Best Week Ever!
Friday, February 22, 2019 at 4:56PM Best Week Ever!
I am just finishing up a week of riding and shooting with a couple of buddies, Recon and Jason, aka “J-Can”. Jason is a Canadian visitor and ended up with the J-Can handle so as to not be mixed in with regular ole’ American Jasons we know.
Recon and I did the Monday Taco ride the day after a rain and had the time of our lives! We were riding every trail we could find on the way to tacos and laughing like loons all day! Wheel to wheel without a hint of dust. There was even a dusting of snow on the mountains in the desert. We hardly stopped and when we did we were both laughing trying to catch breaths in between. We rode singletrack, blasted damp and sometimes muddy sand washes at speeds that just about got us into trouble a couple of times. Recon said he wasn’t ready for the ditch I lofted the front wheel over, so I didn’t tell him, neither was I. It kinda came out of the blue, I don’t remember a ditch there before. Oh yeah, it rained hard and there were a few new washouts. We survived and when we pulled into our next stop to climb a few big sand hills, Recon said, “Hey your nose is bleeding”. I looked and sure enough there was a pretty good gouge on the end of my nose from some of the bushy and barbed trees we blew by at about 50mph. So I borrowed a line from Jesse Ventura in the movie Predator and said, “I ain’t got time to bleed!” “Let’s Ride!!!”
We finished our ride and planned our assault on the next day’s activities. It was going to be a shooting day at the range with a bunch of geezers we know and our buddy J-Can. Now remember J-Can is the Canadian where it seems firearms are bordering taboo. So I ask if he was very well versed in firearms safety. He admitted he was a complete novice around firearms so we planned to go it alone away from the rest of the group until we got him up to speed on firearms safety with a few drills and some practice. So we used a range stall next to our regular shooting group for our orientation.
Having been a former firearms instructor for a large government agency, I found it very satisfying instructing someone that was willing to listen and eager to learn, as opposed to students that were required to be there due to work requirements.
J-Can was the ideal student and is a very intelligent guy so he learned things easily and quickly. He picked up the operation and especially the safety part of firearms very quickly and easily. Sharp, attentive student. In short order I was comfortable enough to let him operate on his own with me side by side on the firing line. Recon had already gotten bored and was over shooting with the regular crew, with an occasional jaunt back over to shoot with us for a minute.
We had set up a metal gong system about 10 yds. out to run some drills without having to stop every few minutes to repair targets. While Recon was there I took some practice shots at the gong system. Lo and behold I felt something hit me in the cheek just below my safety glasses. A ricochet had come directly back from my target. I ceased fire and let the fellas know something had hit me. I holstered my Glock and turned toward J-Can, he said, “There is something stuck in your cheek and its bleeding”. J-Can came over to look and said it was a piece of metal and asked if he should pull it out. I had him pull it out, it was deep enough to pull my skin out about a quarter inch before it came loose, according to Recon. Recon tossed me a rag to slow the slow trickle of blood and went back to shooting. You gotta love guys out doing guy things, sit down and be quiet until we get done. Awesome! Two days in a row and I end up being the one bleeding. I don’t think that has ever happened, so this is obviously the Best Week Ever!
J-Can now has first-hand knowledge of why we covered range safety and safety equipment before we ever began shooting.
By the the end of the day J-Can was almost a seasoned shooter, since his range day had been taken up with basic safety, safety equipment, shooting drills, malfunction clearing drills and a little first aid. I think he is looking forward to shooting next week. I am too but maybe I should take my full coverage helmet.
Ride safe, Shoot safe!
#33
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal”
Reader Comments (3)
The days are always packed full of fun and excitement hanging with #33!😀
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