ST Bycroft

Paul was wondering if he should get another car. He was standing at a bus stop on the edge of the city. It was Saturday, and it would be four hours before another bus would come by.

He was to meet Bill & Joe to go to the skeet shooting range. They were to pick him up here, they were late. He looked at his watch, they were a half hour late. He had already sent a text to Bill confirming they were coming, he resisted the urge to text Bill again and find out where they are.

Paul wondered if they forgot and whether he should call for a taxi, then he thought maybe he should just get another car. His last car had been stolen in the city and totaled. It was old and not worth much. He put the insurance money in the bank but never got another car.

He looked over and on the end of the bus stop shelter was an ad. It showed a woman eating a diet bar and above her head was a computer generated gold / yellow halo. The ad read:

'So heavenly good you'll wish you were dead'
Chocolate flavored meal bars.
'One bar is your whole meal'
Brought to you by Meals on the Go Inc.

The halo had little stickers stuck all around it. Next to the halo in red marker was an arrow pointing to the halo and a phrase;

'Halo of Flies' - A.C.

This was not street art but just plan graffiti. But Paul agreed the halo now looked like a halo of flies.

Just then Bill & Joe drove up in Bill truck. Paul was relieved, he did not want to call a taxi to get back since he would not have waited for the next bus.

Bill pulled up and out of the window yelled "Hey Paul ready to go shoot them up?"

Paul got into the back of the truck, It was the kind with the extended cab so it had a small back seat. He shared the back seat with 2 cases. These were Bill & Joe's gun cases, they seemed small for skeet shooting shot guns, but Paul was not an expert. He did not own a gun and would have to rent one at the range.

Bill owned a lot a guns, it was a big hobby for him. After the 'Jimmy incident' with the free range lifetime membership / use, aka hush money for getting shot in the butt, Bill used it to it's full extent.

They pulled up to the range the sign said;

'West side shooting range and Gun Club'
- members only

Inside Paul headed over to the shot guns to pick out his rental. Bill yelled over that he would have a hard time hitting a target with those.

Paul's face was a bit confused when he looked back, he said "shot gun for skeet shooting?" Paul really knew nothing about guns.

Bill yelled back with a smile on his face, "we're not skeeting today, we're dead eyeing it! Target shooting today!"

Paul stood for a moment, looking at the shot guns. He liked skeet shooting, he was not sure about target. He shook his head and walked over and said "OK what do I pick?"

Bill in a very excited voice, like a kid in a candy store, "How about a semi automatic with a laser sight?"

Paul looked at Bill and then at the guy behind that counter and replied hesitantly "How about something simpler since it's my first time target shooting?"

The guy behind the counter pulled down a bolt action winchester with a standard scope. Bill laughed and said "maybe this afternoon we'll take the training wheels off" and walked off to pick his targets.

Paul ignored him and filled out the paper work for the rental.

Joe and Bill had already picked out their targets by the time Paul had finished the rental. When Paul walked up Joe told him to pick a target and pointed up to a row of types on the wall. There were all kinds, many were just patterns, but many had some sort of person on it, everything from monsters to little old ladies.

Joe had looked at one with a classic burglar on it. He had the raccoon mask, black and white stripped shirt and a stub cigar stuck in the corner of snarling mouth. But he ended up taking one with the silhouette of a deer stag with antlers.

Bill had picked a small stack of targets, one of the little old ladies. She looked scared and was holding a small purse in front of her. Paul looked at him with a odd quizzical look of "Why?"

Bill just said with a smile "Innocent bystander" and walked toward the range.

Paul looked at Joe, with a look of 'Is that strange or what?'. Joe just raised his eyebrows with a look of 'yep' and followed Bill.

Paul picked out a standard target of black and white circles getting smaller and smaller inside each circle.

The range was outside in the back of the club. The sheet area was outside too but over by the side door.

The range was a open dirt area with piled up dirt mounds running all around it. At the far end were a dozen wooden board standing on post for the targets to be attached to. The end closest to the building had half size walls like open public toilet stalls.

