Saturday my friend talked me into going to the Cordova Shooting Center. Since it's almost in my backyard in Mather I decided to check it out.
Somehow I managed to stay away from the thug-life (sic) I haven't shot a gun of any type since I was twelve. My dad was never a gun owner, but his friend owned quite a few, and even made his own ammunition. His friend owned some ranch-land way out in the boonies of the foothills in Tuolumne County and occasionally he would invite my family to join his family for an outing. On some of these trips we would target shoot. My dad's friend was very strict about gun safety, which was understood if he was putting a .22 caliber rifle in the hands of a 12 yr. old. That was my gun experience up until this point.
Out at the Cordova Shooting Center the gun shop is a trailer about 100 yds from the firing range. All types of shells line the shelves behind the shop attendees. All sorts of hand-guns are under glass at the counter. I inquired about renting a hand-gun, and discovered that I could not rent a hand-gun, unless I had a HSC (handgun safety certificate). I could get a low power rifle without the cert, to get the cert, I had to take a 30 question test, and pay about $25. I thought about it for a minute, and decided to get the certificate, because I came to shoot a handgun not go back to a .22. So they gave me a 50 page booklet to study, and about 30 minutes later I was ready to go. I decided to rent a Sig 9mm a lot like this one.
It was interesting, with earplugs and eye-protection on my friend gave me instructions about the intricacies of the 9mm semi-automatic handgun, how to use the slide lock when loading the clip, how the saftey worked, and how to eject the clip after firing.
After practicing loading and unloading with an empty clip, I loaded up the clip with 10 - 9mm rounds, popped the clip into place in the butt of the gun, released the slide lock, leveled my arm down range, slid the safety to the 'unsafe' position, checked the gun sites, aimed at my paper target, and squeezed the trigger. BANG!!! My first shot, was pure addrenalin, and fear all at the same time. This was no .22.
As I was baptized in the smell of gunpowder and the sound of thunder a gentleman a few booths down (probably a security guard or some form of wanna-be cop) was loading a .50 caliber handgun that I can only describe as cartoonishly big. This hand-cannon did not go BANG!!!, it went BOOOM!!! I was already rattled with the pop-gun I was firing; having this guy firing at the same time within a short distance beside me was a tad unnerving. I managed to squeeze out the last of my clip and took a breather to admire my handy work. I barely hit my paper target 30-40 feet away. So much for accuracy. I reloaded and repeated the same process until I was out of bullets, by my last 30 shots I began to feel more comfortable, and the booming going on around me, bothered me less, and I could concentrate more on my target. I even got within the center ring of my target a couple times. Not bad since I haven't used a gun for a while.
Overall it was a fun experience, although I have no desire to own a handgun, I wouldn't mind going to shoot again.