Say you want to plan an out-of-the-ordinary girls night out. Sure, you could head to a spa or dancing or out for drinks, but why not add a pinch adventure to your coveted time with your girlfriends and first turn that BonJovi-blasting vehicle toward the nearest range? Here are a few suggestions to get your party started.

Pistols and Mani-Pedis – What’s my idea of the perfect day? Hmm… I’d say a combo of firepower and pampering. Could hitting the range with the girls followed by a spa-style pedicure sound any more perfect? No. No it could not. You and the girls relax in your favorite massage chairs and compare targets as the ladies scrubbing those digits of yours wonder what on earth that black powder under your fingernails could possibly be.  You’ll want to be sure to get the manicure after the shooting, of course, to spare it from the wrath of your magazine. Don’t forget to tote along your favorite polish hue. I do believe those toenails will look marvelous in a shimmery shade of iridescent gunmetal. OPI makes that shade, right?

Winchesters and Wine – This one is a tribute to all my friends who live in or near wine country. Those lucky ladies who sip wine every night (at least they do in my head) and stare out at stunning vistas in their copious amounts of free time. No, I’m not at all jealous, why?  Just picture it- charging up the rolling hills of grape vines and, after a challengingly fabulous day of taking out all those pesky clay pigeons, kicking up your feet to watch the sun go down over the merlot, cabernet and zin.

The only cautionary note on this one is to be sure and start your drinking *after* you finish with those shotguns. Pshh. As if I had to tell any gun-toting girl that.


Sigs and Sushi– For good measure, you might wanna toss a little Japanese Sake down the hatch, too. I’m partial to Sig Sauer (or simply, ‘Sig,’ for those of us who know them well) because that was the first make of gun for me to own. Feel free to modify If you’re not a sushi or Sig girl. Substitute them for Smith & Steak (or Salad or Salami.)

Shoot It and Shake It– Hit the range then hit the dance floor. What better way to cap off an hour or two putting lead on paper than by stepping out for a little Salsa and Tango.  Focus on those targets, then focus on the boys at the bar. Or, perhaps choose version 2.0 of this idea in which “shaking it” entails a booty-blasting round of Zumba. No doubt the lovely Shemane Nugent, Uncle Ted’s incongruously hot wife, would lead the charge on such an outing.

Bullets and Botox -…what? I live in LA. I don’t judge.

Magnums and Movies – Ideally you could screen a film or show with Tom Selleck as the leading man just for giggles, but as that might be a little hard to come by these days, the latest action/adventure flick will do. For a challenge, look up the film on the Internet Movie Firearms Database (yes, it exists) and see which of the guns in the film you can identify, you have previously shot, or you dream of one day shooting. This is how I met the revered (and feared) .50 caliber Desert Eagle handgun. Thank you, Demi Moore in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.

And finally…
Shooting and Shopping –  Though rarely have the words ‘Glock’ and ‘Prada’ been mentioned in the same sentence up to this point in history, I do believe I see the revolution on the horizon.  I feel certain that if Big had taken Carrie to the gun range even once, Ms. Bradshaw certainly would have ditched smoking cigarettes (blech) for smoking barrels (yay!) in a New York minute. And she would have, without question, owned these Chanel heels.