Firing Range
Yesterday, I fired a gun for the first time at the Manchester Firing Line Range with coworkers and their friends. When we got to the range, it was packed - apparently, when it's raining buckets outside, Americans like to pull out their guns and shoot targets. Comforting.
It was an hour-long wait until we donned our ear muffs and goggles and, of course, chose our weapons. I was in a lane with two others, and we decided on a 9mm Glock and Beretta. Since we were only shooting for an hour, we purchased 150 bullets.
Going into the firing area, I couldn't stop shaking from my nervousness. I know it's an obvious fact, but guns are loud! And it didn't help that tons of people were there, practising with all kinds of firearms - from small handguns to rifles and machine guns.
Before we went in, my colleagues gave me a couple of tips:
1) Keep your gun pointed either up or down. If you point your gun in someone's face, they may shoot you because they have no idea whether your gun is loaded or not. Their first thought is likely to be: "Better you dead than me".
2) Prepare yourself for the recoil of the gun. Most times, the kick-back from the shot will cause the gun to swing up towards the ceiling.
There were a few other pieces of advice, but those were more along the lines of common sense and didn't cause me to worry about the possibility of being shot. So, with all that rushing through my brain, I went in, carefully avoiding eye contact with anyone I didn't know lest I provoke them into shooting me.
My coworker went first, pinning up his target and loading up the Glock with 10 rounds. He'd come to the range before, so he wasn't as nervous as his friend or me (both newbies). It was scary - each time the gun fired, the casing from the bullet would go flying in a random direction so I stood as far back as possible to avoid being hit. I know I mentioned it already, but the sound of the shot was so piercing that it felt like my ear protection was useless.
After 10 shots, my turn began. He helped me through loading the gun and how to hold it when firing. When we rented the two guns, we were shown how to do everything, and we were also warned to watch when we were running out of ammo. After the gun is empty, it unlocks and the top part of the gun slides back. On the Beretta, if we weren't careful, when it unlocked, the bottom of the sliding piece could cut our hand open.
It took me at least a minute to prepare myself for the first shot, keeping in mind the inevitable recoil and cringing in anticipation of the "bang". The target was quite a few metres away, and I don't think I came close to hitting it on my first try. After 9 more rounds, the shaking slowly dissipated, and I relinquished the gun to our party's third member.
As I grew more comfortable (with the Glock, more so than the Beretta), I started hitting my target (a silhouette of a man) with a bit more precision, even putting holes right through the center a few times! The two others who were with me were kind of anxious because I put about 4 shots in the silhouette's neck - not a very nice way to die. But luckily, nothing bad happened!
The hour actually went by pretty fast, so while we were waiting for the others to wrap up, we looked around the store. Most of them were behind the counter (thank goodness), but one huge firearm was mounted on a tripod off to the side. I think it was a war weapon, kind of like the ones that were used in Pearl Harbor on the ships and in the towers. Pretty cool.
Oh, and I forgot to mention how easy it was to rent a gun. They gave everyone a small piece of paper (about half the size of a normal 8.5" x 11") and we filled in our names, addresses, and driver's license numbers. On the back, we checked off the appropriate boxes, letting them know that we weren't previously diagnosed with mental illness, we weren't into drugs, and we weren't previously convicted of any felonies. I'm not kidding - it was all there. After we signed at the bottom, that was it! No questions asked. Whatever gun we wanted, we were given. Scary.
It was an hour-long wait until we donned our ear muffs and goggles and, of course, chose our weapons. I was in a lane with two others, and we decided on a 9mm Glock and Beretta. Since we were only shooting for an hour, we purchased 150 bullets.
Going into the firing area, I couldn't stop shaking from my nervousness. I know it's an obvious fact, but guns are loud! And it didn't help that tons of people were there, practising with all kinds of firearms - from small handguns to rifles and machine guns.
Before we went in, my colleagues gave me a couple of tips:
1) Keep your gun pointed either up or down. If you point your gun in someone's face, they may shoot you because they have no idea whether your gun is loaded or not. Their first thought is likely to be: "Better you dead than me".
2) Prepare yourself for the recoil of the gun. Most times, the kick-back from the shot will cause the gun to swing up towards the ceiling.
There were a few other pieces of advice, but those were more along the lines of common sense and didn't cause me to worry about the possibility of being shot. So, with all that rushing through my brain, I went in, carefully avoiding eye contact with anyone I didn't know lest I provoke them into shooting me.
My coworker went first, pinning up his target and loading up the Glock with 10 rounds. He'd come to the range before, so he wasn't as nervous as his friend or me (both newbies). It was scary - each time the gun fired, the casing from the bullet would go flying in a random direction so I stood as far back as possible to avoid being hit. I know I mentioned it already, but the sound of the shot was so piercing that it felt like my ear protection was useless.
After 10 shots, my turn began. He helped me through loading the gun and how to hold it when firing. When we rented the two guns, we were shown how to do everything, and we were also warned to watch when we were running out of ammo. After the gun is empty, it unlocks and the top part of the gun slides back. On the Beretta, if we weren't careful, when it unlocked, the bottom of the sliding piece could cut our hand open.
It took me at least a minute to prepare myself for the first shot, keeping in mind the inevitable recoil and cringing in anticipation of the "bang". The target was quite a few metres away, and I don't think I came close to hitting it on my first try. After 9 more rounds, the shaking slowly dissipated, and I relinquished the gun to our party's third member.
As I grew more comfortable (with the Glock, more so than the Beretta), I started hitting my target (a silhouette of a man) with a bit more precision, even putting holes right through the center a few times! The two others who were with me were kind of anxious because I put about 4 shots in the silhouette's neck - not a very nice way to die. But luckily, nothing bad happened!
The hour actually went by pretty fast, so while we were waiting for the others to wrap up, we looked around the store. Most of them were behind the counter (thank goodness), but one huge firearm was mounted on a tripod off to the side. I think it was a war weapon, kind of like the ones that were used in Pearl Harbor on the ships and in the towers. Pretty cool.
Oh, and I forgot to mention how easy it was to rent a gun. They gave everyone a small piece of paper (about half the size of a normal 8.5" x 11") and we filled in our names, addresses, and driver's license numbers. On the back, we checked off the appropriate boxes, letting them know that we weren't previously diagnosed with mental illness, we weren't into drugs, and we weren't previously convicted of any felonies. I'm not kidding - it was all there. After we signed at the bottom, that was it! No questions asked. Whatever gun we wanted, we were given. Scary.