Sig Mosquito

[Danny]

Picked up a Mosquito for the girlfriend, took her to the range to shoot it today. Which was also her first real session of shooting. We spent about 2 hours going of the basics before heading to the range, and she claims (and appeared) to enjoy it.

First target is from the beginning of the day, the second one is towards the end. Never mind the few .45 holes in there, didnt notice that untill i uploaded the photos. ooopppss. Target was at 3yds. I am by no means a diagnostician, so it wasn't easy trying to get her group better and centered. She is left eye dominant but shoots right handed. This made her shooting with both eyes opened very bad. Anyone have any suggestions on how to help her overcome this?

My opinion on the gun, after only a short time: decent gun for the money. Its cheap, and cheaply made, but it seems to run ok so far. Use grease on the slide rails, it improves reliability a lot. The build quality feels similar to that of an airsoft gun, but for 300 bucks i guess you cannot expect it to be the best. My hope is that it will be a good gun for her to learn on, with hopes of stepping up to a 'real' caliber at some point.

http://dannykay.net/photography/misc/sigmos/1.jpg

http://dannykay.net/photography/misc/sigmos/2.jpg

http://dannykay.net/photography/misc/sigmos/3.jpg

[Truegiant]

How were you having her shoot? Single slow shots? Quicker groups? One thing I have noticed that its easier for beginners to shoot at a silhoutte style target than a ring scoring practice target. Her not being able to see where her shots are placed until after completing a shooting iteration usually will keep her from trying to kentucky windage the pistol. When people can see where there rounds impact before they have mastered the basics usually does more bad than good.

I will tell you that .22 pistols are hit or miss. Its just like a .45 - you have to find the ammo the gun and shooter like the best. .22 ammo is made to such loose tolerances i have had cheap remington shoot better than match federal and vise versa with other .22's that i own.

Did you keep the targets at 3yds the whole time you were at the range? I know you might not feel comfortable with it but I actually shoot my .22 pistol in my garage. I built a huge .22 target out of old phone books. I taped a phone books together 2 wide and 2 tall and place my targets in the middle of each phone book. Its actually very cheap (you can find old phone books everywhere) with some duct tape and your set. Plus you can get the barrel adapter and a cheap suppressor and really have some fun.

.22's get addicting. you have been warned.

oh yeah i forgot. the left eye dominant thing. go to a novelty/party shop and buy a pirate eye patch. like 1.50 at the store. get her used to shooting with one eye until she feels comfortable with two. i dont normally recommend practicing with one eye but for beginners, crawl, walk, run.

another trick i learned that helps in the beginning is buy a pair of cheap reading glasses from cvs (like 4 bucks) and take the left lense out. buy a set of like 1.25 magnified or blurred or whatever. she will notice that her right eye stays out of focus while her left eye dominates. it will get her used to being able to pick up her sight picture easier. i actually make all my new privates do this trick for CQB drills.

Yes i made up that drill myself. it works!

[Danny]

Ill give some of those tricks a shot. I forgot about the kentucky windage. You usually have to sit there and say over and over "aim at the same exact point each time, dont try to compensate". Ooopss.

She was closing one eye most of the time, and she shot much better. With both eyes open she shot either far right or far left, couldnt quite figure that one out.

As far as the eye patch goes, i have heard that using glasses (kinda like what your saying) with white paper over one side is better than the patch. Somthing to due with letting light in, and letting that eye still 'work'.. it just cant see the target. we will see, i will try working with her some more.

yes it was at 9' the whole time. and was having her go slowwww (crawl before you walk imo). I like sihouettes, but i think the bullseye is better for diagnosing as it gives the shooter an exact point of aim that is repeatable. But then i screwed up and forgot to stress how important it is to aim at the center each time. Ohh well, thats why im not a firearms instructor. :D

thanks for the input man.

[Truegiant]

she is going cross-eyed with the target so close. thats the far right and left.

The eye patch thing is a quick fix. the eye glass thing takes a minute to get used to.

My only complaint with the bullseye targets like i said before is that you can always see where you hit. Most of the gray scale silhoutte targets when you shoot them you cannot see the point of impact. there are alot of other factors besides hitting the bull.

you know that .. enough of the blabbering. pics/video of her in action or i say your a crappy .22 shot! haha

[DamnDisLaOsBoY]

damn, the mosquito looks like fun to shoot.

[DamnDisLaOsBoY]

hey where did u get the mosquito? my gf might like it.

[Danny]

Adventure outdoors, it was like 355 out the door with 200 rds of minimag ammo. You see them pop up used for 300 every so often, but most of the time you have to drive, so i just decided to buy new.

I found i have to change my grip, my thumb rides the slide stop and doesnt allow the slide to lock back on empty. Howww gheyyy.....