For quite sometime, I've been tagging along my partner watching him shoot. When he got his new Glock 22 (40 calibre), we immediately ran up to the closest range for a test shoot. Back at that time, I was only watching. I took shots and videos of his first handling of his Glock 22. I enjoyed it, my first time in a range.
He's been pushing for me to try out his gun. I never gotten around with scheduling it, until I came across this voucher from Ensogo with a free membership and gun rental at MSR Shooting Range in Macapagal Blvd. :) I was excited, but not as excited as yesterday.
So, here's the funny story. I march in a small room with only chairs and tables plus the receptionist. Infront me was a contained area separated by a transparent mirror. From inside, you'd still hear a lot of the gun shot noises. I walk up to the receptionist and hand over my voucher. Proud that I won't be paying anything more that what it cost me to print the voucher. ;) Of course, I was a bit nervous.. edgy. I had my drill, I knew the basics, but then again, it would be nice to get some coaching from a pro.
The receptionist asks me to fill up some form, then a girl takes a photo of me. Funny, the photo of me looked good, having been taken from a good quality camera, except that my face was really shiny :D (I'd share the photo here once I get my ID next week--yay! my first shooting range ID)
Seems the place was fully booked, since it was a Saturday. Some couple marched in and the receptionist said they were third to come in, and we were next after them. The girl, from my opinion, hired this guy she was with to teach her how to fire (which, my intuition failed me, and I found out a bit later on). We were sitting in their table sets, when this girl from the range kept knocking and pointing at my darling. She was excitedly calling her inside. I thought we were up next. When we asked the receptionist, she said we weren't up yet.
I was immediately curious. So, I asked my darling why she was asking her to come in. He said he had no idea. I got this weird feeling about it. There were now only 2 bays occupied. She went out, and specifically addressed my darling that she'll be back in two minutes. She disappeared from the room, running upstairs (which at that point, I didn't know what was upstairs).
After a few more minutes, she came back. She asked my darling again "Puputok ka sir?" My darling was all smiles. He said, "papaturuan ko sana siya sayo". I didn't really know if I would label it an awkward moment, or an angry moment for me. She dashed her look from my darling to me with an almost sharp, yet sad look on her eyes. She then tries to focus her attention on the weird couple that came in. The girl was asked to sign a waiver, which, when we came in, I also had to sign.
The room between the range and the receiving area was small. There was a rack with the ear muffs and eye covers. There weren't much, so I was left to pick a big shaped one which was kind of uncomfortable to wear. I swear I was ready to backout from this entire feat when I saw the lady coach's disappointed look on her face. I couldn't tell if I was angry at her or at my darling. You see, boys can't be trusted, but you wouldn't want to trust women more ;)
So, we walked up to the next open bay. She started telling me some basics about the grip and how to use the sight. She wasn't very enthusiastic. She didn't tell me about the basics of gun safety, she didn't tell me how I should breathe while shooting.. she didn't tell me a lot of other things I was expecting. I was actually just pretending I didn't know how to hold a gun and that I wouldn't know what to do. I was only being courteous. All the while, I think she was really annoyed at having to teach the girlfriend of the guy she had a crush on. Really now.
That is why I had the drive to focus and really just shoot. Knowing the perfectionist that I am, I used that anger to shoot well. My inspirations were my darling, my cat and Jessie Abbate. :)
Overall, I really enjoyed the experience. My darling said that the grouping of my shots were good for a beginner. I'm even happier because I knew I was shooting with a blurry vision while that even merit me positive results. On top of it all, I really found it sweet that my darling was with me documenting my whole experience.
The only roadblock that I encountered was that the gun was really kind of becoming heavier as you shoot and that my hands became sweaty at some point. My lady coach was kind enough to hand me a tissue and a powder to help me with my grip.
After my shoot, I realize that the weird couple I saw earlier, was apparently a 'real' couple. The girl was evidently bored watching her guy repeatedly fire shots consecutively without a break. True it could've been awesome, but while I was shooting, it was breaking my concentration. So, when it was my darling's turn, I was taking shots too and my attention went to my lady coach once again.
I can definitely read from her body language that she was disappointed. She was a totally different person talking to my darling, and talking to me. In the end, I even added a bit of the tension when I asked for a photo of both of us to be taken by my darling. I just wouldn't be able to tell who amongst us three had the most tension in there. Definitely not me. :)
She used the last bay and she was shooting with a 45 calibre. She was definitely hitting low. She would then catch my gaze and I would smile. I don't really have much of a reason to be looking mad at her, now do I? She doesn't smile back. Meanwhile, the girl on the couch was really bored and very unappreciative of her show-off boyfriend.
After the firing, I head off to the cr which was upstairs. So, the powder room was in there ;)