There were a couple guys there already with targets up. Bill and Joe were at the far end standing and waiting.

After a bit a bell rang and then a whistle sounded, someone from the range Yelled 'COLD' and then pulled a lever and a metal frame popped up from the ground with pieces of canvas on it about 20 feet in front of the stalls. It didn't really block the view of the range but it got your attention. This appeared to be a notice to the shooters to stop put the guns down and change out targets.

Each stall had lanes in white on the ground like a baseball diamond. Each lane had several of the standing boards. One close up, one about half way and one at the end.

Bill put one of the little old lady targets on each one of the boards. Joe put one of his stags on the middle one and the other of the farthest one.

Paul only had one target, he was tempted to put it on the closest board but imaged the look from both Bill and Joe so he settled on the middle one.

Then the bell rang again and every one headed back to the stalls. Paul didn't run back but it was a fast walk since he was not sure when the shooting would start again.

Then 2 guys from the range verified that everyone was back and one yelled 'HOT' and pulled the lever back and the metal frame went flat on the ground.

Paul looked around and Bill pointed to a big sign behind the shooters. It listed the rules and procedures. Bill said "consider yourself informed" and then smiled and went to his stall. He pulled what looked like a army machine gun out of his case and started pushing bullets into a clip.

Paul looked at him with annoyance but read the notice in detail. He was starting to find Bill was not just a bit creepy but a lot creepy and real a jerk.

He then went to the stall next to Joe and pushed 3 shells into the rifle from the small box of ammo he had bought. That's how many the guy had said it would take at one time. This was during Paul's five minute training on the gun. They were more interested in getting his credit card number than showing him how to use the rifle.

Before Paul could pull the bolt to load the the first shell Bill had fired a whole clip of rounds into the closest old lady target. Bill howled "WooWeee" with glee at not only how the target had been ripped to shreds but also the wood board was in bad shape now too.

Bill ripped the clip out of gun and slammed in another one and started shooting away again.

Joe was more precise, he had what appeared to be more like a hunting rifle with a scope of some sort. He would slowing fire one shot and then see where it hit. Then adjust and slowly fire another shot.

Paul pulled back the bolt and loaded a shell, he aimed for the center circle of his target and fired. The rifle did not have the same kick that a shot gun did but it did kick. He did not think he had hit the target, but he also had no idea where the bullet had gone. He looked over at Joe and Bill wondering if the saw him miss but they were focused on their own targets.

Paul loaded another round aimed and fired. Again the target was untouched and he had no idea where the bullet had gone. He was starting to wonder if the the gun was miss firing or if bullets were real. He had visions of Bill telling the guys at the range to sell him a fake box of bullets and Bill was going to burst out laughing any minute.

Paul loaded the 3rd bullet, aimed very carefully and fired. He did not hit the target but saw some dirt kicked up way down range. He reloaded three more bullets and tried again. He kept on loading and firing. His last shot before the bell rang again hit the target he could see the spot, it was on the outer ring.

When the bell rang and the frame came up, Bill went down to hang new targets. Joe did not go to change targets and said to Paul "how did you do?"

Paul, with a hesitant look said "I hit it once...".

Joe looked down at Paul's target and said, "really not that bad for your first time out, it takes practice. Or you could go at it with volume" and nodded his head toward Bill.

After a couple hours, they called it quits. Joe was right, Paul had gotten better and his target had multiple hits. Including a few in the center.

They went for a beer and a burger afterwards. There was a bar & grill right next to the range. It was called 'Hot Shot, Bar and Grill'. It's logo was a circle target like Paul had used with 2 shot glasses on either side. Bill spent the meal gripping about his boss at work, 'Irene the terrible' and about his wife and kid. Unlike Phil, Bill's family life was not that good and Paul had the opposite feeling with Bill vs. Phil and was glad he was still single.

Copyright (c)  ST Bycroft  2015