I Should Have Packed Up and Went Home

We all have our off days on the range. Next time out will be better.

I know the feeling. After I tagged the 600 yard gong with an iron sighted Mauser 98K from the standing position, there was no way on Earth I was going to do THAT again...time to go home and rest on the laurels!
In any case, nice shooting, sir!

Good shot

I've had days like that. First or second shot is a dead-on bull's eye. And, you just know it will never repeat the whole day.

But, because we all love converting chemical potential energy into noisy kinetic energy, we use up the rest of the boxes brought, anyway.

It's what we do.

But, yeah, that moment of, ok, I'm done, peaked early . . .

I made some perfect shots, too. But they must have been dumb luck, 'cause they couldn't be smart luck

Most of the time those orange stickers are the safest place on my targets.

Years ago (40+) I was at the range at the Chabot Regional Park range, in Hayward, California. I was offered a shot with a .378 Weatherby Mag. by the shooter next to me. I accepted and by dumb luck, nailed the exact center of the X in the X ring. I packed up and went home. Can't beat that shot.

230RN said:

I made some perfect shots, too. But they must have been dumb luck, 'cause they couldn't be smart luck

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Same here... But how come when that happens I never have any witnesses...

Wife: Honey how come when you come home from the range sometimes you keep your targets and sometimes not?
Me: I only keep the ones that look real good.

Seriously, there are days when the groups are so nice and tight and other days, same rifle, same temperature, same loads or simply put same everything and groups look like a shotgun at 25 yards.

Ron

tark said:

Years ago (40+) I was at the range at the Chabot Regional Park range, in Hayward, California. I was offered a shot with a .378 Weatherby Mag. by the shooter next to me. I accepted and by dumb luck, nailed the exact center of the X in the X ring. I packed up and went home. Can't beat that shot.

Click to expand...

That's a fast .30cal

I always wondered why it wasn't a standard sniper's cartridge in military use. It's the most accurate long range .30 in existence, no?

A long long time ago I had just finished burning ammo for a high-power shoot the next day, and decided to wander down to the other end of the firing line where a bunch of bubbas were milling around and occasionally shooting a gun. I met a friend who explained they were having a running deer shoot. Out yonder was a break in the 100 yard berm and behind that, maybe 10 yards farther, an I-beam lay on the ground forming the track for a car that ran back and forth by means of a rope. On the car was a target frame and on the frame was a life size picture of a deer, with scoring marks: 5 points for a head or spine shot, 4 points for heart/lung, and anything else was a miss.

You could take one or two shots depending on how many dollars you paid. I had burned all my Garand ammo so my friend offered his slug gun. OK! I knew nothing of shotguns then except that they ran at low pressure and threw a heavy payload slowly. Hmmm... a lot like my Brown Bess. I asked my friend how high to hold, and watched that deer run across the break a few times, saying "Boom..... thwack" to myself.

Lead estimated, I took my two shots and waited for the trusting soul downrange to judge the result. "Two fives," and I was high man of the relay. I thanked my friend and took home a frozen turkey. And to this day, none of those guys knows it was just beginner's luck... unless one of you rats me out.

I usually know by about the 3rd trigger pull what kind of day it'll be. I always stay, even on the days when my better judgement says "go back home dummy". I fully believe it'll get worse before it gets better...Which is true, but only if it actually does get better. Mostly it doesn't.

But that amazing shot...the one that happens sometimes when we least expect it... inevitably becomes "One time, I was at the range"
You'll probably never remember the other 89 shots you fired today.

If it was a cold bore shot you are good. A tip would be not to drink coffee before shooting drink it later...lol

I have made some really good shots, usually nobody sees them. I am alot more prone to error when others are present. Funny how that works. I used to be a pretty good skateboarder as a teen and most of my biggest, smoothest flip tricks or smoothest half pipe runs were when nobody was around to see....

I am a terrible left handed handgun shot, I have a tremble that I have basically adapted to or overcome with lots of practice over the years, at least to the point of being able to score pretty good hits and am a decent shot I'd say. But shooting left handed is not something I practice alot in front of others but one day I must have been in the zone and was standing about at least 50 ft away from a sawhorse that had five lil 4" w 6" tall steel knockdown targets and I just pulled up my G19 and swung that gun from left to right and hit all but the last target in sequence within a few seconds.

It might not seem like a great feat but it was for me, the guys I was shooting with were quite impressed and they didn't even realize I was shooting lefty at first. Luck probably had a lil bit to do with the first 4 shots, I expelled most of the remaining 12 rounds knocking the 5th target down. It was still satisfying.

Practicing what you suck at is good advice.

Sometimes I think I shot better groups when I had lower powered scopes and couldn't see the group until I walked down range! A few of my rifles are capable of extreme accuracy but sometimes I'll have 4 shots overlapping into one hole and blow the fifth!

tark said:

Years ago (40+) I was at the range at the Chabot Regional Park range, in Hayward, California. I was offered a shot with a .378 Weatherby Mag. by the shooter next to me. I accepted and by dumb luck, nailed the exact center of the X in the X ring. I packed up and went home. Can't beat that shot.

Click to expand...

About 25 years ago, or so, I was at Ben Avery in Phoenix shooting test loads in my .308 that was printing close to 1" 5-round groups. The fellow at the next table asked if I would shoot his rifle because he couldn't get 3 rounds within a dinner plate. I fired a 3-round cloverleaf 1/2" high and 3/4" left. With his factory ammo. His rifle was a brand new Weatherby MkV in .300 Wby Mag. with a new Leupold scope. "Nothing wrong with this gun."
I suggested he practice at the range with a .243 and take his Weatherby elk hunting.
I am not a big Weatherby fan, but that was one nice rifle!

My Son zeroing his Browning X Bolt .30/06. The rifle hadn't been fired in a year. Off the bench, no rest he fired one shot and said: "Well, I'm, done." 100 yards.

First shot ever from my old LCP

Jack O'Connor, legendary writer for Oudoor Life and devotee of the .270 Winchester cartridge, was mainly interested in game shooting rather than targeting or competition. He is reputed to say, "I'm not interested in the ten-shot group or the five-shot group, or even in the three-shot group. I only care about the one-shot group."

(Anecdote related from memory of his writings. Utter precision not guaranteed.)

Terry, 230RN

You have the skills. Keep it up,keep shooting never never pack up and go home until supper is ready.

I now call this guy Coldshot after this 1st shot:



No, it isn't me. A former coworker.