Over the last couple of weeks I've been taking some friends to the range, they started getting interested in purchasing a handgun for self defense. After shooting several types of handguns they have desided that their favorite weapon is a 22 rifle for fun.

The husband has been doing his homework looking up all things firearms. Wednesday we went to the range with our normal handguns, however they talked me into taking the "elephant" gun this trip. After telling their 20 year old son about all the guns they have tried he said he would like to try the "elephant" gun.

Off we went to the range and after shooting the handguns they all pointed to by 416 Weatherby and wanted to try it next. We posted a clean target; I shot it first so that everyone could see what to expect from the heavy kicker. It scared everyone off except the dad after explaining what they should do to fire the rifle and the repercussions of not following instruction.

My friend stepped up to the rifle, I explained where the safety is and coached him. As he pulled the rifle into his should he aligned the crosshairs, put his finger in the trigger guard...BOOM!! The rifle went into recoil.



As with many shooters that have offered to shoot this rifle you just never know what to their reaction will be. First you start looking for blood, is the rifle on the ground, etc.

My friend got the biggest smile on his face and exclaimed WOW!! That was great!! The smile didn't go away all afternoon, he noted that that was the most exhilerating thing he's done in a long time.

We got the binoculars out to see where the slug landed, it was in a nice little group with my 3.




I gave him the spent case, which he showed to everyone we encountered on the way home. Only regret was I didn't go find the slug in the bank for him.

It's always a fun day when you help someone that takes to the shooting sports, it's even a better day when we find another big bore nut !!

Cheers,
Sam

That's great.

I had a similar experience a few months ago when I took my .458 Win to the county range here. I had loaded up some pretty warm 500 grain loads using A2230 and it was belting me pretty good. Couple of guys in their 20's were standing there watching me get my bell rung with a 8.5 lb. rifle, so I invited them to shoot it. I had some target loads made up, but they insisted that I load the heavy hitters.

They were both grinning like Cheshire cats by the time each had fired three rounds. It was a heck of a lot of fun and they got to shoot a real "elephant gun." I don't know if they were serious, but they were asking where they could buy one.