Dances With Pistols

I must first explain that one of the items on my “life list*” was to learn to shoot a pistol. Today Rasputin took me to a local range to shoot a Walther P22.

Photo from Wikipedia 

　
I was a bit nervous to say the least… but then three people showed up at the same time. A shooting instructor and his two students; a mother and teenaged son. (ARG!) I had hope to shoot alone with Raspi.


　
Things were going well. The instructor even helped me improve my grip. (If I hadn’t I would have ended up with a slide bite. Ouch!)

Glossary of Firearms Terminology;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_firearms_terminology

　
Side note: Raspi knew the instructor from school. Apparently they trained together to be corrections officers. I swear that Rasputin knows everyone in the world.


　
I had gone through 3 clips of ammo…when I had a panic attack. I had to walk away for a bit to calm down. I was nervous shooting to begin with, but having to worry about where others were standing, combined with the noise distraction of their shots was too much.


I went to sit out in our car for a few minutes. Raspi send me a text to see if I was ok. I told him to go ahead without me, and that I would return when I was ready.


Shortly after I returned, the instructors session with the students ended. (What a relief!) After they cleaned up and left…we resumed firing.


Things were going well. I still wasn’t hitting dead center, but oh well. (More like somewhere within 6 inches of where I was aiming.) I had just fired,  the shell ejected…and…went down the front of my shirt.


Yes I am serious…It was hot yet, so it was BURNING MY STOMACH!


So…I had to dance around flapping at my shirt with my right hand…while keeping the loaded gun (SAFELY!) pointed down range with my left.


Aka: scary burning pistol dance of doom.


So in the end, I didn’t shoot anyone, (or myself) but I got a nasty shell shaped burn on my stomach.


Moral of the story: DON’T wear a v-neck to the range.






　
*I think the term “bucket list” is dorky.