Target Practice

You know, I wanted to name this post all kinds of funny things like "Janie's Got a Gun", "Annie Get Your Gun", and Annie Oakley.  I didn't want to be too cheesy though, so I just stuck with Target Practice. 

David and I joined our local gun range so we could do some target shooting.  David grew up around guns.  His uncle is a big gun enthusiast, and the boys went shooting with him quite often. Plus David's grandmom used to shoot, and he's got an aunt (and another uncle) who shoots, too.  Our family had a bb gun, and that's the only knowledge I had about firearms. David's teaching me about the different types of guns and how to shoot them.  Target practice is a fun activity, and it gets us outside and spending time together as a family. 

This past weekend we went to the range and I got to shoot all kinds of guns.  Bear with me, because I'm still learning all the names of things, and I may get something wrong.

Here's the table we were using.  Our hand gun, a Ruger 22/45, is in the center laying on the blue blanket.  It's a great gun for target shooting.  I can't remember exactly what the other guns are (they're not ours).  I'm pretty sure the one in the middle is a .45, but I can't remember. 

Speaking of .45s, David's uncle let me shoot his.  It's way more powerful than our .22, and I'm not sure I really like the .45.  It's just too powerful for me.  Here's a video of me shooting it for the second time. 

Here's my target from my first try on the .45.  Not too bad for a first try.



David's uncle was really helpful and gave me all kinds of tips on how to shoot.  There were also a few of his friends there who were very helpful and great teachers.

Then I moved on to shooting our .22, which I'm pretty comfortable with now. 

One of the guys let us shoot at their steel targets, which are really nice because you can hear the "ping" when you hit a target, so you get instant feedback. 

I managed to sneak in a picture of David, too. 



It was a fun day, and it was nice to get outside and enjoy the spring like weather!  Guns used to really intimidate me, because I just didn't have much experience at all with them.  It's great to have good teachers like David and his uncle around, because they really know what they're doing.  It's good to enjoy target shooting, but it's still very important to know gun safety and proper handling.  Now I am pretty sure I would be able to shoot a fox if it was going after my chickens.  Well, maybe if it stood perfectly still.  I'm not sure if I'm any good at shooting moving targets!