War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 422

At the gate of Makar’s farm, the young girls and boys who got off the bus were greeted by Sui Sui and one of her female classmates and divided into two groups according to male and female, and then they were led by the Mexican cowboy Diego and his wife respectively. Then, they lined up and got into the two large Indian tents set up on the grass in the distance.

When everyone, including the chef Mr. Sun, lined up to come out from the other end of the tent, they had already changed into a set of retro denim clothes with a strong Victorian style, among which there were many The girl was wearing one of those floor-length dresses you've only seen in cowboy movies.

But without exception, these men and women who have changed their outfits all wear a cowhide holster with beautiful patterns on their waists, and a revolver is stuck in the holster.That's not to mention, on everyone's shoulders, there is also a lever rifle that looks very old.

"Makar, will it be dangerous to fire the gun as soon as you come up?"

Wei Ran asked in a panic, and at the same time secretly slandered the other party's body as worthy of bleeding. If someone went off, one of them would cause trouble all over the place.

"Don't worry," Makar replied confidently, "It's just a weapon. I won't send them bullets."

Wei Ran turned his head to look at the usual Sui Sui around him, but in the end he didn't say anything.

At the same time, several young men dressed in the same cowboy style were moving everyone's luggage from the bus to a horse-drawn caravan that also had a retro feel.It was Diego's daughter who was in charge of driving.

Led by Makar, his partner Diego, and the middle-aged cowboys around them, these thirty people held a revolver with no bullets but enough to scare them in one hand, and a mobile phone in the other, as if traveling through time and space. They walked into the camp in the middle of the ranch, talking and laughing.

Taking advantage of the time when the fat sheep brought to her by Sui Sui divided up and allocated the rooms, Wei Ran approached Makar again and asked curiously, "It took a lot of effort to prepare this, right?"

"Easier than you think"

Makar snapped his fingers and said, "The rooms of our two families are enough to accommodate so many people. The jeans are bought from second-hand stores, and the weapons are borrowed from neighbors and friends around. The bullets we gave them were all reloaded by ourselves.”

Speaking of this, Makar showed a pained expression, "The only place to spend money is the custom-made caravans. For those outdated things, I spent almost [-] dollars."

"I believe you will earn it back soon." Wei Ran patted the other party's shoulder, not knowing what to say for a while.

After the two of them chatted for a few words, the chef, Master Sun, followed Sui Sui to find him, greeted Makar and Wei Ran, and Kajianka, who came to help, took the kitchen utensils from the pickup truck. And all kinds of seasonings were moved to a gravel ground emptied out in advance on the shore of the lake.

Before they could help to set up the formation, the tourists also boarded several caravans pulled by horses under the leadership of several middle-aged cowboys.

"Where are they going?" Sui Sui couldn't help asking.

"Go to the Cowboy Shooting Range we got out recently"

Makar beckoned everyone to climb into a caravan, followed the chattering tourists in front, and walked along the gravel beach by the lake to behind the opposite oak forest.

The layout of this so-called cowboy shooting range is extremely simple. After watering the square bags of fodder, a wall is piled up to block bullets.

A few tin cans sprayed with red paint or steel plates cut into various shapes were suspended on a rusty metal shelf, along with a few balloons filled with water.

Speaking of which, at least half of this group of tourists have been to Inta's camp, and even some familiar faces have been to Inta more than once.In all fairness, Inta's consumption is not only much lower, at least it looks more professional than here.

Because of this, some of the tourists who had been cut leeks several times by Sui Sui inevitably showed disappointment on their faces.

But soon, as an old cowboy who looked almost four 50 years old came on the field, the disappointment on their faces at the last moment also turned into a sluggishness after Diego blew the whistle.

Not only them, but even Wei Ran, who didn't take it seriously at all, was taken aback by the old cowboy's brilliance.

Because at the moment when the whistle sounded, the old cowboy pulled out the single-action revolver in the holster on his waist very quickly, pulled the trigger with one hand, and repeatedly moved the hammer with the other hand.

