Caeca Invidia Es
Staff Alumnus
Quite the interesting range experience today.
11:00 a.m. Saturday June 1st.
Packed up the USP .40, a Makarov, a couple .22's and a .243. Me, Tank Girl and a couple friends from work piled into the explorer and headed towards the desert.
11:45 a.m. Finally found someone with 9x18 in stock and are finally heading out of the city.
12:30 p.m. Finally arrive at the Pony Express Monument and get chastised by Bubba Dave for being 45 minutes late....
12:35 p.m. Arrive at shooting spot, finally.
12:36-2:00 p.m. Unpack all the guns, set up a flag for gun golf and start having fun. Shoot some holes in a phone book, general shoot anything that looks like a promising target for a couple hours.
Time for some gun golf. After several practice rounds trying to hit that tiny golf ball me and Dave start our little tournament. .22 pistol, 5 shots then swap. After 11 shots I'm within 6 feet of the flag, off to the left. After 40 some-odd shots Dave gives up and declares me the winner.
2:00ish p.m. Look off to the east and notice that we can no longer see the mountains thanks to the massive thunder storm heading straight for us.... Ok, time to start packing up before the storm runs us over. Dave is in his Jeep, in summer mode i.e. no shell.
By the time we are packed and ready to take off there is a massive dust storm on us. Glance south and see the dust storm advancing extremely quickly, Time to start moving.
Quick glance to the east, is that a dust devil?? In the middle of a thunder storm?? After rubbing the sand out of my eyes I look again, nope.... WAY to BIG to be a dust devil. Tornado, maybe a half mile out, looks to be 60-70 yards wide... Looks to be moving our way rather quickly, time to REALLY start moving.
We all pile into the vehicles and start moving back to the main road. Shortly before the road we stop to see if we were hallucinating, nope still there... looks bigger.
Jump back in the truck and make a run for it. Heading north on The Pony Express trail. Constantly watching to the east, it seems to be moving parallel to the road. Then we notice the second one that has sprung up a bit to the north of it, looks to be about the same size. At this point I floor it (top speed of explorer.... 70, great).
70 MPH on the pony express trail, I see some sand blowing across the road up ahead, I start to get a little bit nervous when all the sudden I'm in a black out, visibility is about 2 inches in front of the truck I can almost make out the headlights reflecting off the sand, start easing on the break. Luckily it only lasted about 2 seconds. Half a mile down the road another patch of sand, Slowed down to around 40 before I hit this one... Made sure I was headed in a straight line. Complete black out, the hood of the truck has disappeared... Now my heart is racing and I'm completely blind and still worried about ending up on the other side of the rainbow. Took maybe 10 seconds to clear it, but it seemed like forever. When we finally clear this one I am in the wrong lane, great.
We seemed to stay right on the edge of the storm the whole way home. Patches of rain, then nothing. Hit closer to the city, flip on the radio and hear there is a severe storm watch in effect, could have used that information an hour earlier.
11:00 a.m. Saturday June 1st.
Packed up the USP .40, a Makarov, a couple .22's and a .243. Me, Tank Girl and a couple friends from work piled into the explorer and headed towards the desert.
11:45 a.m. Finally found someone with 9x18 in stock and are finally heading out of the city.
12:30 p.m. Finally arrive at the Pony Express Monument and get chastised by Bubba Dave for being 45 minutes late....
12:35 p.m. Arrive at shooting spot, finally.
12:36-2:00 p.m. Unpack all the guns, set up a flag for gun golf and start having fun. Shoot some holes in a phone book, general shoot anything that looks like a promising target for a couple hours.
Time for some gun golf. After several practice rounds trying to hit that tiny golf ball me and Dave start our little tournament. .22 pistol, 5 shots then swap. After 11 shots I'm within 6 feet of the flag, off to the left. After 40 some-odd shots Dave gives up and declares me the winner.
2:00ish p.m. Look off to the east and notice that we can no longer see the mountains thanks to the massive thunder storm heading straight for us.... Ok, time to start packing up before the storm runs us over. Dave is in his Jeep, in summer mode i.e. no shell.
By the time we are packed and ready to take off there is a massive dust storm on us. Glance south and see the dust storm advancing extremely quickly, Time to start moving.
Quick glance to the east, is that a dust devil?? In the middle of a thunder storm?? After rubbing the sand out of my eyes I look again, nope.... WAY to BIG to be a dust devil. Tornado, maybe a half mile out, looks to be 60-70 yards wide... Looks to be moving our way rather quickly, time to REALLY start moving.
We all pile into the vehicles and start moving back to the main road. Shortly before the road we stop to see if we were hallucinating, nope still there... looks bigger.
Jump back in the truck and make a run for it. Heading north on The Pony Express trail. Constantly watching to the east, it seems to be moving parallel to the road. Then we notice the second one that has sprung up a bit to the north of it, looks to be about the same size. At this point I floor it (top speed of explorer.... 70, great).
70 MPH on the pony express trail, I see some sand blowing across the road up ahead, I start to get a little bit nervous when all the sudden I'm in a black out, visibility is about 2 inches in front of the truck I can almost make out the headlights reflecting off the sand, start easing on the break. Luckily it only lasted about 2 seconds. Half a mile down the road another patch of sand, Slowed down to around 40 before I hit this one... Made sure I was headed in a straight line. Complete black out, the hood of the truck has disappeared... Now my heart is racing and I'm completely blind and still worried about ending up on the other side of the rainbow. Took maybe 10 seconds to clear it, but it seemed like forever. When we finally clear this one I am in the wrong lane, great.
We seemed to stay right on the edge of the storm the whole way home. Patches of rain, then nothing. Hit closer to the city, flip on the radio and hear there is a severe storm watch in effect, could have used that information an hour earlier.
