PLINKER'S PARADISE; OLD-TIME SHOOTING GALLERY IS TOO MUCH FUN.

Byline: BRETT PAULY

``We've created a monster.''

I had fired rifles at targets since childhood, but handling a pistol was new to me . . . and I was loving every trigger pull. My glee was not lost on the operators of the shooting range; I must have looked like a kid with his first bike.

The blue buffalo was smacked cleanly in the middle with the very first shot launched from a .40-caliber custom pistol at 15 yards. Notions of natural marksmanship faded fast, however. The next five shots missed the spray-painted steel plate completely.

But experience breeds confidence, and I recovered to hit the yellow fire hydrant at 40 yards with a 9mm Smith & Wesson, six moving targets in a row with a .38-Special Ruger revolver and the green square at 85 yards on consecutive shots from a Colt .45 semi-automatic.

I was on a roll. The green cactus? ``Ding.'' The yellow flags? ``Pop, pop, pop.'' And, finally, the bull's-eye. ``Blam.'' Get the feel for a proper shooting stance and grip, then the gun's blast and the recoil, and you just want to keep going. There's probably some sort of shooter's addiction associated with the whole experience of hearing a bullet hit a formidable target. Call it a plinker's paradise.

You remember plinking, don't you? Gather up all the soda cans, buy a few boxes of .22-caliber cartridges and head to the nearest back road. Set up the targets at arbitrary distances and blast away. It was the ultimate for-the-moment activity, shooting at its purest form - fun.

There were no trophies, no paper figures of a man with bullet holes ripped through the chest and head, no race against the clock. The guy who knocked down the most cans had bragging rights until the next time. Kind of like skipping stones, with a harder edge to it.

Those were the by-gone days of wide-open spaces, when ``liability'' was a foreign word.

``The afternoon of plinking, where dad took the kids out with a .22 and a Coke can, isn't that great an opportunity anymore because the number of places you go to plink don't exist,'' said Doug Painter, vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a nonprofit trade association in Newtown, Conn., that promotes the sport. ``Historically, the classic gravel pit in a community is probably a shopping mall now and the liability issue is too great.''

Enter the Shooting Gallery, a refreshingly unique facility north of Piru in the grassy hills of Ventura County that is open to the public.

``We decided to take all the fun parts we remember from shooting and leave out all the things that irritated us,'' said Will Ramsey of Valencia, who opened the target range in September with business partner Mike Dalton of Mission Hills, a San Fernando police officer.

In were the metal plates, the gratifying ``ding'' - the immediate reward of a good shot - and the whir, spin, swing, flip, flop of carnival targets. Out were the cease-fires - periods of about 20 minutes in an hour of shooting needed to set up cans or retrieve paper targets and nail up new ones.

Since all the targets are permanent or automatically-resetting, Dalton explained, ``There is no speed limit; you fire as fast as can.''

In were the great outdoors. Out were the poor ventilation, clouds of choking gunpowder and super-amplified gun blasts of indoor shooting ranges.

In were the cleanliness and safety of an organized facility overseen by experienced range masters. Out were the garbage dumps and dangerous elements that are synonymous with many unmonitored target ranges in national forests, other public parklands and private properties.

In was the fun. Out was the competition.

``Most people come out once or twice a year and plink around,'' Ramsey said. ``They want to shoot at something that wings and dings and spins around. They aren't out here to come within a quarter-inch of the bull's-eye.''

Ramsey and Dalton operate the International Shootists Institute, the business umbrella that runs the Shooting Gallery - as well as a competitive pistol-match range and a self-defense firearms training program - on private property they lease. It takes only a minute or two of conversing with them to discover the gallery is their pride and joy. And their efforts are much appreciated by the clientele.

``What's great about it is you come to the shooting line, you make ready and you can then shoot at this whole forest of targets,'' said Gary Garrow of Burbank. ``It's like the old shooting gallery, where you had to use somebody else's rifle that they really didn't want you to shoot anything with because if you shot too well, they'd have to give you the teddy bear.

``Here the big difference is you can bring your own guns.''

Other outdoor ranges have the occasional steel target, but few are stocked with them on this scale and in such a wide assortment and style. Dozens of colorful metal cowboys, outhouses, railroad-crossing signs and geometric shapes dot the range above bails of hay positioned at distances from 15 yards to 120 yards. Dalton claims the Shooting Gallery is the only range of its kind in the world. Painter is inclined to agree.

It gives shooters more options and, in the world of ultra-competitive target ranges, brings them back to their roots, Painter said.

``As the number of people getting into target shooting has increased in recent years, you are getting people outside of the historically bull's-eye-type shooter who is a real accuracy fanatic,'' he said. ``These guys have hit the nail right on the head in attracting people interested in just the fun of shooting.''

For more information on the Shooting Gallery, call [phone] or visit the International Shootists Institute's Web site at www.isishootists.com.

MAKE READY, AIM, FIRE

When patronizing shooting ranges, expect to hear the customary jargon. To help you communicate on the ``firing line'' (the point from wh`ich guns are fired), here are some translations:

Ammo: Ammunition.

Cartridge: A single round of ammo consisting of the case, primer, propellant and bullet.

Magazine: A separate container holding several rounds that are fed into a firearm in sequence.

Magnum: A larger cartridge that produces higher velocity than a standard round.

Cold range: Facilities where ammo must only be loaded at the firing line.

Hot gun: A loaded weapon. For safety reasons, all firearms should be considered hot until a safety check proves otherwise - then they should still be handled with the same cautions as a loaded gun.

Muzzle: The end of the gun barrel. No. 1 gun-handling rule: Never allow the muzzle to pass anything you are not willing to harm or destroy.

Plink: Informal shooting at inanimate objects located at arbitrary or indefinite distances from the firing point.

Clear: No one is in the shooting area, so it's safe to proceed. Usage: ``The range is clear.''

Ears: Ear protection.

Eyes: Safety glasses.

Make ready: To put a round into a gun chamber. Also ``load up.''

Grip: How one handles a pistol in the shooting stance.

Gap: Space between fingers and between hands; something you don't want in your grip. A gap allows the gun to exert more leverage in the recoil, offering the shooter less control and accuracy.

Ringer: A steel target that chimes when hit. (Not to be confused with an expert shooter who cons newcomers into thinking he's also a beginner.)

-- Compiled by Brett Pauly

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos, Box

PHOTO (1--Color) San Fernando police officer and Mission Hills resident Mike Dalton aims for one of the many targets at the Shooting Gallery in Piru.

(2--Color) Dalton (right) and Will Ramsey are the operators of the Shooting Gallery and the International Shootists Institute.

(3--Color) The family atmosphere at the Shooting Gallery in Piru makes it easy for Lake Arrowhead resident Jassica Jablonski, 6, to learn the correct way to use this .22 rifle.

Hans Gutknecht/Daily News

BOX: MAKE READY, AIM, FIRE (see text)