Posted on 07/18/2006 1:07:35 PM PDT by neverdem
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Devon Chester, a petite 24-year-old in a pink sweater and designer jeans, plants her white Puma sneakers a little more than shoulder-width apart, squares her body, leans back slightly, aims her targeting laser, and empties the magazine of her Glock 9 mm pistol -- bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang! -- into the paper target 10 yards away.
Chester sets the pistol down and examines her work. Several dime-size holes pepper the target's man-shaped silhouette. If this were a back-alley thug, he would be wounded but probably still on his feet. Chester, who lives in Lowell, turns to her boyfriend, 22-year-old Josh Armstrong-Levanthal from West Newton, shaking her head and smiling sheepishly.
It's Sunday evening -- Ladies Night at the Manchester Firing Line -- and Chester and Armstrong-Levanthal are here to take advantage of free range time from 5 to 8 p.m. The Firing Line, a bunker like facility across from a little league field on a quiet residential street, started Ladies Night in 1999 to attract women who may never have visited a gun range or pulled a trigger before .
``I wanted to see what it felt like," Chester says after she finishes shooting. ``I had only shot a BB gun before."
Thanks largely to the popular Ladies Night promotion, women now represent about a quarter of the Firing Line's business, says owner Jim McLoud -- a veritable coup for the testosterone-driven gun range, where the only woman on a staff of six full-time and five part-time employees is a back-office accountant.
``Very few women were coming in before," McLoud says. ``Now, a lot of the women are police officers and security guards. More women are going into that market. A lot of women bring in their children because they want them to learn [how to shoot] right; they don't want them to learn from..."
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Good! Nothing wrong with women defending themselves.
I thought they had outlawed guns in Mass?
ping
I look forward to the day my oldest daughter is old enough to handle and shoot a firearm (she is 5 years old now).
I had the pleaseure of introducing a lady friend to the shooting world just this past weekend. She has natural ability and will turn into a fine gunny.
We went through a number of handgun calibers, including .45 acp and then went to the rifle range where she worked out with my Marlin 60 22LR and my Winny 94 Trapper.
She really bonded with my Beretta 92fs. I see one in her future very soon...
"leans back slightly,..."
"If this were a back-alley thug, he would be wounded but probably still on his feet. "
Well, there is her problem.
Leaning back gives lousy balance, and indicates irrational fear of the guns recoil.
She should lean FORWARD slightly.
I hope some one coaches her to correct this error.
Sounds good. I keep promising myself that I am going to get a gun and learn to shoot, but I have not yet gotten around to it.
BTW, what's up with the boyfriend's hyphenated name? Mom and Dad's names? How strange!
Manchester New Hampshire..... where a lot of people from Massachusetts are escaping to.
``We don't think it's a gun issue and we don't think it's a gender issue," Ragbourn says. ``[The gun industry] is selling a commodity, and they'll do whatever it takes. My boss likes to say that next year they'll target left-handed midgets and have Left-Handed Midgets Night at the gun range."
It's no accident that the Firing Line is in New Hampshire and so many of its customers are from Massachusetts. New Hampshire has some of the most permissive gun laws in New England, while Massachusetts prohibits any ``assault weapon or large capacity feeding device [more than 10 rounds]." (The Brady Campaign gives Massachusetts an A- for its gun laws. It gives New Hampshire a D-. ) That means no AK-47s and definitely no M-60s. If you want target practice, stay in Massachusetts ; i f you want to play Rambo, go to New Hampshire .
First of all they prefer to be called "little people" not midgets. Secondly, if they want to carry Street Sweeper shotguns and practice on folks who call them midgets, I'm all for it.
I hope some one coaches her to correct this error.
**
I think you should volunteer. Someone needs to steal her away from the boyfriend with the hyphenated name.
Remember ladies:
The fumes of spent gunpowder enhance chest size.
Ping.
"Several dime-size holes pepper the target's man-shaped silhouette. If this were a back-alley thug, he would be wounded but probably still on his feet."
"a .22-caliber rifle , which is slightly more deadly than a slingshot, to the .45 -caliber pistol favored by SWAT teams and Hong Kong action director John Woo , to the AK-47 assault rifle used by United States special forces units in Iraq."
