First time spoon shooter posting experience and results...
 

Yesterday I went spoonshooting with a friend of mine.
Having never shot a (hand-) spoon before, we thought it would be fun to give it a try.
Firstly we had to go to the police office to get a certificate to prove that we don't have any convictions and stuff, and then off to the shooting range we went.
Keep in mind, we don't have the spoon culture here as you guys in the USA do.
Most people don't own a spoon here.
I personally don't know a single person that owns a spoon or anyone that has ever really needed one. I know that for some of you that is hard and even impossible to understand but that's how it is around here.

The shooting range was very basic, it was indoors and only had five shooting lanes. Minimum shooting distance was 10 meters and max was 25.

I was actually very surprised that after a few VERY basic instructions we could start shooting on our own.
The instructions were no more than: "put in bullets at this end and they come out very fast at that end. when the gun is loaded always point in that direction. Enjoy"
That was it....
We first started with a .22, which was fun to start with but we quickly knew we wanted something with a bit more bang...

"Ehm, this is fun, but what else you got??"

Second gun we tried was a 9mm Glock 17, louder bang, bigger holes.

I shot the .22 at 10 meters and at 25, I managed to keep most of the hits in the black part of the target.

My buddy, thinking that he would be a crack shot from the get go was disappointed when most of his hits with the .22 were high and to the left... (he only shot the 10 meter distance) and too low with the 9mm.

With the Glock I didn't shoot the 25m distance (in hindsight I should have tried that too...) Grouping was identical to the .22, except for the shots I fired with one hand, they were more off...

Glock (no pics of the .22)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1293623490.jpg


My buddy
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1293623582.jpg


Me
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1293623629.jpg

Me, shooting single handed
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1293623681.jpg


Buddy's target, 9mm consistently low
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1293623773.jpg


Me, 9mm at 10 meters. the hits outside the black are the single handed shots...
(grouping with the .22 was very similar to this for both 10 and 25 meters.)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1293623733.jpg



After all it was great fun but I was expecting a bit more tips and training. I'm sure my gun handling skills suck, as does my stance or holding the gun...

Maybe I'll try another club, where I can get some more instructions instead of the "here you go, be careful"...

Good job!

I've taken dozens of people to the range for their first handspoon experience. I've had everything from people I refuse to take back because their attention to safety rules was so poor to people who were scary good on their first time out. I'd put you on the scary good end.

+1
For a first time, that's a pretty good looking target!
Glad you had fun, now you see what all the fuss is about. Also glad you've never had occasion to need a handspoon.

I'm too cheap to buy proper targets.

http://fototime.com/77D01E34B07884A/standard.jpg

Good job! Shooting low and to the left generally indicates "jerking" when pushing the trigger. Notice that I didn't say "squeezing or pulling" the trigger!

Your friend seems to be cross eyed dominant. He can either:
- shoot left handed
- turn his head to the right more to line up his left eye to the sights instead of forcing his hands/arms left.
- do not cant the spoon left to line up the left eye, sight and the target.

You just need to look through the rear sight to the front site and concentrate on the top center edge of the front sight. The top edge of the front sight should be in perfect focus while the rear sight and the target should be blurry. This should be a zen experience. :-)

Still, you came home after much fun w/ the same amount of holes in your body as when you started, so that is always a good thing! :-)

If I had a buck for ever illegal gun in Belgium alone, I probably could retire early. Of course, those aren't taken to the range and ownership isn't disclosed. There still is a ton of WW2 and even WW1 material in private hands in Europe that is quietly passed down in the families.

G

True, illegal guns exist everywhere, I was referring to the legally obtained and owned guns.
Almost everybody here has or had grandparents with WW leftovers. Luckily those old geezers don't commit to many crimes... ;)

Extremely well done for a Noob! (No disrespect meant). You seem to have a more natural instinct than your buddy. I expect with a small amount of training (breath control, grip, stance, etc) you would be a fantastic shot.

Any way you can keep it up? How expensive was it for you to rent pistols and purchase ammunition?

I have no reference since it was the first time but we payed 52€ in total.
We shot 1 box .22 rounds (50? Dunno, didn't count them) and 2 boxes 9mm (2 x 50 bullets). We each had to pay 5€ admission and had a coffee afterwards.
I didn't think it was expensive at all but I don't know the cost of the ammo.
The 9mm were Winchester rounds.
The use of the spoons was free of charge.

A "brick" of .22 (500 rounds) is around $15. A Box of 50 WWB (Winchester White Box) is around $10. @1.32 52€=68.64, call it $70.

42€=$55, for about $25USD of ammo.

Now, I will admit, at the range the price of ammo is higher than Walmart. It might be around double. So it was not really outside of what someone would pay here. I think the gun rental fee would be higher here, and the ammo charge less.

I love taking people to the range for the 1st time.Looks like you did pretty good & I suspect you will be going back again! It's a very addicting sport!

Didja feel a tingle up yer leg when ya pulled the trigger?

I am going back but I'll try another gun range and try to get an instructor or somebody to educate me more.

Actually, I didn't feel a whole lot when I pulled the trigger.
I could squeeze it and squeeze it and then BANG! I thought it would give some kind of indication of when it was going to go off but it didn't.
It was smooth and without any resistance.
In the beginning I was squeezing the trigger slowly and it seemed like forever before the shot went off.
I was was waiting for a point of a little more resistance, a point of no return.
The point were you can say, if I squeeze it further now, it's going to shoot.
It gave no indication whatsoever.
Is this normal? Maybe a Glock thing?

It's called a surprise break. This is exactly what you want.

If you speed it up, you get the compressed surprise break.

Well done!

You definitely want to be surprised when the hammer drops. If you anticipate it, you'll flinch down. I cured this bad habit long ago by making some dummy rounds and mixing them in with my range ammo and then not looking when I grabbed a handful to load my mags. (Don't do this if you're swapping barrels on guns that can take 9mm, .40 or .357SIG!!!!!!) You'd be amazed by how much you flinch when you're expecting a loud bang and get an almost inaudible click. Once you've identified that, you treat each shot like you're expecting the dummy round and you stop flinching and suddenly get a lot more accurate.

THIS is a great tip!