But I'm here now, so there's that.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week I had a special gun training course run by two police officers (with a third as translator) in which I learnt proper safety and stance and generally how to shoot like a cop slash commando.
It was fairly expensive (I wont mention how much as I think they are going to make it a regular thing, and I might look like a dick if it's less than I paid) but when I broke the cost down in my head, your getting nine hours of instruction and testing, ammunition, gun rental, gun range time, it turns out to be a pretty good deal.
And something that would be a whole lot harder to do back home.
So the three days training was only three hours per day, run from 1pm to 4pm for the three days so that I wouldn't miss any weight loss training. However since I didn't get back until 4pm, and having missed the lunch window I would go out for lunch and then end up missing the first half of the afternoon session, which I wasn't too worried about.
The first day was in the gym where the three guys laid out the guns (two Glock's, a Berretta and an M4 Assault Rifle) however I was only training on the Glock 19.
They went through the different parts, how to take it apart to clean and check for faults.
Then he asked me (via the third guy, a translator) to hand him the gun that was in my holster, to see what I would do, and I think to my credit I didn't just hand it to him.
Turns out I had to remove the magazine, slide the slide back, lock it in place, inspect it being empty, then show it was empty before giving the gun over, but keeping the magazine for myself.
Same thing with the stance, he wanted to see how I thought I should stand, and then adjust to how I should stand.
This was the biggest change for me, as I expected a diagonal stance with the gun out in both hands but to my right so I could look down the sight with my right eye.
Turns out the way he teaches (and apparently the way cops and SWAT do it) is to hold the gun directly out in front and use both eyes and "feel" where it would go.
Legs shoulder width apart, slight bend in the knees, lean forward, lock your wrist and shoulders.
Was pretty interesting stuff.
Then we practised the standing, kneeling and sitting stances, and went through what we would be doing when there was actual ammo in the gun. And the various moves and actions to take.
I picked it up fairly quickly and they seemed happy with my progress.
Got a few weird looks from the other camp people when they come into the gym area and there's me aiming a gun at a door, with two other cops with sidearms and machine guns lying around.
Thursday was the first shooting day, and I did fairly well.
My accuracy grew as we went on, with my best results I think coming from the kneeling position.
At the end I asked if I could shoot a few rounds with the M4 (Always wanted to do that) and they said yes.
Turns out it had been altered however to shoot smaller 22 rounds, rather than the 5.56 they normally do.
Still, I hit five bulls-eyes at 30 meters using the built in sight, which I was pretty stoked with.
On the third and final day we went out and did basically the same thing again, although this time it was timed.
So I had 6 seconds to accurately shoot 5 rounds at a target with my arms out front as normal.
Then 10 seconds to do the same, but this time returning the gun back to my chest each time, like a deadly push up.
I probably missed two in ten, and by missed I mean hit the 1 to 5 point rings on the target rather than the smaller 6 to 10 point area.
One however was accurate enough to sever the wire that was used to move the target holder back and forth. So there's that.
In the end I got a rating of 90% (450 out of 500) and got a nice certificate that says "Gold Medal" on it, which being an attention loving Gen-Yer, I was very pleased to have.
So with the shooting all done, today was going to be back to normal, until my phone crashed overnight. I tried to charge it, but it kept flashing a ominous red light at me.
In the end it started working, but then it was saying it was charging, but the battery was going down.
But that meant that my alarm didn't go off to wake me up in the morning, which meant that I could have possibly slept until the coming Apocalypse.
So I missed morning training and breakfast.
Despite a deep seeded desire to skip the afternoon training, I managed to crawl out into the heat and into the gym, where I was promptly reminded why I didn't want to come out.
I'm just over being hot, sweaty and sore.
But I've only got 12 days left, so I guess I have to man up right?
Since this is getting a bit long, I will say that in the Krav Maga session I got a palm strike to the nose, which made it tingle, but luckily didn't bleed, and then had a very salty lemon crusted fish for dinner, which was acceptable.
Sleep now, Krav Maga is on for Saturday morning... however Gerry mentioned there might be a non-camp guy coming in who is a bit.... enthusastic, so I think it's just bag smashing tomorrow... which will probably ruin my already sore wrist.
However speaking of wrists, turns out one of the boxers broke his wrist when he punched a guys head in sparring the other week and has been training with it.
And another guy crashed his scooter and broke his forearm.
So it's injuries all around... and I've got this little scratch on my leg, so we are all suffering.
Anyhoo, good night.
Oh wait, there is a few videos of me looking badass.
Oh wait, there is a few videos of me looking badass.
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