We drove over the Richmond Bridge and arrived at Bullseye - "the friendliest gun store in Northern California", according to their website. In we went and, after showing them my passport ("Bullseye is excited to welcome all tourists") we were given ear defenders, safety goggles, 50 bullets, four targets and a gun.
Double doors led us to the ten lane range, with me flinching every time someone fired. This was a slice of true America. Several families were there, trying different guns and commenting on them. A few people were holding Starbucks coffees. Everyone was so relaxed, as though what we were all doing was normal! Anyway, Vince gave me a comprehensive gun safety demonstration on the Beretta 96 FS .40 we'd hired (they train them well in the army) and then it was time to shoot.
I'm not sure if terrified is the right word to describe how I felt, but I was shaking like a leaf. I'd shot rifles at school as an army cadet, and won a few target and clay pigeon competitions, but this was something completely different. I fired five practice rounds and the Beretta leapt around like nothing else.
Vince then had ten rounds at his practice target. He didn't do too badly (98 out of a possible 100), but the gun kept jamming so he swapped it for an HK USP Compact .40. This was a nicer gun in my opinion, and felt much more...um...safe. Unfortunately my target shooting was a little less successful. I did get them all on there, but they were picturesquely spread from one side to the other.
Then it was competition time. Vince didn't fare so well here, scoring a measley 90 and blaming the gun. Whatever - he'd left the door wide open for me to step in and pull off a famous victory.
I decided to practice with the gun unloaded a few more times, just to get a proper feel for it.
"You're shaking even when there are no bullets in there!" Vince commented, helpfully, from behind me. I loaded the magazine, pushed the target back to the 25ft mark and took aim.
My second attempt showed a marked improvement. As I grasped the gun in my sweaty palms, attempting not to jump every time it went bang!, I tried to make sure my "sight picture" was the same every time, just like the army instructor stood behind me kept saying.
You also have to understand that Vince shot his ten rounds in 20 seconds, standing in the same position the whole time. It took me about ten minutes to manage the same thing, trying to fire in the few seconds after aiming before I started shaking so much that the next door targets were in more danger than my own.
In the end I scored 80, only ten points behind Vince and his seven years of army training. But it was not enough to retain the cup, or to allow me to laugh at Vince for the rest of my life.
I'm back home now, still feeling a little shaken by the whole thing. I think I enjoyed it, and I'd definitely like to go again, but it's an activity where the differences between the UK and the USA are close to their widest (people were shooting guns, drinking Starbucks!) I do want to do better - it's the winning, not the taking part. Give me seven years and that Yorktown Cup will be back where it belongs.
Now I'm off to play Rock Band to calm down.
Vince shows me how it's done.
The target was further away when I shot at it. Honest!
The face of a loser...
...and the face of a winner!
