Shooting
I spent this past weekend down in the ’states with a friend of mine who happens to own a few guns. Quite a few actually (at least in my mind). Most of which were for hunting and would probably would blow my arm off if I fired them. But the weather was pretty good and so he took be out onto his property and I got to fire some of his toys.
The first weapon I started off with was a .22 revolver. This is the first pistol of any sort that I had worked with. I was somewhat surprised at how heavy the thing was - video games don’t do weapon weights justice.
After firing off about 10 rounds across 2 loadings, I was passed a .22 rifle. I had fired a .22 rifle previously with a scope, but that was years before. This time I was working with plain iron sights. I went through about 15 rounds with that and had a great old time. My aim wasn’t too bad out to about 20 yards standing, but I definitely need some practice.
Since we were on rifles, I was passed a 9mm carabine. I call it the Fisher-Price rifle because the whole stock was made out of plastic and it felt like a cheep childrens’ toy. After going through five rounds, I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t hitting anything - after all, I had done reasonably well with the .22. We finally realized the the front sight was off by about 10 degrees. I tried to correct, but only managed to hit our target once. Ahh well.
Another thing that movies and video games don’t prepare you for are recoil. Despite fireing 9×19mm rounds, I kept finding myself flinching and on occasion closing my eyes just before firing. It takes a lot of work to hold something like that and not brace yourself. More practice, I guess.
As a side note, when I got back to Canada I phoned a local gun dealer to find out if I could order soemthing like that in Canada. It’s not great, but it’s reasonably manuvrable and could be used for self/home defence if you don’t mind violating the safe storage laws. I discovered that no weapon can be sold/owned in Canada if it has a magazine capacity greater than five rounds. I thought that the 10-round limit is the US was rediculous, but this was just crazy. You could probably import other magazines, but having more than 5 rounds in them would be illegal. Only if you get caught, I guess.
The next weapon I was able to fire was an original Makarhov pistol. It was used by the East German police, and fires 9.2×18mm rounds. The recoil was more than I expected, as was the draw, but overall it was fun. it would make a great pistol for concealed carry, though I might look for something with more common ammunition. But what do I know?
And finally, la piece de resistance. My friend had a hand cannon - a .44 magnum Desert Eagle. This thing scared me just looking at it. But I got up the will and the strength (the thing weight 4 f*cking pounds unloaded) to fire off a round. I only loaded one round into the magazine the first time - being unprepared, I’d rather not have to worry about shooting myself in the foot with a second round if I get knocked over.
I lined up the shot, took a break from the strain on my arm, lined up again, and fired.
It was as although somebody lit a stick of dynamite and said “here, hold this”. That this has KICK. I stumbled back about 3 steps in a bit of a daze. I now understand the principle behind stun grenades. I was glad I had only loaded one round because I’m not certain exactly what I did over those few seconds. It was unbelievable. So I loaded up another 3 rounds 
A sad note was that he didn’t have any practice ammo for the .44 so we were firing hollowing point rounds. Oh well, it was still fun.
Over all, it was quite enjoyable. I have a much better appreciation for firearms now that I did before. I can’t wait for my next trip down to gun country.