Shootin'

I have always been terrified of guns, so when Russ suggested that we all go shooting one morning at Priest Lake I was super nervous. But as always I was determined to conquer my fears and try something new, so we headed out into the backwoods of Idaho (where else would we go for this type of activity?) for some shootin'.

The boys had been saving "targets" for a couple days so they had a lot of them to set up on the hill before we were ready to get started. But once that was done we were ready to go. BANG! The first shot almost made me jump out of my skin! Guns are much louder in person than they seem in the movies or on TV. My body was coursing with adrenaline and I immediately backed away several feet, and continued to do so with each shot fired. Guns officially freak me out.

Setting up our targets.

Stew went first.

Then Dad took some shots.

And then Stew switched to the big gun.

I was too scared to try the rifle.

But Stew was an awesome shot.

And so was Russ.

I had to let the men folk shoot quite a few rounds before I was willing to try it myself. Russ gave me a detailed lesson on how to hold and fire a weapon before he loaded the gun and let me try on my own. BAM! It's even louder up close and my ears immediately started to ring. But it wasn't as bad as I thought, and I immediately wanted to try again so I could hit the yellow energy drink can I had my eye on. Unfortunately I emptied the entire clip and didn't manage to make contact. Next time...

I was trying so hard not to shake, I was so nervous.

Got my eye on that yellow can... Sadly I missed.

Patty getting her lesson.

Good form!

She nailed it on the first shot!

Mom gave it a try, too.

Stew taking out the last of our targets at close range.

We would have stayed out longer and probably could have used up all of Russ's ammunition we were having so much fun (Mom and Patty even shot some rounds!) but it was getting on toward lunch and it was bloody hot outside so we decided to head back to the lake. But I can pretty much guarantee that this will probably be a recurring activity on our Priest Lake trips now.

Have you ever shot guns before? What did you think?