making up syllables: and this is my boomstick

you can't own firearms in south korea (unless your part of the military or law enforcement), but if you have an itchy trigger finger you can always go to the shooting range. which is what i did this weekend with another epik teacher. the daegu shooting range (대구 사격장 - located near chilgok in northwest daegu) is a pretty large complex with both indoor and outdoor ranges. i imagine it was a large-scale, 'new deal,' public works type project because its fairly new and seems way too nice for the type of traffic it was getting on a saturday afternoon.

i'm not sure what the full gamut of their services are - we only explored a small section of their grounds but i could tell we were only seeing a fraction of it - but there are three main categories: clay pigeon shooting, pistol target practice, and airsoft pellet guns. the pigeon shooting is the most expensive (22,000W), with the pistol shooting slightly less so (15,000W), and the airsoft being practically free (3000W). in each of these categories you have different options, such as how many meters you want to shoot at, straight on pigeon shooting or from the side, multiple targets, etc.

we started off doing the clay pigeon shooting with a japanese made 12-gauge. it being my first time i wasn't exactly annie oakley (maybe i should say wild bill) but i hit the second one and about half of them after that. still, my shooting partner beat me. probably because he was from texas.

after the 12-gauge, we downsized to pistols at the target range. when the guy was explaining to us the different caliber's he pointed to the .22's and said, "cop" and then to the 3 different 9mm's and explained, "fbi and cia!" when he got to the .357 i wondered aloud, "dirty harry?" but i guess he never saw that one. we went with the fbi option, a glock 9mm. i just assumed i would be a natural when it came to shooting off a pistol. i mean, it's so easy on call of duty, right? so it came as a bit of a surprise when i didn't take to it like fish to water. i think the hardest part to get used to was how deep you had to squeeze the trigger. the first time i shot it, i felt like i was squeezing, and then squeezing some more and then i wondered did i still have the safety on? but then i squeezed past what i assumed was the end of the give and finally it went off, like a fish catching a line. i was way off. in the white. after some adjustment i think i got used to it but there were no bullseyes on my target. not even close. again, my shooting buddy got the best of me.

finally, we tried the airsoft guns. the best part about these was the chance to use a scope. it made me appreciate the steady nerves snipers must have had pre-rifle stands. compared to the pistols, the triggers on the airguns were a joke. i sometimes accidentally shot off a round as i was putting the gun up to my shoulder (yeah i know, don,t keep your finger on the trigger). i think we were shooting at 10 meters but directly across the hall was a 50 meter range. i'm guessing that wasn't for airsoft guns.