Sunday, June 5, 2011

Range Day

As I mentioned yesterday, Range Day is one of my favorite days of the year. Brave Friend and I loaded up and headed to the Firing Range at about 7:30. We got there around 8 and helped our PD friends set up for the rest of our group who would start trickling in around 9. I must say, those guys thought of everything to keep us as comfortable as a 98 degree day would allow. Several tents -- one for sitting in to wait your turn, and two to house the tables for the hardware and ammunition as well as the eye and ear protection for everyone. Huge bottles of sunscreen, and coolers upon coolers of water and sports drinks to keep us all hydrated. I absolutely cracked up as the guys seemed positively bumfuzzled by setting up the tents, so I had to kick in my former soccer mom knowledge and show them how to get the tents set up without smashing your fingers and uttering all kinds of colorful words!

Brave Friend brought along her own personal Glock, so it was great to try it out. I'm not half bad with it quite honestly, although I could probably do a lot better if it didn't make me so nervous:


We also were able to use several guns that your average person just doesn't have --- one of my favorites to try was the MP-5. We started out with it just firing once but I worked my way up to full automatic. I was actually pretty darn good with this gun. But its definitely not a toy.



The last gun we tried out was a LaRue Gas Powered 308 -- also known as a sniper rifle. That is a powerful machine! I felt a bit sorry for my instructors as they constantly had to readjust their thinking to accomodate my left handedness! The gun itself is incredibly heavy and gives me an amazing amount of respect for those that have to haul it into position to deal with certain situations. To make adjustments in the site lines I had to rest part of it on my fist, and my hand today is sore and bruised from those few minutes with it... but it was incredible --- and I hit the target!



I came away from the day with and even greater respect for what our Blue Line does to keep us safe. The training, knowledge, patience and cool-headedness they have to have in order to do their jobs day in and day out is absolutely mind-boggling. And although it was an extremely FUN day, it wasn't just fun and games. These aren't toys and safety and education came first on every weapon we were given the opportunity to try.

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