Sweat and Guns

Today I took the sister, brother-in-law and the Boss to some privately owned land for some short gun action. My sister and her hubby have been visiting from Florida for about a week. They own 2, 5 shot revolvers that they haven't fired in several years as well as the unfired and recently purchased 9mm. The revolvers are by Rossi and Charter Arms, the 9mm is a double stack Bersa. He recently got his carry license and she's considering doing the same.

His shooting wasn't half bad considering how infrequent he handles a gun, but my sister was awkward. She can shoot OK, but not with the practiced confidence I believe is necessary for a potential life and death situation. My sister kept asking me if she was hitting the paper, and I kept replying that I didn't know because I was watching her.

I told both that they need to shoot the guns more often so that handling their firearms and shooting becomes automatic. Somehow I doubt that will ever happen.

The Boss hadn't fired her carry gun since we bought it a few months ago due to her priorities being different than mine. As with most women she instinctively relies on me to be her protector. In today's world that doesn't make much sense. In any case, her shooting was decent. Since her hand surgeries that removed the bones connecting her thumb with the wrist, both hands, loading a magazine and pulling a slide back is problematic. Sometimes she can and sometimes she can't. Her Firestorm 380 was purchased because that was the only model we found that she has any hope of operating the slide, and the recoil isn't painful.

I only fired about 15 rounds myself because the trip was intended to get the others some trigger time. I demonstrated some double taps with one of my 1911s using the steel on meat pointing method and strong hand / weak hand only shooting.

I think we all enjoyed the time despite the sweat running down our faces. The shooting wasn't all that bad either because, well . . . . all the holes were at least in the black of a silhouette target at about 20 feet.

Being a gun person, I'm glad I live in the area I do. There are 3 gun shops within 15 minutes of my house, one with an indoor range. The competition keeps the price of guns and ammo lower than in other parts of the country. Guns are less expensive, and ammo a lot less expensive than in Florida where my guests live.

So why didn't we go to the indoor range to escape the heat you ask? Because the Boss and others hate shooting ranges, especially indoor shooting ranges. Even though the temperature and humidity was miserable, we could take breaks sitting in the shade, drink some water and gab a bit.