Emergency Preparedness Training

With the way the economy is going these days and with our beloved president (El senor Obama), for some odd reason things aren't looking to hot. But I'll leave the politics out of this before I get heated up. So... I have been thinking a little about home protection. And then I remembered a little gift I recieved for achieving the rank of Eagle Scout (my .22 rifle). I know it's not the most powerful gun but hey... i'll take what I get. Anyways... so it's been a while since I last shot my gun and my birthday was coming up so I had Erin take me to the shooting range to brush up on my shooting skills and to teach her proper gun handeling skills. And it was great. Erin was a hoot. Before we got there she was bragging about how the last time she went shooting (probaly 10 years ago) she hit the bulls-eye.

So I shoot first, emptying the 10 round clip in no time, and it felt great. Then I teach Erin how to load the clip, load the gun, take off safety, and then how to aim. So just as she's about to pull the trigger for the first time, a loud bang goes off, scaring the dickens out of Erin as she jumps thinking that the .22 just went off and something went wrong, and pretty much drops the gun. Luckily I grabbed the gun before it could go anywhere. Turns out another person showed up and was shooting a 9mm 2 lanes down from us. Obviously that pistol has much more pop than my BB gun which Erin didn't like. :)

So after winding down, she gets back to the gun and is getting ready to shoot. But for some reason she can't seem to figure it out. So I remind her to just line up the two notches right at the target you want to shoot. It's not hard. Yet she can't do it. She can only see one notch. And i'm baffeled. So she tries shooting anyways, missing the target, then tries shooting again and hit the target but nowhere close the bulls-eye. What happened to those amazing skills she once had? So, trying to figure things out, I unload the gun, turn on the safety, and have her aim while I'm to the side of her looking at what is going on. And there it was. The reason she could only see one notch! You see... most right handers hold the gun on their right side, meaning they close their left eye to aim. Yet Erin is different. She still was holding the gun with her right side but was closing her right eye and aiming with her left. Oh I love that girl!

So after correcting the mix-up, we got down to buisness and things went great. We have our own targets (seen below) and we enjoy the rest of my birthday shooting the gun. And Erin did quite well for the little experience she had. :) And yes... she once again hit the bull-eye and from a far distance too. And I'm sorry we don't have a picture of us at the range. Erin forgot the camera. But let me tell you she looked pretty good with those goggles and huge ear muffs holding that gun!

This was my target from 75 feet out.

And this was Erin from 75 feet out. She started off a little rough. See those long grey rips at the top. She hit the holders on both sides. But she was smoking the last 3.

My target was the one on top. I feel pretty good about that. And Erin was the bottom target. Impressive!