I shot my first gun last week and managed to hit my target with 140 or so pellets.

But not to worry. The target was only a square piece of paper. And apparently I’m not a very good shot anyway, because only about 30 percent of the original pellets hit their mark.

The experience occurred when I was covering the Chuckatuck Turkey Shoot, which is raising money for a 4-year-old boy who has cancer.

Never having been to a turkey shoot before, I didn’t quite know what to expect. I did know enough to know they don’t actually shoot turkeys, but I didn’t know what the targets would look like, what type of guns would be used (not that I know anything about guns), how many people would be there or anything else about it.

When I arrived, however, I could not have found a more pleasant and fun group of people. Everyone was genuinely interested in helping out little Michael Milzcewski’s family.

Michael was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in August, just two months after his fourth birthday. He is undergoing intense chemotherapy to blast away the cancer, his grandfather Peter Block told me at the turkey shoot.

The turkey shoot raises funds for Michael’s family through a fee for each shot and concessions sold on site.

Everyone is invited to come to the shoot because even if someone doesn’t own a gun, the folks who do will lend out theirs. Which leads me to me shooting a gun.

I was pressured into shooting by approximately a dozen people who apparently wanted to see me look like a fool. After a lesson that was approximately a minute long, I put my face down toward the gun, closed one eye, pressed the gun against my shoulder, took aim and fired.

Apparently, I didn’t have it pressed hard enough against my shoulder, because it ached for a couple days. But I was still pretty proud of having hit the target, although I didn’t win in the round.

I would encourage anybody who’s looking for a good time today or any Saturday throughout the next month to go to the shoot to help raise money for Michael’s family.

The turkey shoot is being held every Saturday through mid-April at 1146 Audubon Road, off Everets Road in Chuckatuck. Registration begins at 11 a.m. each Saturday, and shooting begins at noon. For more information or updates on weather cancellations, call 288-6167 or search “Chuckatuck Turkey Shoot” on Facebook.