Gravick Ranch

Sunday I was invited to go to the Gravick Shooting Academy with a number of friends. Having done a lot of driving the past few days, it was nice to let Henry drive. We left early to get there about 8:00 a.m. There was a group of about 16 of us, ranging in ages from 14 to 60 or so.

We started the morning shooting 9mm pistols. It had been some time since I had shot and I felt I was pretty terrible to begin. But there was a lot of instruction to take in and after a little while I got out of my head and started doing better. Like when my old friend Brent and I used to shoot clays, we had a saying: "Are you thinking?" If you were, then you were distracted. Stop thinking. I did make some better shots. We did all sorts of unusual things, from shooting through a car window, crouching behind a car, shooting a moving rotating star.

We broke for lunch and went back to the hunting lodge, the classic man cave with trophies on the wall, including.. an elephant. We even got to see the video of the elephant hunt.

In the afternoon, we went to shoot AR-15's which rifle shooting was something I was a bit more comfortable with. The rifles have a laser holographic sight which you see a red dot through the scope, you point the dot where you want to hit and shoot. Makes it pretty straightforward. We did some different shooting, crouching, left handed, through narrow openings. My favorite was "clearing the house", shooting while moving, turning corners, and then finishing off with the sidearm pistol. By the afternoon, I was more comfortable with both guns.

Our instructors were very good. One was the firearms instructor for the local Sheriff. Our host was former military (Delta Force, said Henry). So we learned a lot. I look forward to returning.