Range Time?

J

Johnny Got His Gun.1

New member
For several months, I've been unable to place shooting near the top of my list of recreational activities. Something else got in the way, and for a while I felt bad about not making time to go shooting. However, three weeks ago I got back on a twice-weekly regimen with my shooting buddy at his range.

Mainly, I've been shooting a .22 SA because I can buy a brick of bullets for what I'd normally pay into a box of 9mm Lugers, and my philosophy is that shooting is shooting. Firing hundreds and hundreds of rounds of .22s have helped me gain some of those skills that degraded during time off from target practice.

I've also been able to shoot my back-up guns: a .45/.410 derringer and my NEF .32 H&R Magnum. I've also taken to shooting index cards (don't know if the SEALs still do that or not, but I heard they did, at least, in the past and thought it was a good idea). When shooting the cards, I alternate among 7, 15, and 25 yard distances.

Slowly but surely, I'm regaining facility with a handgun and, along with that, confidence in my abilities.

All that said, I'd like to hear if any other TFLers have experienced waxing and waning periods in your discipline and how many rounds you usually send downrange.
 
Like yourself, one brick minimum and a couple of boxes of big bore. Warm up with the brick, amuse myself with natural point shooting, speed drills, weak hand shooting and other things before I touch big bore.

At home, I play with a RWS Sig lookalike pellet gun and a Daisy .22 bullet trap.
 
try shooting pill bottle caps or if you can find them the old twist type of bottle cap.....the smaller the target the better you will become...22's are great little practice and fun guns.....especially ifyou have a 22 in your bigbore configuration....fubsy.
 
Johnny, interesting you would post this now. Today I had the best time I've ever had shooting. It wasn't at a range. We used quite a bit of ammunition.

To be frank, I've often wondered why people think shooting is fun. It was a challenge for me, but going to the range wasn't all that exciting. And then, you get to clean guns for an hour or two. ;)

But, today we went out to a spot in the desert we had researched, and we had a great time ... 4 hours worth. We took a metal 'popper' I'd purchased, along with this neat contraption my friend made. He has a 2 x 4 which is about 6 feet long, and he makes it stand up (horizontal) with some of those legs you use for saw horses. Then, he drilled about 9 holes along the top of the board, and inserted roughly 4 foot lengths of heavy metal wire. On top of the wire he placed tin cans, blocks of wood, etc. He also brought along some 'exploding' targets - apparently he buys these at gun shows.

We also stopped off to pick up some fruit for use as targets ... apples, oranges, melons, and even a watermelon.

Well, this was a whole lot more fun than punching holes in paper! Cans were flying, water bottles were exploding, the water melon erupted in a red mist, and the exploding targets ... well, they exploded! Might sound pretty juvenile, but it was actually fun. Something was happening when I hit my mark!

So, I'll go to the stuffy indoor and outdoor public ranges to sight in, or perhaps for some long distance or other work. But, for fun ... I'm headed out to the desert again. Now I understand why people get a kick out of this. Before this, I sometimes wondered what the excitement was all about. ;)

And, I confirmed one thing for sure ... this is a way to get kids interested in shooting. I've tried getting them to go to the range to punch holes in paper - no cigar. But this? This will do just fine. ;)

As far as your question goes, we probably sent somewhere between 500 and 600 rounds downrange, in total.

Regards from AZ
 
I'm recovering from shoulder surgery which has cut my range time this summer dramatically. Was feeling pretty good this morning so I went out and let 'er rip. Tested some new loads for my .45acp, shot about 100 rounds total (please check my thread on reloading, need some help here!), blew up another 100 rounds of 9mm and worked on sighting in the scope on my .41 mag. I had bought a Turk Mauser just before the surgery and felt froggy enough to take it along. I don't shoot rifles a lot, in fact, besides a couple of .22's and an M1 Carbine the Mauser is the largest caliber rifle I own. Set up some steel pigs at 500 yards and really impressed myself, they were almost too easy (milsrup ammo, iron sights, after 30 rounds I now have two sore shoulders). Gotta spend the evening at the reloading bench and get back out there tomorrow!
"Johnny Got His Gun" Did you take your handle from the novel by Dalton Trumbo?

[This message has been edited by SK (edited July 03, 2000).]
 
Jeff, sounds like a blast (pun intended). Seems like one hell of a setup.

Last week, I got up early to go to my buddy's range, and on the way down the dirt road, I noticed some citrons. They were about two-fists big. I picked two, took them with me, and we shot the mess out of them. It was especially fun shooting the first one at point blank with my .45/.410--nice ballistic testing.

I did manage to send only a hundred downrange today, and I did use twist-off bottle tops--plinked them from fifteen yards. Those suckers are challenging.

Shot some cans filled with water--fun can-splitting time. I also had some plastic bottles shoved onto dog flennel stems and tore them out the frame as well.

It was a good shooting session.

:)
 
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