aarondhgraham
Member
Last week a good friend asked if I would take some visiting Canadians to the range,,,
They are in-laws of her boyfriends daughter so I said "Sure, why not."
This happened Yesterday, the 24th.
First off let me say that all went very well,,,
Everyone got to fire several different handguns,,,
And there were no accidental discharges or safety concerns.
There were however 3 times the amount of people I expected.
My friend, who asked me to do this in the first place,,,
Well, let's just say there was a slight communication breakdown.
I thought the group was to be four adults,,,
It turns out they actually meant four adults and their adult children.
So I show up at our arranged meeting place,,,
To find eleven smiling faces all eager to shoot something.
These are the handguns I took for the event:
Since these good folk are all French Canadians,,,
I decided to do an homage to their heritage,,,
I brought out my 1892 8mm Lebel revolver.
That was a particular hit with one of the older ladies,,,
She remembers shooting her grandfathers Lebel as a child.
We went to the part of the range reserved for SASS shooters,,,
There were trees for shade and a 3' by 6' table at the line.
I laid all of the guns out and fortunately had all of the magazines pre-loaded,,,
Then I handed out some safety cards and went over the rules,,,
The seven unexpected guests were all in their 20's,,,
And I must say they were very attentive.
I had two shooters going at any given time,,,
I let them choose what they wanted to try out.
As I got one going I left them in the hands of my friend,,,
Then I went to the other end and started another,,,
Then the first went to the shade and waited,,,
It was a nice assembly line type of thing.
Man was it hot out there,,,
It hit 100 by eleven o'clock,,,
The danged humidity was high as well.
The Rugers, CZ's, the Lebel, and the 629 got most of the use,,,
Although all of the handguns got some bit of workout,,,
I was loading 10 in the 22's and 5 in the semi's.
After about 90 minutes of furious helping and loading of mags,,,
The older folk retired to the shade and left it to their kids,,,
Two of the girls got into a serious duel with the Rugers,,,
And the guys got to do 9mm 16 round mag-dumps.
One lady was a very tiny little thing,,,
She took to the Bersa Thunder 22 very quickly,,,
By the end of the day she was cutting a hole in the bullseye at 15 yards.
The matron of the group was in her early 60's,,,
She was the first to ask to try shooting the .44 Magnum,,,
I only loaded one round at a time but she had no problem handling it.
At any given moment there were 2-3 cell phone videos being made.
All in all we were on the line for about 3 to 3.5 hours,,,
My thumbs are sore for loading so many rounds of ammo.
I gotta get an Uplulu for the 9mm mags.
I bought those large (18") Shoot-N-See targets,,,
They worked well as people could see where they hit,,,
I also taped some clay pigeons to a large cardboard sheet,,,
The two dueling girls made good use of that shooting the Rugers.
My friend had already said she and her boyfriend would front the ammo costs,,,
But the Canadian gentleman who was in charge of the group said no,,,
He asked me how much ammo money we had gone through,,,
I did an accurate estimate and gave him the total.
If the size of the grins was any indication,,,
Everyone had a great time.
We parted amid lots of hugs and handshaking,,,
The last thing the patriarch did was hand me an envelope.
It contained exactly twice the amount I had quoted him,,,
I was told in no uncertain terms to accept it,,,
So I thanked him and did just that.
It was hectic, frantic, and involved a lot of quick improvisation,,,
But everything went off without a hitch,,,
And everyone had fun.
By the way,,,
the tiny blonde was Joannie Rochette.
I can't believe I introduced a Canadian Olympian to handgun shooting.
What a day,,,
I'm glad it's over,,,
But I had an absolute blast!
Aarond
.
They are in-laws of her boyfriends daughter so I said "Sure, why not."
This happened Yesterday, the 24th.
First off let me say that all went very well,,,
Everyone got to fire several different handguns,,,
And there were no accidental discharges or safety concerns.
There were however 3 times the amount of people I expected.
My friend, who asked me to do this in the first place,,,
Well, let's just say there was a slight communication breakdown.
I thought the group was to be four adults,,,
It turns out they actually meant four adults and their adult children.
So I show up at our arranged meeting place,,,
To find eleven smiling faces all eager to shoot something.
These are the handguns I took for the event:
- 2 Ruger 22/45 pistols,
- CZ-75B in .22 and 9mm,
- Bersa Thunder in .22 and .380,
- S&W models 34, 15, 18, and 629.
Since these good folk are all French Canadians,,,
I decided to do an homage to their heritage,,,
I brought out my 1892 8mm Lebel revolver.
That was a particular hit with one of the older ladies,,,
She remembers shooting her grandfathers Lebel as a child.
We went to the part of the range reserved for SASS shooters,,,
There were trees for shade and a 3' by 6' table at the line.
I laid all of the guns out and fortunately had all of the magazines pre-loaded,,,
Then I handed out some safety cards and went over the rules,,,
The seven unexpected guests were all in their 20's,,,
And I must say they were very attentive.
I had two shooters going at any given time,,,
I let them choose what they wanted to try out.
As I got one going I left them in the hands of my friend,,,
Then I went to the other end and started another,,,
Then the first went to the shade and waited,,,
It was a nice assembly line type of thing.
Man was it hot out there,,,
It hit 100 by eleven o'clock,,,
The danged humidity was high as well.
The Rugers, CZ's, the Lebel, and the 629 got most of the use,,,
Although all of the handguns got some bit of workout,,,
I was loading 10 in the 22's and 5 in the semi's.
After about 90 minutes of furious helping and loading of mags,,,
The older folk retired to the shade and left it to their kids,,,
Two of the girls got into a serious duel with the Rugers,,,
And the guys got to do 9mm 16 round mag-dumps.
One lady was a very tiny little thing,,,
She took to the Bersa Thunder 22 very quickly,,,
By the end of the day she was cutting a hole in the bullseye at 15 yards.
The matron of the group was in her early 60's,,,
She was the first to ask to try shooting the .44 Magnum,,,
I only loaded one round at a time but she had no problem handling it.
At any given moment there were 2-3 cell phone videos being made.
All in all we were on the line for about 3 to 3.5 hours,,,
My thumbs are sore for loading so many rounds of ammo.
I gotta get an Uplulu for the 9mm mags.
I bought those large (18") Shoot-N-See targets,,,
They worked well as people could see where they hit,,,
I also taped some clay pigeons to a large cardboard sheet,,,
The two dueling girls made good use of that shooting the Rugers.
My friend had already said she and her boyfriend would front the ammo costs,,,
But the Canadian gentleman who was in charge of the group said no,,,
He asked me how much ammo money we had gone through,,,
I did an accurate estimate and gave him the total.
If the size of the grins was any indication,,,
Everyone had a great time.
We parted amid lots of hugs and handshaking,,,
The last thing the patriarch did was hand me an envelope.
It contained exactly twice the amount I had quoted him,,,
I was told in no uncertain terms to accept it,,,
So I thanked him and did just that.
It was hectic, frantic, and involved a lot of quick improvisation,,,
But everything went off without a hitch,,,
And everyone had fun.
By the way,,,
the tiny blonde was Joannie Rochette.
I can't believe I introduced a Canadian Olympian to handgun shooting.
What a day,,,
I'm glad it's over,,,
But I had an absolute blast!
Aarond
.
