https://youtu.be/lPzlXD3Z8ow

My girlfriend doesn’t shoot. Dan’s wife doesn’t shoot. Nick’s girlfriend doesn’t shoot. Does your significant other shoot? No doubt you tried to get her/him to share your love of firearms. Why didn’t that work out?

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83 COMMENTS

  5. G Lady is a West Virginia gal. With a wheel gun she shoots way better than me. 34 years together and she hasn’t shot me yet.

  6. It depends on how one’s partner was socialized. We all bring history or cultural baggage to a relationship. It would be nice to say that ” a couple that shoots together, stays together,” but doesn’t always work out that way. Yours for the Second Amendment and Bill of Rights …..

    • My now wife of 27 years never knew a person who owned a gun and, when we were dating, was surprised to find that I owned…a few…guns. She didn’t own/shoot a gun until 4 years after we were married. Now? Try and stop her from going to the range.

      She’s a better shot than me. Long range, trap, yes. I can still kick her butt close-quarters. Definitely a keeper, and someone I can rely on in a…time of need. She looks real good behind the wheel of our Jeep too.

      • Redneck home movies! Not just the OFWG with no shirt, but not showing the girlfriend how to lean into the shotgun so the recoil doesn’t knock her back every time.

        Worst of all, the dumb fvck walking downrange with the camera AFTER the girlfriend had locked and loaded the shotgun!

  10. I don’t have a partner or “significant other.” Been a celibate widow for forty years now. But I talk to people all the time about shooting and have helped many friends and neighbors, along with lots of strangers, to at least try it. Most who do go on to own guns, even when they don’t shoot regularly. I think the greatest struggle with those who do shoot is to get them to make time for dry fire, as well as range time.

    One of the things I’ve found that helps introduce people to guns and shooting is having a card to hand them with my name and contact information on it. It also offers training and the shooting clinic, of course. The thing is that just TALK about guns, etc. is easily forgotten. With the card, they have something tangible to remind them of the conversation and a ready resource if they want to follow up. Not all of them do, of course, but far more than I had before I printed the cards and started handing them out constantly.

    • Good idea about getting/having a card; i’ll have to remember that….unless I forget!
      🙂

  11. Absolutely. My wife shoots, she carries, she even home carries. She personally owns about a half dozen firearms, but is competent and comfortable handling every last firearm in our household.

    Firearms for me are a relationship litmus test, right up there with how a woman drives, interacts with animals, and treats people in positions of lesser relative power. If a woman gets those right, chances are most everything else will fall into place on its own.

    • Smart man, my Pops always told me. “Pay attention to how your date treats the waiter/waitress in 5 years, that’ll be you.”

    • My wife outshoots me with the M1911 like nobody’s business and has a Camp Perry medal to prove it. She doesn’t pattern a target, she stitches it. But she insists I do better firing the M1A, don’t know why. If a comfortable sofa were a gun, it would be an M1A.

      Gave her a Ruger LCP for her wedding gift; she loves it. After the Orlando massacre we were each packing in church but learned of it only afterward.

      The couple who carries together stays together, and has a greatly improved chance of survival.

      I’m blessed.

  13. Sure does. I had sold all my guns before we met to support my other hobbies, but before we got married I said I will be getting some guns again. At first she was hesitant when it came time to get back into it, but I just said it will be huge issue between us if we don’t, so she relented. Now half the guns I buy become her’s because she likes them so much.

  14. Does she love guns? No. But she gets the need for them. She shoots on occasion for practical practice. She doesn’t doesn’t derive the same sort of joy I do from the hobby.

    • Same, pretty much. Wife wants to be competent with what we have in the house (well, most of it – bolt and lever action rifles, and big revolvers, have no attraction for her), and she would not hesitate to use firearms to protect our kids. She likes going with me to the range now and then, probably mostly because she knows I am having fun.

      Happily, she also likes Texas and so is willing to accompany me to Robert’s little Festival again this year.

  17. She is a shooter and carries concealed. The problem is that she keeps trying to lay claim to some of my Sig Sauer pistols. We had to have a discussion about who owned my M11-A1.

  19. My wife loves to shoot! Only issue is we need to find some land or a friend with a private range so we can shoot more often.

  21. In what sense do you mean, does your significant other shoot?

    In the sense that she almost never goes to the range with me. No,.

    In the sense that she’s perfectly capable of it, fairly decent at it, and does enjoy it when she does come. Yes.

  22. She never began to like it no matter how I tried. But since everything in and around her is paid for by me, she does what I say. Mandatory defensive/offensive tutoring session every month including 2A brainwash. Mandatory EDC. And she kinda gets the necessity. Good enough.

