The Daly City outpost of Bad Axe Throwing houses a small daycare center. However, we can assure you of this: The effusive, aerobatic lumberjacking that takes place here is anything but child's play.

I might have thought I was lost had there not been a sign on the door, wedged just slightly ajar thanks to a rubber stopper, that read "Follow all the way down the hall to Bad Axe Throwing."

I took countless left and right turns before arriving yet another notation: "Open to enter Bad Axe Throwing." And so I did, and found myself in a room erected for the sole purpose of lobbing elongated pieces of tempered, bladed metal at wooden boards on the wall.

"Can I help you?" a strong female voice rang in my ears. "Are you here for a party?"

I shrugged. "Well, actually, I'm a walk-in," I said. I had checked the site earlier in the week and knew that Bad Axe welcomes solo throwers from 4 to 6:30pm.

Mary smiled a broad grin and nodded, explaining that I could pay to "throw" in half-hour or hour-long sessions. But I, being an internet sleuth, also knew that Bad Axe offers freebie hours to birthday boys and girls, and mine just so happened to be just six-hours away. And so, I did what any financially-strained San Franciscan would do—I leveraged my looming 26th birthday to avoid the $20 hourly charge on my debit card.

In no time, I was filling out the company's online safety agreement, pledging that I alone would be responsible for any severing of my digits or limbs. "Not a single person has ever been injured at our 17 locations," says Mary—"even the ones that allow drinking."

Yes, that's right: A handful of Bad Axe Throwing's Canadian and American locations have BYOB policies; our Bay Area location, however, is booze-free.

My off-brand running shoes now hugged the blue painter's tape that marked my spot from which to throw, about 30 or so feet from one of eight large wooden boards that hung on the opposite wall. A hatchet of considerable heft soon found itself within my grasp; my dominant right hand poised inches below my cumbersome left hand in recommended axe-throwing-form. Mary, who has worked at the Daly City location since it opened this summer, instructed me step-by-step on how to properly (and accurately) catapult the sharp piece of high-tinsel steal toward the bulls-eye.

"Put your dominant foot forward, as if you're doing a short lung," she said. "Keep the axe upright and parallel with your line of sight. Pull the axe above your head, arching your back slightly. Think of yourself as a bow. Then, with the axe still steady in your hand and upright, thrust it back over your head, making sure to use the force of your body weight to propel it, just before releasing your firm grip when you meet your line of sight again."

Mary struck the bulls-eye. And, stunningly, so did I.

A hyena-like cackle strummed from my vocal cords as I realized my cleaver's head had firmly wedged in the center of that red-painted circle; I was flabbergasted, dumbfounded, a bit dizzied from the inciting episodes of exuberant, but shallow breathing. It was an intoxicating (and suffocating) euphoria, one I repeated only once more during the evening, presumably by happenstance.

Interestingly enough, the bulls-eyes aren't actually the hardest targets. That honor is reserved for the two auspicious blue dots drawn in the upper left- and right-hand corners of each wooden board, about half the size of the iconic red center. As if I were Katniss Everdeen's gay male stunt double, I managed to hit those elusive blue dots too as the hour's session came to an unwanted end.

It was one of the single best hours I've spent in recent memory. The body-mind catharsis; the temporary physical empowerment that comes from hurling a five-pound hunk of metal against the wall; the childlike joy after hitting the bulls-eye—all of this lingered in my mind long after Mary and I parted ways.

Bad Axe Throwing hosts weekly tournaments and get-togethers for enthusiasts. I'll probably see you there.

// Time slots for walk-ins ($20 per hour) are posted on online weekly; group events ($35-$45 per person) can be booked in advance. Bad Axe Throwing, 30 Hill St. (Daly City), badaxethrowing.com