Category: Shooting

Tam’s example here would probably make one think that the Brady Campaign might have a point about mandatory training for possessing firearms, until the first time you’re on a range and get muzzled by a cop.  You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.  Doesn’t matter who you are.

MSNBC ran a hit piece on guns and kids over the weekend.  I think we’re supposed to be horrified.  In this hit piece, we see a kid shooting a machine gun, or rather, two adults holding a machine gun while the kid pulls the trigger.  Unlike what happened in Massachusetts, this is how to do it safely.  Then we see an interview with a 12 year old girl who has an AK-47 that’s really an AR-15.   No attempt is made at all to explain why you might introduce children to shooting.  That is left up to the viewers, which is entirely the point, to present scary images to the uninitiated without presenting any context.

My favorite line?

“Seven year old Teresa has an AR-15: an air-cooled, semi-automatic, shoulder-mounted rifle that is currently used by the U.S. special forces in Iraq.”

No, no, we’re not playing up irrelevant and meaningless terminology, some of which is not even factually correct, at all.  Just enjoy our freak show, and be scared for the children.

One thing I really appreciate about the club’s air gun matches is that the start at 10AM.  IHMSA and CMP start at 8, which means I get up earlier than I normally would for work.  Came down with a cold yesterday too, so I have a Benadryl fog on top of it all.  Should be interesting to see how I shoot with cold medication running through my system.

Either way, the AR-15 and I must be off.

UPDATE: 395 in a 500 point match.  First slow fire prone stage I bombed.  Steadily improved in score up until offhand, which wasn’t actually as bad as the first prone stage!  I think I can reasonably do 425/500 next time.  We’ll see.  I might shoot better when I’m not feeling like crap.  The top shooter, who I was scoring, did a 490/500 with 11X.  I definitely have some practice ahead of me to improve.

Tomorrow is our club’s first CMP match for the season.  Took the AR out today to practice a bit, and to chrony a new load.  27 grains of Varget with a 55gr Remington FMJ-BT bullet.  We only have a 200 yard range, so 55 grains works fine.  I thought 27 grains of Varget ran a little hot.  3380 at the muzzle.  I prefer about 3200 out of the 20″ barrel.

Match starts at 8:00 tomorrow.  I don’t even get to work that early.  Need to load some more ammo before I get to bed tonight.  One thing I definitely appreciate about shooting air pistol and .22LR is that I don’t have to reload anything.

Looks like they are choosing the Woolwich as the venue for the shooting events for the 2012 London Olympics.  I have to wonder if a big reason choosing Woolwich is that its status as a military facility made dealing with UK law in regards to small arms easier, and avoided problems for the politicians.  The National Rifle Association of the UK had pushed hard for the shooting games to be hosted at Bisley, in Surry, and the British Army previously didn’t want the games held at Woolwich, so I’m guessing they relented.

No doubt there are many disappointed shooting enthusiasts over this decision.

UPDATE: No doubt taxpayers in the UK should also be disappointed, as Bisley’s bid was 10 million pounds cheaper than Woolwich’s.

Outdoor air rifle and air pistol silhouette begins tomorrow.  Got in a bit of practice today.  It’s good be shooting outside again.  Speaking of shooting outside, the gun blogger winter match for our rifle league ends next weekend.  In addition to that, Mr. Completely has started up the next season of E-Postal matches.  There’s something for everyone, whether you’re a rifle or pistol shooter.

UPDATE: 20 and 24, which is a AA and AAA score respectively.  Would have been nice to have two AAA scores, but the temperature dropped from when I sighted in yesterday, so I bombed the first bank of chickens.  CO2 guns are, unfortunately, rather sensitive to temperature.

This isn’t good news for reloaders.  Check out this article from Maine Hunting Today.

Recently it has been determined that fired munitions of all calibers, shapes and sizes have been designated to be Demil code B. As a result and in conjunction with DLA’s current Demil code B policy, this notice will serve as official notification which requires Scrap Venture (SV) to implement mutilation as a condition of sale for all sales of fired munitions effective immediately. This notice also requires SV to immediately cease delivery of any fired munitions that have been recently sold or on active term contracts, unless the material has been mutilated prior to sale or SV personnel can attest to the mutilation after delivery. A certificate of destruction is required in either case.

It’s bad enough Clinton screwed us out of surplus ammo.  Now it appears Obama will screw us out of even the components.  Brass is already scarce enough without this.  See the whole thing.

