Absent-Minded Jay

I went with my tennis buddy, Keith, to some land of a friend of his just past Azle, Texas to shoot some guns. I hadn’t shot a gun or rifle for at least ten years. I have purchased a Beretta 9mm handgun like previously mentioned but I have not shot it yet, nor does anyone but a couple of my coworkers (one who was there when I bought it) that I have one. Luckily, Keith has one and I got to shoot it among other models of handguns and rifles.

The first thing I shot was Scott’s, Keith’s friend, 44 Black Powder pistol. It’s pretty much like it sounds but you don’t have to load exactly it like the black powder guns of old. It looks just like one of those Old West pistols that you have to cock the hammer back to fire. It shoots this 44 caliber round lead ball that puts a hell of a hole in whatever you shoot with it. The 1st target pictured is how I shot with it for the very first time. It wasn’t too bad but I really didn’t know how it aimed. I was shooting from about 20 yards out from the target.

The second gun I shot was Keith’s 22 caliber pistol with a 10-round clip. I’ve shot 22 rounds before but in a rifle not a pistol. It’s kind of like a bigger, more dangerous “cap” gun. It doesn’t have much of a kick and it’s just fun to pull off round after round until the mag is empty. I enjoyed it and I think the wife might like it as well. It’s easy to handle, shoot and the ammo is damn cheap.

The third gun I shot was Scott’s 45. I’m not sure the exact make and model but it was a 45 caliber and the bullets were much bigger than the 22. The recoil from firing a round was a little greater too but not as much as I expected (same with the 44 black powder gun). The 22 I knew had little or no kick but I’ve only seen a 45 in the movies/TV shows. Anyway, I wasn’t as good with it but again it was because I’m not familiar with the gun and how it shoots. I did blow the shit out of a large branch that was holding the bottom part of the target down. LOL!

The fourth gun I shot was Keith’s 9mm Beretta…finally! I like the feel of it so much and I may have needed a moist towlette to clean up my mess when I fired it. It was such a smooth firing action and more fun than the 22cal pistol. The kick was amazingly lower than I expected but still exhilirating to fire off round after round. The clip on the Beretta holds 15 rounds and you can start off with 1 extra in the chamber. Good times. I shot pretty good with it even though, again, I wasn’t familiar with its particular sights or never firing one before. The 2nd target pictured is how I shot with it. Much better with the shots and about the same 20 yards out as all the handguns I fired.

Keith then wanted me to fire his 308. It’s a semi-automtic (depending on how fast you pull the trigger). It is a reconfigured military rifle that originally could be flipped by a switch from single to semi to full auto. Of course, full auto is illegal for obvious reasons but it was an interesting rifle to shoot. First, it was a heavy gun or heavier than I would think you’d want to carry being in the military but Keith said the weight of it helps reduce the recoil. Although the recoil is dampened, it is still enough to make me understand why soldiers can’t hit shit with it when they are firing fully automatic. If I shot it full auto, I think the spray would be pretty broad because of the kick. Anyway, it was a loud fucking gun too. Keith told me he wanted me to experience the sound without ear plugs. Like a dumbass, I complied for the first few shots. After the first shot, he was speaking to me about where I had hit but I couldn’t hear him clearly. He was like the teacher in Charlie Brown shows…”wah, wah, wah wah, wah.” It was a fun gun to shoot but Keith said the sights were fixed so you couldn’t adjust them. Instead, you had to move the gun and like shoot high to the right of the bullseye to get close or on target.

Finally, we started shooting skeet. I’ve never done that before nor had I shot a 12-gauge shotgun. The biggest shotgun I’ve shot is a 410 and I was like 13-yrs-old. It was fun though. Keith bought a manual skeet thrower–basically a person puts the skeet in this plastic holder-thingy, flicks the holder-thingy and it launches the skeet. Again, I’ve never shot a 12-gauge or skeet so it was interesting to start. We had a box of 90 skeet and I think I did hit like 25 out of 30. A couple of times I didn’t have the butt of the gun against my shoulder and it would kick back into it. So, a day or so later I did have a slight bruise from being a dumbass and not properly supporting the gun.

So, that was how I spent most of last Sunday. It was a blast and I could get addicted to shooting guns. It’s like paintball or BB guns but a little more expensive and dangerous. I also just can’t go in my backyard and unload. I could get used to going to a gun range though and unloading. Ammo could get costly especially since I hear Obama is wanting to make some changes with “the right to bear arms.” He can’t take that amendment away but he can tax the hell out of ammo. That’s what I hear he wants/plans to do but I also heard most of the plans happened before he got into office and have failed. I guess we’ll see.

In a week or so, my friend/coworker, Vicki, invited me to go shoot hogs in Poynor, Texas. You need a rifle for that and I don’t have one. Her friend that runs the place has a Range Rifle or Mini 14. I’ve looked that up and called around but I am not spending upwards to $700+ for something like that. I have gone by Academy Sports, looked at the Walmart website, and going to Bachman Gun & Pawn to see what they have comparable in size but less in price. We’ll see. Again, it could be an expensive “sport” I’m getting addicted to.

Here are the pics mentioned: