First off, for those of you who don't know me that well, a little background.
I've been shooting for almost 2 years now. I did have some experience with firearms beforehand (a .22 rifle during summer camp at the age of 10, and some shooting with an ex who worked at a gun store) but my birthday, 2005, marks the beginning of my love of firearms.
At the time I was living alone in a not-so-good part of Mesa. The kids would be back in my care in another month, so I was in desperate need of a form of self-protection. Enter Chris, John, and Ben whose combined birthday present to me was a Ruger SP101 and all the necessary accessories.
I've been shooting ever since, and my personal collection has grown to include a Ithaca Model 37 Deerslayer in 20ga, a Marlin 1894c in .357, my tiny Llama Especial Spanish service pistol in .380, and a Kel-Tec PF9. I've gone on many range trips and gone through many rounds and been to 6 group shooting events in the past 2 years.
Despite all of these times spent shooting, I wasn't exactly what you would call well trained. Was I well-versed in the 4 rules? A rather good shot? Up to date on all applicable laws and consequences? Yes, yes, and yes. But I'd never had any professional training past what John taught me and Chris tried to teach me.
Yes, Chris tries, and he tries hard. But for some reason I have some kind of mental block when it comes to learning from him.
So when LawDog posted a link to the Ladies Shooting Camp site, my first words were, "that's what I want for my birthday."
Someone (Kommander I think) complained that it was "sexist" to have a shooting camp just for women. I think Chris's exact words were, "I don't care. It's taught by Kay Clark Miculek. If I could go, I WOULD."
And so it was agreed that I was, without a doubt, going to attend.
In the months following, other sites posted links to videos of the camp and other info and I became more excited about going. A few months back I took all of the firearms we had that we possibilities for me to take for the training, including the PF9 (ow, ow, ow, Cor-Bon nearly drove it into my forehead), the Colt Defender (which does not like me at all) and the FM Detective, which is essentially a shortened Browning High Power. After running some standard practice rounds through all 3 semis (having only shot each once before) I decided the Detective would be the best choice out of everything available to me. Not only is it heavy with relatively little recoil, but 9mm is nice to shoot and 15 round standard magazines are a major plus.
I checked our personal stores for a holster, checked the pile of mag pouches and chose a double, and drove to AZ Shooters World and chose a tactical belt. 840 rounds of handloaded 9mm packed in my range bag and I was ready to go.
And I had no idea what I was in for.
Mel
Tomorrow: I find out exactly what I signed up for.
This is Part 1 of a series of posts about my experience at the Ladies Shooting Camp I attended last week.
Post 2 - Meet and Greet
Post 3 - Day 1 of Instruction
Post 4 - Day 2 of Instruction
Post 5 - Match Day and Culmination of Camp
