I had a nice day at the 15 yard indoor range yesterday. They are nice fellas, it’s convenient, it was 3 degrees outside and it’s $5 an hour on Tuesdays.
I shoot at 10 meter Airgun pistol targets at 15 meters, bullseye hold. (One hand).
For my Bearcat, CCI Quiets.. it was like a shotgun! Only two even made it on the paper.
Aguila SV was on the paper.
CCI mini mags were all scoring points. Not great points, but old eyes and not much target radius. I guess I am sticking with the mini mags. I had previous good luck with Velocitors and felt silly driving big tacks with a tiny hammer, but clearly the gun likes that ammo.
My new-to-me Single Six shot great with both CCI and Aguila Sv. More testing to do. I thought I might sell that gun but it’s a good shooter and has grown on me.
My dot sighted norinco tt Olympia put all it’s SV in the black.
From elbow-benching, the Olympia makes a big ragged hole while these revolvers do not.
The bearcat... it’s not shooting like that. Maybe not yet, maybe never... but I could walk 10 miles, ride a horse for a couple hours, tumble down a hill in to a creek, roll in the mud and I am sure that once rinsed out it would still shoot to point of aim. And look good doing it.
But ammunition makes a very big difference.
I wish I could shoot the bearcat like my very little Norinco. 20 years ago, the norinco was my rabbit gun but it was never holstered. I mean, it has an ultra dot on it.
Then again, I’m whining about group sizes on 10 meter bullseye targets shot at 15 yards, and some of the fellas next to me are pumping pizza pan sized groups in to their fbi body targets at 5 yards, checking to see if their 20 round 9mm mags work, I reckon.
Bless em, they are helping the range stay in business via ammo sales, and they are having fun.
Now to my point... there are young folks that don’t remember and old folks that forget...
Today’s factory tolerances are far better than anything back in the day. Those beautiful Smiths and Colts were not “factory” guns, they were hand fitted by craftsmen and might cost a fella a month or two in wages.
The affordable guns were “Saturday Night Specials” and we had a few when I was a kid. They were terrible, shot loose in a couple boxes of ammunition, often barely fit together. My neighbor gave his to his 4 year old for a toy after making it inoperable... “it’s not safe to shoot, makes a good toy though.”
You can still get a work of art handgun, if you are still willing to spend a month or two wages for it. You get more for your money now, though.
What makes me sad is that the sport of shooting seems to me corrupted by black assembled guns with lots of firepower yet no actual use other than blasting stuff just after being bought then going in the closet or being carried around in your pants.
There used to be a shooting organization that organized hunter safety classes, got kids shooting at itty bitty targets in a safe way, got us interested in doping wind and learning holdovers... I loved the cowboy action boys- sure it was a lot of movie make believe, but we did study real cowboy life and got old metal out and making smoke again. It took a lot of work. There used to be these things called “gun shops”. A man that knew how to repair firearms was the owner. There were all manner of rifles and shotguns in there and a few pistols, too. Ammo and gun cleaning solvent, maybe even real black powder if you knew to ask.
Now you go to a huge warehouse that sells clothes and fudge and there are cases and cases of black semi-autos, racks and racks of black semi-auto rifles you can dress up like gi-joe meets the man from UNCLE, and they have 8 revolvers and 6 bolt action guns. In this warehouse, they sell factory guns with the scopes already mounted because the kid in back can’t mount a scope straight, let alone tap a receiver.
“Bolt action” is this old school technology. It’s utterly useless because when you keep pulling the trigger after you miss, you can’t complain to your pals online about stovepipes and failures to feed or bad plastic 30 round magazines. They are for old coots that learn how to work a “bolt knob” and therefore learned to hit stuff the first time.
Okay.. I am off on a drive in the country. I am looking for a “gun shop” that has a selection of these ancient “bolt action” .22s as.., the dog says my old eyes need to stop trying to shoot small game with a pistol as he wants to actually fetch something next autumn.
Rant off.
I do need to find a new gun shop. Mine closed. It’s the modern world and I’m an old geezer now.