Alek and Lanie came for a family dinner earlier in the week, as he was leaving I asked Alek if he fancied a trip to the range. He was keen, and so was Lanie. We worked out a time we could all make, and Friday afternoon we went down to Sound of Freedom in Ozark.

I’ve not been spending any time at the range in recent months (make that nine months or more) and it showed. Both the young whippersnappers managed to outshoot me more or less. Alek was getting impressive groupings at 40′ and Lanie was doing well too.

We had some ‘failure to load’ issues with both guns, which I’m assuming was down to both Alek and Lanie ‘limp wristing’. That’s where you don’t hold the gun firmly enough, so the recoil is absorbed by the whole gun moving, and not just the slide, this, in turn, means the slide doesn’t have enough energy to fully recoil and load the next round. Clearing it is simple, remove the magazine and eject the jammed cartridge. I’ve noticed that on rare occasions the Baretta — most often with blank practice rounds — and once today, when Alek was shooting, loads the cartridge in front of the ejector mechanism. This stops the slide going fully back and ‘in battery’ (fortunately) the striker can’t reach the primer, which if you don’t notice, results in a click and no bang. Because the shell isn’t held by the ejector, getting the stuck shell out requires a bit of shaking, with the gun pointed at the ceiling so that gravity can help, which I cannot help thinking is not optimal from a safety point of view.

It was fairly cold so we didn’t stay too long, though we probably got through 2-300 rounds. I didn’t shoot that much, probably only around 25 rounds with the Sig and another 40 with the Beretta. I was happy to watch Alek and Lanie. Once again Lanie said she didn’t want to shoot the Baretta, and once again I put a couple of rounds in and let her give it a go, and she went back for more.

Lanie shooting the Beretta. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

Lanie and Alek at the range. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

More training might be needed – Lanie may be keeping the gun pointed down-range, but it looks like her finger is still on the trigger to me. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

And where is Ginger? She’s off visiting her parents for a few days. I had far too much work to do to be able to join her — I didn’t finish working until gone midnight last night, and I was back at it at half six this morning. That was to make sure I’d be done in time to get out this afternoon. Oh! I missed a great excuse for my bad marksmanship. I’m tired. 🙂

One thing is for sure. Before we have another family range outing I’m going to have to sneak in some more shooting practice and get new glasses so that I’m not left so far behind.