Mail Order Bride (Novel)

Chapter 13: Holy Shit

After we had eaten, I started Daise on the process of getting familiar with her weapon, I explained to her that because we were teaching her to use it in anger, we would approach the entire process from the point of view. This meant that we started out by deciding what would be the easiest and most effective way for her to carry concealed. After much discussion, and some hilarity from the peanut gallery, we agreed that if she were wearing pants, then it would be best for her slipped into the small of her back without a holster. If she were wearing a skirt or dress, then an inside-thigh holster would work.

I got on the phone to a guy I knew out in Alverstone that custom made holsters, and he said that he had a couple already made up that he would bring out to the range.

Once we had been through all of that, I started working with her on how to hold, draw, and fire. It was at least an hour after we started that she actually squeezed the trigger for the first time. The earmuffs reduced the impact for her I think, but the first round she squeezed off was still a surprise, and I had to remind her rather forcefully to keep the weapon pointed down-range. After that, it soon got routine. As with most novice shooters, once she got accustomed to the noise and recoil, she was fine.

We spent about an hour on the range, shooting from the standing position at first, and then walking through the combat range, using all the obstacles and cover, but with every shot and position discussed and planned. There was no attempt at speed or accuracy, beyond my insistence that she should take the time to aim every shot, but without wasting any time.

Daise did fairly well for a novice, managing to get the hang of the basics, but by the time we had been through the course twice, she had quite obviously reached saturation point.

I decided to stop while we were ahead and then showed her how to fieldstrip the weapon and give it a basic cleaning.

"Rupert," Daise asked once she had re-assembled her weapon, "are we going to shoot the rifle as well?"

"Yes. That is a bit of a problem here. The 80-meter range is too short, and there is a rule that limits us to using ammunition no larger than the .22 long."

"Where will we shoot it then?"

"We have an arrangement with the farmer who owns the land just over that hill," I answered as I pointed at the low hill that ran parallel to the range. "He has an unofficial range there. The police don't worry about it, as most people will think that the sounds are coming from this range. Let's get everyone into the Land Rover and we'll head there now."

We got everyone loaded up, and I drove through the gate in the fence that separated the range from the farmer's lands. As I drove up the farm road, I got a call from Brian, the holster guy, and he said that he had been delayed but would meet us there.

It was no more than two kilometres along the farm road, over the hill and through a few fields of sugar cane, before we came to the firing point. We offloaded again, and Cpl Maseka, one of the guys working for Sgt Major Dhlamini, took the Land Rover on down to where the point that we set up the targets.

I showed Daise the classic rifleman's position and talked her through the process of sight picture and trigger squeeze. Once she had dry-fired a little, I explained to her the concept of automatic alignment.

"Look at it this way Daise," I started, "when you start shooting, your body is normally tensed up. As you fire more rounds, you start to relax. One of the most important concepts in shooting accurately is that you need to have a stable platform for the rifle, and you need to do everything the same each and every time. What happens is that you start off a little tense, but as you relax, you change the way you are lying without realising it. There is a little trick that we use that we have found increases consistency incredibly."