New Thing #47 - Bullseye!

Tonight I took my friends Betsy and Sarah to an indoor gun range in the city. I've never actually shot a gun in an indoor range before. Usually I have wide open spaces and cow sh*t around me. So, I opted to shoot in a small building with a ton of people all up in my space. But, I'll get to that in a minute.

Betsy has only ever shot a shotgun, and that was a long time ago with her uncle. Sarah has never shot a gun, held a gun or really ever seen a gun any closer than Shemar Moore shooting one on Criminal Minds. Which is okay. Just because I grew up with guns doesn't mean everyone did.

I'm not going to lie. I was a bit nervous shooting for the first time without my dad, brother or brother-in-law within shouting range. They've always been my safety net, so it was natural for me to shoot with them around. This time, I was on my own, and apparently responsible for Betsy and Sarah as well. No pressure.

Once a month, Bullseye (that's the name of the range) holds a ladies night where the range fee is waived. And that's about it. When I first called a few months ago, I was told that the gun rental fee was free too. Apparently not. No biggie though. We all shot the same gun, so we didn't have to pay for more than one to rent.

Bullseye is located in a shady building on a shady lot in a shady neighborhood. Most people think it's an abandoned building when they drive by. I've driven down the street more times than I can count and I've never once noticed it. Like everyone else, I thought it was some rundown forgotten building. But, nope, lucky for us it's a gun range!

See, looks like an abandoned building.

You can purchase guns here, ammo, and all other kinds of gun-related paraphernalia in what I like to call the gift shop area. It's nothing big or too overly impressive, but every male member of my family would be like a kid in a candy store there. Me, I was all about the range. I had one thing on my mind: release some aggression at that paper target, which I will call Bill (you know, from Kill Bill!).

Once we arrived, the very nice guy behind the counter (I don't know his name, but I'm going to call him Skip for the blog's sake) got us started. We all had to show our IDs to make sure we were of legal shooting age. Ha, I got carded. Then, we signed our lives away promising that we weren't going to shoot anyone. Good thing we signed that little piece of paper, or who knows what kind of mayhem could have ensued. I then explained that since neither one of them had shot before, we should start off with something tame. No offense to either girl, but I didn't want to scare them half to death with something badass. So, we got the .22 pistol. I also liked this because the ammo was dirt cheap. Score.

Next, Skip told us all about the range rules. First, ear and eye protection at all times. Easy peasy. Next, always point the gun down range and NEVER at anyone. Again, simple, but I'm afraid some people don't pay attention to that rule. There were two doors to get onto the range. We had to go through one at a time and shut the first door before opening the second. Made sense to keep people safe and their hearing protected if they weren't on the range. We were to return the gun in its tray, with the clip out and the chamber empty when we were finished. If we had an issue with the gun, we were to leave it on the range, and have Skip come out to help us. Do NOT take the loaded gun out of the range. Sweep your brass onto the range when you're finished. Or, as I like to say, police your brass...I watch too much NCIS. See, all of this sounds pretty reasonable, but like I said, some people are the opposite of reasonable and sane.

There was a line 7 yards from the shooting area, and we were not allowed to move our target past that unless we could shoot 10 rounds in the center ring with Skip watching. Then, we could move it past that. I wasn't really concerned with distance, so I wasn't really trying for that. After we were properly briefed, we grabbed our box of ammo (50 bullets) and a paper target and headed out onto the range. One at a time. Single file.

The building really isn't that big, so there's only 10 lanes to shoot from. Which really isn't the crappy part. What really sucked is there is only about 3 feet between the back wall and where you shoot from. So, for us, there were 3 of us, 2 people standing behind the shooter. There was literally no room to walk by. And since there were lots of people sharing lanes, it was a total clusterf*ck. Not well designed, my friends.

I plastered Bill, our little paper assailant, on the automatic target retrieval system and sent him on his way. I've always wanted to do that. I loved seeing that little thing in the movies. On the farm, you gotta walk your ass down to get your target. That's just silly. My dad should totally install an automatic retrieval system! Ha, this is the part where my dad gives me that look and says "Yeah, right. Walk your ass down there and get it yourself." Sarcasm is hereditary.

