Bang, bang, bang, oops...

I was told to put the padded ear muffs on before entering the indoor shooting range.  It looked smaller than I had imagined.  There's five feet max from the entry door to the 10 small privacy booths.  Shell casings on the floor remind me of a sports bar with cast off peanut shells.  Some of the peanut shells in this establishment are pretty dang big.  Bang big. 

We choose the booth on the end. The range allows something like 20 yard-target shoot; or less as you can adjust your target wherever you want.  We fix our target at about 10 yards.  Paul begins the instruction on how to shoot the Walther P22 pistol.

Flash forward, I am now loading the clip which chambers 10 rounds of powerful .22 long rifle ammunition.  Translation: I put 10 bullets into the clip.  It loads much like milk at a store.  You take one out and the other slips into place.  Vice versa.  You put the milk/bullet in the shelf/clip and it fits snug into place.  Once the clip is filled, I fit it into the bottom of the pistol until I hear the click.  I then cock the barrel back, allowing the first bullet to slip into place.  Read, set...

I take my proper stance: shoulders slightly forward, both hands cradle the Walther and I am now looking down the 3.4 inch barrell, using its 3-dot sights for a most accurate aim.  Is my heart pounding?  Naw.  I am a little nervous about how loud it's going to be. 

I take aim and shoot.  I am not going to lie.  I was not a bad shot.  Not as good as Paul.  But I hit the target and was able to adjust the sights to better my aim.  After shooting about 50 bullets, I was feeling pretty confident about the whole process.  Then I did something stupid.  Really stupid.  I thought my chamber was empty and turning to place the gun on the shelf in our booth, it went off.  My finger was still on the trigger and BAM! without warning, a bullet went flying.  It hit the wall, where, by the way, there were hundreds of bullet marks.  But it didn't take away the fact that I had accidently shot a gun WITH a REAL BULLET. 

The whole experience made me like guns and hate guns, pretty much where I was before.  Shooting the Walther P22 was my first experience shooting a pistol.  I can tell you it won't be my last.