Several hundreds of rounds of 22 lr later, I am calm. Hell, I have such a mellow going, I might even accept customer phone calls, I’m that daring.

We shot five courses of fire, twenty shots each.

1: falling plates in shields (a diamond shaped or curcular hole in a steel plate- you have to shoot the center, the plate falls, and you are penalized for shooting the outside. Six targets, you get ten shots (if you need them) And then repeat. Average of two scores. About thirty, forty feet?

2: eight bowling pins. Penalized for each pin you miss. Shot twice, average of two scores. Forty feet.

3: ten 1″ diamonds. Two hits in each one. Penalized for each square you miss. fifty feet.

4: IDPA target: five in the head, five in the chest, two times, timed. 20 yards. Two times.

5: this one is downright sadistic: six shots at a steel plate, have to hit each. Then, four shots at an orange bull. 25 yards. Timed. Six shots as fast as you can, then slow down, control your breathing, and shoot four times.

THis is a lot more difficult than it sounds.

And then I did it the second time (two ten shot rounds) The second time I got in the zone. I put three shots in one ragged hole, and the fourth less than a quarter inch away. In the black, not the orange, but still.

You can feel it, you grow out the buttstock of the rifle and you pull the trigger, and you feel the bullet slide down that barrel just as your heart beats, and as it relaxes the lead hits the paper; trigger, beat, paper, relax, trigger, beat, paper, relax,trigger, beat, paper, relax. THe primer and powder is just there for convenience, your heartbeat pushes the lead down the barrel.

When I looked at the target I knew already where the bullets had hit.

If I could be in that zone at will, all the time, I could outshoot anyone, anytime.

As it is, I was far from the best shot. On the other hand, a lot of folks shot worse than me. So I’m pleased. And I haven’t been this de-stressed in a while. And a couple guys let me sit and shoot the breeze- and chase a golf ball around with our 22’s, for a couple hours. It was a good time.