The Best Day. Ever.

So yesterday, we drove a little south and met up with an RFC’er who was kind enough to invite us to shoot at his range for the day. He brought a ton of toys and almost enough ammo (that’s an inside joke because he’ll be reading this and I’m obligated to give him a batch of crap )
The day started off with shooting a couple Rock River Arms ARs and holy moly that was cool!



At first, MiniMe didn’t want anything to do with the whole day. At all.
She sat there with an iPod and earmuffs on top of it text messaging whoever would entertain her. She had the most frowny grumpity face I’ve ever seen her make. Bar none. I tried six ways from Sunday to talk her into trying the ARs, but she wasn’t having any of it.

After a little while of shooting those, and using glass to look down range at our targets, I guess she figured we wouldn’t be having so much fun if there wasn’t something to it… because when we moved down to the pistol range where the pistol caliber rifles could be fired, she decided after much coaxing that she’d give it a shot (pun intended).

We started with rifles and she decided after watching everyone take a turn, she wanted to try the Marlin lever action .44mag.
To say that she surprised herself would be an understatement.



Then there was a Marlin 39A, the Remington 40x mil surp., the Winchester 9422, and finally the one that won her over for good…
The BSA Martini Mark III.
It was like crack to a junkie. She couldn’t put it down.


We went through lots of handguns from the S&W 617, to Browning Buckmarks in 5.5” and 10”, to the Springfield XD9...





...but she kept going back to that Martini. The trigger pull was 2 ounces and the most fun she had was picking off empty shot shells that were set up on top of the target stand at the base of a berm. She never missed one, and it was a big deal to her because her dad did.
We were joking and giving him a hard time and said, “let the kid help you out”, so she sat down and slid over, and before most people could have probably gotten a fix on that sight, she’d already picked that sucker off the stand. Grinning ear to ear, the whole time.

All the way home she went on and on about how much fun it really was, and how much more she wanted to learn. She sat in the back of the van with her sketch book, drawing up targets that she wants to construct because she thinks they’ll be fun to shoot. She asked me about 4 times for a rifle for Christmas and said, “I need to add one more thing to a list of stuff I want to do in my life before I die. I want to have a whole case of ammo and be the only one who shoots it all in one day with no interruptions. Mom, can you buy a set of reactive targets?”
HA!

So that was my Saturday… a day that started out being something fun for two of us, and a pain in the butt for one of us…
But ended up being the most awesome day for the one who never expected it.
She wants to go back with me soon and take the defensive shooting class, so that’s in the works, too.
Awesome.
I think I finally got the shooting buddy that I’ve wanted for the past couple of years.


All thanks to Jay, who might be really good with old moms & dads…but who’s awesomely great with sulking teenagers. Even when he can’t make a stylish exit because he’s lost his keys…