Tick-tock, let's shoot that Glock!

Inclement weather conditions—including too cold to stay outside standing in one place (BRRRRR!!), stormy rainy days, and then brisk, high winds (up to 30 mph)—have been keeping us from getting out for our marksmanship training with my new Glock. So it was almost hard to believe that we actually kept a date with our trainer, Eric, and didn’t reschedule.  We went out into the great outdoors to shoot live rounds instead of just playing with an empty gun!

Eric has a friend that owns property off the 395 with just about nothing around where he has a makeshift shooting range set up.  A perfect place to ensure we don’t have a regrettable accident. 

We started our session with a review of the four important gun safety rules:

1.       Always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction
2.       Always keep your finger outside the trigger guard, parallel with the frame (“indexed”)
3.       Be sure of your target identification and what is in line with the target
4.       Treat all firearms as loaded

With that out of the way, we started our shooting lesson, first reviewing how to hold the gun and load it.  We began by shooting from a supported position with the gun resting on a table.  Here we are showing you how it’s done!  First some instruction ...



Then some shooting!



I wish I could say my first shot was a stunning success … but, not exactly!  I did hit the target every time I shot the gun, but not really on center where I wanted to.  My biggest problem was that I would anticipate the shot and at the very last second slightly lift the gun which meant my accuracy was off.  We really practiced that so I could get it right. 

Then we transitioned to standing upright and shooting without any support.  This was just a little more difficult mostly because we did have a little bit of wind which meant your arms were slightly weaving.  But, I actually did better standing.   

 

Here’s my bulls-eye shots.

 

Now for a little bit on Gary and his bulls-eye shots.  Gary is very accurate but needs to practice his gun handling more while I’ve got the gun handling down and need to work on my accuracy!

 

Here's Gary's bulls-eye shots!

The target was "patched" before he took his turn shooting which is why it has all the little strips of tape on it!

 

We shot only 50 rounds today to contribute to this pile of empty shell casings.  You can tell there’s a lot of practice taking place here by the size of the pile!

 

Now for your obligatory history lesson!  This woman is my frontierswoman heroine! 

Annie Oakley (August 13, 1860 – November 3, 1926), born Phoebe Ann Moses, was an American sharpshooter and exhibition shooter. Oakley's "amazing talent" and timely rise to fame led to a starring role in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, which propelled her to become the first American female superstar.  This photo of Annie Oakley was taken around the 1880s so she was between 20-30 years old.

Perhaps Oakley's most famous trick was her ability to repeatedly split a playing card, edge-on, and put several more holes in it before it could touch the ground, while using a .22 caliber rifle, at 90 feet.

She joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1885. At 5 feet tall, Oakley was given the nickname of "Watanya Cicilla" by fellow performer Sitting Bull, rendered "Little Sure Shot" in the public advertisements.

She left the Buffalo Bill show and in 1902 began a quieter acting career in a stage play written especially for her, The Western Girl. Oakley played the role of Nancy Berry and used a pistol, a rifle and rope to outsmart a group of outlaws.

Throughout her career, it is believed that Oakley taught upwards of 15,000 women how to use a gun. Oakley believed strongly that it was crucial for women to learn how to use a gun, as not only a form of physical and mental exercise, but also to defend themselves. She said: "I would like to see every woman know how to handle guns as naturally as they know how to handle babies."

1 Samuel 17:45-47 // Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted.  "This day the LORD will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD'S and He will give you into our hands."