by Jack
Just for instructional purposes I rigged up a target in my living room and let my daughter practice with a semi-auto Colt 1911. At 25 feet she hit the target (a sheet of typing paper) every time and four times she hit a small black dot in the middle. She only shot about 30 times, so I thought she did pretty well considering we were working on her grip.
My main objective was to get her comfortable with a new grip and to develop her muscle memory. Also to work on hand-eye coordination. Tomorrow I think we will work on her fast draw and weak-hand shooting.
This particular 1911 is perfect for indoor practice since it only fires 6 mm plastic balls under CO2 pressure. But, they come out pretty hot at 500 FPS. The sound is close to a silenced .22. Range for these airsoft pistols is typically under 50 feet, although under 25 feet is ideal for target shooting. The BBs can punch through two layers of cardboard, so I had to keep that in mind when building my BB trap target!
The pistol we use is a Winchester brand, airsoft type. They sell around $90 and its all metal. It has the look, weight, and feel of the real deal right down the thumb safety and slide action. Did you know that our military trains with airsoft weapons? Paintball guns work great and are a heck of a lot safer to learn with than the real McCoys.
We load our sim-pistol with no more than 10 rounds and I make her count her shots, so she always knows where she’s at, a good habit for anyone. Had this been a real .45 auto, the shot placement would have been a tighter, my estimate it would have been about a 1 inch group, but with BB’s, well, they fly a lot different than a spinning bullet. Yeah, she does shoot a .45 on the range too and quite well I might ad.
Over the years (thanks to friends and family) she’s had a lot of fun trying out various caliber handguns and rifles and learning range safety as well as self defense tactics. Her aunt Jan was a grand master competition shooter, so it’s in her genes to enjoy sport shooting and to be pretty darn accurate. As a side note, when it comes to 99% of the handguns out here, I think the ladies have what it takes to be outstanding. They are generally more graceful (smoother) than us guys, they are focused, methodical and determined, all good qualities for a competent shooter.