  23. My wife is probably par for the hole as far as girlfriends and wives go. She’s not opposed to guns (her dad is a West Point grad and has a safe full of WW2 era firearms) but she’s not really into them. She’s about as interested in my guns as she is in the lawnmower. However she’s learned how to use them all and I generally talk her into a range visit about once per month where she may put 100 rds downrange between a couple different firearms.

    Any time I’m going to be out of town without her she keeps the Star 9mm close by. That’s the one piece she is most comfortable with, which of course is the one piece with the most difficult ammo to procure.

  24. I shot my first gun about 6 years ago. Took my wife to an indoor pistol range soon after – she wasn’t interested. Fast forward a couple years – moved from SF Bay Area to Central Oregon. I now own a few weapons – and she quite enjoys shooting as well. Moreso when we the kids aren’t with us.

  29. My wife loves to shoot. She also has her license to carry and uses it. She can out shoot most men and hates the “little pink princess guns” that are on the market. She likes her 1911 .45 and her two AR15’s. we have been married 23 years and I am grateful to have a beautiful wife that loves to fish, shoot and ride motorcycles. Just don’t piss her off she is a hell of a shot. 😉

  30. It took her a while, but she shoots now and wants to go when I go shooting. She doesn’t do much other than shoot the S&W M&P22, but that’s a start.

  32. My ex wife did and who ever become the next Mrs. will need to. It’s one of the check boxes on “the list”. Right below “isn’t bat guano crazy”

  33. Don’t have a significant other. Don’t want a significant other. But if I did have one, based upon prior experience, I would keep her as far from my guns as humanly or even supernaturally possible.

  34. My wife is a very petite Chinese woman(we met while I was teaching English there after uni). It was hard introducing her to guns due to the cultural and language barriers(it was hard for her learning the language of guns). After almost 3 years, she is not crazy about guns, but gets the need for them. We usually shoot together about once a month at an outdoor range. Indoor ranges are too loud for her even with double hearing protection. She hates shooting handguns, doesn’t want to get a LTC yet(she says “someday”). She loves shooting the AR-15 and the bolt action .308 win. Her uncle is in the PLA and is happy that we have firearms for protection.

  35. Yes, her mouth off day and night!

    Just kidding, my lovely wife of 20 years carries a Glock 43 IWB.

  36. The young lady in the video could have benefitted from a shorter pull shotgun, and could use better coaching on her stance. If more people learned how to coach newbies on how to place your feet, and move your balance forward onto your front foot, people could handle recoil much more easily and they’d be less intimidated by long guns with recoil.

  37. The wife loves to shoot, even had her out in the woods deer hunting with me….and she didn’t even shoot at me once! She mandated she have her own guns, but wants to take at the least a different gun of mine to each trip to learn and shoot them. Got me a winner!

  38. My wife of almost 30 years came along B4G. She hates them. She will not touch a modern firearm. But she does appreciate the beauty and history of my reproduction black powder Colts, although she would never think of shooting one. For some reason, arms of that era (which she managed to stretch to include my 1873s) are OK, including the kit Kentucky long rifle I put together and finished.

  40. Yes, but I wish she shot more–has a CCW, but does not carry in public–good shot though–has her own Ruger SP101 .357

  42. Nope, has never touched a gun in the 10 years we’ve been married and doesn’t seem inclined to start. She has both verbally questioned if I have had my concealed carry with me at times, indicated she was glad I did, yet passively supports gun control, and wonders why I have so many (how many is a lot?). I think someone in her high school committed suicide with one once, and her home situation was pretty crappy, so that doesn’t help. She’s a paradox, that’s for sure. Will She, Won’t She… tune in next week.

    She claimed she’d never ride her own motorcycle, but went on her own and took the first class of a motorcycle safety instruction course, then dropped out when she didn’t grasp the concept of a clutch and couldn’t figure out how to stop the motorcycle, after actively refusing to have me instruct her on a manual/clutch quad we used to have. So who knows…

  43. Likes to shoot with me and plans to buy her own at some point, its just not a priority or hobby for her like it is for me. Especially when she can use all of mine…

    • In my experience, she’s waiting for you to buy her one as a present. Shop carefully, surprise her, and she might really get into shooting. Good luck.

  44. My wife shoots, and is very accurate with her Glock 43. For her birthday she wanted to shoot q-tips like on Top Shot and got it on the 3rd shot from 6 yards away. She wants to carry but none of the holsters we’ve tried worked for her. Looking at the corset style ones after it cools down a bit.

    Oh, and if you’re a squirrel taking tomatoes from her garden, you’ll have a .177 ball of lead flying into your eye pretty quickly. Don’t get between my wife and her garden.