So, now that Bill was approximately 5 yards away, I started to load the clip and showed Betsy and Sarah how to do it. The clip held 10 rounds, so I figured we'd each take turns shooting 10 rounds and get more ammo as needed. So, I filled the clip, popped it in the gun, took my stance and pulled the trigger. And nothing happened. I fiddled with it for a minute before I called Skip in. Genius that I am forgot to load the chamber before I started shooting. Don't be embarrassed dad. I felt like an idiot. Especially since Skip told me to do it when he was getting the gun out. Apparently I have the attention span of a gnat these days.

So, now that I knew to load the chamber, away I went. My first shot was in the head. Did I mention that Skip told us NOT to take any head shots? Oops. The next 9 were all at the top of the center circle with a hell of a tight grouping, if I do say so myself (especially since I'm a bit rusty). Dad would be so proud. I forgot about the rush you get when shooting a gun. It's alllll coming back to me now! Woo-hooo! 

Rockin' the .22!

Not bad!

After my 10 rounds were spent, it was Betsy's turn. I watched while she loaded the clip, which was good, and showed her how to hold the gun. I told her to squeeze the trigger, never jerk it. I'm not sure how she felt about the first shot, but she make quick work of her 10 rounds. Most of hers were on the left side of the head. Skip would not be happy. And one wonky shot in the kidneys. I think that one was the kill shot.

Betsy is kickin' butt and takin' names.

Sarah was up next and I could tell she was a bit nervous. And she definitely had a right to be. This was completely out of her comfort zone. The strong stench of sulphur and the close quarters probably didn't help a lot. The guy next to us was shooting something big and loud and it wasn't easy to concentrate with that thing going off every 2 seconds. But, she powered through, loaded the clip herself, and again I showed her how to shoot it. And she did fine. Much better than I think she even thought. Of course Bill's stomach and spleen got one hell of a beating, but who cares. She hit the target and even kept a fairly close pattern, considering it was her first time. After her 10 rounds were over, she was done though. I think that was enough gun-related excitement for her. I'm really proud that she did it. Regardless of how many rounds she shot, she was able to power through it.

Sarah looks like a natural!

Our first target. (You can click on the image to make it larger.)

I grabbed a fresh target, moved it a bit further away and Betsy and I polished off the remaining 20 rounds in quick fashion. 9 of my shots were in the center ring, with only 1 of them just outside it. Damn it feels good to be a gangsta. Betsy's next 10 were a little hectic, but she was still getting used to sighting the target, aiming and all that jazz. She was doing really well though!

Mine & Betsy's second target.

I was still in the mood to shoot some more, but we continued to just stick with the .22. I grabbed two more targets and another box of shells. 25 apiece. Bill #3 didn't stand a chance. All 25 were in and around his heart. Yeah, that's how I roll. Betsy's 25 were much tighter and more centered on the target. I told her it just takes a bit of practice. I also remembered, when she only had 5 shells left, to tell her to exhale before taking the shot to help steady her hand. Crap, I probably should have told her 40 rounds ago. My bad. But, she still did really well, and I'm proud of her as well.

My final target.

It had been close to an hour at that point, and it was getting even busier, so we decided to hit the road. I'll shoot some of the other guns another day. Skip was nice and took our picture for us. One in our smokin' hot eye & ear protection and another with me holding an Uzi and Betsy holding some other gun that I can't remember the name of. Apparently the Uzi was waiting on a part, so we couldn't shoot that tonight. But, it's only $20 to shoot, plus the cost of ammo, so Betsy and I are totally going back to shoot that sometime.

Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like us?

I'll shoot the Uzi someday!

Thanks to both Betsy and Sarah for coming out with me tonight. I had a lot of fun, and I'm really proud that they both did something completely and totally out of their comfort zone. I'm not sure either of them will become a regular at the range, but at least they can say they've shot a handgun now!