kids a .22 pistol and say "Shoot this until your bigger." Why? Because that's not what they want. They want to shoot the big ones....just like Dad. Who am I to argue with them? Especially when they're so well armed..................
"His argument is that consequently, people do not respect the .22 and Newbies treat it like it was a Red Ryder BB gun. We had a recent guest who managed to point a Model 41 S&W at his own foot when he perceived it to have jammed. In reality, it had, but this numbnuts had no idea how to diagnose that and should have kept the muzzle downrange."I hadn't really thought about this until I read the article, but he (or rather his old man) has a good point. Even after the "watermelon demonstration" and the "full can of soda demonstration" to show what a .22 rimfire could do, I really think that my kids learned to be safe more from a fear of Dear Old Dad than fear over what a .22 can do.
Another reason I have for agreeing with the idea of starting new shooters out with a big bore is that for many of them it is simply more fun. My 11 year old son Nathan is a good example. I have one of the neatest .22 revolvers ever made: a Colt Frontier Scout. It looks and feels like a 3/4 scale Peacemaker -- because that's what it is. I think it's a blast to shoot and assumed my kids would like to shoot Dad's "cowboy gun." Wrong. Nate prefers to shoot a .45 acp.
Nathan with "his" .45 - note the ejected case in the right foreground.
Now before both of my readers (Ha! There are that many?) send me nastygrams telling me how letting him shoot a full size .45 at his age will cause wrist damage, terminal flinching, an itchy flaking scalp and that not so fresh feeling, I'll explain my twist to the "big bores for newbies" game.
I reload. I reload a lot. A typical day at the range for myself and the two kids involves several thousands of rounds. Don't get me wrong....there is no "spray firing from the hip" allowed. Every shot counts. There are 3 of us shooting and we shoot all day. All day. Dawn to dark all day. No matter what John Kerry says, I'm far from being rich. I have to reload in order to afford to shoot as much as I do.
This gives me an advantage.
My usual .45acp load is 4.7 grains of WST with a 200 grain lead semi-wadcutter. This load produces 875 fps from a 5 inch barrel and easily meets the requirements for a major power factor in IPSC competition. I run a Wolff 18 pound recoil spring with this load.
For the kids, I load 3.5 grains of Bullseye with the same 200 grain lead semi-wadcutter. This lowers the velocity down to 625 fps and requires a 12 pound recoil spring. If I remember correctly, this load doesn't even break the threshold for an IPSC minor power factor.
If all these numbers don't mean anything to you, let me just say that I've cooked up some special light loads for the .45 that my kids shoot. Loads light enough that I had to change the springs inside the gun in order for it to still function.
I did something similar for the .357 that my daughter likes to shoot. The powder puff .38 special loads that I developed for her actually have less recoil than the .22 Frontier Scout. I apologize for not having any pictures of Kathy shooting a 6 inch N-frame Smith and Wesson (think Dirty Harry). I'll get some ASAP.
Nate at work
Why do I go to all this trouble? Why not just hand the kids a .22 pistol and say "Shoot this until your bigger." Why? Because that's not what they want. They want to shoot the big ones....just like Dad. Who am I to argue with them? Especially when they're so well armed..................