"Jeni Benos of Chelmsford, who arrives later that evening with her father and her Walther P22 , a model similar to the Walther PPK made famous in the James Bond films, is not one of the skeptics."
Just chock full of knowledge.....
She might do a little better if she'd lean into it ... and I hope she learns how to use the iron sights, too.
Glock 9 mm ... dime-size holes pepper the target's man-shaped silhouette.
Reporters are TOTAL F#$%ING IDIOTS!!!!
``I wanted to see what it felt like," Chester says after she finishes shooting.
Excellent! I hope you enjoyed it! I hope you come back again, and shoot some more. It's fun, it's relaxing, and it could be very useful. The life you save may be your own.
Glad I'm not the only one catching these beauties.
Dime-sized holes, eh? 8^)
I'm a better shot than my hubby. I own a .45 Ruger and and a .22 Marlin with a scope. I just inherited a .380 Browning Automatic from my dad, who inherited it from my grandfather, but I need to take it down to have it checked over and test fired. It hasn't been fired in well over 10 years and although my "hold my beer and watch this" friends said they'd do it, I told them no thanks, I'll take it to a professional, LOL!
Jeez. I saw Boston Globe and........oh well.
ROFL!
I worked with a guy who had a hyphenated last name. Turns out it was his wife's old married name.
He essentially took the name of the guy who preceded him!
What a p*$$y...
Three hits with a 9MM and he's supposedly still on his feet? Better upgrade to a 45!
A 9mm half-jacketed hollow point defense bullet and the thug would not be standing.
I worked with a guy who had a hyphenated last name. Turns out it was his wife's old married name.
&&&
Good heavens!
I'm a left handed, short, bald, fat, blind, quadraplegic midget who wants to test drive an M60.
Sorry, not impressed by the picture of Coulter; I'm a woman.
*****Several dime-size holes pepper the target's man-shaped silhouette. If this were a back-alley thug, he would be wounded but probably still on his feet. ****
I doubt he would be thinking much about rape though.
The fumes of spent gunpowder enhance chest size.
And Hoppe's #9 is an aphrodesiac for men.
I own one. It fires with *authority,* even though it's only in relatively weenie .44 Magnum.
Finger on the trigger.
Bad form there Annie!
Well, we all have our handicaps.(ducking)
Yup. They don't make 'em like they used to.
Not my sling shot. I have a Russion AK-00 full auto assault model with a 30 round magazine.
Must be the Globe.
Where is Annie's eye protection?
5 is old enough for a .22, but start with an airgun first (Imet a SAS member once who had her 3 year old son shooting at the range, along with a slightly older sibling or two who were shooting .22s). BTW, from what I've heard, kids who are taught to shoot a real gun when they're very young are pretty much immunized against the urge to "play" with guns that they may happen upon. They get a taste of how very powerful and loud these things really are, and it's too powerful and loud to seem like "fun" when you're that little.
Bad form there Annie!
She's dry firing for sighting and testing trigger pull.
I wonder how may men and beasts have fallen to a .22 rifle shot, I am guessing a lot.
Sorry. It's the only one I have of a woman shooting a pistol. Do you have any shots that are better?
I'd love to square off with the author. He with his sling shot, and one round in my Colt Woodsman.
Ten grain, tumbling bullets will do that. Some get stuck in the target if it goes that far. Ten feet? Lemme check my slide rule. . . . . . . . . . Yup! But you have to aim at the ceiling to knee-cap someone.
/john
And there I was - thinking that the folks at this range were plinking away with a 20mm Lahti. 8^)
Ladies nights are cool.
Ever see what a woman in a tube top does when a spent shell casing goes right down the middle?
My wife took a spend .45 case down her blouse. I was very impressed with how she kept the muzzle pointed downrange while she shimmied and shook trying to get the hot brass to dislodge itself from her decolletage.
Boy, I'd love to see that Browning. I hope you get it up and running and you two have many years of fun together. What memories, eh?
LOL! No, but I've definitely seen some pretty good-looking women at the Manchester range. I'll have to try that sometime: "Sorry miss, I'm not used to the recoil from a .44 Magnum. Yes, it's a revolver, but..."
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