The New York Times does a positive story on the increasing popularity of biathlon, even though they get something wrong:

The biggest challenge of the sport is the abrupt switch between disciplines: going all out on skis, and then stopping, catching one’s breath and calming one’s nerves for the precision of using a rifle for target shooting. It’s believed to have its origins in hunting, which, in snowy Northern European climes, required just that switch from fast skiing to steady shooting.

They are right about the challenge, but biathlon has nothing to do with hunting.  It’s actually, at root, a practical shooting discipline that has its origins with the Norwegian military.  The rifles have evolved well beyond that, but being able to go from skiing to shooting is a soldier’s game, not a hunter’s.

Just got the results for last night’s Indoor Silhouette match, and I’ve ended up in a shootoff with one of our better pistol shooters for the top spot for the pistol scoped class, which I guess means I must be doing something right.  I’ve been shooting into the high 20s and low 30s (out of 40) with pistol lately, which is a lot better than a few months ago.  We’ll have to see how the shootoff goes next week.  My competition is pretty tough.

Someone mentioned in the comments the other day about not having the money to get into competition, which I don’t think should really be a problem.  I shoot our indoor smallbore pistol matches, and IHMSA smallbore with a Ruger Mk.III Hunter 22/45 topped with an inexpensive BSA red dot scope that I bought from SayUncle for a few measly bucks.  My only nod to the exquisite is the Volquartsen trigger kit I put in, because the Ruger factory trigger is kind of awful.  When I shoot air pistol matches I shoot a Crossman 2300S.  I replaced the grips and added a peep sight to the rear, but the whole rig was under 350 dollars.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get started competing.  In fact, you should probably start with cheap equipment, and only upgrade when you feel like the equipment is holding you back.  You’re far better off spending the money on ammunition and shooting more, than spending the money on expensive equipment you won’t be good enough for starting out.  If money for ammunition is really a concern, shoot air guns.  Not only are air guns cheap, but the ammunition is too, and if you have a basement, you can practice in it.  The skills you learn will transfer to other shooting disciplines.  Competition is a lot of fun, and good at helping you develop your shooting skills.  Money doesn’t have to be an object.

Joe is a little insulted about the whole Scoutten-Boomershoot kerfuffle, and says:

In his followup comment he says he doesn’t want put anything “on TV that could alarm the anti-gunners”. I disagree. I am of the opinion that alarming them over Boomershoot then making fools of them is the more appropriate tactic (ask me sometime in private how we have baited them but they failed to take the bait). But if he doesn’t want to do that I don’t see a reason to attack him over that judgment call.

I think some would probably assume, based on my general support for not pushing beyond the general public’s comfort zone and understanding, that I believe it should never be done.  That is not correct.  I believe pushing too far is unwise, but you have to push some, otherwise you never move the ball forward.

Scoutten has some legitimate concerns about public perceptions, but I think his thinking is not necessarily clear about what perceptions we ought to be concerned about.  The overwhelming message we want to get across is that the shooting sports are safe and fun, that gun ownership and interest in shooting is not abnormal or unhealthy, and that it’s perfectly natural for people to want to defend themselves, their families and their communities.

We must be concerned about public perception when trying to do this, but that perception needs to be tailored toward getting people to overcome their prejudices about gun owners and people who shoot.  We properly eschew presenting people shooting in camo, shooting at an old, beat up school bus, or many of the other things Jim mentioned because they reinforce rather than break down prejudices and stereotypes.  Without proper context, context which is not possible to present in a short TV segment, people do not understand what the are seeing and wonder what these people are preparing for.

When I look at an event like Boomershoot, I see something that attracts people from all walks of life.  I see something that’s organized and put together by someone trained and licensed to handle explosives.  I see an event that starts with education and safety, namely a precision rifle clinic.  Most importantly, I see ordinary people enjoying themselves with firearms.  All these things can be easily highlighted in a TV segment with proper storytelling and editing.  Sure, there are some people that would be appaled by the idea of Boomershoot, or a machine gun shoot, but those are people who won’t be reached by any kind of positive coverage of any kind of shooting. I think we need to spend far less time worrying about which kinds of shooting activities do or don’t look favorable to the public, and worry more about telling the story of gun owners and shooting.  Let the public get to know ordinary gun owners, who have families, work at ordinary jobs, go to ordinary churches, and lead ordinary lives.  Do that, and it won’t matter whether they shoot a bolt action .22, an AR-15, a machine gun, or whether they get a thrill shooting at high explosives.

Shooters have a story to tell, and I’m grateful there are guys out there like Jim Scoutten and Michael Bane out there telling it in new, interesting, and entertaining ways, and presenting it to a mainstream audience.  We need that.  But I think we need to tell the whole story, and machine gun shoots and events like Boomershoot are part of that story.