Wife's Christmas gift to herself
 

Handgun wise, my wife is out to embarrass me. She bought this IZH M46 air pistol for herself. At lest I can shoot in the garage on cold days now! (Yeah, I prefer the heat to the cold. ;))

Pat

She's probably got the only in the neighborhood. :D

Well, it was in the neighborhood before she bought it. She bought it from a friend at the shooting club where she coaches. They have monthly competitions that she has joined. She never shot any gun until about 4 years ago.

Pat

It's one of those items that until your post I did not know existed, thanks for sharing.

Now that's a great idea. My wife likes her G43, but really only enjoys shooting because it's something that we can do together. Something to consider...

Air pistol is the most difficult shooting discipline according to Olympic Gold Medalist Lanny Bassham. It exposes how difficult properly pointing a gun, and moving only the trigger straight to the rear is.

While I've only got a few pellets through it so far, what is the follow through?

(Info only: This gun weighs slightly more empty than my HK USPc .45 with 8+1 Mag)

Pat

Follow through is how well you maintain sight alignment/sight picture after pulling the trigger. Air pistol and air rifle accentuate any errors in technique because the lower velocities increase "dwell time" of the pellet in the barrel and magnify the effects of any extraneous movement.

Copy. This is the first single-shot pistol I've done. I'm used to "Bang, maintain focus on target, trigger reset, squeeze, bang"!

I was thinking that I had become unsteady as I aged but, watching some video of world class shooters, I see that their muzzles wiggle as much as mine. My guess is that they learn the rhythm of their heartbeat/breathing and know when to press the trigger. This trigger is so sensitive that a butterfly could sneeze on it and shoot the dog. It's my wife's pistol so I can't change anything to my liking. I'll just do that Kentucky thang. ;)

Pat

Good luck with that "Kentucky thang". It'll help you reach a plateau; but if you're interested in precision shooting, you'll stall out there. Personally, I've become resigned to a lesser standard; my eyes are past their prime. That and the Daisy 777 the wife got me for Christmas a few years ago isn't quite in the same class as your wife's pistol.

Reflecting on Peregrino and Okies's posts, I took a few shots this afternoon.

This card shows all of the shots I've made with this pistol since my wife got it. The blacked out ones were when aiming dead center last week. The marked ones are today. I shot single handed with free hand in pocket both eyes open. The one with the question mark was either the first or second shot but I wasn't focused at the time. This was at least 33' in the garage. My aim point, given the error in the blacked out shots, was bottom dead center of the black area. I think I'm going to have fun! :D

This gun weighs 2.4 lbs vs. my HK USPc .45 with 8+1 mag's 2.1 lbs.

Pat

That thing really punches a tidy hole, you are gonna have a LOT of cheap fun there. Who did your wife get this for? :D

Plus no spent cartridges to police up and the used pellets drop neatly into a box on the floor. ;) (Indoor range pic below. Target is below the red gas cans. ;))

She's new to this shootn' thang. My gun cabinet is a tool box, her's is a toy box. She's re-introduced me to the fun side of trigger pulling.

Pat

That's very nice!

I built a target/bullet trap out of a large box filled with foam for my sons to shoot their BB guns in the basement during the winter. We are using the NRA 5m air rifle target...

My older son struggles with trigger control and follow and I am working with him to maintain sight alignment after the shot. Sometimes it is hard to help him as his hits are all around the black and not in much of a group....

But that is why we practice.