Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Cindy Vukovich is laying waste to the balloons, shooting a 22LR. Popped balloons are visible in the background. Vukovich was joined by 20 other women on Saturday for the Women On Target instructional shooting clinic at the Superior Range Shooter's Club on Black River Road.
By IAN MINIELLY
Ironwood Township - The Women on Target instructional shooting event saw 21 women experience a range of firearm shooting on Saturday at the Superior Range Shooter's Club on Black River Road in the township. Once the shooting commenced, the unmistakable sound of lead pinging steel reverberated across the grounds. The immediate feedback of shooting steel targets and even balloons, makes shooting much more engaging and enjoyable.
The day started with an hour of sign-in and socialization. Wayne Williams and the other club volunteers provided a safety brief and overview of the days events, while also providing a range orientation to the group, in an effort to put to bed any fears or nervousness at the prospect of shooting with strangers, possibly for the first time.
Before the shooting could start, Gary Kusz formed the group into a large circle and had the participants form a triangle with their hands that they could see him through. Kusz walked around the circle asking each person to draw their hands into their faces while still looking at him with both eyes open. In this way, Kusz could inform the women which eye was dominant. The hands will automatically move towards the dominant eye with this exercise.
Eye dominance has a noticeable impact on the ability to engage targets and hit the things one aims at. Not all people's eyes share the same dominance with their hands. When a shooter is right handed for example and left eye dominant, they have a tendency to line the sights up incorrectly when they shoot and miss the targets at a higher rate, than those shooting with knowledge of their dominant eye and hand. In combat, this could result in very bad consequences, or just the wasting of ammunition.
The Superior Range Shooter's Club divided the range up into four stations. The group was subdivided into three groups of five and one group of six. This way the group size was kept small and a rotation developed to ensure everyone was exposed to each of the weapon systems.
The pistol and 22 long rifle station had targets set up much closer than the rifle and long gun stations. At the pistol and .22 LR point, the women, many for the first time, held and fired pistols and a .22 rifle with different optics attached. Steel targets and balloons were available as targets, which provide immediate feedback when hit.
The rifle station introduced long guns of different calibers and configurations. The ladies fired a rifle with iron sights using a bolt action firing mechanism and were able to hit milk jugs filled with colored water or their pick of balloons and steel targets. Also on the long gun station were two .223 caliber rifles with different optics. Firing the three different rifles exposed the group to just a taste of the variability in firearms on the market today.
The trap station introduced the women to shotguns and trap shooting. In trap shooting, the objective is to hit a flying clay pigeon, which either breaks into pieces or explodes, depending on how well the target is hit and by how many "BB's." Shotguns can be a scary thing because of the rumored and reality of shoulder bruising, but Gary Kusz's students expressed joy when they hit their moving target and saw the pigeon breakup in mid-flight.
The hatchet throwing station is a throw back to the america people only read about. Jerry Edde provided instruction and watched as his students let fly with their aerial bombardments towards stumps with playing cards attached. The prospect of a flying hatchet coming towards this Globe reporter and splitting his skull wide open is more scary than being shot at, which is likely a by-product of the horror film genre.
Gary Lowe manned the black powder station. Lowe provided instruction and some historical knowledge to his pupils as they watched how the powder is poured and tamped down, before the steel ball is added to the mix. The black powder rifles and pistols fired Saturday owned the day when it comes to loudness and appeal. Tanya Thomas, firing what Lowe called a "Fowler," drilled a clay pigeon firing the smoothed bore old fashioned bird gun.
Susanne Toth, a volunteer on Saturday, said she went to the first Women on Target sponsored by the Superior Range Shooter's Club because she had never fired a gun. Toth said she enjoyed it so much, she bought herself a gun, joined the shooting club, and now even has her own concealed carry permit.
Candace Forslund said shooting is empowering for females, while Mary Kusz said she shoots at least once per week and has really fallen in love with the trap shooting held every Thursday at five. Kusz said trap shooting is becoming more and popular with women and she hopes it continues on the same trajectory, with more women getting involved and enjoying the sport.
