Gambling at the Gun Range

My favorite past time is shooting a 357 or 22 pistol at 100 yards. So yes, I like it when the money comes out.

Especially when its from the overweight guy in BDUs shooting a rifle from the 25 yard bench.

Anecdote Alert:
Story in a gunzine of years ago.
There was a little community of slug gun shooters at a club. 19th century slug guns, very heavy benchrest muzzleloaders.
They would invite a new Weatherby shooter for a little competition, five shots for score.
Of course the bolt gunner would rip off his five shots pretty quickly, and turn to see the muzzleloader firing his second shot. The first one barely a Ten at 12 o'clock. The second would go in, a wide Ten at 3 o'clock. After a lengthy wipe and reload, the third would be a wide Ten at 6 o'clock. Repeat for a wide Ten at 9 o'clock. The sucker probably had caught on by then, but just to make sure, the fifth big slug would be a center X.

My two boys and I had a shooting game with a bowling pin swinging from a Shepherds Hook. It was so many shots within a certain amount of time. Looser bought lunch at the watering hole on the way home.

I appreciate the sentiment, but it's not gambling if you know how to shoot.

Lots of times we have made bets. Some huge, but we always either stop with a simple dinner bet or we go wild and do double or nothing til it lands on nothing. Biggest bet I remember is putting up four wheelers on rifle shots. Spray paint can at 500yards give or take, in the wind. And we had to hit it 3 in a row. Would never happen, and if it did then we would try it again double or nothing.

Now, at the actual range instead of messing around at the farm, things weren’t so civil. I have left with a couple hundred bucks when a guy got mad at his brand new ABolt. He was flustered and couldn’t hit, I was hitting the same target at 100 with my 7-30 contender pistol that he was missing. He bet me 50 I couldn’t hit the 300 yard target. He gave up after 3 double or nothing shots.

Time alone shooting is the best.

However, tacking a dollar bill up and the winner is the one closest to old George.

Doesn’t hurt that most guys think a .22 falls out of the sky at 50 yards.

Nope I'm old enough to have learned not to let my mouth overload, in this case, my trigger finger.

See, thing is, you gotta know your equipment, and not let your mouth overload your talent.

Could always play strip poker against yourself......might looked kinda stupid standing butt naked with a gun in your hands.....

Rembrandt said:

Could always play strip poker against yourself......might looked kinda stupid standing butt naked with a gun in your hands.....

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.......One of these evenings..........

Funniest range bet I've witnessed was while shooting with a post AMU. We had 18 enlisted men on the team, plus the CO, who was a 1st LT. We practiced daily, and the 16 high averages went to next match(s) as shooting members, on one of the four man teams. The three low averages also went to matches, but as alternates.

Fortunately, our CO was a great guy. He and an E5 and a Spec 3 were always vying for a slot on a team. They had a running bet of a beer on every shot in the 20 round practice string. (Low score on each shot bought a round for all three). Their scores were consistently so close that no one got hurt at the end of the day.

One day, the E5 got hold of the LT's ammo can, pulled the bullet on one round, dumping about a fourth of the powder out, pushed bullet back in and replaced it in the box. Everyone on the team except LT knew what he had done. Half the team went to the pits to pull targets for the rest of us. Offhand string was first and, of course, we were all waiting anxiously.

Finally, LT called a 5 (old 5V targets) at 6 o'clock and when his target came up, it was followed by the red "Maggies drawers"! Amazingly, only the top half of the spotter was barely visible over the low berm in front of the targets.

A miss was unheard of on the team and the team member in the pits was enjoying waving the flag until LT had enough, called pits and had them "pull and paste", then grumbled, "I knew it was low but I sure didn't think it was that low.

It was several days before the E5 got up enough nerve to tell LT what he had done and picked up the next round of beer.

Regards,
hm

Gambling requires "luck".

It's all skill if I'm gonna put money down.

I use to flavor one of my targets to attract flies. Put that target out at 50 yards and try to shoot regular flies and horse flies. Managed to hit one about every 5th shot.

Pat Riot said:

My friend and I would bet lunch on shots when we used to go to an outdoor range that had a little cafe.

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My son and I usually end our shooting sessions with some type of who will buy lunch bet.

We had a blue square headed thumb tack we would put at 50 yards and try to hit with a pistol.
We bet a steak on it.

Eventually the tack was lost without snyone collecting the bet but we had fun trying.

The last bet was a pound of varget if he could hit a 8" gong with my m29 at 300 yards in 6 shots. He actually did it. I claim pure luck, he claims skill

A few years ago a friend and his son decided to head out to a rural area I knew for a morning of shooting. As we were finishing one of us thought it would be be a good idea to bet lunch on an impossible shot. We paced off 125 yards and set up a pop can, the first one to hit the can (Glock 9s) got a free lunch. I was lucky enough to win the coin toss for first shot. First shot and the can flipped ass over tea kettle, that was the best lunch I'd had in quite a while.

Does playing the Lewis Classes count?

Calcutta, man, Calcutta.

All the time, me with pistols vs my shooting partners with rifles, so I have a chance.

(Killer pistol shot lousy rifle shot)

I use to belong to a group of guys that would meet once a week and shoot nothing but 380 pocket guns. We would put money in a pot and winner take all.

I shot in a local match one time. Several events, for cheap Trophy's. 8 of us shot handgun 50 yards on running Target. Deer driven by pedal mechanism. I took first place . At the end of all events I went to pick up my Trophy for that event. They said I was not the first place winner. Come to find out they were letting shooters repay for the event and shoot again as often as they wanted as long as they repaid each time. (rules not posted) It took the winner 4 times to get a higher score. I didn't return to that local event. PS: you received nothing for 2nd place on any of the events. Most of my challenges were at a local gravel pit that people shot in for years. Two of my brothers and I would spend Sunday afternoons there. No cash bets, just fun.

I went to a home range and they were shooting at the poker cards target with pistols at 25 and 50yrds, I stood back and watched, knowing my limits, and enjoyed watching them play poker.

I did the bet you can't hit the can at 100 yards with your 22. The can, placed by me was weighted in the bottom so it wouldn't fall when hit by a 22. Fun.

I don't gamble period. Was tempted many time for an easy win with bragging co workers etc.
It's not my thing I should sometimes.

If you really want to gamble big using guns, go shoot box pigeons; some of those calcuttas can get upwards of $500K.................most typical shoots the winner can easily walk away with 30K