A while back I had mentioned that I would be interested in seeing how well I could shoot a gun and Myron's gift to me was an NRA Basic Pistol Shooting Course at the local firearms training center!
The 2 of us arrived at 9am on a beautiful Saturday morning and took the full day class which consisted of about 5 hours of classroom time and 2 hours of shooting practice. The course was very well designed by the NRA with safety being the first and foremost consideration. Exercising 2nd amendment rights of course was the second. The instructors were good, one was from NYC and the other was a self pronounced computer geek who worked in RTP and both loved teaching safe gun handling, shooting and the importance of exercising their rights. There were 16 in the class and of the 16 there were 4 women including me. The instructors spoke proudly of how more and more women were purchasing guns, learning how to use them and blowing the socks of macho men with their ability to shoot more accurately. It was very funny because I was darn anxious when I picked up the unloaded semi-automatic pistol to practice pulling back the slide, working the safety and learning how to aim and squeeze the thing. It was HEAVY and difficult to work! The women in CSI and NCIS must be definitely using plastic guns in those shows! Anyway after learning how to safely and appropriately grip, handle and manipulate the unloaded gun we donned our glasses and ear protection and entered the range!!!
The first shooting stance was the benchrest . This is where you sit and rest your wrists on a raised plastic armrest holding the gun aimed at the target which is 15 feet in front of you. The target was a paper plate. The goal of course is to get all your rounds into the paper plate clustered in the center.
I was in the first group up and Myron and the second group was waiting 10 feet back. We were to load only one live round for the first try because the instructors wanted to make sure we weren't going to kill anyone and wanted to monitor our safety. I loaded the magazine, pulled back the slide, popped it in, pushed the safety and was ready to fire. Don't I sound like a pro? :-) When the instructors told us we could fire, I aimed carefully focusing my left dominant eye on the front sight lined up with the rear sight and the center of the plate on the sight, took a breath, let it out, held it and squeezed the trigger very slowly and evenly with the pad of my index finger and.... I HIT THE PLATE! We reloaded with I hit the plate again. And we reloaded with 5 rounds and I popped off the 5 and hit the plate every time getting them grouped! I was doing just swell.
Myron got his turn next and did just as well with the benchrest stance!
Then I went up to do the 2 handed standing stance. I kept all the instructions in my head and remembered that to steady the grip on the pistol, you have to push out with the left hand and pull in with the right. This tension reduces movement on the pistol. I shot 15 rounds and they all were in a group on my plate and I had the best plate in the class!!! Woo hoo... watch out... Annie Oakley rides again.
Myron completed his 2 handed stance as well and got all his rounds in the plate as well. But the instructor warned him never to piss me off!!!
This was a terrific adventure and I will probably join the Ladies League at the range and join the NRA!
We are looking forward to testing different guns and purchasing one for target practice.
Thank you Myron for a perfect adventure!
Love
Anna and Myron
1 comment:
That sounded extra super duper fun! You got a dead-eye.
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