Before we get to the guns, I gota say sorry for being so slack on the blog…. its not like I dont have things to blog about either, I have a heap of things I want to share….. Its just that between still being dead tired when I get home and getting my head around moving, I just have not had time to do much bloging.
I suspect that things are going to get worse before they get better.
We start moving in about 5 days, the web site will go down for some time when we do, more on that latter. Anyway, point is, Im sorry, I can only keep trying hard to keep up………
For some reason last week, I happen to be sitting at my desk 15 minutes after I should have gone home, something which is very rare. On this day, it turned out to be a good thing, a very good thing.
The phone rang, and it was one of the engineers, turns out that a few of the guys at Opto have a bit of a gun club happening, and once a month or so, they go shooting after work…… The voice wanted to know if I wanted to come along……….
It was all a bit short notice but after a quick check with Freddy, we went for it… the whole point of being here is to take opportunities like this is it not?
We piled into a few cars, they agreed to drop me back to the car park when it was all done so I could ride home, and headed off to Riverside where the indoor range was located.
On the way, it seems to be the norm to stop at In and Out Burgers (one of California’s best burger joints (Freddy quite likes it as well)).
About an hour after leaving work, we arrived at the range. You show your drivers licence, and your in. Turns out that a few of the engineers are armed to the back teeth, so renting a gun at the range was not an issue. (However, should you want to shoot something you dont own, its not a problem).
Inside, there are about 12 booths, you are allocated one when you sign in, we took three of them, we set up rifles in two and hand guns in the third……. Yeah, you read me right, hand guns!!!!!!!!
All up we had a 9mm Glock, Colt 45, 40 cal revolver, Magnum 357, M14, M16, 12 gauge pump action shot gun and a pretty trick .22 cal target rifle………
Let the shooting begin.
We all took turns and had plenty of time to shoot quite a few rounds of each gun. All in all we were at the range for about 2 hours.
It was a pretty neat experience. Starting with the handgun was pretty neat. I have been wanting to shoot one for many many years, and here was a few different ones to ‘try’. What can I say, it was all I hoped for and more.
From slapping the magazine in, pulling the slide back, releasing the safety and pulling the trigger, it was all pretty neat. Its a totally different experience than shooting a rifle. The kick is totally different, its all in your wrists, nothing in the arms or shoulders. The sound is different as well.
Anyway, the M14 and M16 are pretty cool, they have some serious kick and noise!. The pump action shot gun is pretty neat, of course I have shot one of those before, but not a pump action. Its pretty neat to reload it after every shot.
Im told that I can buy a gun now that I am here. I just need to show my drivers licence, wait 10 days, and its all mine to take home.
Dont panic, as much as I enjoyed the experience, Im not in a hurry to buy one……. Well, not a real one anyway……. A few days latter I bought a $20 plastic BB pistol…….. Terry and I are enjoying taking turns shooting at a gel covered target (the plastic BB’s stick and slowly slide down into the collection tray at the bottom)….. I’ve got a hankering to get the upgraded version, its CO2 powered (same little gas cartridges as used in the ‘soda stream’). Its that or the electric one (they are a lot more accurate because the barrel does not move), Im taken with the accuracy of hand guns……
Anyway, I dont think I will be making a regular event of it (I can only afford to shoot the 22’s), but every few months I might hang back at work and go for a little stress release by blowing a few holes in some cardboard.
(For what its worth, my favorite gun was the 9mm Glock with a .22 barrel on it).
