Chapter 30: Friday Evening

Dinner was another wonderful meal fixed by someone who had been cooking for her husband and daughter for almost 20 years. Different husband now and two daughters instead of one, but apparently those didn’t change her cooking. I was appreciative again.

I’d thought that we’d go see the cunts first, but the girls might need a nap afterwards. Maybe the pistol range should be first. So, while the elves were cleaning up after dinner Alice and I put the revolver in my car’s glove compartment and made sure there was ammo for both in the trunk.

Of course they were both loaded! What good is an unloaded gun? If we got in trouble, we wouldn’t be able to reload either one with the ammo in the trunk, but the 1911 had a spare magazine in there so we’d have 16 rounds of .45 and 6 more rounds of .38 to deal with whatever it was. I asked Alice if she could check the gun stores and buy us some ear-muffs so we didn’t have to use the ones at the gun club.

Once the kitchen was all cleaned up we piled into my car. The Plattsburgh Rod & Gun Club was first, since it wouldn’t take long and they would close soon. When we got there one of the same guys we’d seen before was there along with a couple others working as range safety crew and several customers. We had to put on three sets of their customer-use ear-muffs before we could enter the pistol range building.

All three girls looked at their muffs, and then at me. Theirs were probably as dirty and sweaty and nasty as mine was. The girls were all used to their things being, well, theirs. Personally, I didn’t think it was that big a deal. We could shower when we got home. While I was wearing a uniform I’d shared a lot more personal stuff with my squad than this.

At least these days we could put everything in our packs in plastic bags. You want to talk about nasty? Back in Vietnam when you had to borrow someone’s clean socks you knew that they’d been in their pack right next to their dirty shorts. Now, THAT’s nasty!

“Yeah, we need our own. Maybe Alice can get some tomorrow while I’m doing other stuff. Right now, though, we gotta wear them or we can’t go in the range building.”

I don’t think it bothered Alice that much. She was an adult and it was just something that had to be done. Both of the girls made sure I saw their “I’m about to throw up” looks before they put their on.

“Fine, but if you are going to throw up then do it outside before you go in, okay?”

No, they didn’t really want to throw up. They just wanted me to know that they had hygiene standards, and those things didn’t meet their needs.

The guys inside the range building wanted to see my license. They had my name on their membership list, handwritten at the bottom of the last page. That was a good sign, right? These people knew what they were doing.

Same as the last time, one of the safety guys wanted to inspect both firearms before we used them. He had nice things to say about the 1911. He didn’t say anything about the revolver. Hey, _I_ didn’t buy that thing! I told him that, too.

“I bought the A1 when the Army started phasing them out a couple years ago. I didn’t buy the revolver, I took it off a punk who waved it at me one night. It’s not my fault it’s a piece of shit.”

“Oh. I wasn’t going to say anything, but it’s not as nice as your 1911. So, what are we doing tonight? Just some practice?”

“No. Well, practice for Alice, here...” nodding at her “ ... but these two...” nodding at the girls “ ... need basic familiarization time with both weapons. I’ve gone over both guns with them, but they need to actually fire them a few times. I’d prefer that they used the .45, but I’m not sure they can hold it well, yet.”

“Are you able to coach them? I can, but if you can coach them I’d rather you concentrate on them so I can concentrate on everyone else.”

“I’ll admit I have never shot anyone with the revolver. Well, I’ve never shot anyone with that particular .45, either, but I have been in combat and I have used my issued M1911A1 to service targets if you know what I mean. I’ll watch these three. They will all be taking turns firing anyway.”

“Good. Lemme know if you need any help.”

After that the safety guys pretty much left us alone. I caught them looking our way a few times, but that was their job. Anyone can say that they are an expert. That doesn’t mean it’s true. They gotta keep an eye on me, making sure I’m keeping the girls safe. And everyone else there, too, I guess.

I had Alice go first, with the revolver. She emptied it at a target about ten yards away, and she hit the paper three times. Then, I took the revolver away from her and handed her the .45 to try. When she was done she had seven more holes in the paper out of eight shots, and three of them were in the black.

None were in the bullseye, the white circle in the middle, so I asked if I could check the weapon. She handed it to me. I swapped magazines, and put all eight shots in the bullseye. Nope, nuthin’ wrong with the weapon.

“It’s just practice. If you put as many rounds downrange as I have, you’ll be able to do that, too. If that’s something you want, I’d be glad to help you. If all you want is to be able to defend the girls, though, you’re already good enough. Any of those holes in the black would put a man down, and that’s all you need to do. Put him down, and then call the police if you want.”

“How well do you shoot with the revolver?”

“I ... I honestly don’t know. I’ve never taken it to a range. It won’t be THAT well, though.” I was nodding downrange at the target while I was saying that.

“Part of it is practice, but most of it is just that the 1911 is a very accurate, very easy to shoot weapon. I mean, it’s 1988, right? The ‘1911’ in the name is because that was the year the army adopted it because it was better than anything else they could find. It’s been 75 years, and the Army has slowly made some changes over the years to make it more accurate, more reliable, and easier to use, but in boot camp they told us that there really isn’t much difference between the original and a brand-new M1911A1. The original design was that good. Now the Army wants to change over to something cheaper but the soldiers who have to use it want to keep this thing. They trust it. It always works, and the bullet goes where you tell it to go. How could another gun be better than that?”

