The first time I took my Garand and my 91/30 to the range, there were a few young guys there with their girlfriends. They were shooting an SKS, an AR clone and an AK clone. I took a bench about 4 positions down from them.
During a break, I took a target out to 100 yards (the only targets I had at the time were some 25yd pistol slow fire targets with a black 8" center. I set the rifle up along with my spotting scope and fired the first clip with the resulting 'ping'. One of the guys came over and asked what I was shooting that made that noise. So I told him what the rifle was and let him handle it and he asked to look thru the spotting scope to see what I did with it. The first 8 round group was about 4". Then one of the girls came over and I offered to let her shoot it. She got thru the first 3 rounds and said that was enough. Apparently too much recoil for her.
After finishing out the clip and shooting a few more, I changed targets and I grabbed my 91/30. Again, one of the guys came over and asked about it. O told him it was a Izzy 91/30 built in 1931 and told him a little about Mosins. When I fired a few rounds from that, the one guy commented that he had never heard anything that loud (probably should have brought my M44
)! I got a couple of 4" groups from it. By then all of them had come over and were watching and asking about it.
I thought it was kind of neat that the old battle rifles attract attention from younger shooters. It seems so many young people seem to only care about EBR's or some sort of high-dollar handguns. When I told them that a 91/30 or M44 can be had for under $100 and the ammo is readily available and cheap, the guys seemed pretty interested in getting one.
One thing I alwasy try to do when I take my Garand to the range is to hold back at least one clip. If I happen to see somebody that looks to be of WWII or Korean era age and maybe a veteran, I wind up talking with thenm and offering them a chance to give my Garand a try. I've alread had a couple of older gentlemen nearly cry when they get a chance to shoot an M1 again.
