It’s a Tuesday, and today’s lunch break meant a visit to Beikirch Ammunition Co. After a few weeks of reading this blog, you’ll probably be able to predict that today’s purchase was 300 rounds of 9mm pistol ammo. Why? Because Tuesday nights are range nights at the Genesee Conservation League. And range nights, loosely translated, means “Dave-at-GCL nights”!
If you’ve never shot a pistol before, or if you’ve never done any practical defensive shooting before, then Tuesday nights probably aren’t your best bet for an introductory lesson. We run two “courses of fire” – essentially practical defensive scenarios that you walk through, identifying threats and dealing with them to the tune of 2-3 rounds each. Aside from being great fun, it’s a highly effective training mechanism. One must keep a cool head, stay safe at all times, and at the same time decide which of the poster-sized photographic targets are friendly, and which need attitude adjustments.
Tonight was my second range night, and things were much more comfortable this time around than my “debut” a few weeks ago. I “survived” both scenarios…meaning I took care of all the threats and didn’t perforate any innocent bystanders. I only made two small boo-boos, both strictly tactical. First, I made the mistake of “double-tapping” a pair of assailants. This means putting two bullets into one target, then repeating for the second. Tactical priority states you should administer one round per target to start, then a second if they fail to stop. Next, I reloaded and ditched a magazine that still had a couple of usable rounds in it. Not a big deal, since I had 20 more on my belt, but if the targets had been a bit more plentiful, those two rounds could have quickly converted my score from “survived” to the pointedly unpleasant alternative.
Oh, and I saved my pet dinosaur too.
Yes, apparently now I have a pet dinosaur. You see, when they set up one of the courses, they were hoping that they could put a baby doll at one point, your job being to get to the doll by getting the bad guys – thusly, saving the day. But none of the range officers had a baby burps-a-lot lying around the house, so they opted to use a stuffed Stegosaurus instead…
Yes, after I reached it, I gave it a quick scratch behind the ears (ears?) as I engaged the last two targets one-handed.
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