Accompanied by several gunshots that almost formed a line, the revolver in the old cowboy's hand was accurately inserted back into the gun before the five balloons scattered in different places exploded and the water splashed to the ground. and he resumed the position of holding the belt buckle with both hands.

"Is this a cowboy cut? A traditional American martial arts performance?"

Wei Ran subconsciously muttered something in Chinese, he really only saw this move in movies, before this, he never expected to have the opportunity to see it with his own eyes.

"Old Jerry is our local cowboy shooting champion for five consecutive years"

Makar said proudly, "Among the people I've met, no one can shoot faster and more accurately than Old Jerry, and no one can even draw a gun faster than him."

"Is he also your neighbor?" Wei Ran asked dully.

"He and Jessica's dad are comrades in arms. They fought together in the Gulf War when they were young."

Makar hugged his wife and said, "Jessica specially invited Old Jerry. In the next few days, he will teach everyone how to play with guns in the American way."

"It's worth getting a few Indians to join in the fun." Sui Sui muttered something in Chinese, not to mention Wei Ran, even she didn't know about it.

This is not over yet, at the same time as Makar was introducing, several young men brought two more empty oil barrels, and the daughter of the cowboy Diego handed a revolver to the other party.

"The next thing to do is cowboy action shooting." Makar's tone was full of expectation, and he stared at Old Jerry who was reloading the revolver.

After a while, the whistle in Diego's hand blew again, and the old Jerry who was standing with his belt buckle immediately grabbed the lever rifle on the oil drum.

After almost one gunshot after another, the row of ten red tin cans more than ten meters apart exploded one after another, splashing out various colors of paint.

Before the last cartridge had landed, Jerry Sr. had replaced his empty lever rifle with two single-action Colt revolvers.

This time, the speed of the two revolvers firing alternately was much slower, but the accuracy was not affected at all. Soon, ten beer cans exploded one after another.

And old Jerry had put the two pistols back into the holsters around his waist, and picked up the old-fashioned flat-double shotgun and four rounds of 12-gauge shotguns on the second oil barrel.

After four more muffled gunshots in a row, the four round steel plates the size of washbasins each gave out a pleasant humming under the successive impacts of the bullets.

Almost at the same time that Old Jerry put the double-barreled shotgun back into the oil drum, a boy holding a mobile phone shouted excitedly in English, "24 seconds! 24 shots! One shot per second!"

"Pervert." Standing behind Wei Ran, Katenka couldn't help muttering.

"Can you do it?" Wei Ran turned around and asked with great interest, even Sui Sui looked at Katenka.

The latter spread his hands, "I can't do it, I haven't even really fired a gun much."

"Want to try?"

Makar took out an iron box containing bullets from the bag he was carrying and handed it over, "These bullets are reloaded by ourselves, and the charge is only half or even one third of the normal charge, and the recoil is almost negligible. , it's easy to play."

"I'll forget it," Katenka was the first to refuse, "This is not a sport I'm good at, I'd better concentrate on my translation."

"I'll forget it too"

Sui Sui saw that the students she had arranged had practiced their spoken English with the professional cowboys in CET-[-] English with barely passing grades, and immediately ran over with Katenka.

Seeing Makar, who was rejected continuously, looking at him, Wei Ran, who couldn't help at all because he couldn't speak English, took the iron box happily.

This small box contains 24 rounds of ammunition, except for the four rounds of the largest brass case, the rest are prepared for the revolver and the lever rifle.

Following Makar to another target position next door, Wei Ran hung a holster on each side of his waist under the former's guidance with great interest, and then he unhurriedly moved towards the lever rifle and revolver. It was stuffed with hand-loaded lead-tipped bullets.

"Ten red targets for the lever rifle first, then ten blue targets for the revolver, and finally four yellow targets for the shotgun."

Makar briefly explained the rules, and finally reminded again, "The whistle is a signal. The muzzle can only be aimed at the target. If it exceeds the horizontal body level, it will be a foul. Get ready and give me the signal."