I dropped the magazine, since it was empty. Then, I did the standard demonstration but without ammo. The slide was locked back, so a glance would tell anyone that the gun was safe. I turned sideways so the target was to my right, then held my arm straight out with the barrel pointed downrange. All I had holding the gun was my thumb on the grip safety and my index finger on the trigger.

“My boot camp instructor loaded one of these and fired the whole magazine like this. I don’t think he hit the target at all, but he was just demonstrating the gun’s balance. There is NO recoil at all on an M1911A1. Once you get used to the noise, it is very easy to aim, fire, and return your aim to the target after each shot if needed.”

I put the .45 back down and picked up the revolver, turning to keep it pointing downrange. We were at a public range and no one here knew us from Adam. With a revolver, you cannot tell from any distance whether it’s loaded or not. The four of us knew that Alice had fired six shots and it hadn’t been reloaded since, but no one else on the range knew that.

“This revolver, in comparison to the 1911, is a piece of shit. Have I ever mentioned that? It was made cheaply, it doesn’t have a good grip, and even the best revolver has issues. They are, what do they say, ‘inherent in the design’. Some people are really accurate with revolvers, but I bet they are using specially modified guns. They’d shoot like shit with this thing.”

“On the other hand, this thing is much lighter than the .45. The gun is smaller so it’s lighter, the .38 ammo is lighter than the .45 ammo, and it only carries six rounds instead of the .45’s eight or nine. So, it’s a lot easier to hold up and aim. It’s also a lot easier to keep in your pocket if you want. You just gotta remember to not pull the trigger until the damn thing’s completely out of your pocket and aimed at someone else. I’d bet if you looked at the emergency room’s records they get some idiot who shot himself with one of these things at least once a week.”

“The last thing is that it’s just smaller all-around. The 1911 was designed for fully-grown men to use. People with small hands have a lot of trouble holding the 1911. That’s why I wanted the two of you...” nodding at the girls “ ... to try them both. I want you to use the 1911, but if you can’t hold it then this piece of shit is better than nothing. Now, who’s going next?”

Melanie said “You are. I wanna see how well you shoot that gun.”

I mumbled “Bitch” under my breath as I broke the revolver open, dumped the cases, and reloaded it. I don’t understand why both girls started laughing.

Fine. I changed the target first. It was a lot easier to count holes in a fresh target. They had an electric pulley rig to bring the target holder up to where we were and send it back down to ten yards again. Or whatever range you wanted, I guess.

I got all six bullets in the target. That’s about all I want to say about that.

After I dumped the empty cases, I set the revolver down with the cylinder open. That was how you were supposed to lay a revolver down, to show onlookers that the gun was empty and safe. Then I reloaded both magazines before picking up the .45, releasing the slide, and handing it to Melanie.

“Okay, I want you to learn how to hold it, first. There’s no magazine, so it’s lighter. You should hold it in your right hand as if you are going to use it one-handed. No, keep your finger outside of the trigger guard until you are ready to shoot. That’s a safety thing. No matter what happens, if your finger’s against the frame instead of on the trigger, we can’t have an accident. Good. Now, move your hands together. Cup your left hand around your right hand’s fingers. This gives you better stability so you can aim better. Got it?”

Melanie nodded.

“Okay, you’re holding the gun with your right hand. Keeping the gun pointed safely downrange, with your left hand pick up one of the magazines and insert it until you feel it click. Depending on the noise level, you may or may not hear it click, but you should be able to feel it.”

Melanie nodded again, then took the magazine I handed her. She had trouble getting it in, everybody does at first, but she got it figured out without breaking anything although I had to grab the gun once to keep it pointed downrange.

“There’s lots of other people here and none of them wanna get shot. Besides, they all have guns in their hands. If they think you’re about to shoot them, they might shoot you first, right? Keep the gun pointed downrange at all times, no matter what you’re doing. If you have to scratch your nose and your ass at the same time, put the gun down first.”

She smiled at that.

“Now, your gun has a full magazine but there’s no cartridge loaded in the chamber. Holding the gun securely in your right hand like always, use your left hand to pull the slide back ALL THE WAY, then release it. Don’t gently slide it forward again, just let it go. The gun is designed to automatically reload after every shot, and that happens very fast. It doesn’t work well if you make it move too slowly. Good. Now, put your left hand back on your right and aim at the target. Now you can put your index finger on the trigger. When ready, pull the trigger eight times. If you lose count, when the gun is empty the slide will lock back on its own.”

After that I just stood behind her, with a hand on her shoulder so she’d know where I was. I almost got beaned a couple of times by the cases as they came out. When she was done I told her “Okay, eject the magazine and set the gun down.”

Once she’d let go of it I let go of her shoulder and asked Alice and Shanda “Did you see the cases coming out? Did you get hit by any? It was hot, wasn’t it? Right. Almost all automatics eject to the right. Some of them to the back some and some to the front some, but they mostly all go somewhere to the right. You DON’T want to catch one in your face or inside your shirt, so when you are watching someone shoot, watch where the cases go and stay away from them. You can catch them if you want, but after a few shots the gun heats up and the cases come out hot enough to burn you.”