Category: Shooting

Plenty of Bianchi Cup coverage over at NRA Blog, and also at Caleb’s, who is shooting in the cup.

Exurban Kevin reviews the door prize he won from one of our sponsors of the Blog Bash.  The Insight M3X.  I didn’t win anything at the Bash, but I never win things.  Except at Friends of the NRA dinners.  I figure that used up all my winning luck for a while.

With ammuniution supplies almost non-existant, it’s a good time to think about getting some air guns.  The Firearm Blog takes a look at some new offerings by Crossman.

It looks like Camp Perry received a decent chunk of change for some barracks for soldiers and shooters at the NRA matches.

State Representative Dennis Murray revealed funds that were allocated to the Camp Perry Joint Training Center Barracks I project in Port Clinton. The $222,680 distributed to this project was authorized and funded by Congress in the FY 2009 Military Construction and Veteran’s Affairs Budget.

The project consists of constructing an 8,700 square foot barracks that will provide temporary housing for approximately 80 soldiers while conducting weapons’ qualification, training exercises and several other functions at Camp Perry Joint Training Center. …

The facility will also be utilized during the National Rifle and Pistol Matches.

This is an interesting book titled “Pigeon Shooting – With Instructions for Beginners and Suggestiosn for those who participate in the Sport of Pigeon Shooting.”  They aren’t talking about clay pigeon shooting.  This was back when live birds were used.

If the pigeon does not at once leave the trap, a thing which rarely happens where they are fast, as in England, either call, “No bird,” or keep the gun leveled just over the bird’s head, and at the first moment of its flight throw the muzzle ahead of the bird and pull. Remember that, other things being equal, a bird which does not fly as the trap is pulled is a harder bird to shoot than one that does; the reason for this being, that when you say “Pull,” you have your whole being, mind and body, braced up to its full tension, and as the trap opens, you swing to it like lightning; but if the pigeon then fails to rise, you have lost your swing, and should it afterward start with anything like a rapid flight, you are very likely to shoot a little behind it.

Not really any different today with clay pigeons, and a broken clay in the thrower.  It’s this particular sport that our legislature is looking to outlaw.

Joe Huffman seems to have had the IPSC stage from hell this weekend, and got bitten by his 1911, which malfunctioned.  When I shoot silhouette, I use a Ruger Mk.III.  Holding taco, you bring the pistol in close for a more stable position.  I have to be careful not to hold too close, or the slide comes back and punches me in the nose.  That’s about the worst I’ve ever gotten in competition.

Looks like Uncle is starting to get into competition, namely Glock Shooting Sports Foundation matches.  I’ve thought it would be neat to do GSSF events at our club, but there are already clubs with larger facilities in the area doing them, plus, I’m not sure if some of our club rules would present a problem.

But it does look like the kind of match you could run at pretty much any club.  If I recall, Central Jersey runs Glock matches.  But to do that, I’d have to ignore the advice of several lawyers who have advised against taking guns into New Jersey.  Guns are illegal in New Jersey, you see.  It’s only through exceptions in the law that you can possess one.  Fall outside that exception, which is easy with a pistol, and you’re an instant felon. As much as I’d like to compete in some of CJRPC’s matches, their laws are designed to put people like me in prison for minor slip-ups.  No thanks.  I’ll stay on this side of the river.  Folks in Tennessee have it better.

PapaDeltaBravo is thinking of getting into air gun shooting and is looking to buy an air rifle.  I know some of my readers know a lot of about air guns, and I’m sure he’d appreciate any advice.

Michael Bane has an article on training with smallbore and “even airsoft guns.” I can tell you from personal experience that shooting air guns will make you a better all around shooter, and these days there’s a lot of air gun sports.   You have Action Airgun which use airsoft guns, and is a good substitute for IPSC/IDPA.  You can even compete online with this.   You also have 10 meter competition.   Then you have what I do, which is air gun silhouette.  All of them are worthwhile, and will translate to other types of shooting. Back to Michael:

The fundamentals teach us to how to control a firearm…as we add more recoil, nothing should change. In a personal defense situation, or even when the buzzer goes off in a match, you will likely not notice the recoil, the noise or the blast, and if your fundamentals are sound the bullet will go where you intended it to go.

My experience has been that a shooter who goes back to his/her duty or competition gun after a session training with .22s discovers the more powerful gun has less recoil than before (especially if that shooter has practiced extensively with full power ammo in the primary gun). Of course, the recoil didn’t miraculously go away…rather, subcaliber practice (after appropriate visualization and dry-fire) has allowed the shooter’s attention to be focused on controlling the gun through the application of the fundamentals rather than becoming fixated on the recoil, noise and flash.

Yep.  Due to the ammo shortage, and sky high prices, I am shooting larger caliber pistols hardly at all, and am shooting almost entirely smallbore and air pistols.  When, on that rare occasion, I do go to the range to shoot the Glock, my groups are tighter than they’ve ever been.  You also can’t beat range availability for air guns.  If you have a basement, you have a range.  You can shoot every day, and it costs pennies.

Mr. Completely is fabricating a sight mount and selling them.  They get the sight lower on the gun for less parallax.  In silhouette, competitors tend to want higher sights, since you have to lob chunks of lead farther downrange, requiring a higher arc.  But for steel shooting, like Mr. C does, it looks like it would be a pretty good sight mount!