Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Firing Range

I had an interesting experience today. I went to a shooting range for the first time, and I discovered that the activity needs a dislike button, at least for me. I tried two different guns, a .38 pistol and a .45 semi-automatic, and didn't particularly enjoy using either one. I learned two very important things. First, I'm not really strong enough to use a gun. The recoil on both of the guns was too powerful for me to enjoy shooting them; every time they kicked back they hurt my hands. Second, I don't particularly enjoy shooting because I find it difficult. I think that, if I'd found a gun that was easy to shoot, I might have liked it better, but I wasn't accurate enough to make slogging through the difficulty of handling the weapon worth it.

On the up side, I know that if I somehow come into contact with or possession of a loaded handgun, I can probably manage to not kill myself with it while I attempt to unload it. That strikes me as a useful skill.

From here on in, I think my shooting will be limited to photographs with cameras, rather than targets with firearms.

2 comments:

Douglas Underhill said...

Those both seem like big guns to start off with. The first (and only) time I shot handguns, they were both .22 caliber, and I remember thinking "I thought guns had recoil." It just felt like a gentle pop.

Of course, you may also be like me - just not that into guns. It is something I've thought of trying again, though. I'd like to be comfortable enough to take a gun away and unload it if I had to. I learned a few disarming techniques, but I'm still really nervous around guns in general.

Etoile deCartier said...

Knowing how I hate the .38 I thought she would start you on the .25. If I had known her plan I would have said something. If you want to give it a try again sometime, maybe we can try that when it is not an indoor range and we can take our time and just plink around.. I would show you because it seems you and I have the same issues and problems both physically and psychicly with this whole shooting thing. I can shoot the .38 if I have to, but it is not fun. I, too, would mostly rather shoot photos.