bull's eye

The Fiance blogged about our handgun shooting morning. Hopefully post up pictures of our targets. And he's right, it's rather scary how easily I wield them. I sometimes wonder what kind of past life I've had: an army sharpshooter? an assassin?

Paper was strung 7 yards away. Six shots in the revolver, just like those Westerns , though I didn't dare do the "draw" maneuver because that was just too dangerous.

The orange target had rings, with 10 as the center, then 9, 8, 7 and so forth. I hit nothing out of the 9 ring and close to dead center 3-4 times. We shot 12 bullets at a time. I tried different holds: two hands at arm's length, the single hand sideways stance, the two hands cocked to one side like in police dramas when they are searching the house. I tried also with fairly rapid fire: cock, target, shoot, and the shots always found their way if not on their mark but very very close to it. My clusters were mere inches and I had never shot a revolver or hand gun before.

I'm not exactly sure how I do it. Maybe it's from those years of playing duck hunt. Then again, I don't really know how accurate those Nintendo video game guns were. But I've often had a knack at hitting targets, whether it's a kali stick, a gun, or a softball thrown from center field. When I want to, I'll hit it.

Later, the woman behind the counter gave us another target that drew out the various locations of the vital organs: spine, cerebrum, medulla oblongata, shoulder, elbow, gall, liver, kidneys. This was much trickier. I played different games to give me different challenges. Head only, neck only, lower abdomen, then I "shot for the cycle" going from left to right (elbow, shoulder, cerebrum, shoulder elbow, gall). The gall was the smallest thing on the body map so I went for that.

I'm always fascinated by accuracy, to have the power and the choice to strike someone here but not there to wound them this way or fatally kill them another. When you get to be accurate you get to have that choice, that power to make decisions about the thing getting hit or shot at, over their lives.

I handle guns rather easily I think because I have a great respect for the power in them. I know people who have been scared to touch guns, to hold them. They are like a tool like anything else. If we got a handgun or a rifle, I wouldn't use it for self-defense in the home. You would have to have it readily accessible and loaded to use it for that purpose and the risks of endangering the lives of your loved ones when guns are not stored properly is much greater I believe. Though maybe if I lived in a fairly rural area on many acres of land that I would need to patrol, I would, but not in this urban setting where 911 will get the police to my door faster.

Might go the gun range again in September when they have the Wild West days at the Chatbot gun range. People dress up in pre-1908 clothing and shoot with their rifles and guns from that era. Next we're looking to try Practical Pistol or maybe trap or clay shooting. I'd like to see how accurate I am with a moving target.