Shooting with Mike and Joey

I was very busy for a while and then I was very puny for a while.  I've really been off my game.  I was way overdue for an hour or two at the range so, when Mike Sala asked if I would like to host he and his son Joey at the range where I have a membership, I jumped at it.

Mike Sala is remarkably gifted in several ways.  He is a near genius with things electronic in a practical way.  After a lifetime of maintaining sophisticated medical imaging equipment there's no regular project (like a security system) he can't pull off blindfolded.

 Another of his gifts is shooting.  Mike is a natural.  I am not.  I have to work at it.  Hard.  I have to keep telling myself that I am playing a different game.  That I am drawing and firing at the same time while he is just standing there. That I am counting seconds off in my head trying to make sure that I never exceed three seconds to score two kill shots while Mike is taking his time.  That I am scanning my sides and looking for innocent bystanders around and behind the target while Mike is concentrating on the target alone.  Granted, my head is pretty busy while I am shooting but darn, good ole Mike can just stand there and punch holes in paper in a truly remarkable way that usually shames me.  I could not just stand there and shoot that well.

BUT THEN CAME JOEY.  He was shooting in the next lane.  I glanced over and saw him shooting a little compact S&W and getting the same kind of accuracy I get with a service pistol. But then came the clinker. I asked him if had ever fired a Glock. He said no. I asked if he would like to.  He said sure.  I loaded a mag with ten rounds and handed him the Glock 19 I normally carry.  He calmly took aim and proceeded to put ten rounds into the target's head within a 3 inch circle. I didn't know what to say.  That was about the same level of shooting that my CLEET instructor was capable of and I know Joey can't be shooting as much as the armorer/firearms instructor for one of local police departments.  I guess that, like his dad, Joey is also a natural marksman but one with much younger eyes and reactions.  It's humbling.


There are only two things to do when you have been humbled. Quit or try to do better. After the Salas left, I ate a bite of lunch and went back to range with my Ruger SR 22 which handles enough like a service pistol to make the practice relevant.  I shot another 250 rounds.  I warmed up with a tactical target just concentrating on draw and fire, draw and fire, working on the Zen of it, squeeze when the sight picture settles, will the bullet to the right place, make it all one smooth motion, don't shoot a bystander.

Then I switched to a standard CLEET target and forced myself to go through the moves of the basic qualifying routine, counting the seconds off in my head.  I had five flyers out of a hundred rounds and kept right around 80 percent of my shots in the kill zone one way or another. But by that time, I had been shooting for nearly four hours and had fired around 500 rounds.

I had lost a lot of ground in six weeks since I last shot.  I guess some of us just have to work at some things harder than others.  And, I guess that is my personal price of being licensed to carry a weapon in the line of business.