Guy stuff (shooting)

Of course with Aaron of The Shekel here and me getting back on my feet, it follows that we'd spend a fair bit of time on the shooting range. We got out twice this past week for some pistol shooting. More would have been better as I've got other guns that we wanted to shoot but it was a prety full week so we had to settle for two sessions.




On Wednesday we went to the range for the first time. Here's Shekel Boy shooting my Model 1860 Navy Colt .36 revolver. It's a replica Civil War pistol, black powder of course, as evidenced by the smoke.









I chose to shoot a Beretta Model 96G .40 semi-auto pistol. This one was formerly owned by the Indiana State Police. It shot well and once I learn some solid new shooting stances that work with this new foot, I should be able to do great things with it.









Thursday we went back to the range again. Aaron shot my 9mm Browning Hi-Power and I shot my other Beretta--a Model 92F previously owned by the Washington State Patrol. Last time we had the pistol range to ourselves, but this time we had to share it with one of the bench-rest knuckleheads that so vex me. The guy had a Smith and Wesson 1911 that he wanted to sight in. No problem there. We invited him to join us as we shot from various distances but he insisted on propping his pistol up on a rest and a sandbag and shooting it from the 25-yard bench. He told us that he'd just put adjustable combat sights on it because he couldn't stand fixed sights. Then he proceeded to sit at the table and slowly bang away while tweaking his sights with an allen wrench until he could hit close to the center of his target. If he was serious about combat shooting, he'd have been down with us, shooting at 7 and 15 yards from the holster. I'm a firm believer in training the way that you're going to shoot in real life, and in real life the bad guys don't wait patiently 25 yards away for you to get your bench rest and sand bags out. And of course the guy spent $1100.00 on this custom pistol but I noticed that he was shooting the cheapest (and crappiest) ammuniton on the market. I guess that he's planning on using that crap as his defensive load because he was sighting the gun to it. Again, all ammunition shoots differently and real shooters know to zero their sights around the actual ammuntion that they plan to use in real life. Real shooters also run several hundred rounds of their chosen defensive ammo through their defensive sidearms as well, just to make sure that the gun will reliably feed and fire those rounds. Yes that can be expensive, but it's a better investment than adjustable "combat" sights, especially when pistol combat generally takes place between 7 and 15 yards and occurs suddenly, with no chance to whip out a little allen wrench and adjust them.

But while the "bench-rest combat shooter" was working on getting his gun to hit the center of his target from it's immobile rest, Aaron and I were realistically and rapidly placing all of our shots on paper plates, and that is more than sufficient for combat shooting, in my opinion. If you doubt me, compare the diameter of a paper plate to your own chest or head. I'llargue that two of three fast hits anywhere inside that circle are better than one hit in the center that takes a table, a chair, a special rest for the gun and fifteen seconds of sight alignment first. Real targets don't stand still for fifteen seconds.

I fired 115 rounds and put them all on the targets. Aaron did likewise. "Joe Bench-Rest" shot maybe twenty rounds then told us that he was all set and started packing up to leave. Given a choice between him and Aaron at my side when things really break bad, I want Aaron any day.

A fun side-note: Aaron flew so he had no guns with him. I loaned him one but his Civilian carry permit barred him from carrying it almost everywhere. My cop credentials still let me take mine everywhere though and I never tired of reminding him that I had a Glock and he did not. It's good to be da man.