I volunteer down at the Pistol Range to help out from time to time. It helps out the club and I get to meet a wide range of interesting people (sometimes a little too interesting, but you get that!). Yesterday I helped out with the GOLD Shooting activity – Growing Older and Living Dangerously, that is. What could possibly go wrong… teaching a group of senior citizens to shoot pistols? No wuckin’ furries! 🙂
Here’s a few little things I learned teaching OAP’s to shoot:
- Turns out that it’s difficult to communicate safety procedures to someone who has their hearing aids turned off under their ear muffs. 🙁
- Handing a loaded pistol to a thickly bespectacled man who says he can’t ‘quite make out’ the large red target barely ten metres in front of him, is a somewhat nerve wracking experience. Eek.
- ‘No, I’ve never shot before,’ is invariably code for: ‘I have 20 years military experience but I just want you to feel like an idiot, giving me basic firearms safety instructions’.
- The mature ladies who turn up looking fabulous, are here to meet men and couldn’t care less about shooting (a perfectly valid pursuit in my humble opinion!). 🙂
- The gentleman with the hand tremors from recent open heart surgery will take more time, and put more effort into taking his shots and will shoot much better, than the non-trembly guy who follows him.
- The sweet looking granny in the mauve cardigan, is the person most likely to tell you that she wants a huge revolver to keep under her pillow.
- Shooting clay targets with shotguns is apparently ‘the best thing since indoor plumbing’… sliced bread coming a distant third.
- Pulling the trigger and making an exclamation of surprise will always be swiftly followed by a ‘Oh, sorry dear!’
- And everyone wants to take their targets home to show their grandkids!
Out of the innumerable people I have lead in groups, and taken through various shooting activities in the few short years I’ve been volunteering at the range, I have to say that the GOLD participants, for all their hearing challenges and vision shortcomings, are the most respectful, attentive and diligent of the lot. They were thoughtful and considerate, well spoken and polite, tried their best and were proud of their accomplishments. To be honest, I’d rather shoot with these guys who can’t hear me and can’t see shit, than a bunch of 20 somethings who simply won’t listen and won’t try!
