About a week before our camping trip with our church, my friend Chris mentioned to me that he was thinking about going skeet shooting while we were out in Wenatchee and wanted to know if Davey and I wanted to join him. Sounded like fun to me: go to a range, yell "PULL" real loud and try my best not to fall over from the pressure of the shotgun. Then Chris proceeded to tell me that he would bring his guns and clay discs and we'd just find a random spot out in-the-middle-of-nowhere to have some fun with firearms.
Um, excuse me? is what I thought. You have guns?
Wait....WHAT??? Who ARE you??
Chris is a great friend who's all smart in the technologies, works for Microsoft, always has his hand in some great scheme of making money off of technologies, hires me from time-to-time to help brand his schemes, is father of little Maddy and is just generally an all-around great guy. So it was a bit of a shock to me when I found out HE HAS GUNS! (All my Southern friends have to realize that we no longer live in a town where everyone-and-their-mom has been hunting and owns at least one good rabbit-huntin' rifle).
So, one morning at the campout --- ahem, the CHURCH campout --- Chris left in his Hummer to scout out that random, desolate spot in-the-middle-of-nowhere, and returned victorious. Davey opted out (afraid of the po-po finding us, the guns, or the idea of me with a gun, perhaps?) but I and a few others joined in for this crazy adventure.
We wound our way up the dirt roads that are normally traversed only by tractor and rattlesnakes to a very out-of-the-way spot, where we unloaded our gear: a Remington 870 (12 gauge) and some biodegradable clay discs. We each took turns tossing the discs and firing the rifle --- using all necessary safety precautions I might add. Randy got a couple of good shots and Jess and I got one disc each (out of like, 30 probably). Those of you with extremely good memories will remember that I've only shot a gun one other time in my life -- and we were shooting at cans. Cans I can do. Skeet I cannot. So much for my hunting career.....perhaps I could train deer to "stay" before I shoot them. Oh well.
Once the discs were gone, I thought our firearm fun was over....until I remembered that Chris said he "would bring his gunS".....plural. So out comes the Glock 23 (.40 caliber S&W) and Chris asks if I want to fire it. Of course I say "yes" because, I mean, its just a tiny little thing with tiny little bullets and if I didn't know any better I'd say it was a water gun....right?
After setting up a target 12 feet away, getting my first handgun lesson in 10 seconds, and loading the gun, I'm ready to fire. Having no idea what to expect I hesitantly aim and shoot:
Pretty good for a first shot.
That wasn't so bad. You still have all your limbs, and this thing isn't near as heavy as the rifle was. Let's try this for real now:
BULLSEYE!!!
Wow! I just killed that box!
I shot 10 bullets, getting them all on the target within a hand-span width. Chris said I outshot most police officers, which is hard for me to believe because the target was only 12 feet away. But then he proceeds to inform me of the following:
"Most gun incidents will happen within 12 to 21 feet, you'll fire an average of 8 shots, and it will be over in 6 seconds. Based on a study of emergency room gunshot victims, it doesn't matter how many times over the body they are hit, but it matters how many times in the various zones a person is hit. If you hit just once per "zone", they have a 90% survivability rate, twice lowers it to 60%, and three times lowers to 5%. So you want to hit a person a minimum of three times in the same area -- that being a hand-span width."
again, WHO ARE YOU???
I've got to admit, the little handgun was easy for me to fire. I'm thinking of joining Chris on his next trip to the range for a little more practice....or I can always hook up the NES for some Duck Hunt.
Have you every had any fun (and safe) experience with guns? Real or fake? What's your aim like? Its a good idea for me to know these things about you!
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