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A Day At The Range

A Girl and Her Gun: A Day At The Range

Monday, December 12, 2011

A Day At The Range

Last week, the instructor, John, from my conceal carry class invited my husband and I to come shoot with him and a few others at his range.

Of, course we said yes.

Unfortunately, the day did not start out so well...

My husband got his car stuck in the mud.

This is Noel from Virginia Tactical.  This is the first time we met him and this is what we did to him. 
Not the best first impression.  Thanks for your help Noel!
We did not want anyone to feel left out, so we covered the enter group in wet nasty mud.  These are good people.  Not only did they help us push our car out, they were not even mad.

Good news, the day got much better...

John thought is was time I moved from A Girl And Her Gun to A Girl And Her "Guns"

He is always pushing me and he thought it was time I moved up to the big guns.

So, I shot an AR-15 and an AK-47 and I dry fired a LaRue Tactical PredatAR 5.56 I believe with the 16" barrel.
John with the LaRue




Side note here, my daughter thought this picture showed my under, umm, wear, but rest assured it does not.  I get very, very cold, very, very easy.  I had 5 very thin layers on.

When I took the actual course in March, I was freezing.  I have written about it before, but I was woefully unprepared and had one shirt on and a very heavy jacket. 

The one shirt was not enough, but the jacket was way to bulky and I could not train with it on.  I spent the day take clothes on and off.  John and some of the other people in the group were kind and gave me their jackets(thinner) and a vest which saved my life.

So, being a gal who prides herself on learning from her mistakes, I have spent the past few months experimenting with what works best for me. 

What will keep me warm, but not bulk me up and wont show my intimate apparel. 

For me it is layering lots of thin fabrics.  Yes, it makes me look like I have rolls around my belly, but I am warm and I can move, so to heck with vanity. 

The group of folks John invited was a small group of very wonderful people.  I am amazed at how I keep getting hooked up with the best of the best.

I have been coveting an XDm 5.25" 9mm for a while and as luck would have it one of the gentleman that came had one(his was the 4.5") and he very graciously offered to let me shoot it.  Love, love, love it.  Probably wont buy one though, but that is another post.

There was a very nice couple from Maryland and they had several guns they let me shoot. 

Have I mentioned how blessed and spoiled I am?

This is him
And this is her

This is me with John and the nice lady from Maryland.

Ok, so I got to shoot a revolver for the first time.

I believe this is a S & W model 60???  I tried to input everything in my phone because I knew I would not remember everything, but there was a lot going. 

I loved this gun too.  It was the first time I truly understood heavy trigger pull.  My LCP has a long trigger pull, but to me, it's not "heavy" per-se.  If I did not cock the revolver, the trigger was heavy.  I actually kind of liked that feel.  Not instead of my semi-automatic, just in general, I enjoyed shooting it.

I also shot their S & W 3913/ LadySmith and their XD, both in 9MM I think.  Sean, correct me if I am wrong here.

Not only did I have a great time throwing some lead down range, but I also got to spend it with truly wonderful people and I learned a ton. 

I learned so much that I really could write a post everyday for the next 2 weeks and probably not cover it all, but I won't do that to you, however, be warned, the next few post will be about this trip to the range.

6 Comments:

At December 12, 2011 at 9:43 AM , Blogger Kathleen said...

Very cool. Where is this range? I'd love to shoot at an outdoor range.

 
At December 12, 2011 at 11:33 AM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

Kat,the range is not open to the public. Well, it is, but it is a training range, so one needs to take a course there to use it. I would highly recommend taking a course there if at all possible. If you go back to the original post and click on the link, it will take you to the site which tells you about the instructor and the courses offered.

 
At December 12, 2011 at 5:05 PM , Blogger Warrior Knitter said...

Oh yeah. I LOVE my AR. When I do the NRA Women on Target events the women are shocked by the small amount of recoil with a .223 / 5.56 EBR. They are really expecting to get slammed and they don't. I will say that if you're thin and have little upper body muscle or fat the recoil is more of a jolt but some of us don't have that problem. ;~)

I am just not a revolver kinda gal but I enjoy shooting them occasionally. A revolver is a bit of a different dynamic than a semi-auto. I don't like shooting double action but I don't mind cocking the hammer and pulling the trigger. An air-weight .357 shooting .357's and not .38 Specials is just not my idea of a good time. If I'm going to shoot a revolver I want a big hogleg of a revolver, like a S&W 686 with a 6" barrel. I do like that you don't have to chase brass with a revolver!

Looking forward to reading more about your adventure!

 
At December 12, 2011 at 5:38 PM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

Ok, Warrior Knitter, I only understood about half of that comment...lol. Still learning here..

I am pretty sure I shot .38 special out of the revolver, but I don't mind a big ol' kick...once. I have shot a .357 magnum once and I was not prepared, but the people with me were, so the man who owned the gun, stood behind me, it kicked, I went back a bit, but nothing dramatic. He had his hand on my back. It was fun, but you are right, doing that all day long would not be fun.

I have not found a gun yet that I don't enjoy shooting, but spending some time on the range and "playing" is not the same as carrying. What I carry, I am very picky about.

 
At January 19, 2012 at 10:30 AM , Blogger Mortalis09 said...

if your interested in an outdoor range two come to mind - one that i like and one that i don't. The one i don't like is Clarks Brothers (http://clarkbrosguns.com/) and the other one that i do like but which you need either a 4x or at least a fairly tall vehicle to get to is Cove Campground in Gore va (covecampground.com) - It would probably depend on both what kind of range you like and how far the drive is as to which one you would prefer.

 
At January 19, 2012 at 10:32 AM , Blogger Mortalis09 said...

lol see if you can get your hands on a tokarev - fun little semi-auto that takes very inexpensive ammo

 

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