Date Night – McGuires, The Range and The Wrong Bullets…

As Yakima County slowly starts to open up, Lisa and I are slowly starting to discover Yakima and its gems.

Saturday night was date night. Lisa and I are super casual. Date night is as simple as a movie and we are good. So a date with beer and pistols is not a far reach.

Back story - I purchased a 40. Caliber pistol a few years ago. Last year it was stolen from my car. Thankfully insurance covered it. I got a 9mm pistol to replace it. I fired it once when I first got it. It has been sitting ever since.

Lisa mentioned awhile back that she wanted to try shooting a gun. She had never done it before and wanted to learn. So, I arranged it.

We started the late afternoon dinner at McGuire’s and took advantage of the nice weather on their patio. The food was really good. And, they had Bale Breaker! Bonus!

Lisa ordered the Chili Cheese Dog with a side of scotch. I had the Taco salad with TopCutter.

After dinner and enjoying the patio to let our dinner settle, we headed over to The Range with my pistol in tow. We loved what we saw when we pulled up. It was modern, clean and everyone was friendly. Yakima should be proud to have a business like this in town.

We rolled up to the firing range and Stacey helped us out. She was super friendly and answered all our questions and was a wealth of info. She set us up with a lane on the range. She suggested since this was the first time that Lisa shot a firearm, she should use an entry level .22 caliber with 50 rounds to shoot. Stacey then accompanied us to our lane. She took Lisa under her wing and showed her the basics of gun safety. Lisa took to it like a fish to water. She was a natural.

So much so that ALL 50 of her shots hit the target - pretty rare.

Me on the other hand, I had some issues.

I could not get my firearm to load. It would constantly jam, which is nearly impossible with a Springfield firearm. I asked the Range officer to check it. He said the gun had not been fired in a while. So he oiled it up. I said thanks and then tried reloading. Again, it jammed. Puzzled, I told the Range officer that it jammed again. He said, "That’s odd", so looked at it again. That's the moment I found out what a bona fide idiot.

I was trying to load a 40. Caliber bullet, into a 9mm gun. I just grabbed the wrong box. Ugh. Details, right?

Yeah, I was that guy. For the uninitiated, 9mm is slightly smaller than .40 caliber. After it sitting for a while and grabbing the wrong box was my crime.

Thankfully the Range Officer had some 9mm rounds on him and threw some my way.

Lessons learned? Always order the Taco Salad from McGuire’s. Two, don't grab the wrong box of bullets. Three - Be Thankful for Range Masters who are smarter than you are. That's always a good thing.

All My Best,

The JimShow