So I took another new shooter out today. A young man of 86, who's daughter just got into shooting, who had handgun he wanted to learn how to shoot the pistol hes owned for the past few years that he got for home defense so obviously I said yes.
Got him to the range and got to see what he owned. A Taurus 85 ultralite.
Which was 'recommended' to him from who I do not know, I'd guess a salesman.
So we loaded it up to put the first five rounds down range annnnd... we found out the DA pull was much to heavy for him. It took him several tries for each round or it would skip and hop to the next round. Luckily with some effort he could get it into SA.
Now my dislike of Taurus aside, it does have a pretty heavy gritty trigger but nothing I couldn't deal with staging made it better but he couldn't even get to that point. It was really a bummer.
He tried the steel 9mm I had with me but didn't like the recoil. I hadn't brought anything else to use because he just wanted to try his. (my bad) So his great first day @ the range was just about ruined and he was packing up to go home early very discouraged.
Then the day was saved by the most ignored gun I own... no less. In a toolbox in the plowtruck was a .38 I leave in there because it was ruined when and got it and it couldn't get much worse. I don't have an Image but this is the closest I could find on google.
HS-6 3" mines half lug and no vents but its the same frame. I had almost forgotten about it. Finish was ruined by some chemical that the prior owner tried out. Ugly but it performed! and it turned the entire day around for him. He was grouping about 6" in SA and about 12" in DA @ 7 yards.
He very much liked the heft of the gun. He liked the lightness of the UL until shooting it game in to play. The full sized grips and hammer spur also went over very well. The lighter smooth DA and larger adjustable sights really took the cake for him. 'And its a six shooter! like the cowboys!'
So me being the softy I am I sent the HS6 home with him for the time being. A SD gun isn't much use if you can't use it. He plans on returning it after he replaces his UL with something. I plan on talking to his daughter and getting her to buy him a nice surplus model 10 for him hopefully that action is nice and worn in.
Got him to the range and got to see what he owned. A Taurus 85 ultralite.
Which was 'recommended' to him from who I do not know, I'd guess a salesman. So we loaded it up to put the first five rounds down range annnnd... we found out the DA pull was much to heavy for him. It took him several tries for each round or it would skip and hop to the next round. Luckily with some effort he could get it into SA.
Now my dislike of Taurus aside, it does have a pretty heavy gritty trigger but nothing I couldn't deal with staging made it better but he couldn't even get to that point. It was really a bummer.
He tried the steel 9mm I had with me but didn't like the recoil. I hadn't brought anything else to use because he just wanted to try his.
(my bad) So his great first day @ the range was just about ruined and he was packing up to go home early very discouraged.Then the day was saved by the most ignored gun I own... no less. In a toolbox in the plowtruck was a .38 I leave in there because it was ruined when and got it and it couldn't get much worse. I don't have an Image but this is the closest I could find on google.
HS-6 3" mines half lug and no vents but its the same frame. I had almost forgotten about it. Finish was ruined by some chemical that the prior owner tried out. Ugly but it performed! and it turned the entire day around for him. He was grouping about 6" in SA and about 12" in DA @ 7 yards.
He very much liked the heft of the gun. He liked the lightness of the UL until shooting it game in to play. The full sized grips and hammer spur also went over very well. The lighter smooth DA and larger adjustable sights really took the cake for him. 'And its a six shooter! like the cowboys!'
So me being the softy I am I sent the HS6 home with him for the time being. A SD gun isn't much use if you can't use it. He plans on returning it after he replaces his UL with something. I plan on talking to his daughter and getting her to buy him a nice surplus model 10 for him hopefully that action is nice and worn in.
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