Story time

This past deer season I was up hunting with my cousin on his deer lease and we took a little time in between hunts to go to their pistol range and ping a few metal spinners. Things were going along quite well in the beginning. I was working with him on his stance, grip, and breathing.  We had already been through a few magazines each between us. I’d shoot, he’d emulate. He loads up another mag in his Springfield XD .45 and I proceed to stand behind him to watch and critique. Rinse and Repeat. We do it all the time...

So, he bangs off a few rounds into the spinners and nothing.... Hmmm. Let's get that front sight up a little higher and work on that breath control cousin. He does just that and starts pinging spinners. I remember standing there watching him go at it and hearing the sounds of solid plate being tattooed with 230gr .45 at 30 yards. That's not that big of a task. Then, I heard the shot and sound of something that didn't sound like all of the other sounds being created when he was hitting the plates. In that split micro-second of noticing the impact sound was different, I hear that unmistakable whizzing sound coming towards me.... You know what I'm talking about, the sound a bullet makes right before it hits its target. Hopefully you've never been on that end of it before... For some reason my instincts told me to put my head down fast. My instincts were correct. I got hit... The round was in coordination with my head movement of going down and glanced right off the side of my head across the top of the camo beanie I was wearing. I instantly checked for blood because I know bullets impale and blood comes out as a result... It felt like a grown man had walked right up beside me and back handed me across the side of my head. (If you were a kid growing up with parents who gave a shit, you know that back hand experience too !!)

  

I'm certain that if I had not moved my head right at that specific time, I'd have a nicely added scar on my face to go along with the others where I've been split open. I felt a very brief streak of heat as it passed across my scalp. It worked out... THIS TIME.