On Sunday my classmate Grace agreed to take me and another classmate to a shooting range out in the suburbs. Being former Navy, she was well versed in how to use a handgun and volunteered to show us how to shoot with a 9mm Glock.

First off, these things are loud. It took me a good 15 minutes to stop freaking out every time a shot went off in other lanes at the range. Add to that the smell of gun powder and shells flying all over the place and you have one very uncomfortable Homosexual.

When my turn came to shoot, I slowly took the gun in my hand, loaded the magazine, cocked the gun (yeah, the term made me laugh too - apparently some guns can also be "double-cocked"), aimed, and shot. The recoil and the noise reverberated throughout my body and made my heart skip a few beats. I fired again a few times and put the gun down. Still shaken up, I buzzed the target (which had been set at 21ft) towards me to see if I had managed to hit it at least once. Surprise, every shot ended up in the black area of the target. Obviously that boosted my confidence somewhat and I was soon shooting like a mofo.

Turns out I have a bit of a natural talent, and by the end I was really aiming quite well. The feeling of power was so cool, too. At one point, I actually imagined I was a cop shooting a bad guy. I probably grew some extra chest hair out of that experience.

I am now officially hooked, and can't wait to go back to see how good I can get my aim. And then who knows, maybe I'll get to play with a Magnum .357 or a Desert Eagle (Tomb Raider's guns).

I am Man, hear me roar!

PS: The image above is the second target I shot that day. The squirrel target was also at 21 ft. Out of 10 shots, 7 ended in the bull's eye :)

Labels: life