I found myself at Gem City Gun Club on a beautiful Saturday afternoon wearing earplugs and safety glasses peering through the scope of a 22 caliber ruger pistol preparing to fire live rounds into a paper target.

I've never touched a gun before Saturday when met up with a few of the board members at Gem City in the interest of trying something new, conquering my fears and getting a good story for the "Adventure" column in the December issue of Her Times.

I had heard -- and talked to several girlfriends -- who enjoyed target shooting. Not necessarily hunting, but shooting for sport (at targets...not living things).

I have to admit I was pretty intimidated and...well, when it came time to fire with actual bullets (after all the safety lessons, dry firing, etc.), I was sort of shaking.

But, once I got used to it — it was really pretty cool, and I did well. All ten bullets hit the target — three of them were very close to the bullseye.

My sister-in-law, Kristie, came with me and she, too, was right on the mark.

Not unusual for women, said the gun club guys who were teaching us....women tend to be better target shooters because they're more precise and more patient.

I'll resist the temptation to scoop myself and tell whole shootin' story here, but...suffice to say it was an adventure. Read more about it in the Dec. 14 issue of Her Times.

Oh...but before you read that one...read the one that's coming out this Sunday, Oct. 12!

Here's a photo of my sister-in-law Kristie shooting a 22-caliber rifle with one of the instructors — Joe Paradisi — who so graciously spent their entire afternoon teaching us.

Here are my targets:

22-caliber rifle -- from 50 feet (rifle on sandbags on the table)

22-caliber ruger pistol -- from probably 20 feet