A Bang-Up 4th

July 05, 2012

A Bang-Up 4th

To Do List: Spring & Summer 2012
Item 24: Shoot a Gun
Item 6: Visit 4 States
---State 3 Tennessee

I like to be full of surprises, especially when it comes to knowing random facts or being able to do things. I mean, you never know when someone might ask you why Swiss cheese has holes or how to properly oil a garage door. I believe that being well-versed is terribly important in life – and I’m still working on that. So, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that “shoot a gun” made it onto my summer to do list.

Marksmanship is one of the coolest hobbies that a person can have. It takes mad skills, lots of brains, and patience to nail it. While I grew up target shooting, I had never had the guts (or interest) to shoot skeet – mostly because it seemed pretty daunting. I’m not too shabby when it comes to hitting something that is stationary, but apparently I just flat out stink when trying to track a moving target.

Target Shootin'

We visited my family yesterday for the 4^th of July, and no visit to the homestead is complete without a round of skeet. The husb has recently taken up the sport and has a ridiculously keen talent for it. After he cut down the skeet population significantly, he coerced me to give it a shot (har har). While it hasn’t been too terribly long since I sent some brass flying, it has been a number of years since I shouldered a 20 gauge – we’re probably talking more than a decade here.

I’ll go ahead and tell you that I was terrible. To begin with, I was nervous about the kick, so when my father threw the first skeet, I shot as soon as I saw the clay move. This resulted in me not moving with my target at all and basically shooting at the sky. It also resulted in a healthy dose of my husband making fun of me. Ten minutes later, everyone was finished laughing and making fun of me, and I knew that I would indeed still have a shoulder after this was all over with.

So not a pro..

Dad kept the clays flying, the husb kept the helpful tips coming, and I kept trying. After nine attempts, I decided that I was wasting lots of ammo, skeet, and time and decided to call it quits. But there’s always that just one more mindset when trying to accomplish something new – so I caved. Just one more.

And that was all it took. With my confidence at an all time high, I called for one more clay. I moved my flowered flip-flops into the proper stance, shouldered the antique beauty, exhaled, and waited: I was ready to shoot the sky again. The orange clay whizzed into view from the left and I began tracking the little booger in a wide, graceful arc.

Then, dust. Not only did I bust the clay, I managed to turn it dust. You’re welcome.

That’s when I decided to go out with a bang. I traded in the 20 gauge for a Sony and shot the husb for a while. We both got some great shots.