Reasserted
Today was my annual refresher course for "Defense Against Wild Animals," a firearms certification and safety class taught by the US Geological Survey (but open to other Federal employees). Most of my classmates were volcanologists working in Alaska, who need to worry about brown/grizzly bears. In the field on Devon Island, polar bears are a concern.
Last night, a colleague and I went to a local firing range and practiced, doing dry-fire exercises with a 12-gauge shotgun (camp firearm on Devon). It paid off... we both passed!
After three hours of bear-avoidance and strategy in the morning, we spent the afternoon on an outdoor range. Once we went to live fire... my marksmanship was shaky at first, but quickly improved. Going from slung, field-ready to fire improved to about a second. By the final test, I was well under the time limits and my bear target had a fist-sized hole where the nose used to be :). Shotgun slugs may be relatively low-velocity, but they make a big hole...
I feel competent and capable of defending myself and others around me in the field, while maintaining safe firearms handling. And it was a beautiful day, and it was good to get away from the computer and do something operational. And there were wild turkeys! A small flock of five of them, strolling around in the high grass. It isn't turkey season, so the birds were safe ;-).
Last night, a colleague and I went to a local firing range and practiced, doing dry-fire exercises with a 12-gauge shotgun (camp firearm on Devon). It paid off... we both passed!
After three hours of bear-avoidance and strategy in the morning, we spent the afternoon on an outdoor range. Once we went to live fire... my marksmanship was shaky at first, but quickly improved. Going from slung, field-ready to fire improved to about a second. By the final test, I was well under the time limits and my bear target had a fist-sized hole where the nose used to be :). Shotgun slugs may be relatively low-velocity, but they make a big hole...
I feel competent and capable of defending myself and others around me in the field, while maintaining safe firearms handling. And it was a beautiful day, and it was good to get away from the computer and do something operational. And there were wild turkeys! A small flock of five of them, strolling around in the high grass. It isn't turkey season, so the birds were safe ;-).