A lot of the shooters I deal with are slightly built, young and relatively inexperienced with firearms. When they go beyond .22, it helps to teach them on relatively quiet and low-kick guns. That’s where the 380ACP carbine comes in handy, likewise Aguila Mini Shells. More than .22, they would also serve the secondary role of being useful defensive tools in case of need.
Range learning goes a lot better, with less flinching, if the student doesn’t end up with bruises. Full-power ammunition can be used once techniques have been honed on lighter loads.
This _looks_ right and I am not going to dispute it. I just want to comment that in teaching the golf swing, and hitting a baseball, it turns out that “first learn to hit it straight and then go on to hitting for power” does not work as well as learning to hit the ball hard in the first place. The parallel probably does not extend to shooting but I find it interesting.
Learning the mechanics of hitting a ball hard is one thing and should be taught as a fundamental, but teaching kid to bat by having him swing for the fence when he’s still building the muscle memory of pivoting his back foot and turning over his hips isn’t the best thing. Same with shooting… learn the mechanics and build the muscle memory before moving to the higher recoil calibers, which might cause flinching or jerking the trigger if tried too early on.
not to mention low recoil options allow shooters to customize their recoil as they move up the scale of things. .22lr straight to standard 38 sp might be a big jump for a newbie (especially non-adult male). Where if ultra low recoil, followed by low recoil, followed by standard recoil may well get them into that power range without scaring them off before they learned appropriate technique.
Agreed.
Just make sure “hold the stock firmly into your shoulder” is part of that muscle memory. Your students can get away with leaving it slack with a .22, but they’ll pay for it later.