Phoebe Ann
Member
You all have been with Phoebe Ann through her saga of finding the right handgun for personal protection. This evening I went to the range at ASC in George Bush Park in Houston and did a little shooting.
I warmed up with a .22 and then a S&W .40. I shot the .22 at a target at 21 feet (or is it yards, those little details escape me ). I had an instructor who focused on the outside elements of shooting, that being...most likely I would be protecting myself at night, with someone moving towards me (target gets bigger but also closer for assault and less time for "thinking"), knowing your gun in the dark (you call it muscle memory?), rush of adrenaline, etc. He also mentioned how cops are sometimes found to miss a target because they focus on the weapon of the perp and not the person. i.e. if someone comes at you with a gun or knife, it's more intuitive to look at the gun and knife and shoot at it instead of the area that should be focused on...the chest or head. I had never thought of that. He said that ~440 people were killed by police officers in 2008 (I hope I'm quoting him correctly). I'm curious how many were wounded and how many officers shot and never wounded or missed.
The .22 that I was using also had a few malfunctions. Not sure what you veterans would call it but I had shot and then shot again and it was blank. Had to quickly pull the thingy back (slide?) and re-engage the gun and trigger again. (Y'all don't diss me for my lack of wording...I did it and I shot and it fired at a 9 in the target...close to bull's eye.)
I also went from a body target to firing at a little tiny target. The psychology from going from a body target to a very small target totally threw me off. Amazing how the psychological aspect will change things.
From my experience today I believe for personal protection, I'm leaning towards a revolver. This is only due to the simplicty of the gun and less parts/procedures to deal with. If I'm range shooting or competing, that's another story altogether.
I'll keep y'all posted.
Phoebe Ann
I warmed up with a .22 and then a S&W .40. I shot the .22 at a target at 21 feet (or is it yards, those little details escape me ). I had an instructor who focused on the outside elements of shooting, that being...most likely I would be protecting myself at night, with someone moving towards me (target gets bigger but also closer for assault and less time for "thinking"), knowing your gun in the dark (you call it muscle memory?), rush of adrenaline, etc. He also mentioned how cops are sometimes found to miss a target because they focus on the weapon of the perp and not the person. i.e. if someone comes at you with a gun or knife, it's more intuitive to look at the gun and knife and shoot at it instead of the area that should be focused on...the chest or head. I had never thought of that. He said that ~440 people were killed by police officers in 2008 (I hope I'm quoting him correctly). I'm curious how many were wounded and how many officers shot and never wounded or missed.
The .22 that I was using also had a few malfunctions. Not sure what you veterans would call it but I had shot and then shot again and it was blank. Had to quickly pull the thingy back (slide?) and re-engage the gun and trigger again. (Y'all don't diss me for my lack of wording...I did it and I shot and it fired at a 9 in the target...close to bull's eye.)
I also went from a body target to firing at a little tiny target. The psychology from going from a body target to a very small target totally threw me off. Amazing how the psychological aspect will change things.
From my experience today I believe for personal protection, I'm leaning towards a revolver. This is only due to the simplicty of the gun and less parts/procedures to deal with. If I'm range shooting or competing, that's another story altogether.
I'll keep y'all posted.
Phoebe Ann