"I feel like I'm trying to drink from a fire hydrant."
Jane laughed. "It's like that at first. I guess that it's like that with everything. When you first learn to drive a car there's probably a million things to know but with practice it all becomes habit."
"I feel like I'm going to shoot my foot off."
"Don't worry," said Jane. "I'm here and I'll be watching you really carefully. And as long as we double up on our safety practices, we'd have to have many levels of failure before we have any real accidents. Besides. This is just a twenty-two calibre so we shouldn't worry about doing too much damage."
"Well, that might make sense if there were still some hospitals open nearby."
Jane frowned. "That's a good point. Even a small injury is a serious problem these days. We should then take safety really seriously then."
"Although I feel I need some time to get comfortable with what I learnt, let's keep the pace fast."
"When I leave, I'll leave this rifle with you so that you can practice with it. You don't even need to shot it. Just getting used to holding a rifle and being thoughtful about it is a great skill to have. I do expect you to take the time for some target practice but even a few minutes of holding a rifle and practicing stances will help."
"Okay. What do you mean by a stance and how many are there?"
"That's a tricky question. That book on firearms that you have will probably list dozens of stances. But this is a crash course and we'll basically use just one - standing."
"Why not the others?"
"Well, in the old days most shooting was done while at a range or while hunting. I wouldn't mind you learning those extra stances just to give you extra options, but in terms of being practical you'll probably just run into one of the dead while exploring and have no choice but to shoot from the shoulder. Read that book to learn and practice the other stances. For now I'm keeping your knowledge as practical as possible. I want you able to use a firearm to defend yourself as soon as possible."
"Thanks for that. I get the idea that if you tried to teach me everything all at once then my brain would explode."
"With that explanation done it's time for you to hold a rifle."
Jane lifted the rifle and turned its butt towards Dave's shoulder. "Are you right handed?" asked Jane.
"Yep."
"That's helpful. I just noticed that this is a right-handed rifle and though you could use it left-handed it would be rather awkward."
Dave reached up to the rifle and Jane guided his hands into place. With Dave now holding the rifle, Jane now stepped back to inspect his stance.
Jane moved her left foot forward and angled her right foot slightly. "Move your feet a bit more like this," said Jane. "You don't have to exactly copy what I do. Just take a moment to get familiar with the rifle. Let your body adjust to it naturally. If your posture is too weird I'll give you a quick jab to fix it."
"How am I doing?" ask Dave sounding unsure.
"You're doing really well. A bit stiff but that's common for people holding a firearm for the first time. Like I said before, even if you aren't taking shots, spend some time each day just holding a firearm. It sounds weird but just holding a firearm will let you become more comfortable with using it."
"Okay," said Dave as he slid his cheek around on the butt-stock.
"I see that you're trying to aim. This rifle has a simple telescopic optic on it. If you align your right eye to it you should be able to see through it."
"Oh. I get it. But it feels weird."
"That's where the practice will be needed. Just move your head around a bit. Keep your eye looking through the 'scope and slide you head around until you feel comfortable and you have a good connection between your cheek and the butt-stock."
Dave fiddled with his head location for a moment. "It still feels weird."
"I guess that you just need some more practice. Your form is good so let's put that aside and move on. Try lowering your rifle while keeping in mind the four rules of safety that we talked about earlier."
Dave lowered the rifle while keeping it level. To make it easier for Dave, Jane stepped around to his side while avoiding walking into the muzzle of his rifle.
"Good," said Jane. "Come over to the wall here, and look down onto the street. Remember your rules and at the same time don't stub the barrel into the wall."
"I'm so damn self-conscious."
"That's okay. You need to be. Even when all those safety rules become habit it will still be important to articulate them regularly. Now look across the road at the sign for the shop over there. Take up the shooting stance and aim at the sign."
Dave obeyed. "That looks weird."
"What is?"
"My eyes are all over the place."
"That's because the 'scope has magnification. One eye is seeing normally while the other eye is seeing magnified. Your brain is probably struggling with the signals that it's getting."
"Should I close my left eye?"
"A lot of firearm purists would probably tell you to just get used to shooting with both eyes open. I'd also recommend that, but I want you being able to shoot sooner than latter so close your left eye. However, in the future I'd like you to learn to keep both eyes open. That's going to require a lot of practice, but over time your brain will learn to handle the mismatched data that you send it."
"Huh," said Dave amused by the flexibility of the human brain.
"Now we get to the fun stuff. Hand the
