I have not shot a gun since...scout camp? I'm guessing it's been a few decades. Even looking back at camp, I know I never shot a pistol. I remember having something a bit above an air-rifle, but I don't think it was anything more than a BB gun.

All that changed last week, as my wife and I finally cashed in my birthday present (my birthday is in January, but Baby Varacchi makes planning stuff like this a bit difficult). We went out to Shore Shot Pistol Range in Lakewood, and got ourselves ready for the zombie apocalypse.

I'll admit that going into it, I was a bit worried that we'd be looked down upon because we were total noobs when it came to guns. When Scott at the front desk asked what kind of gun we wanted to shoot, we both shrugged. He suggested a Sig Sauer p320, which is the main service pistol of the US Army. It was a good starter gun, he said, because it didn't have much of a kickback, but wasn't just a BB-gun that we wouldn't even feel. We sat and watched a brief safety video, got our earmuffs & safety goggles on, then hit the range.

(c) Varacchi
(c) Varacchi
loading...

Before you yell at my shooting accuracy, just know that my wife & I shared targets, so some of those are hers (but one of those bullseyes was mine!) - and just know that if you come at me, I'll shoot you in the stomach, which is really painful and takes a long time to bleed out.

We went early enough in the day that the range was pretty calm, so our Range Officer Dan was able to give us lots of hands-on teaching. Like I said, I was clueless about guns, so to have him there to explain how to load a magazine, eject an empty mag, and all the other things was a huge help. He pointed out that both my wife and I were very subtly tilting our pistol down right before we pulled the trigger, which is why so many of our shots hit low.

After shooting the Sig Sauer for a bit, Scott suggested we check out something else - the CZ Scorpion. I'll admit, when he first took it from it's case I thought it was beyond my ability, but once Dan took us through the specifics, I felt comfortable enough to shoulder it and start firing.

I am far from a "gun guy"...but this experience was awesome. I'll definitely be heading back to Shore Shot to try out some different guns. Thanks to Dan, Scott & Joe for a great time! Check out Shore Shot Pistol Range online, on Facebook, and Instagram.

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