Yesterday was proclaimed by Jon and I as "The Day of Shooting and Taking Shots". Why? In one day we managed to pack in target shooting, taking some golf shots and playing "Call of Duty 2" and some other first person shooter video games. Shooting in all possible forms!
During my life, I have never been into hunting or guns, so yesterday was a bit of an adventure for me. The last time I have shot a firearm was over 10 years ago. So, I took a drive out to the rural town of Pavilion where Jon said we could partake in some target shooting with a few of the firearms that him and his father owns. Sure... why not!
We started out firing some handguns (pictured above). We chose a Smith & Wesson .22 caliber revolver (bottom right), a 9mm semi-automatic pistol (bottom left) and a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol (top). This being the first time I have ever fired a handgun, I must say that it is A LOT HARDER to aim and shoot one of these things than they make it seem in the movies. I have a whole new respect for law enforcement officials who must demonstrate proficiency in handling such firearms.
Then we switched over to some rifles (pictured above). We chose a basic semi-automatic .22 caliber rifle (top). A bolt action .22 caliber magnum rifle (middle). And finally... a semi-automatic .223 caliber M-14 rifle (bottom). That last weapon was a standard issue weapon to troops sent into battle in the Vietnam War. It fires the hefty looking bullet shown in the picture below! DAAAAAAAAAMN! That's a bit more power than the simple .22 caliber rifle that I had shot 10 years ago. The simple .22 cal. was accurate and easy to shoot. The bolt action rifle felt pretty cool to shoot. With this weapon, you can kind of imagine what it must have been like to be Vasily Zaytsev from Enemy at the Gates or that other sniper from Saving Private Ryan.
The show stopper was definitely the .223 M-14 rifle. LOUD! One hell of a recoil kick... and powerful. It's pretty damn cool to hit an apple dead on at 20 yards and watch it become vaporized into applesauce in the blink of an eye. It gets heavy after a while to hold up and aim. Even though it is a rifle with a scope it still takes some skill to aim. Once again, not like the movies and video games. I have a new found respect for the men and women in the armed forces who have had to master firing such weapons.
To top it all off, the rule that Jon's father has is, "You shoot it, you clean it." So we had to go through the task of disassembling, cleaning and reassembling each firearm. Overall, quite a new and exciting experience! Thanks Jon!
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