Date Day!

Over the last couple of weeks, my wife had been doing some fill in afternoon childcare coverage for a friend of ours.  Today was the time to call in the markers, so about 11 o'clock we dropped our girls off at their house and went out for a little private time.

Our first stop was at Hole in the Wall, an indoor gun range in Kennewick.  Originally, we were going to use some of our own guns, and potentially rent one of their Springfield Armory XD's.  Plans change though...after putting a couple of magazines through her Walther P22, I talked SWMBO into trying my CZ-75b.  The only previous time she had used it was an outside range back in Poulsbo, shooting at 25 yards.  I thought she might want to try it again, at a more realistic distance of 3-7 yards.

Not so much.

From a results standpoint, if it was the only gun in the house, I have confidence that she could hit a human target in the torso.  She didn't like using the gun though...and it didn't help that on the 4th round, she adjusted her grip and ended up with a nasty bite on the back of her thumb.  She was a trooper, and finished off that magazine, but that pretty much ended any interest in 9mm for her on the day.  After that, she pretty much wanted to stick to the Walther P22, and her Firestorm .380, which is fine, I suppose.  I was pleased with her abilities with both of those guns, and it could be I am placing too much emphasis on finding her a 'sidearm' style firearm.  Once our membership cards come in for the outdoor range at Rattlesnake Mountain, I will begin serious training on our 20ga Ted Williams Autoloader.  She already likes our Rock River M4gery, and between that, a 20ga with a couple of rounds of #3 Buck in it, and her .380, she is pretty set.  Since she is so comfortable with her .380, it might be worth it to me to try her out on one of the Beretta 84's...I would feel loads better with her having 13 in the magazine than 7...

I put 200 rounds through my CZ-75, and fall more and more in love with that gun every time I use it. 100 Rounds of Speer Lawman, 50 of Speer Gold Dot, and 50 more of Federal HST.  I have yet to encounter any ammo the CZ doesn't cycle, and I have put many different kinds through it.  Work fine, last long time. 

Less impressed with my Kel-Tec P3AT.  Every time I use it at the range, I realize I have totally forgotten how long the trigger pull is.  5 yards or less, I can put every round in the targets chest, one aimed round at a time.  At no point have I had any real repeatable success, that was not pure dumb luck, at pulling off a double-tap, with the Kel-Tec.  KNOWING something is barely better than a contact distance defensive solution, and repeatedly facing the reality at the range are two different things. 

One gun never came out of my bag, my Taurus 731UL.  I know that somewhere around the house, I have at least only lonely box of .32 H&R Magnum ammo.  I couldn't find it, so I brought it on the off chance that the gun range had some in stock.  They did, but I couldn't bring myself to pay the $*(#& THIRTY-FIVE DOLLARS they wanted for a box of it.  As I write, I am continually distracted by another window in which I am searching for the best price online for at least 250 rounds of it to be delivered to my house.  And, I have found out that even online, $35 for a box of 50 rounds of Black Hills .32 H&R Magnum seems to be the going rate. 

After the gun range, I took my wife to lunch at a Pho place we hadn't tried.  Being relatively new to the area, there are many places we haven't tried yet, and since this was supposed to be a date, SWMBO wanted Pho, and that is what she got.  With an order of spring rolls and some Vietnamese Iced Coffee, it was a satisfying lunch, and it left us a little more time to kill before we had to pick up our kids.


Back in the direction of our friends house, there are three Wineries...and look, just enough time left to pop into Bernard-Griffin for a tasting!  They have two lines of wines...their Tulip Labels, which are in the $10-14 a bottle range, and their Reserve Line, $20-35 a bottle.  Being somewhat familiar with their Tulip Line already, the wife and I opted for the Reserve Tasting.

I'm not the biggest 'wine guy'....given the opening, I will opt for a beer every time over wine...but if we open a bottle at home, I will drink a glass or two to keep it from being wasted.  Like most folks, my wife and I started with the sweet whites, and have moved on from there.  She likes most reds, I am okay with reds, if I stick to blends...most varietals are too 'bold' for me.  I liked their Malbec, and really liked their Orange Muscat.  Since the tasting fee was applied to any bottles you bought, it didn't make sense not to buy a few bottles, and since we were in the area, why not buy a few bottles more. 

If I could design a perfect date, the only way this one could have been better is if we were riding Unicorns around town instead of our 2004 Subaru. 

That is not to say the DAY was perfect.  Prior to packing the kids up to go to our friends, I made a batch of what were supposed to be Berry Scones....I had previous had great success with scones, and my friends wife had expressed interest in having some next time I made them.  Seemed a nice way to thank her for breaking us free on a Saturday afternoon.  But...my scones didn't come out right...rather than flaky, dry scones, they came out more like muffin tops...still tasted okay, but the texture was not what I was looking for out of scones. 

Also, at the range, I had another sad making moment with my P3AT...about every 4 shots I noticed the assembly pin was trying to work its way out...I haven't cleaned the gun yet tonight, but I will do some playing with it tonight, and at some point hit the internet to see if I am doing something wrong.  Not something that is building my trust in this gun, but I'll be damned if I was going to let it ruin a perfect day with my wife.