Hearing this, Wei Ran nodded, "Let's begin!"

As the whistle sounded, Wei Ran immediately grabbed the lever rifle on the oil barrel and started shooting.

Accompanied by gunfire after gunshot, Wei Ran intentionally missed a few targets, then hurriedly pulled out the revolvers on both sides of his hip bones and started shooting.

After some rattling noises, Wei Ran purposely pretended to be in a hurry and finished the last four rounds with that old-fashioned shotgun, then shook his head helplessly, "It's too difficult for me, I'm still the first Three weapons at once in such a short amount of time."

"76 seconds" Makar put away his phone and said with a smile, "Victor, although you have never played with a gun before, this result is really bad."

"It seems that I really have no talent in shooting"

Wei Ran pretended to be regretful and said that he had to admit that although he was suspected of deliberately releasing water, he knew that even if he did not release water, he would not be able to score within 30 seconds.

Not to mention that these guns are not the same as the ones he has used before, whether they are fast or accurate alone is not a problem, but if they want to use these weapons in combination to shoot fast and accurate, it is far from what he thought. as simple as that.

After experiencing the traditional American martial arts, Wei Ran no longer wanted to join in the fun, and took the initiative to take over the job of nanny to help take care of the children. He took Makar's son Gorman and sat in a box car, taking advantage of no one Noticing himself, he made a video call with Jima.

Not surprisingly, the other end of the video is not the quarter horse who is in class, but the husky Mr. Gorbachev raised in Hongqi Forest Farm instead.

But when Wei Ran was teasing the little guy in his arms as if talking to himself, Gorman's suppressed and indistinct murmur came from the speaker of the mobile phone.

"Victor, what are you talking about?" Makar approached Wei Ran with two cans of frozen beer.

Seeing this, Wei Ran gave way to the side, motioned Makar to sit down, pointed to the husky on the screen and said, "I'll show Gorman my good friend, I haven't seen him for a long time, some Don't worry too much."

Makar moved closer, looked at the husky shaking his head and tail on the screen and asked, "What's its name?"

"Call me dad," Wei Ran with ulterior motives said in Russian mixed with Chinese.

"father?"

Makar, who didn't know that he was having a video with his father, repeated in doubt, "What a strange name."

“really weird”

Wei Ran smiled, and handed the little guy in his arms to Makar to hold him. While teasing the drooling little guy, he turned to the phone sideways, looked at the little guy and asked, "Gorman, what are you doing?" Do you like him?"

The little guy in Makar's arms obviously couldn't understand Russian, but clapped his little hands and mumbled something vaguely.

On the other end of the video call, Gorman bit his cuff tightly, trying not to make any noise, and at the same time, he accidentally shook off the muddy tears that had flowed out while nodding desperately.

"Gorman, do you like him? Shall we raise one too?" Makar asked in English while holding his son.

"Does he still not understand Russian?" Wei Ran, who asked the question knowingly, stalled for time.

"I'm usually too busy, Jessica is taking care of him."

There was guilt in Makar's tone, "My mother usually teaches him some Russian words when she has time, and now this little guy can mix English and Russian at every turn, and even because of these little things, Jessica and I have had some dispute."

"It's okay, there's still a lot of time in the future."

Wei Ran glanced at the screen without a trace, picked up the beer that Makar had just brought over, opened it, and touched the other party. Under the bright sunshine, they chatted casually about the arrangements for the next few days.

After a can of beer was finished, Makar pointed to the distance and said, "Okay, Victor, it's time for us to get ready for lunch. I'll take you for a horseback ride in the afternoon."

"Although I may not be good at shooting, horseback riding is my strong point!"

"You know how to ride a horse?" Makar asked in surprise.

"Of course!" Wei Ran sighed silently after finishing speaking, picked up the phone and turned off the video call that had been on all the time.

　Boss Crab is going to celebrate my birthday, so I will make an update today, please forgive me.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)