Category: Shooting

Apparently up 10% this year.  I wouldn’t be surprised, though, to find that a lot of this increase is due to higher ammunition prices.  I’m really curious how the companies that manufacture reloading gear and supplies are doing.

Since we’re going to have a mini informal blogger shooting event in Knoxville, I have to decide on a few rifles to take South. Coal Creek is an indoor range, so I’m limited to pistol calibers. I don’t have much that shoots that, so it’s narrowed down. Here’s what I’m taking:

• Hi-Point 995 Carbine w/ optics & laser sight
• Glock 19. This is my American Express gun. I don’t leave home without it.
• Ruger Mk.III Hunter 22/45 w/ holographic sight
• Ruger 10/22. I’ve un-EBR’d it because it’s actually not too conducive to shooting silhouette in that configuration.
• AR-15 Carbine. I can’t shoot this at Coal Creek, but here at Snowflakes in Hell, we don’t believe in traveling without a proper rifle.

The only other firearm I’m pondering is the S&W 629 Classic. It’s an awful lot of fun to shoot .44 magnum, but it’s an awful lot of expensive too.

A score of 28 was off from my score of 33 last week.  I did get all ten pigs, but that was all the mojo I could muster this week.  I just wasn’t feeling it.   I probably won’t get to see Bitter this weekend because of weather.  We’re expecting snow and “wintry mix” this weekend, which could make going home hazardous, or very difficult.   Winter can go to hell.

It’s much better doing Silhouette when your trigger pivot pin is properly in place.  Last week was 22 and 25, which put me dead last in my class.   This time I got 31 and 33, which puts me in the middle of the pack.  This is with a stock 10/22, crappy “Golden Bullet” ammo, and a 30 dollar scope.  I figure some better equipment might be worth a few more animals.  I like shooting the ram silhouette the best.

One thing about my club that can sometimes drive me nuts is that we’re limited to no more than five rounds in a magazine.  I was wondering how common this kind of restriction is at clubs?  What’s the rule at your local club?

When this rule was explained, they claimed the reason for it was to prevent accidents if a gun failed and started firing uncontrollably.  In my experience, this doesn’t happen.  Plus, in my experience with machine pistols, if you shot 5 rounds off automatically and didn’t expect it, you’re putting three rounds in the ceiling.

I find the rule to be particularly annoying with revolvers, and now, I understand that the standard M1 Garand clip would leave me in violation of my club’s rule.   That’s not even mentioning how annoying I think it is to have to switch magazines if I’m trying to shoot a string of 10, or if I want to practice with the Glock on the indoor pistol range.

I think the real reason for the rule is to keep people out of the club who just want a place to come blast away, and aren’t serious shooters.   I can accept that there may be utility to weeding out people who just want to join so they can blast away at crap on the plinking range, but I think there are better ways to avoid that problem.

One disappointing thing about this club, is the leadership seems to want to bring everything down to the lowest common denominator, rather than weeding out the problem people, so the rest of the members can enjoy the facilities.  In our last club newsletter, they threatened to shut down the plinking range for range violations, without mentioning what people were doing that was a problem.  It seems to me the proper way to deal with this is to revoke memberships for violations, rather than mete out collective punishment.  I wonder if it’s the same attitude behind the round restrictions.

USCitizen has the results up for this month’s match.  I see Mr. Completely is still dominating the board with his High Standard.  I feel bad that I’ve missed all the matches since August, but I will definitely start back up again in the spring.

Lately I’ve been shooting trap Monday night at the club, and indoor silhouette on Thursday nights, which doesn’t leave much room for e-postaling.  I’m a reasonable clay shooter, but I’m not too good at shooting from standing position, so I’m hoping to get more proficient at Silhouette as time goes on.  Right now my scores border on embarrassing, as I’m missing about 1/3rd of the animals.

Despite temperatures in the mid 30s, and winds of 25 mph with gusts up to 50 mph, my club was still shooting trap tonight.  We’ve been rained out the past few weeks, so I was eager to shoot a few sets, despite the conditions.

Winds that high either send the clays into the upper atmosphere, when you’re expecting it to crest, or send it out so quickly that by the time you get a bead on it, it’s so far out your chance of hitting is narrow.  Clays thrown more sideways really go that way if the wind is helping it.  Let me also say, it’s also amusing to see the wadding shoot a few feet out, and then go sideways.

All in all, a fun time, despite my score of 18 and 13.  I think it’s good to shoot under adverse conditions.   If you can keep your game together when it sucks out, you’ll be better for it when it doesn’t.  I’m not sure I’d consider 13 keeping my game together, but I’ll take 18 given the conditions.  I was considering a third set, but on my second, the snow flurries started, and I figured that was my cue to call it a day.

So tonight I took the 10/22 to Indoor Silhouette night.  We’re shooting at chickens, pigs, turkeys and rams at 25 yards.  I scored 22 and 25.  Standing position has never something I’ve been particularly good at, so I am hoping continuing to do this will improve my skills in this area.   Maybe next time I will do better.  The 10/22 was having issues because I haven’t cleaned it in a while.  I’m thinking maybe a nice bolt action 22 is in order for this type of shooting.

This study suggests that hunting with a shotgun isn’t really any safer than hunting with a rifle.  I’m not really surprised.  Fast moving rounds will tend to fragment more if they hit something, which would mean the pieces have less momentum, and won’t travel as far.