An Infidel and an Odyssey Part 2

After the small feeding frenzy at the LGS, Aunt Clickity had to wait out her mandatory three day "cooling off period."  I'm sure it kept her from doing at least one drive by shooting.  Maybe two.   It being a Sunday when she bought the gun and then Monday being a holiday, she couldn't pick it up until Friday.  She did that and was scared to take it out of the box without supervision so it sat in her car until the next morning.

The reason it got out of her car the next morning was to go to the range.   While The Lovely Bride was reading up on her new Glock on Sunday, that sneaky SOB Lantry told her brother about it and suggested that we ought to have a family outing at the Hernando Sportsman's Club sometime soon.  Brother in Law said that Saturday was good for him so the die was cast.  TLB told Aunt Clickity and, since she was going to have her gun by then,  she wanted to go too.

Saturday morning finally got here and the weather girl was being a tease.  She kept talking about it raining all day.   TLB looked at the radar and it showed that it was going to rain in the morning, clear up about the time the range opened and then stay clear for an hour or so.  It wasn't going to rain all day.  It was going to rain off and on all day.   I told her that sounded a little like the weather that covered the Normandy landing in 1944 so we decided to go with it.  TLB's brother wasn't as optimistic and he stayed home. I told her to tell him that if he had been in charge on June 6 1944, Hitler would still be alive.  She said that Hitler would be 126 years old now so he wouldn't be alive.   If there is a point, she will find a way to miss it.

We got to the range without encountering much rain on the way and I went ahead of the group to see the Range Safety Officer.   I wanted him to be aware that we had someone with us who had never fired a gun before and that I thought that direction from someone in authority would probably help her develop good safety habits.   The folks there are always helpful and they assigned us a dedicated overseer.

TLB and Aunt Clickity took the spot at the left end of the bench and the Niece and I took the one next to it.  Our personal RSO pulled up a chair behind me and the Niece.  

I had given TLB two boxes of 9mm for the Glock and while the Niece was getting her 10-22 and the 32 Magnum ready, she started shooting.   It sounded loud so when she finished the first magazine I asked her what she was shooting.

"I don't know.  Whatever you loaded in it Saturday Night."

My Federal +P ammo that I got for the Luger because it has an old fashioned bullet profile and a relatively small hollow point.

"Try this Remington green box or the IMI stuff.  Its all good."

So she switched to some lead bullet reloads that I had put together for the Luger.  Ugh.

"Where did you get these?"

"In the reloading room on the shelf"

"They are lead.  You can't shoot lead through a Glock.  That's why I gave you two boxes of jacketed ammo."

"I wasn't sure that would be enough."

So she started burning through the hardball ammo and the Niece was burning up the 32 S&W long in the 32 Magnum and Aunt Clickity finally decided it was time to join in. 

She stepped up to the line and she and TLB started going over "The Rules" and how to operate the Ruger LCR.  While that was going on, I had the Niece switch to a gun with a little more aplomb than the 32.

A nineteen year old girl that can pass for fourteen tells you she has fired a Ruger 10-22 and you yawn.   Seven year old kids do that all the time.  Then she says she's shot a 32 Magnum.   OK, that's a little better but its still not impressive.  A 9mm Luger?  Stylish but not much else.   I can't have future prospective Nephews-in-Law scoffing at her shooting experience so I brought something special.

A buddy had a Smith & Wesson Model 25 and couldn't shoot it anymore because of arthritis in his wrists.    I put some small stocks on it to try to fit her hands better than the originals.   He gave me a box of his "Old Fart With Arthritis" loads.  A 255 grain lead bullet with just a sprinkling of Red Dot in the case.   She was going to be able to tell anybody that wanted to know that she had fired a Smith & Wesson Model 25, that it shoots 45 Colt and that she did pretty good with it.

The gun was still too big for her.  The grips fit her hand but the trigger was way out there almost out of reach.  She gave it a try anyway.  After a few rounds she shifted the gun to her left hand and used her right to kind of hold the left hand in place.  Since the gun really was too big for her, I didn't try to correct her into something that wasn't going to work for her.  I let her have fun.   I figured she'd shoot maybe a cylinder full and then break out the 10-22 but she emptied the gun and went at it again.  Final count was thirty rounds of 45 Colt.  She said it kicked more than the 32 but that it wasn't bad.  A very good reason why folks should reload.

I can't wait until that day when some dude tries to impress her with his 9mm Glock.  She'll just tell him "I shoot little guns too sometimes but when I'm serious I shoot a 45 Colt.  Pick up your jaw, tough guy.  You look silly."  

 
Our personal RSO finally figured out that the Niece wasn't the new shooter and decided to help out with TLB and Aunt Clickity.  He wound up kind of hovering over them.  There's a lot of rules at this particular range.  All of them make sense but there's a lot more than just four of them.   He found plenty to keep himself busy.  I even got gigged for having my root beer on the shooting bench.   Its a rule.  Its on a sign.  

"Do you want unburned powder and lead particles in your root beer?" 

"No Sir."

They have rules and all of the rules make sense.

I didn't have to do any push ups.   They are really nice that way. 
 
We gave Aunt Clickity a box of  .38 Special wad cutters.   She had me and TLB fire a couple of round each so she could watch what we did and know what to expect as far as recoil and noise.  Then she took over and shot up about half the box of ammo.  After the first couple of shots she even stopped saying "Ooooooh!" every time it went off.  She managed to keep them on the paper and even had more than a few right where they needed to be.  It was not bad at all for a very first time ever shooter.

The rain did sprinkle just a little about midway through but it wasn't hardly enough to notice.   The Niece has shot "a REAL gun" now and   Aunt Clickity is much more confident with her little LCR.   She even took it in the house when she got home.   The only person that didn't have a good time was the cold and timid soul that didn't go.