Armed Lifestyle - Issue 2 - June 2022

with the concept of, ‘what is mine is yours,’ but at that moment,
in my mind, the gun was mine and mine only! I paid for it with
money I earned working a side gig in a business I started. Not
to mention this whole firearms journey had become somewhat
about my independence, conquering my fears, doing this on my own.
I woke up the next day and headed out to an appointment,
still feeling very possessive of my new gun. So, the last thing I
said as I headed out was “Don’t touch my gun while I am gone.”
I was serious.
Imagine my reaction when on the drive home I called Scott to let
him know I was on my way and he responded with, “Oh, good. I
just field stripped your AR. I really like it.” I was furious, so mad
I couldn’t even speak. He guessed by my silence something was amiss.
“Is something wrong?” he asked. “What was the last thing
I said to you when I left?” not letting him answer I said, “It was
don’t touch my frigging gun!” He was clearly confused. “What is
the big deal?” he asked. Fuming, I responded, “How would you
feel if you bought a new gun home, and I just went ahead a
broke it down?” “Well…that is a bit different…you aren’t...” he
stammered. “Careful finishing that statement, Scott” I interjected.
It wasn’t that I thought he was going to break my gun or do
something unsafe. I knew he totally knew what he was doing.
Scott had spent 10 years in the military and had field stripped
lots of weapons, he was not new to this. Taking a deep breath, I
responded, “I just wanted to show you all the features myself.
You stole my thunder.” Scott apologized and I moved on and
was over it (mostly).
Walking into the house, I saw my gun on the dining room
table. The barrel flag was not in it and the safety was off. I stifled
a snarky remark and mumbled something under my breath
about putting things back the way you found them. The gun was
technically safe. The bolt was locked open, and the magazine
was removed and empty. Scott could tell I was still a bit miffed
and I think he was but amused and confused by my reaction
since I am a kind of low key and rarely get angry. At that moment
I think he understood this journey was about more to me than
just learning to shoot. To this day, he loves to tell his friends this
story and warns them “if your wife comes home with a big new
gun, listen to her if she tells you not to touch it.”
A few days later, I headed to A3 to meet with Robby and learn
more about the AR. Walking through the retail area, feeling cool
with my big rifle case in my hand, the store suddenly went quiet,
and everyone was looking at me. Not because I was cool, but
because my AR had just fallen out of my case on to the floor with
a very loud clank! Michael was working the range counter and
took pity on me and rushed over to give me a hand. Robby just
laughed and rolled his eyes. Yep, I was a real bad ass.
We headed to the classroom and spent some time breaking
down my gun so I could clean it and understand how it functioned.
Although the AR platform is universal and relatively simple it
still felt like a lot to take in, especially when Robby said, “Ok, you
saw me take it apart, you get to put it back together.” I managed
without any leftover parts, and we headed to the range to shoot
and get the scope sited.
The night I purchased the AR, I only shot a few rounds and
didn’t have time to worry about the scope being sited. I knew
nothing about how to do that, so Robby walked me through the
basics, talking about minute of angle (MOA) adjustments and
how many clicks of the turret equaled the desired adjustment,
and the need to adjust and re-site until you had it dialed in at the
appropriate yardage.
NEW SHOOTER PERSPECTIVE
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