Lock & load

Posted by Phobia on September 13th, 2007 filed in Home

Last night had all the makings for a quiet night visiting my father & annoying my cat.  After dinner we were sitting around watching Nickolodeon (much to my father’s exasperation) when he gets a call.  Looking at the phone he says, “OH shit!” & I thought it was this particularly persistant lady-friend of his.  The conversation went something like this :

Father : Oh shit I completely forgot! [pause] Wow!  That sounds great!  I’m really tempted  [pause]  My daughter’s here at the moment.  [pause]  My daughter?  Oh she’s an adult.  [pause]  Yeah I’ll ask her if she wants to come.  Okay see you in half an hour.

I look up thinking, “Oh no!  I’m going to get roped into some kind of pub quiz or something.”  Not that there’s anything wrong with pub quiz, I just wasn’t in the mood.

Then he said, “I’m meeting my friend John at the shooting range.  You wanna come??”

My face just split into a huge grin & I said, “HELL YES!!”

I should explain that I’m not a violent person.  No really I’m not!!  I have respect for all living things.  I would never intentionally harm a creature.  I cried hysterically when I ran over a possum crossing the road 2 winters ago.  Berated myself for days about being the one responsible for taking it’s life.  Target shooting is a totally different kettle of fish.  It’s about concentration, control & (hopefully) accuracy.  It’s not about killing things.  It’s about firing a precision instrument that just happens to kill things if pointed in the wrong direction.  Remember : Guns don’t kill people.  People kill people.

So off we went to the firing range.  It’s in the city & I never even knew it existed until last night.   It belongs to a gun club & there’s a bit of security so random people on the street can’t just wander in.  The range itself was quite small - think small bowling alley with only 8 lanes.  The targets were about 25 metres away.  The place was quite busy with about 20 people (all guys & me the only girl).  And a wide variety of legal firearms : revolvers, pistols & rifles.

John had 2 pistols : a Smith & Wesson 422 & a Para-Ordnance P16 .40 caliber.  We started with the 422.  I haven’t fired a gun in more than 8 years.  Not since moving from South Africa where knowing how to shoot is more of a norm.  I’d forgotten what it feels like to hold a gun & I had so much adrenalin pumping through me I could barely hold it steady.  I tried to remember all the things I’d been told about firing a gun : take a bracing stance, hold the gun in both hands ALWAYS pointed away from people, keep your thumbs away from the slide, relax your shoulders, push with your right arm & pull with your left to keep the gun from jumping at the recoil, fire on the out-breath, and gently squeeze the trigger (don’t pull).

The first magazine (10 rounds) was pretty erratic to say the least but I did manage to hit the target a few times.  The recoil was more than I expected.  My father & I took turns so while he had a turn I had a chance to think about what I was doing wrong.  Hold the gun firmly.  Don’t pull the trigger, squeeze.

My next magazine went a lot better.  I fired about 40 rounds with the 422 before I got to try different ammo.  The good stuff!  Hyper velocity rounds.  Apart from making a bigger, prettier muzzle flash, it was also much easier to fire with less recoil.  I was grinning like Jack the Ripper in a room full of prostitutes.

With 15 minutes to go John suggested we try the P16.  Who am I to complain? :-P  Compared to the 422 this is a big gun & fires much larger rounds.  I have girly arms & skinny wrists so the recoil from this gun was very hard to control.  I’m not sure I even hit the target with this one.  Poor performance I know but cut me some slack it’s been a while. I only fired 12 rounds from this gun.  The last being more expensive & better ammo.  The difference was quite noticeable.  The last round was much smoother with less recoil & a brighter white muzzle flash.

At the end of it I decided I preffered the 422 with the hyper velocity rounds.  My father is very keen to go back & says I’m welcome to come along as well.  Sweet!!  I think going to the firing range is great for clearing your head.  I know that I sometimes have these really stressful days when I encounter people who all seem to have been frontal lobotomy victims & I really want to take my frustrations out on something & vent some anger.  I discovered last night that for me it’s not about venting anger but instead channeling all that energy into focussing on not fucking up while holding a dangerous weapon.  I also realised, while holding this destructive force in my hand, that picturing blowing someone’s head off while firing at a target is really not funny at all.

That said, I really can’t wait to get back there!!