Not Ready for QRT

Friday before last, while my mom babysat, Chuck and I went out to the shooting range operated by the local gun club. Chuck's a member, so he knows the secret combination for the locked gate. As we had the place all to ourselves, I felt comfortable asking for more detailed help and instruction from Chuck, who's been shooting nearly all his life and is very knowledgeable. I learned to shoot as a child; my dad took my brother and me out for target practice frequently. As an adult, though, my opportunities to shoot have been pretty spotty and I have yet to purchase my own firearm. I enjoy shooting, mostly from the precision/accuracy angle. I seem to have some natural ability, but I could sure use regular practice! Being a history buff, I'm also interested in weapons from a historical perspective. I appreciate a well-crafted, accurate weapon made largely from wood and metal--the less plastic the better! Period pieces are especially attractive to me.

We brought out a 12 gauge shotgun, two 9 mm pistols, and a 1917 Lee-Enfield .303 rifle. I really like the Enfield and am a pretty good shot with it, but I wanted more practice with a pistol, so that's what we focused on. The HK was just too big for my hand, so I used the smaller Browning and Chuck shot the HK.


First we shot at an upperbody target (sorry, I'm not sure how many yards distant it was). I aimed for the head and that's mostly where my 10 bullets went.


Next, we shot at the hostage target. I took the perp on the right and Chuck took the one on the left. The guy in orange is the hostage...not supposed to shoot him! I had only 3 bullets. The first went where it was supposed to (more or less), the second a little below the first, and the third, well, sorry Mr. Hostage! I think I was experiencing a little arm fatigue by this point. I guess that as long as I could get the bad guy in the first shot or two, my hostage would be okay--but maybe I'd better wait to join QRT (Quick Response Team) till I've had more practice! Chuck's perp got nipped in the ear and the hostage faired worse than with me (though since I probably killed him with my shot, he didn't feel any of Chuck's!!).


Before we left, we also shot the pistols at some metal knock-down targets that sit off in the sagebrush--that was lots of fun. Oh! I also tried out the shotgun, a weapon I've never shot before. We had some old bowling pins set up in the dirt backstop to shoot at. Now I know what it means to blow something away...... Chuck was a patient and enthusiastic teacher and I learned a few things that day.


The next day we took Gillian to a small gun show (her second!). Everyone was very kind as we pushed the stroller through the aisles. Because I'd dressed her in non-girl blue and gray, everyone thought she was a boy. She got called "Bud" a couple of times. We didn't correct anyone, just had a good laugh afterwards. Why do people make assumptions like this? Why don't they just ask if the child is a girl or boy? And how does blue and gray make someone a boy? If I were to dress her up like a cat, would everyone think she was one?

Two things struck me about this particular gun show: the quantities of books for sale and the number of men wearing Hawaiian shirts. I'm much more of a book lover than a gun lover, so I spent a lot of time browsing. Picked up a book on mining camps, the book on which the movie The Ghost and the Darkness was based (The Man Eaters of Tsavo by J. H. Patterson), a book about Lee-Enfields, and a book containing 15 true accounts of capture by Indians. The bookseller had an amazing selection of used books on history, military, hunting, and natural history--I told him how much I appreciated him coming. Judging by the interest of other show goers, there are a lot of gun/book nuts out there!

As for the Hawaiian shirts, which I find infinitely more appealing than the usual camouflage couture seen at gun shows, I happily told myself that these guys were cool and relaxed enough to have fun instead of acting like Armageddon starts tomorrow. This delusion was dashed when Chuck informally polled a message board he belongs to: turns out that because of their loose construction, Aloha shirts are great for wearing concealed weapons....

I did actually look at guns, too. I'm on the look-out for a Savage Model 99 .300 cal rifle. Because I'm right handed, but shoot with my left eye, I think the lever action would serve me quite well. We didn't see any, but a dealer (wearing a Hawaiian shirt!) tried to sell me a Beretta .45 pistol. Nice, but I like the Browning.