I stayed home this morning, I had a feeling that since John scheduled a match it would rain, and it did. I sent out the word to a few friends, and all of them passed on my invite. Whatever...I went anyway. Got there at about 11:30 and ate a What-a-Burger in the parking lot while the drizzle lightened. Burger, fries and the British Open on the radio ain't a half bad way to wait out a storm.

When the rain lightened to a fine mist and the last of the fries were gone I headed into the pro shop/office to sign my waiver and take my "quiz" - I'm a Gold Charter member but hadn't been since the official opening. Simple process and took about 5 minutes. I watched the videos online before I went so that saves time. I recommend it.

I bought a few targets and perused the pro shop. Good selection of goodies including plenty of ammo. Excellent stuff. I see a Talon shirt in my future.

Put my name on the board in the Steel Pit in Bay 14 and drove down. There I found 2 other trucks and 3 fellas shooting. My first thought was "we'll, so much for signing into a bay - who are these dudes?" The range was hot so I walked down and chatted them up, confirmed this was bay 14, and was quickly encouraged to join in. It's a big bay with lots of targets so I said "cool" and retrieved my stuff from the truck. I quickly figured out they were doing reload drills and I observed for a minute and took up a position about 15 - 20 feet to their left and mirrored their drill. One of them yells "Threat!" and Bang, bang, drop the mag, reload, bang. Simple. I did it a couple times at my own pace and it wasn't long before they noticed I was joining in on the fun and I blended right in. I offered to call "ready" to let all of them shoot at the same time and they were grateful. From there we were basically one group of 4. Cracking jokes, diagnosing misses and strange mag behavior from one of their M&P 9mm's. about 200 rounds later they asked if I had a rifle and did I want to run some rifle drills...

Duh. Of course I do.

We moved a couple bays down (I signed out of bay 14 and into 11) and setup 3 target stands. One of their group was former Army, another was former Air Force and I guess they thought I was shooting pretty good because the two of them asked me separately if I had been in the service. "Nope, but thanks for your service!"

Several drills and a couple hours later, my ammo was gone and I was whooped. I thanked my new friends, said I hoped to see them around again and headed out. A solid 4 hours in the steamy muddy heat and I was spent.

Picked up a porterhouse steak and a 6-pack of dark beer on the way home. Awesome day! Awesome facility!

Join. Today. Thank me later.