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On Saturday while the girls had a bridal shower the guys went to P2K shooting range in San Diego. We shot several rounds at the 5 stand which had some challenging shots. The biggest surprise was John who shot sporting clays for the first time and hit over 50%.
By Nathan
In the last couple months I’ve gone shooting more than I’ve gone in the last year! Normally I shoot sporting clays, but Dave just bought a Ruger 10/22 .22 rifle and needed to sight in the scope. I said I would join him and continue to perfect my Savage Mark II FV .22 rifle’s accuracy.
Another attempt to create an magazine ad from a photo of Dave’s 10/22
My Savage Mark II FV
Of course we picked the windiest day to go shooting. The wind was blowing our targets over and forcing us to adjust our sights for the wind. After watching our targets blow over a few times we decided to head to the steel target range. It was fun because the targets were so close you hardly missed, but our bullets were so small some of the targets didn’t even move. And with the other 15 shooters plinking away it was hard to tell whose “ding” was whose.
During our plinking a family of 5 deer thought it was a good idea to cross the firing range. Although universal smile came over all the shooters, the range operators reminded us of the $10,000 fine and possible jail time for shooting the deer.
See if you can spot the real deer
After the deer passed we switched to Dave’s .40 S&W caliber Beretta.
I’ve never shot a pistol but I always thought it would be good to learn. I figure for safety purposes it’s always good to know how to disarm a pistol. I was surprised by how hard it was too aim.
I am pretty sure the pistol is accurate but I would have a hard time hitting a dinner plate at 15 yards. The most surprising thing was how hard it was to reload. It wasn’t bad enough that I couldn’t hit anything but it took me forever to reload the 10 bullet magazine. After my thumbs were sore from reloading I decided large caliber pistols weren’t for me.
By Nathan
It might be surprising since Katharine and I have been together for over 3 years, but our parents just met for the first time a couple weekends ago. The weekend was full of sharing stories about our childhood and taking care of wedding stuff. But before my parents arrived, the weekend started off with Katharine and Bryan wedding dress shopping in Santa Monica on Friday afternoon. Paul then later concluded some business stuff in the area and we all met at Literati for dinner. Literati has become one of our favorite restaurants because it is within walking distance and it has an incredible mushroom soup that we love.
Then on Saturday morning my parents arrived, and after introductions we headed back to Middle Ranch. My parents have already toured the venue but this was Katharine’s parents first time. After walking the grounds and touring the inside of the club house they agreed this was the perfect location for our wedding. We started laying out potential ceremony arrangements, trying to answer some logistical questions like, which direction we would be facing? where would the sun be during the ceremony? and where would Katharine enter from? While we were walking around outside, a storm started to roll in, kicking up strong gusts of wind. This picture was right after Katharine was hit in the face with a flying leaf. One of the few downsides to her beloved trees. Hopefully the winds will be calmer on August 6th!
During this weekend we thought it would be a good time to try some rehearsal dinner locations. For lunch we then headed east to Dish, a resturant in La Canada Flintridge. Everyone liked the food and the location was fitting for a rehearsal dinner since you can reserve the whole bar area (which is also about half of the restaurant). They have great banquet pricing and a nice relaxed atmosphere that we think suits us. We still have quite a list of possibilites to try in the Pasadena area but this one looks promising so far.
After Lunch we split up guys and girls. The guys headed to the shooting range while the girls went dress shopping. My brother met up with us at the range and we enjoyed going through almost 200 shells between the 4 of us. I think this will be a great pre-wedding activity for the guys while the girls spend hours getting ready for the wedding. Plus I think the pictures will be one-of-a-kind.
For dinner we all met up again at another potential rehearsal dinner location, Green Street Tavern. It provided a nice atmosphere for the two families to meet, but we didn’t feel like it was quite the right place for our rehearsal dinner since it was pretty small and very dark. But Katharine’s mom was able to impress my dad with her magnifying glass flashlight to read the menu. Still, the food was amazing, I recommend the wild boar meat loaf, and I think it was a good time had by all.
The next morning we had brunch with our parents at Bread and Porridge and further discussed family histories and wedding plans. It was a nice ending to a event packed weekend.
My parents came up for the weekend for my Dad’s birthday and to check out two possible wedding venues. After visiting Middle Ranch we also headed up the street to Moore ‘n Moore Sporting Clays. It’s been several months since I was at the range and close to a year since my brother and dad went with me. It was a perfect outing to empty my prepaid membership card (~100 clays) and shoot the couple of left over boxes of shells from dove season.
After a few warm up stations we decided to add a little pressure. The game was best out of 5 doubles alternating between shooters. Even though we were a little rusty we still hit that majority of the targets.
I also took the opportunity to take some photos of my brother and created some sample advertisements.
In a little over an hour we had emptied my card of clays and headed to the next wedding venue. This weekend we have chosen Middle Ranch for our wedding so there is a good possibility of a morning shooting event before the wedding!
