Shoot the Clay Pigeons...they don't even eat flies

[kaitou]

Because I like to try new things, and it seemed like a great way to get a taste without having to spend a lot of money, I signed up for a Women in the Outdoors event. The brochure said you'd get to try shotgun, handgun, horseback riding, canoeing, canning, dutch oven cooking, wine making, fishing...all kinds of stuff. My mom is brilliant at shooting things on the wii, (and also rubber band fights) and I thought she'd love the chance to try a real gun too. So I invited her down this weekend and we both went.

Oh my God, you guys! My mom is AWESOME.

When we did shotgun she hit 5 out of 9 clay pigeons. When we did handgun she hit a bullseye with her first shot. When we did archery she hit 5 balloons with 6 arrows. Whenever we went to a new event we would tell our instructor how she has so much fun on the wii, and they would laugh indulgently. By the end of the session they were all going "I need to get a wii! What game did you play again?!?"


I've never had the eye that my mom has. But I still had a great time. The shotgun was a little long for my short arms, I'll have to try another model next time, with a shorter stock. I didn't hit any clay pigeons, but I think I was pretty close on most of the shots.

With handgun it was hard to tell if you hit anything or not. The instructor said Mom hit it with her first shot, but we never would have known without him. I think I got on the target with the 22, but I couldn't swear to it. I know I hit the target at least once with a 357. But that's about it. There was a lot of talk about home defense and Carry and Conceal permits at the handgun session. Firing a gun has not changed my politics, I'm still not cool with that. I'm with Eddie Izzard, sure guns don't kill people, but the gun helps. It was fun to shoot at the paper target, but it was still a little nerve wracking to know you're holding something that was designed specifically for hurting people.

The archery was...hilarious. There is no other word for it. I had a really hard time with it, and I'm not sure why. I was ok with it as a kid in summer camp. But for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to aim. I'm left-eye dominant, so I may need to try it left handed instead? Every time the instructor tried to get me to aim on target it seemed way off to me.

But this being me, it wasn't enough for me to just be bad at it. I had to be spectacularly bad in an extremely odd way. There was a gap between the hay bales. A tiny one. Smaller than my fist tiny. And I managed to fire arrow after arrow RIGHT THROUGH THE TINY GAP. The third time the kid helping out trudged out into the corn field behind the bales to get the arrow and came back yelling "You Got One!"

Yes. I killed an ear of corn. Mom may have beat me on balloons, but at least I got something you could eat.
(And yes, this is me, so you KNOW I cracked a cereal killer joke)

So then the instructor decided to really help me out. "Down....a little more...now to the right...just a touch more to the right....OK!" And I shot RIGHT THROUGH THE GAP AGAIN! Clearly I am doomed.


I had a ball, Mom had a ball, and if there's a branch of Women in the Outdoors in your area, I'd highly suggest it. Really fun day. Apparently there's one going on in the winter not too far from me where they do skiing and bobsledding and dogsledding! All kinds of fun.

Comments

[m-steelgrave.livejournal.com]

Now you must mount your corn on a plaque and hang it on the wall. ^_^

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

I know! Unfortunately they left the corn in the field so I didn't even get to SEE it.

I will just have to recreate it with dimensional stickers when I scrapbook it.

[m-steelgrave.livejournal.com]

It's probably better that way. Now as you tell the story over the years, the corn will get bigger every time.

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

You're too funny XD

[velithya]

If you're left-eye dominant you should be using a left-hand bow, yeah. It's a lot easier to aim when you're using the correct eye to do so! ^^;

edit: I should also say, congrats on your corn! :3

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

And I would totally use this as an excuse for my poor performance except....well....Mom is ALSO right handed and left eye dominant.

Doh!

[altodescant.livejournal.com]

"Cereal Killer" ::groan::

However, it is good to know who I'll be standing behind if society is suddenly attacked by a rampaging horde of small gaps. Granted, I don't have any idea what that would look like, but I'm pretty sure it would be scary as all hell.

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

Oh come on! I'm not me without horrible puns!

[altodescant.livejournal.com]

You kill cereal. I kill webcomics. ^o^