Thanks to a timely reminder from Jenny, I went to Big Box Sports Stuff to purchase some 9mm ammo for the guy with the machine gun. It was the neighborly thing to do, ya know. While I was killing time by wandering the aisles there, I ran into Jenny who was looking for a few things, too.
Chat ensued, as it usually does, then it was time to head to the Wet Bunny range.
I staked out one of the last remaining benches; Jenny decided to try her hand at firing prone, and took a position to my left so she wouldn't have hot casings raining around her head. Smart lady. John (the fellow with the machine gun) was there shortly thereafter, and tried his hand at the rifle.
About an hour into it, a cease-fire was called across all the ranges, while Anchorage PD and the Bomb Squad/E.O.D. removed a presumed-live 40mm artillery shell left over from WWII. (I haven't seen anything like that since I was on Adak, out in the Aleutians. There was - and apparently still is a lot of unexploded ordnance there.) But this piece was reportedly brought to the range by some well-meaning folk who found it & assumed the shooting range was the place to bring it.
Not so much. But 20 minutes, we were back on the firing line, and no one was hurt.
When we were done on the rifle line, Jenny and I, along with Tom - another friend who'd just arrived - followed John to the pistol range. After loading the magazines (one 40-round and two 25-round), he provided instruction for those who'd either never fired a full-auto weapon, or (in my case) hadn't fired one in nearly 35 years.
It was interesting operating from an open bolt. The range officer asked John at one point to leave the bolt open during a cease-fire, and then received a very polite but firm schooling on how that would make it more, rather than less dangerous, to those down-range.
"Oh."
But big smiles, all 'round. Did I mention it was fun?
3 comments:
GOOD STUFF!
Nice!
I missed seeing the Big Blue Ball. Stupid house in the way.
:)
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