Shooting

Well it wouldn't be a trip without some shooting, so on Sunday, I hooked up with Aaron of The Shekel blog and after doing a bit of gunsmithing and installing Lone Wolf trigger bars on his Glocks, we went out to the usual gravel pit for some serious guy time. This time we thought we'd have the place to ourselves as it was deserted, but within seconds of our arrival, another car pulled up and some dorks got out and immediately began "bump-firing" some AK and SKS rifles. Now lest ye think that I'm being a tad judgemental, I've always held that anyone who shoots like this has just self-labeled themself as a loser. You see, "bump-firing" is where a twit takes a loaded gun and holds it in such a way that with the first shot, the gun's recoil rocks it in his arms and trips the trigger over and over, basically mimicking machinegun fire, but without the ability to actually aim it. You see, the gun has to be help loose and allowed to shake and flop around and you cannot do this with the gun mounted you your shoulder so both a firm grip and use of the sights is ruled out. This of course means that the fool doing it has no real control over where the bullets go and I personally consider it not only stupid but dangerous and I think that people who do it should face charges and loose their guns. And frankly, it's bubbas like that that cause much of the image problems for decent gun owners.

Now Aaron and I were out there with machine guns ourselves, but ours were real and kept under control. He had his Uzi and I had my 1919A4 MMG. Call me a snob, but as a real machine gun owner and shooter--one who practices safe and responsible gun handling, I don't want bump-firing clowns anywhere around me.

Aaron and I also shot my AR-15A2 HBAR, a rifle that I grabbed out of the safe almost as an afterthought while packing. It's been years since I fired it and I'd been contemplating selling it but after putting 50 rounds or so thought it, I remembered why I like AR-15's so much and it's back off the sale list.

We then got out pistols out--his Glock and a Sig P-6 that he'd just acquired, and my H&K P7M13, and we proceeded to engage the far targets out on the range, hitting things with them regularly that the other shooters could not hit with their rifles and a scoped shotgun. But then Aaron and I have practiced. In addition to regular and frequent practice, He's an NRA pistol instructor, I'm law enforcement, and we've both trained with Mas Ayoob. We like to shoot and we're not out there to waste bullets on misses because ammo's getting seriously expensive these days. But it's all about fun too, and in one of our more enjoyable games, we tossed a coffee can out on the ground and took turns hitting it and flipping it all over the range with our pistols as the dozen-odd other shooters watched, hopefully noting that neither of us ever missed it. It's good to be good, especially when there's an audience.

And it was cold and wet out there but real men shoot in the cold and wet so we didn't mind all that much. In fact, the only exasperating episode came when someone *cough* this guy *cough* dumped a box containing nearly a thousand 1919a4 links on the muddy, snowy ground while attempting to place it back in the vehicle. *sigh...*