I’ve been Slow to Blog.
Monday I woke up crabby, hurting, and out of sorts. A massage helped out there. Today… well it just sort of got away from me.
Sunday, I participated in my first shooting match ever.
I was nervous. Here’s the deal, whenever I try anything new I get nervous. I’m not talking butterflies in the stomach I’m talking hands shaking nervous. In extreme cases it looks like I’ve got the DTs.
The more dangerous the activity the worse the shakes get even if that danger is only perceived. Opening a 100K computer system isn’t any big deal for me because I know what to expect NOW, but that first system in front of the customer… I looked like I was fresh out of the Betty Ford Clinic. The shakes don’t instill confidence in your audience… Trust me on this!
The same was true Sunday.
I had a number of “New” things. going on.
1) I’d never walked around with a holstered weapon (Unloaded) at a firing range.
2) I’d only fired guns around my family members (picture small groups of immediate family)
3) I’d only fired at targets from a stationary position, this competition you move to engage targets at some of the stages.
4) I’m familiar with firearms, but not confident enough yet that we’ve seen each other naked.
Thank goodness I was there with friends. One friend was teasing me right from the start. He said “Perhaps you should have taken an Ambien before you got onto the range.” Believe it or not that made me feel better. You know there’s not much point in trying to hide the shakes when your bud just called you out on ’em. By the third stage the shakes were minimal. By the end of the match I was annoyed with my target accuracy or lack thereof instead of being pleased that I was hitting the targets.
I want to point out that while I had fun… Safety is first and foremost in everybody’s minds. There is a pretty strict protocol and the rules are to be followed at all times. The Club reserves the right to ask you to leave if you’re doing something unsafe. On the other side of the coin… there are tons of experienced people around who will answer any questions or give you helpful hints.
The folks at the Palm Springs Gun Club were awesome the weekend before last, and equally awesome this past weekend.
I felt very comfortable and “at home” at the club. There’s a “Stock Gun Match” next Saturday. I’m sorry that I’m going to miss it. I’ve got plans with a friend on Saturday afternoon and Don’t think that I could get to the match and still get back to my place in time.
Of course the other factor is that I’m waiting on a grip screw from Sig Sauer. Sometime during the match on Sunday, I lost a screw and as I finished the match the grip was working itself loose. (being held on by only one screw.) I’m not going to say that the loose grip affected my score… I could probably make a case for it, but none of the guys I was shooting with would buy it… so there’s no point.
The friend who talked me into trying this shooting match thing suggested that I just tape the grips on the gun and go for it. Tempting!!! But then I started thinking about cleaning the sticky tape crap out of the textured part of the grips and figure… Nah I’ll wait & go to the next match.
Here is a video of me shooting. Yeah I SUCK! So what? It’s a condition that is reparable with lots and lots of practice. I also noticed watching the video that I’m so tense that I was trying to loosen up by unconsciously shrugging my shoulders and it was like I just couldn’t quite get comfortable.
You’ll also see that I’m struggling to get magazines out of my pockets during the reload. My hearing protection and my magazine holders finally showed up this week. Gee, only two days late!
I’m slow as sin but I was very fortunate to have a friend that’s been doing this for a long time, encouraging me. You can also hear the Range Safety Officer encouraging and coaching me.
You see John the Range Safety Officer standing behind me to the right. At one of the other stages of the match John, stopped me and corrected me on a potentially unsafe thing I did. (Finger on trigger… while moving to engage another group of targets.) It wasn’t a major infraction it was a simple mistake and frankly I appreciated that he was keeping an eye on me.
After I finished that stage I said “Thank you, I didn’t give it a thought.” He gave me this big smile and said “You never think of stuff like that until you stumble and shoot yourself…” I didn’t make that mistake for the rest of the day. At the next stages, John began volunteering info about my stance and how to better proceed and improve. I don’t think I told him Thank you nearly enough…
Next Time I see him… I will.
Now that you’ve seen what a sucky inexperienced shooter looks like…
Here’s a video of what someone who knows what they’re doing looks like. This is from a different match at a different location.
I’m not completely sure, but I think this gentleman is the man behind me acting as a Range Safety Officer in the first video. The reason I’m not completely sure is that he was firing an exotic looking weapon in the match where he was a Range Safety Officer for me, and in this video he isn’t firing the same gun plus you never see his face.
Nonetheless, this is a representative example of how you’re supposed to shoot in these matches.
In the first video you can hear coaching and encouragement. You have to admire the fact that really experienced competitive shooters are patient and willing to coach complete newbies.
Needless to say I was, and am impressed.
So In summary, I had a great time. I suck. These people are very nice. I want to go again.
I’m going to catch some matches at a couple of other sites and then probably join one of the gun clubs as a regular participant.
***** (5 Star Activity Rating)