  45. Yes, has her own .38 (which she named “Pepe le Pew-Pew) and carries it everywhere. But range time is seasonal; I don’t like the heat of the summer, but she simply can’t tolerate it. And being that we live in Alabama, for a good part of the year she doesn’t put any rounds downrange…. so we just use that time to stock up on ammo.
    She also got a wild hair a couple years ago and bought a nice female-specific Parker crossbow. Since then, weather permitting, she’s spent a lot more time behind that than her .38.

  46. Yes, I go to the range with Hubby. I also go by myself. I get large amounts of ammo (well, usually 1,000 rounds) for birthdays and Christmas.

  47. She shoots better than me, but doesn’t draw as fast. So the only way to beat her is to use a shot timer and draw.

    She whips my butt weekly on the trap range.

    We took the concealed carry training together and both have our license.

  50. Yep, the fiance loves going to the range. Has her permit to carry, but carries pretty irregularly. Loves shooting clays, pistols, and smaller-caliber rifles. Is somewhat recoil sensitive, so doesn’t enjoy the larger calibers. Gets bored and cold deer hunting, but definitely enjoys small game and waterfowling.

    Lucky to have her!

  51. Only when I make her. Really, I have to negotiate terms to get her to shoot every now and then. She’s a damn good shot, maybe a natural but she hates it. I don’t know how we have stayed married almost 35 years. She grew up around guns and hunting but would rather have root canal than go shoot. I shoot on average every other day. It’s my golf.

  52. Reluctantly shoots with me. She shoots a Ruger 22/45 Lite and can’t hit the side of a barn door.

    I think it’s the gun because I can’t get on paper with it either (and I don’t have this problem with any other gun).

    Planning on buying her an S&W Victory soon. Hopefully it is easier than the Ruger to take-down and reassemble for cleaning.

  53. Yup, sure does. Married for 39+ years (yes, to the same woman) which, I guess, pretty much makes me an OFWG.

    She has her CCW permit and carries every day. Loves wheel guns. She’s the organizer for ‘group shoots’ at the local ranges about every other month. On the odd months, she’s right there with me at the range, too. Tighter groups than me, mostly.

    Her next endeavor is deer hunting with a crossbow.

    Best part? She insisted on a second gun safe, which was delivered last week. Who am I to argue?

  54. My wife was anti gun when we met. Now, 10 years later, her collection rivals mine. She is a truly natural shot. The first gun I ever got her to shoot was a Romanian AK. She went 4 for 5 on 8 inch steel plates at 100 yards. Her latest purchase was a Ruger Precision Rifle in .308. She is wickedly accurate with it out to 350 yards. That is all the farther our range goes to.

    • Excellent. You’ve overcome what is typically the challenge. If you can just get them past the irrational fear or ‘groupthink’ that is the normal cause of being anti-gun, and get them to the range, the fun factor overrides ignorance quickly

      (Unless you are Gersh Kuntzman…in which case you get PTSD and write articles to try to justify your first ignorant article)

  55. Yes. My gen1 G17 was her’s as part of the pre-nip agreement. She also has a Sig P320C she shoots in USPSA competitions.

  56. Yep, and I got her mother at age 73 to use a sub2000 and an AR.

    MIL wanted pics and video to show her friends down at the Florida retirement condo.
    Now goes by Gunning Granny to the kids.

  57. Yes, and is better than me at long range, although I secretly am practicing. Perhaps the fact that she shoots skeet, while I find the whole exercise semi-absurd has something to do with it?

    Handguns, I hold a slight edge. Either way we are well protected.

  58. My wife loves her Ruger SR22, but has yet to shoot my AR. Since she likes visiting the range to shoot, and is OK with buying ammo and the occasional gun I won’t push. My kids also like to shoot, although my daughter is the opposite and prefers the AR over the SR22. We started slow with dry fire and a pellet gun, before moving to .22 and bigger.

    • Getting my wife to shoot the AR was getting her over the idea that it was a ‘big gun’. To her, before she shot, she equated the big, scary black gun with noise, recoil, etc. It didn’t matter what I did to demonstrate and show her it was a small cartridge with very very low recoil. It took my 6YO to tell her that is wasn’t a big deal.

      After she shot it the first time, she was fine and now shoots ARs without issue. She now has her own custom build. Her only complaint is her arm gets tired after several magazines 😀

  59. Nope. She is scared of them, so not working out great so far, but someday she will try it and get over some of her fear. I don’t really expect her to ever really get into it, though.

    • I dated a lady at one time that was interested in going to the range…but after the first trigger pull she went full Gersh Kuntzman, broke down in tears and fell apart.

      It went to pot after that…

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