fandomhighdorms | Gun Range, early morning

Entry tags:

Gun Range, early morning

Parker drank a mocha while she waited for Chris, and set up the Gun Range rules and targets.

SAFETY RULES:

· TREAT ALL GUNS AS IF THEY WERE LOADED

· KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL READY TO FIRE

· BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET AND WHAT’S BEYOND

· ALWAYS WEAR HEARING AND EYE PROTECTION

· NEVER USE ALCOHOL OR DRUGS BEFORE OR WHILE SHOOTING.

· CHECK IN ALL WEAPONS BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE RANGE.

[here for

neurotic_witch but open for all your gun range needs]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Chris walked in and read over the rules very carefully.

"Hey, Parker, thanks for doing this."

"Not a problem at all. I enjoy it." Parker smiled as she watched him read the rules, then asked, "Any questions about those?"

[and I go away, back in an hour!]

"Nope, they all make sense to me," Chris said. "So what do we do first?"

[that worked out well since I was commuting home :)]

"Hearing protection, and eye protection." Parker lead the way to the bin, and said, "Find a pair of each that fit. We don't want you going deaf or getting a ricochet to the face when we could have prevented it. So far we've gone all year without an accident in here. No reason to stop now."

Chris dug through and tried a few different pairs on before finding ones that fit comfortably.

"Okay, I'm ready," he said, giving Parker a dorky grin.

Parker had to grin at the dorkiness, and handed over an unloaded 9mm. "Okay. Have you ever handled, or dealt with guns before?"

"No," Chris said, examining the gun and getting used to the weight. "Never had a reason to."

Parker hesitated a moment, then took the gun back, making her actions match her words. "Slide. Loader. Grip. Chamber. And the hammer. The bullet goes here," she pointed to the slide, moving it back, "and you load it like this." She put in a cartridge, and made sure he could see the safety was on. Then she unloaded it. "I believe everyone should know how to handle a gun, even if they don't do it often. Show me how you check if it's loaded, now. Why do you want to know how to use one?"

Chris watched intently as Parker loaded the gun and mentally reviewed the process before taking the gun from her and checking to see if it was loaded.

"I figured after class on Wednesday that it might be a useful skill to have," he said.

Parker carefully watched him, and nodded. "Good. I'm glad you're approaching it like that and not 'ooo, guns.' Too many people do. They're incredibly effective weapons, but more people hurt themselves on them than ever get shot." She shook her head. "Okay, standard lecture: always, always, always check to make sure the gun is unloaded. Even if you remember unloading it, even if you put it away, even if there's no way it could be loaded. Check anyway. Accidents happen. We don't want you to be one of them."

She lead the way over to one shooting alley, and took the gun back to load it. "We just have standard paper silhouettes here, aside from that one target on the end-- that's Aeryn's, and anyone else who has an energy weapon, so the targets don't get melted."

"I don't want to have any accidents either, trust me," Chris assured her. "What's an energy weapon?"

"Aeryn has a pulse rifle; it runs on a kind of alien oil, and fires light. I think Luke has something similar, although it's more of a handgun than a rifle. Both of them are too high-energy to work on anything but our teflon-coated target there." She nodded at the alley in question, then assumed a ready stance. "Okay. Three things you need to be aware of: stance, grip, and sites. Put your feet so they're in the same position as mine. It minimizes the impact from the kickback."

Chris copied her pose. "Okay, so this is stance?"

Parker nodded in approval. "Legs wide, knees bent, one in front of the other. You won't always be able to be perfect, but try to aim for that." She tapped her hand, and showed him how she gripped the pistol. "Next, grip. Once you get used to it, this won't be as big a deal, but for now, your hands are going to hurt. Keep the web between your thumb and you fingers as high as you can on the gun. You want to be able to squeeze the trigger, not tap it. As much surface area from your hand as possible, for better support. Make sense?" She cupped her left hand underneath the one holding the 9mm. "This is for better support. You'll be able to shoot one-handed eventually, but again, until you're used to it, don't cut corners." She handed him the unloaded gun. "Now you try it."

"Okay," Chris said, taking a deep breath. It didn't look that hard, but he locked his knees and his fingers weren't place quite right.

