Last night Caroline and I went to Larry's Pistols and Pawn (yes, that's its real name) to do a shooting lesson. We needed to get hunting licenses (Walmart sells everything) so now we are truly dangerous.
We were a bit nervous but the instructors were really sweet. They started with a video explaining how to handle guns etc which completely freaked me out. Mostly because there was so much information to take in. But then they gave us guns and dummy rounds to practice how to load and unload. Getting the bullets into the magazine is hard. (Near the end he lent me a tool to make it easy. Why I couldn't have that to start with I don't know.)
We rented guns from the shop (the other couple in the class with us had their own) and were both shooting 9mm Glocks, which are semi-automatics.
After the practice, we went to the shooting range to do it for real. You start in a sitting position shooting one round at a time. And I was so glad I was sitting. For the first time, Bill, our instructor, asked us to do it one at a time and Caroline went first. It was much louder than I expected! I jumped out of my seat! And the kick back was impressive. My gun was a Glock 26 which means it is a bit smaller than the 19 Caroline was using. (They only told me at the end that the smaller one has more of a kickback or I would have switched!)
After sitting we moved to standing. My knees were shacking, I won't deny it. And the position they tell you to shoot from ... well it's not the elegant position you see in the movies.
And after a few single shots, they told us to just full the magazine and shoot as much as we liked. So we set to work trying to obliterate the target. :-)
We had brought 2 boxes of ammo each, though only used one. We were going to take photos with us and the guns but were too nervous and didn't want to seem like tourists!
But we did get keep our targets! :-)
We were a bit nervous but the instructors were really sweet. They started with a video explaining how to handle guns etc which completely freaked me out. Mostly because there was so much information to take in. But then they gave us guns and dummy rounds to practice how to load and unload. Getting the bullets into the magazine is hard. (Near the end he lent me a tool to make it easy. Why I couldn't have that to start with I don't know.)
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| My Glock! |
After the practice, we went to the shooting range to do it for real. You start in a sitting position shooting one round at a time. And I was so glad I was sitting. For the first time, Bill, our instructor, asked us to do it one at a time and Caroline went first. It was much louder than I expected! I jumped out of my seat! And the kick back was impressive. My gun was a Glock 26 which means it is a bit smaller than the 19 Caroline was using. (They only told me at the end that the smaller one has more of a kickback or I would have switched!)
After sitting we moved to standing. My knees were shacking, I won't deny it. And the position they tell you to shoot from ... well it's not the elegant position you see in the movies.
And after a few single shots, they told us to just full the magazine and shoot as much as we liked. So we set to work trying to obliterate the target. :-)
We had brought 2 boxes of ammo each, though only used one. We were going to take photos with us and the guns but were too nervous and didn't want to seem like tourists!
But we did get keep our targets! :-)
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| With my target and certificate |
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| Caroline, sharpshooter! |
I was very impressed with our shooting. I expected to be awful! The first shot was good, in the black. After that I sorted of wondered for a bit. All the ones in the white are due to me wincing in anticipation of the gun going off! So the instructor basically made me play Russian Roulette (with the target of course) so I didn't know when it was actually going to fire and stopped wincing.
The instructor was really sweet. I was a little tense. (Every time I went to shoot someone else did and I jumped. Plus I was being hit over the head with casings - I found a few down my top later.) So he gave me a little shoulder massage to calm me down. But after a while it got better, I got used to the bangs, and I chilled out a little.
Still I managed to get the bulls eye quite a few times. Caroline even managed to shoot hers out (she got around the rim and the bullseye and a red rim was left on the board)!
We were also rather hyper when we got back. It is quite an adrenaline rush.
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| "Are you talking to me?" |
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| "I'm not sure!" |
It was fun though I am not sure it will become my new hobby! I was expecting my arms to really hurt today, but I am pleasantly surprised.
We spent the rest of the evening trying to calm down with mugs of tea, popcorn and more Game of Thrones. :-)
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