Member-only story
Ukraine Gets “Smartshooter” Scopes Which Turns Rifles into Counter-Drone Weapons
I can tell you the exact day I shot my first firearm.
Growing up in Texas, I was six years old when my mom’s new boyfriend, a “cowboy” in every sense of the word, slapped a revolver into my little hand, threw an empty beer bottle into a pond, and said, “Shoot it, boy!”
Surprised at how heavy it was, I remember looking down at the top of the barrel as I tried to align the iron sight with the gently bobbing glass bottle some fifty feet away.
When I felt that I had a lock on the bottle, I gently squeezed the trigger with the pad of my index finger and…
BLAM!
The glass bottle shattered into a hundred pieces with a satisfying crack.
“Well, hot damn, this boy can shoot!” I remember him saying.
Fourteen years later, I’d be in the US Army infantry, where a soldier’s natural talents are further refined by skills gained from constant shooting practice.
We shot so much that I still have hearing loss in my right ear — turns out, putting cigarette butts in your ears for protection, because you forgot your earplugs, doesn’t quite grant the same level of protection.
