Category: Shooting

Tonight I took my Mk.III Hunter to the range to shoot the e-postal match for this month, after screwing up the rules the other night, and shooting 20 rounds at the flies.  Tonight I was shooting better anyway, so it all worked out.

For the bullseye targets, I loaded two at a time.  First two shots were so spot on, I thought I had missed the target clean somehow, wondering if my sights had gotten knocked way off center.  I didn’t manage to reproduce that feat again, but I managed the 9 ring on the initial shot 3 other times.  My follow up shots tend to be not as good, which I attribute to not taking enough time between shots.  Bullseye target score 84.

For the flies, I did 7 out of 10.  Trick was being slow and deliberate.  I loaded no more than one round at a time into the my Ruger Mk.III to force myself to not rush.  Hung on the target good and long until movements dropped down, then broke the trigger.  Jerked at the last minute on three of them, but such is life.  Grand total score of 91 out of 110 possible.

I’m using a factory gun.  I think the Mk.III could stand to have a lighter trigger.  I’m also using a cheap chinese no-name holosight on top, which gets the job done, but has issues with distorting the zero if you don’t have the dot right in the middle of the glass.  It also enjoys drifting from zero, which is obnoxious.

I went to the club tonight to shoot this month’s e-postal match.  This month I’m shooting scoped rimfire.  I did OK on the bullseye targets, but then I went and counted up the flies, and set aside 20 cartridges.  Oops.  I was only supposed to do 10.  Either way, I got 10 flies with 20 shots.  Maybe when I go back to re-shoot the match following the proper rules, I’ll do better.

Speaking of scoped rimfires, I got a cheapy Chinese made holographic sight for the Mk.III Hunter, and I’m not happy with it.  I think I need to spring for an EOTech.  I’m looking at the Bushnell Holosight, though, which I understand is actually made by EOTech, but marketed by Bushnell for the lower end market.  Anyone know whether they are comparable?  I don’t see any reason to spend the cash for an EOTech when I could get essentially the same thing for less money.

Silhouette tonight went well.  Shot 10 rams in a row with Bitter’s CZ 452 Lux, which means another pin!  I’m getting my average into the low 30s now on scoped sights with my 10/22.  I’ve been shooting Bitter’s CZ in the open sights category, and have actually been doing better with that gun than I do with the Ruger.  My average with her CZ isn’t as high yet because I have to shoot one more match to get rid of the first one where I hadn’t zeroed the sights.  My scores have been consistently in the low 30s with Bitter’s CZ.  I love that rifle.  The open sights are very nice, and it just shoots beautifully.  I only hope that one day she will get a chance to enjoy it too!

The Ram pin will certainly get a place of honor on my shooting hat.  Pictures will be forthcoming.

Josh Sugarmann thinks the shooting sports are in decline.  The facts inconveniently don’t agree with him.

In terms of sales at least.  Not too surprising, really.  Guns are more expensive than golf clubs, and ammunition costs more than golf balls.  You can only accessorize your golf bag so many different ways.  I’ve said before, it’s not a sport for people who don’t have money or time, because it takes a lot of each.

The other difference is there isn’t a small well financed, vocal, and dedicated group of  activists who are looking to ban golf clubs in the hopes of one day living in a fairway free society.

The best ones are the ones you know are from ordinary shooters.  I’m particularly interested to hear reviews from Kel-Tec owners too.

I would note that this kind of thing would be impossible if we didn’t have a vibrant civilian shooting culture.  Fighting the gun banners is not just a matter of preserving our sporting heritage, and right of self-defense, it’s a matter of national security as well.

Today marks the beginning of International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association season at my club.  I think this is quite likely one of the most challenging shooting sports out there.  I shot in three classes.  First was field pistol, with my Smith & Wesson 629 Classic loaded up with .44 Special, open sights, standing unsupported off handed, two hands.  Field pistol is half size animals, with chickens at 25 yards, pigs at 50, turkeys at 75, and rams at 100.  I was disappointed to only score 11, but the guys who have been doing this for a while said 11 isn’t too bad for starting out.   Went on to smallbore pistol with the Mk.III, with 3/8th scale animals, and did 12 on that.  Finished up on big bore, which are full sized animals at 40 meters (chickens), 100 meters (pigs), 150 meters (turkey), and 200 meters (rams).  My whopping score of 6 is to be feared!  Needless to say, I need more practice.

Neat thing about hitting the full sized rams at 200 meters (I only hit one) is you have enough time to be disappointed you didn’t hit the thing before you realize you did.  It takes even more time for the *ping* and the sound of the ram falling over to get back to the shooter.

It’s an interesting sport, and hitting things at 100 yards with a pistol is quite a challenge.  Even harder at 200 yards.  I think my one ram was merely luck.  I think I will keep doing this though, and hopefully it’ll make me a better pistol shooter.

Shot a 21 with Bitter’s new CZ-452 Lux rifle, open sights.  Not good, but I meant to take it to the range last night to make sure the sights were zeroed, but didn’t get the chance because I felt like dog pooh. It was shooting a bit high at to the left, but it’s hard to tell exactly how much just looking at the splatter on the animal.  I ended up missing the first couple of animals until I figured out where to aim for that particular animal.  After that it was down to my general skill, which only gets me about 30 or so with my scoped 10/22.

I think it’ll be a great shooter once I get the sighs zeroed and get a scope on it.

TD of the Unforgiving Minute takes his new CZ-85 to the range.  I have a CZ-82, and it’s the best gun I’ve ever paid under 300 dollars for.