22 vs 38 training study

[JCN]

I'm still working with a new shooter who simply WILL NOT shoot anything other than a .22LR. She's hell on wheels with a G44 - you definitely DO NOT want to be downrange from her if she's got her back up and that pistol in her hand.

Switch her to a G19, she's good for one or MAYBE two rounds, then it's "nope" and she's done shooting for the day.

So, she can't control the recoil of the G19 because she's still scared of it. I'm not worried about that, because she does not carry outside the house, and she's scary fast/accurate with the G44. For HER, the rimfire seems to be "the answer," because anything centerfire would lead her to not having a gun available at all.

For LE training, I don't like the use of 22s, because they're simply not an option for duty use. Instructors get paid to be smart, identify problems early, and correct them. Not sure about other agencies, but I've never seen an agency who's academy had enough range time to teach everyone the fundamentals of marksmanship on a rimfire, then transition to centerfire and start dealing with grip, anticipation, and other issues that show up with "real guns."

Don't get me wrong, I love rimfire guns, have several, and will never part with them. But they're plinkers and skunk killers for me.

That student might be well served if money was unlimited with shooting a PMR30 to get used to sound and muzzle blast but no recoil and a Shield EZ380 for mild recoil.

A Glock 19 will recoil more than a lot of other heavier and larger 9mm guns (like CZs or even full size Glocks).

Gamer ammo like the Syntech 150 is also very light and quiet and a good intro round.

If I were going to teach someone who was recoil sensitive I’d use gamer ammo in a Glock 34 with a flashlight attached.

That’s kind of what we did with my wife for her to shoot her CCW requal.

[farscott]

The two choices in the study (.22 first and then .38 or .38 all the time) do not contain my usual practice, which is centerfire first, rimfire second, and centerfire last. That is my usual approach when I am dealing with a trigger control issue (flinch, too much/too little finger, followthrough etc.). To me, the advantages of rimfire are it allows diagnosing issues without another person and it allows one to very easily address trigger control issues. The negatives, of course, are too little recoil and too little blast. So it is imperative that the range session ends with applying the fixes/changes to the centerfire platform as that is where the issue has manifested.