How I Learned to Shoot A Handgun

(photo courtesy of Smith & Wesson)

The last post about hearing protectors got me thinking about the first time I ever shot a handgun.

I was in school taking Law Enforcement classes and was told that a Security Guard class worth one credit hour was being offered to anyone who wanted to learn how to fire a handgun. It ran for two Saturdays so I thought I'd take it for fun since I had never fired a real gun before. Well, to pass the class, we were required to fire our weapons accurately by the end of the second Saturday after learning all about gun safety. But we also got to shoot on the first Saturday as well.

Most of the people in the class were security guards who were required to qualify on the range with their weapon in order to keep their jobs. Many of these people (mostly guys) had also never fired a gun before either. One of my classmates (who was a San Diego police officer) decided to take the class too... just to get a quick one hour credit. She had been an officer for several years, so she was quite familar with handguns.

When the time came to fire our weapons, we were all given 6" barrel versions of the Smith & Wesson 686 revolvers like the one depicted above (except our guns had checkered wooden grips instead of the rubber grips shown here.) These guns could chamber .357 Magnum loads, but we used .38 caliber "Wadcutter" bullets. A wadcutter is a bullet designed to cut clean round holes in paper targets (which were shaped like human silhouettes with oval target points draw on it.)

Anyway, we first shot at a distance of only 7 feet. I hit the target in the center pretty easily. But I was shocked to see how many people in the class couldn't even hit a stationery target at 7 feet away! Keep in mind, these were Security Guards who were supposed to carry handguns while they worked! I was shocked!

After shooting at 7 feet, we moved on to a distance of 21 feet. It was more difficult, but I shot pretty well.

After the class, my officer friend from SDPD asked me how I did. I shot 586 out of 600 points. She shot 584 out of 600 points! I couldn't believe it... and neither could she. So she asked me where I learned to shoot so well. So I told her that I had a lot of practice with a gun at home... playing Nintendo's Duck Hunt!

So you see... sometimes playing video games will in fact, pay off!

Eventually, I took several semesters of actual firearms training in which I had the opportunity to practice shooting every week. I became quite good at it.

To play a simulated version of Duck Hunt on your computer, click here.