Shooting Again, etc.

You may recall that when Chris took us shooting, Natalie had left for Chicago. Natalie was really, really, really, really, really excited to shoot some guns, but then Chris went on vacation before she got back. However, one of the upsides of being here a long time is that Chris’s vacation ended. So for the past week Natalie has had her groupies trying to set up a shoot while seeming non-committal. In at least the former regard, she succeeded yesterday.

Chris brought out his AK-47, AR-15 (like a M-16, without automatic since, as with the AK, Chris isn’t licensed for automatic weapons), .22 semi-automatic with a scope, one of his shotguns, and a .45 handgun. Megan brought her .22 pistol again.

Matt and I shared photographer duty.

: The Book of Knowledge: two volumes of an old children’s encyclopedia. Obtained from Old Magnolia. Very amusing

: The HGA, sitting on a table

: The HGA gears that we were worried about having broken yesterday

: I climb up to adjust the webcam, and ask Matt to take a picture of our safe practices

: Natalie sure likes her transfer punching

: It’s 6:00, and Natalie finally notices that Chris has come back, with his guns ready to go

: We leave for the range and check out the selection for the day

: The door from last time, propped up since then by a stump and some sticks. Matt and I set out to shoot it down

: Barth wants to get back to work. He starts with a few shot on the .22 pistol

: Bull’s Eye

: Natalie starts with the .22 as well, working her way up to bigger guns

: Natalie takes her first shots. A proud moment in every parent’s life

: The .22 elicits a tiny smirk

: Chris takes aim, testing out the .22 rifle, which hasn’t been used in a long while

: Shooting the door. The scope is nice because you can see where you hit

: Barth goes next on the .22 rifle

: I’m uncreative with my framing, repeating the same shots with different people

: Natalie is the next one to take aim with the scope

: The killer within starts to emerge

: More of Natalie on the .22, since the outing is essentially for her, most of the pictures are of her as well

: Chris starts to break out the big guns with the AR-15

: Barth takes a few shots with the AR-15. He only took a few shots of everything

: With a big gun, Natalie’s inner killer emerges. Watch the change in facial expressions (interpreted by me): “Whoa, this is more powerful than those .22s”

: “Hell, yeah! This is more powerful than those .22s”

: “Get some!”

: “Look at me, I’m shooting”

: “Shooting is fun. I’m gonna finish this sucker off”

: Tristan takes a turn and chooses the AK-47. It is around this point that we discover the memory card in the camera sucks and filled up. I frantically try delete things (that I hope were no good) to make room

: Natalie shooting the AK-47 from the hip

: Matt takes his first shooting turn, on the AR-15

: Matt’s “Hell, yeah” face

: Tristan takes a go on the AR-15

: Then, as is necessary, decides aiming is boring and shoots from the hip

: I take my first shots on something other than a camera

: Then I go to town on the door

: I don’t know whether it’s just the AK that brings this out in Nick, but he always gets really into it

: I take the first turn on the .45. I have never fired a pistol that wasn’t a .22, and this is way more fun

: The .45 recoils pretty good (it also launched the fist casing at my head)

: Natalie goes next on the .45â€”in my opinion the most Clint-worthy gun of the day

: The only muzzle flash of the day. I have no idea how to interpret this face

: Naturally, Nick shoots the .45 single-handed

: Chris demonstrates his slightly awkward looking technique to fire a semi-automatic automatically (hold trigger finger against body, pull barrel forward just enough)