Monday, May 10, 2004
The Post I Promised
For the first time ever, I have no idea how to find my way through writing a post. I just had the most extraordinarily shitty day and aside from spilling my guts out to my friend Helen, (Everyday Stranger), it’s not something I wish to share. It has nothing to do with my ankle nor this blog. It’s something personal to me and I know some of you out there geniunely give a damn but there are enough who don’t really care.....so...anyway...I promised you all and a few pals this “teaser” post so I’m going to go ahead and write about my Saturday.
After this though, I think I’m gonna take a few days off. I just don’t feel like doing anything...except maybe getting shit faced.
On to Saturday:
I met up with my friend Dok Russia and Dennis Cottingham and Jim from Smoke on the Water. The first thing we did was go to Collector’s Firearms where we drooled and tortured ourselves. There were so many cool weapons in this store....it was quite painful to walk out of there empty handed.
Jim did purchase a rifle, a CZ, so it wasn’t 100% torture. I’ve decided that I no longer want the Kimber Eclipse II anymore but would rather start out with a Walther P99. Saves about $400 and no customer service issues if the gun has problems like I’ve been hearing and reading about Kimber. (See Mollbot’s blog.)
We also discovered something very, very cool. Dok Russia is in love with it. He describes it rather well on his site.
It’s interesting to watch a person weigh the pros and cons of purchasing a weapon knowing that the biggest con is an interruption of their marital bliss. Someday Dok. No worries. It will be yours.
After quite some time of abusing our senses, we were off to the range. I do not have a gun...yet...but Dennis, Dok and Jim all brought weapons and were very gracious in sharing them with me.
We went to American Shooters (I believe is the name.) It’s an outdoor range here in Houston and after purchasing a few necessary items, (ie: targets and for me, my very first pair of range eye protection), we walked down to the range to begin a great day.
I started out with a gun belonging to Dennis and did alright with it. It didn’t have much kick, recoil and I was just thrilled to be shooting again. As usual, I found my shots off to the left of center mass and a little low. All three gentlemen gave me pointers on different ways to hold the gun and I found one way that was comfortable that didn’t have me holding part of my left hand over the trigger guard. Sure enough, that corrected my alignment.
I then shot one of Dok’s weapons, the Makarov I believe and did ok with that.
Then Dennis allowed me my treat of the day. He let me shoot his Wilson Combat CQB (CQB=Close Quarters Battle). My very first round went right into the bullseye and what a recoil! I was immediately in love. I shot it a few more times and after setting it down, I petted it and called it “Precious” in my mind while Dennis gave me the eye and took it back. Heh. Can’t blame him. I do like that gun. What a beauty.
There was a little bit of wind but we managed to shoot off a few hundred rounds or more and, unlike a certain du Toit we all know and adore, we had ourselves a great day, blasting large gaping holes in our targets. Granted, the three guys did a damn site better than I did but I’m pretty pleased with my results nonetheless. The last time I shot was back in September with that certain du Toit fellow and before that it had been over a decade. I, of course, brought my targets home and I may post them later if I find the energy to snap a photo of them.
After that, we went to the rifle portion of the range and Jim of Smoke On The Water was generous enough to allow us all a couple of turns on this new rifle, the CZ 452 ZKM Lux, in .22 LR. (Go to Jim’s site for his rendition of our day in addition to a photo of his rifle.)
Jim, Dennis and Dok did really well with their turns. In fact, these three were shooting so well that other shooters were sneaking peeks through the telescopes the range provided, at their targets. My first go with this rifle didn’t turn out so well. I had been taught to completely exhale and then shoot in that few moments one has before breathing back in again. I also took the “aim for 6’ o clock” a little too literally and ended up aiming too high. The other problem is the way I’m used to holding a rifle. I had to learn to hold it differently, exhale half way and aim a little lower. My second attempt turned out a LOT better. Again, thanks in part to the advice given me by Dennis and Jim. A little instruction goes a very long way.
I could very easily spend all day at the range until my eyes went blurry but it was time to get going. We packed up the vehicles....well, Jim and Dennis packed up their car and Dok packed up Le Truck. Seems the French own Nissan now...much to Dok’s immense dismay.
We met back up at the Galleria where I got traded off. Dok had picked me up and driven me to the store and then the range but was unable to continue on to dinner with the rest of us. That sucked. So I got in with Jim and his girl and we stopped by my house real quick so I could get some “dinner” clothes.
We ended up going to King’s Fish Market and Dennis and his wife arrived shortly after. The food was delicious and the company was amazing. We had a lot of laughs over dinner and brought Dok and his truck to the table via fond conversation.
Got home late that night and after looking over my targets one more time, I fell asleep and dreamt about all those beautiful guns we had seen that afternoon.
It was a most glorious day and I hope to be able to do this again soon. Thank you Dok, Dennis and Jim. I had a blast.
