Afternoon Shooting Part Two

Wingnut Dan opened up his ALICE pack to reveal an Uzi that he called Little Susie. With Little Susie in one hand he dug around inside his pack and produced what looked like a fat piece of pipe. He threaded it onto the muzzle of Little Susie and giggled like a kid while he tightened it up. I asked what it was out of genuine curiocity, he told me it was a dummy silencer tube. I didn't see any use for a fake silencer, until he put a 40 round mag into the weapon and handed it over to me. After giving me a quick rundown on where the safety was and explaining the quirks of an Uzi to me, he let me loose with it. The beauty of a dummy silencer is that it extends the length of the gun out another ten inches or so. With the extra room a person firing the weapon can place their other hand on the tube and shoot from the hip much easier. It's like having a forward grip where before, there was none. There was no need to aim, Uzis aren't very accurate at distance so Wingnut Dan instructed me to use each bullet strike on the hillside as an aiming point and then "walk the bullets" to the target, as he put it.

Damn, it was so fun. I gotta get one of those.

I gave Dara a short but necessary lesson in operating my AK-47. I went over what to do if there was a jam or a misfire, some tips on using the iron sights, how to remove and load magazines, and of course where the safety was. Dara was a good student and picked everything up instantly. I stepped back and watched her first few shots. She was way off from hitting targets she selected, but that is always the way it goes the first time you pick up an unfamiliar rifle. It was fun for me to observe. She got the hang of it in no time. As soon as she unloaded the first thirty round magazine she turned to me with a huge grin on her face. I think she liked it. I had already set up a stack of thirty round magazines for her to burn through so she was on her own while I stayed close by and hung out.

I noticed off to my right Wingnut Dan's friend with the FN FAL was unhappy. Those FN FALs look vicious to me and I had considered buying one. Until now, that is. I stepped over to where FAL guy was tinkering with it and asked what was up. He said that he adjusted the gas piston before coming out to shoot and he screwed it up somehow. The rifle wasn't cycling rounds properly. I was unaware FALs had an option to adjust something like that. To me that seemed like a really bad headache I didn't need, being a novice gun owner. I decided to leave him to it and pay attention to Dara.

AK-74 guy spent the rest of the time we were there cleaning out dirt from his rifle. I took a close look at it and I was shaking my head in disgust at him. His AK-74 was brand new, today was the first time he brought it out to shoot with. It had a nice light blonde wood stock set on it. I say had, because after his dirt and weed environmental testing with it, the stock was completely scratched up and ghetto. What a waste.

Dara did well with her shooting. I was impressed, and she seemed pleased with herself. The main thing for me today was that she had fun. That's what it was all about. Wingnut Dan seemed happy with the world after he had put hundreds of rounds through Little Susie. It was as if a great weight had been lifted from his chest and all was good again. FN FAL guy gave up on trying to fix his rifle and settled for watching Wingnut Dan, Dara, and myself have a good time. We didn't let him or the other Army kook sit and rot though. That would have been too cruel. They both got to take turns with my AK and Little Susie until ammo was running low.

As the sun was starting to set we packed our crap up and headed home for the day. Wingnut Dan, Dara, and I were satiated, somewhat tired, and reeking of cordite.