Our date with the Dragon Slayers

My veteran husband has been itching to refresh his shooting skills.  He was an expert marksman in the navy and enjoys the sport.  So, for his Father's Day gift, I sought out a shooting range nearby (sight unseen) and purchased him some range time.  The biggest part of this gift is that I bought some training and range time for me as well, so we could go shooting together as a date.

The date did not start out so well.  We drove up and down the road looking for the range but saw nothing that looked anything like a shooting range.  Eventually we found it, but when we drove in to see an old firetruck in the yard next to an old house with a big creepy sign on it that read, "The Dragon Slayers",  my already racing heart beat even harder.

As we later learned, the property belongs to the Dragon Slayers Motorcycle Club (DSMC) which was founded by five firemen.   While the shooting licensing and training organization is in the process of moving to a new address, they are leasing land from the DSMC.  A large portion of the rental fees go to support the Wounded Warriors Project.

I love to try new things and initially thought learning to shoot a pistol would be fun.  After shooting skeet exactly one week before this lesson, I thought I would feel comfortable holding the pistol.  The shotgun was huge, but it didn't freak me out nearly as much as the tiny pistol.  Perhaps all the instructor's safety warnings during the training session set my nerves on edge.

I'm amazed at all the steps that are involved in shooting a pistol.  In movies, policemen smoothly pull out their pistols and begin shooting in seconds while being shot at themselves.  It took me forever to load and insert each round, switch off the safety, pull the slide, position my hands properly around the handle without putting any part of my hand or fingers at risk of getting sliced by the slide while maintaining enough support, assume the proper isosceles stance, fix my sight alignment and sight picture, concentrate on my breathing for trigger control, and then fire without shaking the gun around like a bobble-head toy.  This process eventually became much faster for me, but it certainly gave me an entirely new level of respect for those who use the weapon in life threatening situations.

Charlie's new angel

My closer target

As with skeet shooting, my first shot was my best.  I hit the red when the target was close, but when the instructor pushed it back about five more yards, I only scratched the red once or twice. 

My husband used the Weaver stance in the navy, so he got to learn a new stance that day.  He also shot much larger pistols in the navy, so the gun that was more than enough gun for me seemed wimpy to him.  We initially shot .22 pistols but later shot a larger 9mm pistol.  My expert marksman preferred the 9mm, but it had a tad too much recoil for me.

He shoots better with the 9mm