Friday, May 1, 2009

Ignorance, Accuracy, and Age

I have a new pellet gun as of yesterday. Why did I get myself a new pellet gun you might ask? Why, to hone my eye coordination skills, of course, and rid the world of small nuisances. I am in trifocals now, and it’s a whole new ball game. I started my quest four days ago. We have an old pellet/BB gun that requires 12 or more pumps to get it to fire once. I asked around and discovered that there were CO2 powered pistols, and single pump pellet guns. I would have liked a CO2 powered pellet rifle, but did not find them in stock locally. I am abysmally ignorant on the subject of firearms; so ignorant that I was not able to research pellet and BB guns on the internet. I called a good buddy that had been advising me through my search. He suggested I visit a small gun shop in the city. So I did.

I walked up to the counter of the gun shop, and a young woman holding a cherubic toddler asked if she could help me. I told her I thought I might be seeking a hypothetical pellet gun and explained what I wanted. The toddler immediately began screaming her head off. The answer the woman gave me let me know right away that she knew her way around less aggressive firearms. She handed me over to a young gentleman, telling him what to show me. I ended up with their cheapest pellet rifle. Paying more for a pellet rifle meant it would shoot further, like 1,000 yards. I didn’t want that. Most of my nuisances are much closer than that. They sighted it for no charge. And did not make me feel stupid. Today, I couldn’t hit the bull’s eye. I called a couple of buddies from the neighborhood who are more experienced with firearms than I am and had them play with it awhile. They both complained about it being hard to get the sight on the target without me prompting, so I took it back down to the city this afternoon and threw more money at it. Now it has a scope that was mounted and adjusted to fit me, for free. I thanked those folks profusely for treating me so well, and not making me feel like I had ridden in on the short bus.

I played with it some more this evening. I still haven’t hit a bull’s eye, but I am now sure it is because my eye coordination is as poor as my firearm knowledge. I am going to keep trying.

Otherwise, I did finish cleaning out the gutters yesterday, and someone called this evening to say he was bringing a feller to shave the slopes on the railroad track at the gate in the morning. Hooray!

2 comments:

Carl McClure said...

This is very entertaining reading! I am very proud of you for not giving up, and being persistant. Not everyday a woman at your age, decides to take up rifling! LOL Just kidding. Thanks for sharing your blog link with me! Its nice to hear and see whats going on in Kalorama all the way in Arizona! I love it!

Your Nephew, Carl

Lea @ CiCis Corner said...

What a story! Not sure my blogs will ever be quite as entertaining. :) But, blogging is such good therapy. Lea