Why is she here?

I am a female college student. Guns etc. is a new hobby I've acquired purely by accident, but it will be useful for venting stress during the next semester while I cram my head full of chemistry, calculus, and biology. Today my dad gave me a .45 Bobcat, it fits in my pocket.

My dad is retired Army. For New Year's I went to my best friend's house in the country. Her dad is retired Navy. He invited me to join him and his son to shoot at the back of their property. The only gun I had shot before was my dad's .45 (a modified one with a barrel 2 in longer than standard), but I was 12 then. My first target was a jug of water 100 yards away. I shot with a .243 deer rifel, but I held the rifel wrong to compensate for the sunlight that was shining in at a bad angel. I nailed my shot, but the the scope gashed open my forehead from the recoil. It is healing up good, but my dad and I started having gun discussions after he heard about the incident.

I am the youngest daughter of six kids. My oldest brother and his wife carry guns with them, and their kids know how to shoot. My second brother is an Air Force pilot. The rest of us are just average idiots who are schooled through Hollywood when it comes to guns. I find it interesting that in only a few day's I've found a new hobby, and suddenly given my dad a reason to get back into it himself.

I don't know if there are any women who write in this forum, I'm just here to ask questions and learn. I live alone in an apartment in an ok neighborhood, but frequently have to stay on campus late in the evening while doing work as a biology research assistant. So this is why I am here. I Googled .45 Bobcat and couldn't find answers.

Welcome to the site! Unfortunately welcome to scope eye, I think most of us have done that at least once. My first encounter with the scope caused a lot of bleeding but was also kind of an initiation. My wife shoots with me and enjoys it very much. I tend to go to the range for relaxation. The concentration while shooting helps calm my nerves and turns a rough day around. It also helps me with staying alert. Again, glad to have you here, there is a lot of information and a lot of good people, feel free to ask as many questions as you wish. As for your .45, are you sure it is not a "cougar"? Beretta and Stoeger both made a Cougar in .45? Just a thought?

Tannardog

I do believe that anyone who has done any shooting of a scoped high power rifle has acquired the legendary gash or bruise from not seating the rifle into the shoulder properly. My first (and only) one was from a friends 375 H&H Sako rifle. I was lucky, I only got a bruise. Too be honest, ever since then I've been hooked on the idea of having large caliber rifle, but since I live in Illinois, and hardly ever make anywhere in which to effectively use large caliber, I've settled for a 300 Weatherby mag. whats really ironic is that a few years ago I was teaching a friend of a friend how to shoot a scoped rifle, and I had worked him up to the 300 mag. I told him the recoil would be "stiff." So when he pulled the trigger he had closed his eyes and prepared for the "push." In doing that he let the but drop, and WHAM. Cut a perfectly half circle above his eye. Needless to say that ended the lessons since we had to take him to get stitches. Now he wants one of his own. I guess what really goes around, comes around..
Welcome aboard Myrrh

I'd rather go hunting with Dick, than driving with Ted:

its good to see that we have diversity welcome.

Dont feel bad about the scope mark, even a couple of my sargeants did itto them selfs with my M14 with a scope on it, and they'd been shooting for a long time. Well guns are a great hobby and theres a lot to learn about them history, physics,art, all this stuff is inclued in guns.

Just got thru with midterm here. I went back to college in Jan. at age 45. Damn if it aint harded than when I was younger!

you go if you want to learn you can do this here for sure I've only been here a short time but have 20 plus years hunting and shooting experance and have already learned alot good to see it is not only smelly ugly old buggers like myself who care about guns and there use keep learning oh and you've already proven you are not an idiot you asked for advice that shows some level of intelagence good on ya mate

Hey myrrh, glad that you dropped in on us some time back. Write again soon and let us know what is going on. Like some of the others that have written on this topic, my wife is an avid pistol shooter but, she just doesn't get involved in web sites like this one and she doesn't present her thoughts about any gun topics. So, maybe I can read her mind and present them for her which may be a near impossibility even after 47 years of marriage. I urge all the participants of Guns and Rifles to see if their wives will write in about their shooting experiences.