Category: Shooting

I went to try indoor silhouette at the club tonight.  Just for practice.  The short of it is that I suck.  I hit maybe 5 animals.  The sights on my pistol were way off, and with our bullet traps in the back, I couldn’t really see where my shot was going to know how to adjust my aim.  That’s what I get for just showing up at the range after not having checked my sights.  I got so frustrated I almost wanted to pull out my Glock and blast the animals with something I was more comfortable shooting.  Most of the folks there were competing in the scoped rifle category that I could see.  I think next time I’ll show up with the 10/22.  I prefer shooting rifle anyway.

I heard about this a couple of nights ago when Cam had Sandy Froman on his show. Dustin has the details.

My reloads worked just fine. In fact, pretty well! But it was only 25 yards. I didn’t want to waste most of my reloads on that distance, but to make up for it, I punched out the 10 ring with my Glock at 10 yards firing about one shot a second. It’s been a while since Mr. Glock got the throw hot lead down range, and I was happy to land most of my hits in the center.

I also tried out those 20 and 30 round AR-15 magazines from Brownell’s that I got a few weeks ago, and they worked just fine. Not a single problem with them, so they get a passing grade from me. Even the 20 rounder did fine, and I have two others of a different brand that don’t feed so well.

By all indications, the shooting sports are growing, with the exception of hunting, which has been in decline.  But every time I go attend an event at my shooting club, I can’t help but wonder something: “Where the hell are all the young people?”  Where are the guys in their 20s and 30s?  If I go to a public range, I typically see a good mix of the young and the old.  Same if I go to my local indoor range.

But all the club events I’ve gone to, it’s been like a geriatric festival.  Are young people not into shotgun sports, silhouette or high power?  What can we do to get young people more involved at the shooting sports and into shooting clubs?

I’m not sure I have the answer, but I suspect the reason is that the barrier to entry for a lot of these clubs is high.  You typically have to know someone, and go through a process of being inducted into the club.  I think if we’re to be evangelical in our enthusiasm for the shooting sports, we have to work on ways to lower barriers to entry.

I think our club actually does a pretty good job in this regard, and we’re not hurting for membership, but it’s discouraging to think that a lot of the shooting sports are aging, and young people don’t seem to be stepping up.  I know the young shooters are out there, but I think a way must be found to bring them into the traditional shooting sports.

I decided to head over to the club tonight for the weekly trap tournament. My first time shooing trap formally. I did 21 the first round, and then gutter balled the second round with a 14. I’m not sure what I did on the second round. Clay shooting is one of those things where if I get out of my zone, I just start sucking. Second round started off bad when I was in front of a mic that wouldn’t throw the clay unless I practically screamed into it. Two, even three shouts of “pull!”, and I was off. When I start thinking too much about the shot, I start getting behind the bird and missing. When I relax, and just do it, without worrying “you gotta hit this one,” I do much better.

Hopefully next time I can score in the 20s both times.

I decided to head over to the club this morning and try my hand at International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association (IHMSA) shooting.  I’m a long ways off a respectable score, but I don’t think I totally embarrassed myself.  I got at least one on every position.  There is a few things I’ve discovered, though.   One is that my Ruger Mk.III Hunter’s factory sights are entirely inadequate for this kind of shooting.  At 75 and 100 yards, the front nylon dot was larger than the targets.  At 100 yards, my bullets were impacting dirt, because I wasn’t compensating enough for the drop at that distance.  Two is I need to practice more.  I haven’t shot handgun in several months, and it showed.  I also need to learn to slow down and not rush my shots.  I’ve had that problem with our e-postal matches too.  Three, air gun silhouette shooting is a lot more fun than I would have imagined, and it’s pretty cheap to get into.

I think I can definitely up my score next time with a little practice, and a better sight for my Ruger.  I also think I will need to get myself a decent air pistol.  The organizer of our Silhoutte shoot let be borrow his, but I’m told a pretty decent one can be had for under 200 dollars.   I would definitely like to try that again when they resume shooting in March.

As many have documented already, Brownell’s sent Larry Weeks out for the entire Gun Blogger Rendezvous.  He brought out a lot of goodies for us all, and talked about their new line of AR-15 magazines.  They come in both 20 and 30 round versions.  Larry talked about the difficulty Brownell’s had in getting the followers built to the exacting specs required to get military approval, but they managed to get it all together, and these magazines are now being sold to the US military, and are 100% mil-spec.

These magazines got me immediately interested, because I haven’t found a decent 20 round mag that works consistently in my AR.  I have ordered two of Brownell’s 30 round mags, and one of the 20 round mags, and will report on how well they function once they arrive.

One other thing to mention is that Brownell’s is a reliable partner when it comes to our second amendment rights.  Glen Caroline, NRA-ILA’s Director of Grassroots Division, who came out to talk to us, went out of his way to thank Brownell’s for all they’ve done to help NRA, and its efforts.  I hope all of you will send some business their way.   I will be, as I build out a lower receiver to go with the Ko-Tonics upper I bought back from GBR.

Coolest…. day at the range… ever!

A few things stand out. Firing USCitizen’s 50 caliber AR upper. It breech loads a screw in bolt. Once you screw your round into the breech, you bolt the lower on and go to town. I didn’t hit the target with it, but it was fun. Recoil not as bad as I anticipated.

Second thing was repeatingly hitting the steel plate out at 935 yards. Did this with Joe Huffman’s rifle while Joe was spotting for me. It’s a Remington 700 in 300 WinMag with a pretty bitching scope on it.

Third was winning the Kalashnikov challenge. Uncle bet me a beer that I couldn’t hit the 400 yard steel plate with the AK-74 using iron sights and a full magazine at a bench rest. I hit it 5 times, and came pretty close a few others. Joe Huffman was spotting for me. So much for Kalashnikovs not being accurate :)

Oldest rifle I ever shot was DirtCrasher’s Krag. Got to shoot a 1911 for the first time thanks to Melody Byrne letting me try Chris’ 1911.

I see USCitizen has pictures up already, and there’s some commentary by Uncle.

Been a while since I was at the range, but I had to go today to make sure the scope on my AR-15 was zeroed in with the ammo I’m using.  I think I have it as zeroed as it’s going to get.  I also just wanted to check out the AK-74, to make sure it’s all happy, which it is.

Other than the fact that once I found my zero, I was shooting like crap, I think I’m ready for GBR.   Joining me will be my scoped AR-15, and the AK-74.  Mr. Glock will be staying home, since I can’t carry it in Nevada, and weight for guns and ammo is now at 40lbs, and I don’t want to go any heavier.

SayUncle tells me this range goes out to 400 yards, and there will be steel plates.  Sounds good to me, but based on how I was shooting today I hope those plates are big.