(ok, I'm not _trying_ to start a gun thread this early in the season,
its just a ride report...)

Original subject: To be or not to be...

a real biker... i've been told I'm now a real biker. :) and all I had
to do was stand around in the sun after rideing my bike thru dirt and
rocks and shoot at inanimate objects with a wide variety of weapons,
courtesy of one of the local LaBikers, Bruce Brodnax.

 (tho, what the shooting part had to do with a being a 'real biker,
I'm not gonna understand)

Anyway, a Big Huge Monster thanks (as well as a kiss and a hug) for
the oh-so-marvelous (what is it about men with guns?) Bruce, who drove
this really odd motorcycle with four wheels but carried a variety of
weapons and food for the varied biker scum that arrived.

The cast of characters: Bruce, Brian Pape (on his zx-10), squidboy
(zx-6r),Clifford Green (some kinda yammi cruiser), Marc "late" Siry
and his lovely wife on his 'f3, Marc Danziger and his kids in another
really odd motorcycle with four wheels...

	The ride up was uneventful, tho rt 39 is one of my favorite
	local roads -- but not on weekends -- too many folks doing ORV
	type things, and too many SUV's and Ovlov's that pull out from
	turnouts without looking. The only 'bad thing' was that this
	was the first time since my "crash" on Old Ridge Route, that
	I've been on a road that had sand/dirt parts, rather thenbeing
	paved. Squidboy noticed that I utterly froze and was slowly
	walking the bike thru the first part, and waited for me. (I
	almost gave myself a leg cramp I was so tense... so I kept
	thinking about breathing and relaxed and put my feet back on
	the pegs and rode thru the dirt/rock/gravel sections uneventfully.)

Having _never_ handled a gun before, and being the only one in the
original crew of folks to be so new, Bruce very kindly and clearly
went over the rules:

	Assume the gun is always loaded
	Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot
	Know what's behind the target

Generally, seems that the rules are pretty common sense types of
things... and my nervousness at approaching the new tool was
alleviated by Bruce and Squidboy calmly showing me each gun as I tried
it. 

So, I started out with a .22 pistol, and moved up to the .22 rifle,
which I liked a lot better (*plink!  plink*) -- very quickly, I was
hitting the 100 yard target 5 out of 6 times... 

I stuck with the rifle for a while before trying out .22 semi
automatic, which was fun, 'cept I couldnt tell what I was
hitting... then Bruce and squidboy showed me how to shoot the 9mm
*WHOA!*.  One clip of that one, and I was shaking -- the gun kicks and
I'm still a lot scared of them, and this one felt really not in my
control... I put it back and went back to plinking with the .22
rifle...

Next, I trie the .45, which felt worse then the 9mm, and I only shot a
few of those until I went back to the .22... I kept shooting either
the .22 handgun or the .22 rifle until I felt good enough to pick up
the 9mm again... Hey, this wasnt so bad! *BLAM!  BLAM!!! BLAM!*
whhhoooee. :)

Finally, Bruce unpacked the Big Guns, and I got to shoot those. The
SKS was too heavy and I still couldnt tell what i was aiming at much
less hitting with it, but the ar-15 was *fine* -- felt like the .22
rifle, except for the kick...  Big thanks again to Bruce and Squidboy
for not laughing at me for being afraid, and for showing me carefully
how each gun worked.

the thing I realized was again, that my entire fear of guns was a
result of a fear of the unknown -- I knew that all along, but finally
getting to handle real weapons and ammo in a controlled environment,
and learning the right way to do it, went a long way from utter and
complete terror at the sight of a gun to a level of "Tts a tool, and I
learning how to use it."

There is actually something rather calming about taking either the .22
rifle or the ar-15 and relaxing and allowing that zen archer to take
over -- I used to be fairly good at archery, tho its been years, but
the feeling is the same...

Squidboy was fantastic to me all day, noticing first the fear/freeze
reaction as we came upon the rutted dirt road, and being very sweet
and calming me down when I started to panic about the 9mm and the Colt
45...

	http://labiker.com/features/shootnscoot/index.html

for more details and some pics. :)

Gayathri
--------------------------------------------------------------
gayathri@world.std.com          Calamari Club #002, WSMC #701

  "To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders."
                                - Lieh Tzu