Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse

Before I left SF I made a trip to a local shooting range with a friend from school. I was psyched because I had always wondering what it felt like to fire a real firearm. So we headed over the Golden Gate Bridge and made a left just slightly past San Quentin prison.

Inside the range we got to choose our weapon. My goal was to fire a SIG P229 (the standard issue sidearm of NCIS), but had to confess to the guy at the counter that I have never fired live ammo before.

He gave us a .22 revolver and a box of 50 bullets. We also got to choose our target, which was easy since there was a freakin zombie target. I was excited to pump some lead into him.

Out on the actual range, I hung up our zombie, loaded the revolver and squeezed off all six rounds. Due to the small caliber of the bullets I couldn't tell where I had hit on the target. I immediately understood why .22s are for women. Chelsea and I switched off until we had gone through the case of bullets. Afterwards we headed back to the counter to get a bigger gun.

This time I asked for the SIG. We got it and went back to the range, where on my first shot it jammed. Realizing that trying to fix it myself, without a knowledge of how it works could potentially be fatal, I went back to the counter. The guy came back to the range with us and started working on the gun. After a few minutes he declared that the firing pin had broken and we would need another gun. Back at the counter he asked what I would like to go with. Unfortunately I was only able to fire one shot with my Tony Dinozzo SIG, so I told him to just give me anything that would fire the ammo we had just bought (9mm).

This one had weight and the first shot felt much more satisfying than any of the .22s. We polished off our ammo pack and I bent down to police my brass and take a few casings as souvenirs. We exited and paid and then grabbed a quick lunch at In N' Out.

It was only when I got home and looked at my souvenirs that I realized I picked up the wrong shells. I had a .22 from the revolver and meant to have a .9mm from each of the two pistols but upon further inspection I had picked up two .45 caliber shells. it was a bit sad that I grabbed the wrong ones, but I'm still keeping them to remember this experience by.