Sunday, September 30, 2007

Romantic getaways

I'd been deliberately evasive about our weekend plans. "We're going camping," I'd told my friends.

That wasn't untrue. We stayed in a cabin a little way outside Binghamton. It had neither running water nor electricity. I prepared for this by spending the night before at the Holiday Inn, my previous idea of "roughing it". We went up with Alec's cousin Elissa and her fiance, Dan, trying to figure out who we were actually going to meet up there and why there was such a long prelude about the dog.

Shotgun camp.

What?!

Shotgun camp.

No, seriously. What did you do this weekend?

We spent the weekend at an intensive clinic to learn how to use a shotgun.

I was, as Lauren likes to say, more than a little apprehensive. On Saturday morning, I took copious notes in my composition book:
Your gun should always be unloaded if you're not firing it
It should always be pointed in a safe direction even if you know it's unloaded
Keep your finger off the finger off the trigger unless you're firing it
I learned how to load and shoot. I actually managed to hit some of the clay pigeons and steel plates despite having a short arm length and a cross-dominant eye. I have a good sized bruise against my left shoulder. But I expected I would learn a lot. I expected at the end of the weekend to have actually managed to shoot. I didn't expect it would be as much fun as it was. It was really great.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are these clinics for recreation; to teach the sport of shooting; or for self-defense lessons? Sounds wild!

Lady Epiphany said...

There are a lot of different reasons one might want to learn how to shoot, and Basic Shotgun was an overview on safety and mechanics; Shotgun II addressed the sport and self-defense. Our instructor gears his lessons toward your goals. For example, during the Level II materials, I was having a hard time aiming using the sights, so he encouraged me to use a laser guide where I hit all of the targets. When I said, well I really want to learn the mechanics he said, well you will, but for defending your home you know with a guide you will always hit your target.

Anonymous said...

I see....sounds very 007 that you'd hit your mark everytime!

Rob said...

I remember taking my hunting safety class in 6th grade... it was actually part of middle school! Ah living in N. Michigan where "Opening of Deer Season" is a holiday.

One of the things I always drilled into my soldiers was the principle that you NEVER point a weapon at something you did not intend to shoot and kill, regardless of whether we had ammo or not.

Some guys had very tired arms from all the pushups they had to do because they were screwing around...

*pal said...

I think I may have to invest in Shotgun Camp just to get through life with my child's paternal grandmother.