Tryouts
More and more gun shops are doing this kind of thing, and I’m really happy that they are.
Here in Texas, all of the ranges locally have guns for rent. I’ve gotten to try more than a few odd calibers and models over the years because of this, including the .38 sp Ruger LCR.
If you follow that link, you’ll see they now make it in .22 LR, something we discovered when we went to Cheaper Than Dirt the other day. (Hey, if you’re looking for people who keep abreast of gun news on a daily basis, this is the wrong blog. Check our links for people who do that sort of thing.) So help me, I’m going to fire this thing sometime very soon. I’m not a fan of the .38 LCR as a target shooting gun – it was slightly less pleasant than beating on my hand with a hammer, and I stopped after 20 rounds – but I can see how it would be a good carry weapon, which is what it’s designed for. .22, OTOH, should be fun. Will let ya know.
We rented a similar S&W and I had to quit after 20 or so rounds. I made the wife shoot the rest. Neither one of us liked it. We both agreed that it wouldn’t make a good carry gun for her because she was afraid of it from it hurting her hand.
See, it’s not designed for plinking. I can get that. Doing so for any amount of consecutive shots will hurt. It’s designed as a light carry piece, one that, if you DO have to fire it, you will need at most 5 shots to get the hell away from an attacker/stop an attacker.
Hopefully, the .22 won’t be anywhere near as vicious.
She decided on another pistol that we rented the same day. A Walther PK380. It’s very smooth and she doesn’t have any problems with the slide. Her hands aren’t very strong and she has trouble with slides.