Shooting The You Know What

Rangeday Saturday was sort of a mixed bag.

One of the good points was that there was not only a great deal of talk about what has happened in New Orleans at the range, there were, in my rough estimate, a record number of new shooters and women shooters there yesterday.

As for the guns and my shooting, I was able to get the 22-250 and the 10-22 sighted in and Mr. Completely’s Postal Match shot, but some of it was a bit rough.

My recently acquired Ruger 77 in 22-250 was a breeze. There was no boresighter available and the old Redfield scope doesn’t have clicks for adjustment or markings to tell me what each line signified (ends up, each line is a half an inch) so I had to wing it at 100 yards..

One shot to get it on paper, three more to get it in the black and then six more to hone it to be an X-Ring eater.

I think those last five shots on the X look pretty good, especially for a factory gun.

The final five rounds left in the box of twenty went into the six inch steel plate hanging at the 200 yard line. Let me just say that since there was little to no wind yesterday, and with this 55 grain projectile cruising at close to 4000 feet per second, I couldn’t notice any drop after doubling the distance: Five shots, five rings of the steel.

After its performance yesterday, I am loath to change anything, but the stock is too short for this hairless monkey and the scope under powered for its potential so I’m making a short list and will implement them slowly.

My 10/22 on the other hand was a total and complete bear to get sighted in.

I started at 100 because I already had my bench set up from sighting in the 22-250. That was a no-go, so I moved to 50 yards. That was mildly better, but even with the 20 inch heavy barrel, the projectiles from my standard velocity ammo just wouldn’t hit near the same place twice so as to dial it in.

I moved over to the benches on the pistol range and started working the target from 25 yards. Now that got results! I got the nickel and dime sized ten shot groups I wanted at that distance and moved back to 50.

Not too bad for a semi-auto with home built add-ons, the cheapest ammo I could find and a monkey working the trigger.

BTW, this is the target for the rifle e-Postal Match. Results will be posted for that match tomorrow.

As for Mr. Completely’s pistol e-Postal match, I shot my 1911, my CZ-83 in .380ACP, the Ruger 22/45 that was frustrating me nearly to death at the last bowling pin match and a Jennings J-22.

Let’s just say that if I don’t take the bottom slot for each category, I will be highly surprised. No excuses, I was just too into the rifles to give myself the adequate psyching out to shoot pistols well yesterday.

Anywhoooo, if you didn’t get out to the range yesterday, I highly suggest that you do so today. Like I said at the beginning of this post, the horrible happenings in New Orleans seems to have done for the firearms and self-protection industry what September 11th did. There are probably going to be a million new gun owners in the coming weeks and they want your range spot.

Go get it while you still can. Then use your knowledge and experience to help these new folks out, keep them safe on the firing line and let them know that they aren’t alone.