First of all, it was SO COOL. I'm not gonna lie, I channeled my inner Tomb Raider (ack, sort of hate myself for the Jolie reference cuz I no likey her but...). We went for my beba's birthday. He, myself, and his buddy Jason headed to a local gun range in Harford County MD. Jason is the stuff of movies - ridiculously skilled in military expertise and an amazing shot. Guess that's a given when you're in Special Forces ;)
Anyhow, he's trained Beau before so he ran various shooting drills with Beau and kept to the basics with me. I didn't have any expectations going in, but my first impressions of the place itself were Hey, this is a small, stark place. I'm talking very minimally decorated with just white, concrete walls and the shooting area itself is just like open stalls with a small chest-high tabletop to rest your gear on.
As Jason comes fully equipped, we didn't have to rent guns/ammo/etc. So it was kinda cool to use top-grade stuff! He brought three 9mm guns for us to shoot and something like 600 rounds of ammo. I think we went through a little more than half of the ammo. Anyhow, safety gear was just foam earplugs, earphones (from the place), and nifty Oakley eye protectors.
With all that jonk on my ears, the actual sound of firing shots was not all that bad, and you sort of just tune it out after a while anyway. Well, Jason very dutifully showed me the ropes of handling each gun including the switches to release the mag, turning the safety on and off, and hand placement on the actual gun. Turns out, having little hands makes things a little tough and dang it, having nails makes it a little tougher. Stuff on tv makes this jonk seem like it's just point and shoot, but there's definitely a certain amount of familiarity that needs to be in place in shooting a gun that I never thought about. Thank goodness I was with a professional! It wasn't until my 3rd or 4th handling of a gun to feel comfortable with all the switches and checks. On a side note, did you know that you have to manually load the bullets into a mag???!!!
I anticipated having to fight the 'kickback' feeling, but it turns out that some good coaching can help overcome all of that. It wasn't all that much to fight honestly. I think maybe so because it was a handgun-sized weapon and not a rifle. And I learned that each type of gun has its own feel and finesse in how you shoot anyway. We shot 3 different kinds: the Glock, the Beretta, and the Sig (um, you google the differences, clearly I'm no expert).
Turns out I liked the feel of the "international legend" Beretta (seen on a book at the range) but had the best aim with the Glock. The Glock was lightest and you didn't have to worry about a safety. Go figure, I shot best with the most efficient gun, hhahahhaha. Anyhow, I'm a pretty good shot! Jason taught me some trigger control so I was able to shoot in almost the same place in multiple shots over practice. AND it turns out that most guns have a heavier/more forceful 1st shot and lighter/easier 2nd shot, who freakin' knew?
My arms felt like they had a workout after all that shooting, though probably I was tensing quite a bit more than a regular shooter. But to be fair, some upper body strength is to your advantage to be able to absorb that reverse impact from a shot. And apparently, my aim became better with each round, yay! I even kept the bullet casing from my best shot which was basically a bullseye (thanks for catching beba!). I also found myself having to stop, adjust my grip, refocus, and relax with most shots. There's a lot less glamour and a lot more serenity to shooting than I thought there would be. Going in with a healthy respect for guns is just good smarts people.
So the 4 universal rules of shooting that I learned:
1. Treat a gun as though it's always loaded even when it isn't.
2. Never point the barrel at anything you're not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until you're going to shoot.
4. Know your target AND what's behind it!
Being me, and competitive as I can be, I of course asked Jason how I fared in comparison to other first-timers he's worked with. And he said that in general, women tend to be better first-timers (more patience, no attitude/ego). He said I took direction well and followed all the rules above. So yay, I'm happy to say I was not a complete cluster*&%$ at this.
All in all, this was a really fun experience and I would love to go again and attempt to improve my skills and try out other guns - especially a big ole shotgun! Special thanks to Jason for taking us out and being such a patient and knowledgeable instructor.
Here we all are, Jason all the way to the right, and me and Beau on the left.
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