Parker tapped him on the knee, and said, "Loosen up. Come on, that cowboy stance is only for the movies. You want to be able to take the recoil without falling over." She smiled, and reached over, re-adjusting his fingers on the gun. "Close. But this might feel better. Try it both ways, see what feels more natural."

Chris re-adjusted his grip a couple times, making sure his knees were bent a little, until he was comfortable. "Okay, this feels pretty good."

"Good. I think you're getting the hang of this." Parker smiled, relieved that Chris wasn't having any problems, then tapped the end of the barrel, then the sight near the back of the gun. "These are your sights. You want to line them up together, along with the target. You probably won't be able to keep all of them lined up exactly for more than a second; it's too many things to focus on. After you've got them lined up the first time, concentrate on the sight on the end being aimed at the target, okay?"

It took a few tries for Chris to get the hang of lining up the sights, but he finally nodded. "Okay," he said, training the gun at the target.

"Squeeze the trigger-- don't yank on it, don't pull on it, squeeze your whole finger around it. And be ready for the recoil." Parker nodded to him. "Go."

Chris squeezed the trigger, bracing himself for the recoil. It wasn't as bad as he expected, but it still jerked him a bit.

Parker tapped him on the shoulder, and showed him how she had her hands held again. "A little looser, a little more forward. Try it again."

Keeping all of Parker's instructions in mind, Chris adjusted his stance, lined up the shot, and tried again. This time he barely felt the recoil.

"Better! Fire the whole clip, then let's see how you've done." She cocked an eyebrow at him. "Does it feel okay so far?"

Chris flashed her a quick grin. "Yeah, so far," he said. "But I have a feeling my shoulder is going to hurt later."

He adjusted his stance and methodically fired off the rest of the clip, each shot getting a little surer and closer to target than the last.

Parker hit the switch for the return, then smiled when the target returned to them. "Not bad, not bad at all." The gunshots were sprayed out at first, a few off the actual silhouette, but there were two right through the heart. "I think you might be good at this, given more practice. "How do your hands feel?" She clenched and unclenched her own, watching him.

"A little cramped," Chris admitted.

"Heat, and some ibuprofen. Next time, we can work on shotguns, or something else if you want. But you should practice at least once a week to really get the hang of it, twice a week if you can manage it." She smiled, pleased with how he'd handled himself. "Okay, time to put away the guns. If you don't have any more questions, that is?"

"No, no questions," Chris said, giving her another grin. "Thanks for taking the time to show me all this. I'll definitely come down and practice again."

"You're welcome, and any time." She smiled and locked up the cabinet again. "If you get a gun or knife, it goes in here, by the way. And the place is under camera surveillance." Parker pointed at the ceiling. "So keep it in mind." She grinned. "Looking forward to your date tonight?"

Chris nodded. "I'll consider it a success if she actually shows up."

"You can set your standards a little higher, Halliwell. Like if she agrees to another date after this one." Parker shook her head. "Where are you taking her?"

"She's going to teach me how to hustle pool," Chris admitted sheepishly.

Parker snickered. "Oh, that'll be fun. And useful. I like what little I've seen of her and heard about her already." She cocked her head. "And I'm supposed to be on a not-a-date with Weiss there tonight, too. If it gets weird or bad, signal me, and we'll come over."

Chris bit back his initial response of making the same offer to Parker.

"Thanks," he said. "I hope it goes well. I feel terrible about how I treated her last weekend."

"If she gave you a chance after that, she definitely likes you, at least." Parker smiled a little. "Just offer to pay for everything, and make sure she has *no* reason to associate you with Evil You. It'll go fine."

"Thanks for the advice, Parker," Chris said.

"What I'm here for." Parker locked up the cabinet, and said, "And if her mom shows up? I'll cover your very quick exit." She grinned. "See you later tonight, I guess."

And that would be Chris flailing.

"Thanks," he said. "See you later."

Billy felt the need to relieve some stress before his date tonight so he came to the gun range. Ear protection covered the earbuds for his cdplayer nicely. Offspring punctuated his shooting.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Gun Range, early morning

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject