Sunday, July 25, 2010

#15: Shooting Range - DONE!

When I told people I wanted to go to a shooting range the responses were either along the lines of "Awesome!" or "Um, why?". I'm not a violent person (I swear), and I don't have any intention of becoming an NRA member, but I always wanted to shoot a gun and see how well I'd do. Those water shooting games just don't compare.

A couple of weeks ago I went with my friend Judy to Westside Pistol & Rifle Range in the Flatiron district. It's the only one in New York City and it's very easy to miss if you're not looking for it.

We went to the basement of a building where all the magic happens. First was an introductory class where a 60-something balding man covered in tattoos demonstrated what to do with a rifle (IE don't point it at someone, always have the safety on, etc). He also showed us how to put bullets in a magazine (I snickered in my head because this is such a completely different use of the term "magazine" from how I use it in my 9-5 day job).

Now, if you were to imagine a shooting range, you'd probably imagine the location dominated by men. The instructors and staff were mostly male, but the class we were in had 5 women and 2 men, boyfriends of 2 women in the class. Those two women made me look like a genius. Who wears heels to go to a shooting range? But any class where I'm not the most confused one is a great class by me.

It took some getting used to and my rifle-holding form was probably poor because holy crap those things are heavy, but it was FUN! I mean, how many opportunities do you have to fire a weapon without worrying about, you know, getting arrested for something?

Here's one of my targets:

Not bad for a beginner, eh?

After shooting a few rounds (I believe we got 50 bullets), we walked over to the Shake Shack for some burgers and milkshakes. If we had beer instead of milkshakes we might as well have grown testicles.

They gave us a card for 50% off our next visit, so who knows? Maybe I'll aim (ha! Sorry, it's been a while since I used a pun, right?) to get everything in the bulls eye next time. The expectations for this visit were really more like "Don't shoot yourself or someone accidentally." Mission accomplished!

2 comments: