Monday, April 23, 2012

I shut down a shooting lane at the gun range.


Growing up country, I spent many hours out behind the trailer shooting cans and tree stumps with pistols and shotguns. But I’d never fired a sniper rifle, AR-15 (semi automatic gun), or UZI (fully automatic machine gun). So, this weekend I spent some time at the gun range doing some book research and trying out these guns. Shasta uses a sniper in Fat Bodyguards and I wanted to make sure I’d written the scene with technical accuracy. Besides, one of my favorite shooting games is Silent Scope and I’d always wanted to try out a real sniper rifle. After firing the first shot - I knew that the sniper was my ‘gun of choice’ and I enjoyed the experience.



For my last shot - the instructor recommended...
I shoot the clip holding the target. But I heard “shoot the garble garble clip holding garble garble target”. I decided he musta been challenging me to shoot the cable near the grey clip. So, I squinted down through the scope, lining up the sights near the big, grey clip and lowering it a hair to mark the silver wire holding my zombie target. I exhaled and pulled the trigger.

POP. TWANG.

The wire snapped and my target swayed on the single clip. I turned around, proud of my accomplishment and the instructor’s eyes were bugging out of his head. He yelled, “What were you trying to shoot?”

“You told me to shoot the clip, so I shot the wire on the grey clip.” I said.

The instructor in the alley on our right, popped his head around the partition. “What the hell was that?”

“She shot the wire off the target carrier.” My instructor said, trying to work the lever to bring the target back to the station. It shuddered and refused to budge.

“Holy $h1t!” The other instructor exclaimed before disappearing back behind the wall with a smile.

“It looks like that’ll be staying down there.” My instructor said, packing up the rest of our ammo and guns. “This lane is down, so we gotta move over.”

I looked at the paper twisting at the end of the range and snapped a quick pic before we moved to another lane.

He looked at me one more time. “Is that really what you were aiming at?”

I nodded.

He was either 1) impressed or 2) stupefied. The verdict is still out.

My target is the one on the left!



If you’ve never fired a sniper rifle - I’d recommend heading to your local gun range and trying it out. There’s no kick and the experience is exhilarating - just don’t do this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXfg5o1ZVq4&feature=related

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