Is Shooting a Drug of Addiction?
G’day everyone!
I’m sitting at home one sunny afternoon, and the phone rings. Ah, it’s Chris!
“Hey, Bec, wanna get your shooting licence?”, he says to me.
“Sure, why not!?”, says I.
Little did I know that this decision was gonna cost me dearly in the intervening months, licence fees, PTA costs, training costs, lost hair, stress, ammo costs, rifle purchases, and the list goes on.
The first time I walked into St Marys Indoor, I could carry everything I needed using one hand (my handbag and purse). Nowadays, I don’t have enough hands or shoulders – rifle bag over one shoulder, rifle bag in one hand, tradies wheelie bin in the other hand, which has a bench rest, my ammo, timer, sweatband blinder, cleaning kit, rear bags, targets, pens, oil, patches, tools, blocks of wood, and rolls of paper with rather impressive scores on them!
Needless to say, my bank balance has taken a massive hit, it absolutely hates me, but you know what? I’m having fun at this new sport of mine, so screw it! It’s been rather fascinating so far!
I started shooting in October ’09, but started the process way back in August/September ’09. If I had any idea of the hoops I had to pass through before acquiring a firearm, I’d probably not be participating in this sport. But, now I’ve done it, I’m glad I did.
The process started by booking in for the obligatory firearms safety course. Due to the popularity of the courses, I had to wait about two weeks for one. Go in with a bit of paperwork, come out with lots of paperwork – certificate of completion, various application forms for Category A and B shooting, and applications for membership to various clubs/organisations.
Ok, send ‘em all off, and wait. I had to wait a minimum 28 days for my licence papers to come back, then off to the RTA to get a nice green photo licence. Yip Yar!
I spent about 6 hours that night in St Marys, shooting about 300 rounds through the club guns, and came out with a huge grin on my face, plus a deposit on my first rifle, a Sako Finnfire Range P94s .22LR rifle.
This is where the addiction started!
I’m not very patient at the best of times, but the wait for the PTA to arrive for my Sako was excruciatingly frustrating! This sport is all about that magical point where the shot breaks, the anticipation, and the ecstasy of a perfect shot, but I was once again in “hurry-up-and-wait” mode – another 28+ days for the PTA.
I decided early on that I’d do benchrest shooting, so I started to acquire all the gear for it – a front rest and rear bag, and so bought a “Caldwell Rock BR” bench rest, which is quite popular, but expensive. My philosophy is to buy once, cry once, purchasing gear which will last many years. Oh, how my bank balance suffered!
A woman loves her shopping, so you can imagine me going into Horsley Park Gun Shop, and the St Marys Indoor Rifle Centre shop, with a bit of money – hello candy store! I quickly realised that this sport is dangerous! My bank balance is no more! But still, I drive home with a smile on my face, and a questioning brain wondering how I’m going to explain my latest purchases to the oldies (they’re relying on me to purchase a house, you see!).
The day my PTA arrived will always be memorable. The feeling of holding my first ever rifle was quite powerful. I’d achieved something, saved up lots of money, circumnavigated the system, waited impatiently, and it was now in my hands! I packed up and went home when the centre closed, after firing a number of different brands of ammo through it, settling on RWS R50.
I didn’t need any substances of addiction to get the kind of high I had that night! Truly inspiring stuff.
A few weeks previously, I’d put a topic on AusVarmint about starting shooting, and received an offer to try shooting at Sutherland Shire Smallbore Rifle Club. At this club, they shoot prone and benchrest rimfire outdoors to targets 50m downrange. I was invited to shoot benchrest, and did reasonably well with the club Anschutz rifles. The hospitality, and frendliness of the guys and gals at SSSBRC really reinforced my addiction to shooting sports.
So, I resolved to acquire my second rifle, a bench gun. Another query in the AusVarmint Forum, and an offer of a custom rifle was made.
The accuracy of this rifle astounded me. I took it to Sutherland, and shot a perfect 200.20 score. Does this drug of addiction get any better than that?
I took the rifle to Cecil Park to shoot against the electronic targets, and scored very respectable 596′s to 598′s. That night was another amazing night, because I had the range officers all excited about it. The following weekend, I went back to Cecil Park and shot a 599, and the one point I dropped, it was a 9.9! Oh so close!
*Pulls hair out*
This is the truly addictive bit about this sport – I know I can shoot a 600, so I just have to keep going back, until I do score a 600, but even then, it’s not enough. Why? Because I need to shoot lots of 600′s! Consistency rules the day in the end.
But the truly rewarding part of all this is the amazing people I’ve met so far. So knowledgable, so friendly, so helpful, and so down-to-earth normal people! I’ve had guys at St Marys ask me out of the blue whether I’d like to have a go shooting their .303′s, and big bangers, been invited to shoot at Malabar, and had one family bring the contents of their safe out to the range and let me shoot their custom F-class rifles, SMLE’s, custom SMLE’s and .223′s.
It all just makes ya wanna go back for some more, eh!
Happy shooting!
- Bec
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Category: Guest Blogs
What a great intro post Bec!! It’s great to see someone so enthusiastic about the sport! Thank you.
Great post indeed.
I can so relate to the bank balance being in severe danger, it is so easy to get carried away in a good gun shot and spend “just that little bit more”.
Thanks for letting us share in your excitment and achievements Bec, it is great to be reminded of my own feelings when my Dad first taught me to shoot on the farm back in the mid 50′s.
After a lot of his teaching, plenty of practice and a few bunnies for the pot Dad said to me “OK, I want you to shoot this twig out of the tree”, took me back about 40 yards and handed me the Lithgow single shot, open sighted .22 rifle. I aimed and fired and almost unbelievably (to me anyway), shot the twig out of the tree.
I will never forget the huge smile he had when he handed me a new box of ammo and a Rogers bunny knife, telling me the rifle was mine and from that day on I was responsible for bringing in the weekly rabbits for dinner.