After a loss of a loved one, coping and shooting.

My condolences to you and his family and friends for your loss.

So very sorry for you and your family's loss, it is becoming a thing we all are having to go through now as we age.

I lost my friend Brian a little ways ago. Brain tumor. Prior to my good friend Cesar, B was the only person I'd ever shot with. I still remember our first range day, in 2018. I had just bought my SKS, and 200 rounds. That same Saturday, we went shooting. I miss my friend.

At the range, there's a steel plate around 400 yards. That first time, my first time ever shooting a gun, she looks at my rifle and inspects it and says " You have found yourself a very, very fine workhorse", which.. I can't find the words for how it made me feel.

He said " Today, we're going to train on basic rifle discipline. My goal is to get you to shoot so well, you can hit that plate with every single round in a mag, using only your irons set for 100m". And you know what? I did it. And every time we went shooting after that, it was something else to get better at it. After maybe six months, he said " you're my most improved student, I'm proud of you, buddy. ". And those words stick with me, whenever I see my SKS.

I haven't been able to go back to that range since he passed away. Hell, I cried typing this.

I know exactly how you feel. I'm so sorry for your loss.

My wife of 40 years was diagnosed with Lewy Body dementia. An absolutely horrible disease. I had to put her in an assisted living place earlier this year. I miss her terribly. Hard to find joy in anything.

Yep. My 8 year old grandsons funeral was Saturday.

Obituary | Daniel Joseph Burnham, Jr. of Rome, Georgia | HENDERSON & SONS FUNERAL HOME, INC. (hendersonandsons.com)

He was just getting old enough to start learning how to shoot. Lots of hunts won't happen. Been a tough 2 weeks.

Orion8472 said:

Earlier this year, I lost my brother to a sudden heart attack. It was a huge hit on me, emotionally. When you know someone for over 50 years, and then they're just gone, it can affect a person greatly. This is what happened for me.


My brother was 4 years older than me and I went over every Saturday. I helped with a lot of things around their apartment [him and his wife] because they both had back problems. Can't help but have an "every Saturday" thing affect your personality....eventually. We did a lot of different things. Sure, sometimes it was boring....just watching TV or something. But it was my brother. The things he enjoyed, I did also, by default. Music, train videos, dash cam videos, Impractical Jokers, etc. Much of that, now, isn't funny anymore.

But we did some shooting from time to time. And this is where I feel a special type of emptiness. Yesterday, I went to the range to sight in two scopes on my 22lr rifles. But after I did, I managed to find a fist size rock on the 100 yard backstop. I was able to hit it each time, with my target 10/22, and most times with my Thompson Center 10/22 clone. And then it hit me...how much fun my brother and I had doing that at the range. Rather than simple "paper punching", finding a dirt clump or rock was what we really liked doing. My brother would have gotten a huge kick out of hitting that rock....himself, and me as I shot.

Have any of you experienced a similar loss in your life...and have it affect your life?

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Take some extra and shoot a few rounds for him. My father took me out shooting a lot, not the first time, but for several years with my first 22lr that I paid for with money I made delivering papers. He's been gone for over 30 years now, I still miss him.

jmr40 said:

Yep. My 8 year old grandsons funeral was Saturday.

Obituary | Daniel Joseph Burnham, Jr. of Rome, Georgia | HENDERSON & SONS FUNERAL HOME, INC. (hendersonandsons.com)

He was just getting old enough to start learning how to shoot. Lots of hunts won't happen. Been a tough 2 weeks.

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It's real hard to lose one so young. You were blessed for 8 years.

I'm do sorry for your losses.

Man, I'm sorry for your loss. I have a brother 11 months younger than me and he's probably the person I'm closest to in this world. Hard to imagine what you're going through. Smoke sent!

I lost my daughter last July. She was my favorite shooting partner. I still have the first pistol I gave her and the only one she ever bought with her own money. A sig 365. "Just like yours Dad"

It's been an incredibly tough and lonely year. My condolences to the OP.

Are you willing to share your favorite shooting with your brother story? Laughter does help, when you can laugh again.

I have a few with my little girl that I've tried to share, I'm sure there would be many drinks sprayed. I just can't do it yet, hurts too bad. I'm not there yet.

I have been shooting once since she died. The regulars knew about it. They all got together and 17 shooters fired 7 rounds in unison for her. Then everybody stepped back and let me run a full mag at speed through the sig she bought and never got a chance to shoot.

Worst group I ever shot, couldn't see the target. Smeared safety glasses I guess. Must have been lots of dust right then, most were wiping it out of their eyes too.

Lost my shooting buddy wife in 2010 so I got my teen daughter into trap shooting. We call it recoil therapy.

I just found out a friend of mine lost his wife to a heart attack in Little Rock while they were enroute to the US Open Sporting Clays tournament. She went with him to all these big shoots and they were married 51 years. I know it will be tough for him going forward.

I am sorry for your loss. My father-in-law introduced me to hunting and we hunted NY and PA together for many years. He died in 2016. Cancer. I miss him every time I'm afield, see game animals when I'm driving, buy a new hunting rifle, am reading a book by Capstick or Ruark ... you get the idea.

Orion8472 said:

Earlier this year, I lost my brother to a sudden heart attack. It was a huge hit on me, emotionally. When you know someone for over 50 years, and then they're just gone, it can affect a person greatly. This is what happened for me.

My brother was 4 years older than me and I went over every Saturday. I helped with a lot of things around their apartment [him and his wife] because they both had back problems. Can't help but have an "every Saturday" thing affect your personality....eventually. We did a lot of different things. Sure, sometimes it was boring....just watching TV or something. But it was my brother. The things he enjoyed, I did also, by default. Music, train videos, dash cam videos, Impractical Jokers, etc. Much of that, now, isn't funny anymore.

But we did some shooting from time to time. And this is where I feel a special type of emptiness. Yesterday, I went to the range to sight in two scopes on my 22lr rifles. But after I did, I managed to find a fist size rock on the 100 yard backstop. I was able to hit it each time, with my target 10/22, and most times with my Thompson Center 10/22 clone. And then it hit me...how much fun my brother and I had doing that at the range. Rather than simple "paper punching", finding a dirt clump or rock was what we really liked doing. My brother would have gotten a huge kick out of hitting that rock....himself, and me as I shot.

Have any of you experienced a similar loss in your life...and have it affect your life?

Click to expand...

It's strange that I'm reading this right now. At this moment I'm sitting in my car in my driveway, thinking about the loss of my best friend. He was as close to a brother as one could get. The type of person you didn't have to put on your best face around and could just be yourself around, warts and all, just very close.

We grew up in the same small town and we were both cut from the same cloth. He got me, and I got him. We were both big fans of cinema, especially war movies, we both had a very similar gallows type of humor and he is the reason I met my wife, who I've been with for 15 years now, thanks to him. He would tell you I stole her away from him but that's a whole nother story, lol and he was just a lil bitter for a lil while. We were best friends and every time I hear "simple man" on the radio I think of him, I lost him in September 2020.

We spent the summer shooting together, making up for some lost time after a pretty good spell of not seeing each other due to his nature of being a traveling, candle in the wind kind of guy, leaving the NE to pursue work in AR, TX, FL, etc... anyway he was one of my only friends who was knowledgeable about firearms and had the wherewithal to read and purchase different gun publication's and give us plenty to talk about, which was unique to him as far as friends went. We both loved and had an affinity for firearms and war/action movies starting in our teen years, I think the first time I ever heard the word "magpul" was from him sometime in the early 2000's. We got along well and I miss him dearly. I never told him, but he was a grade ahead of me and I looked up to him alot. He was hilarious. We could just tell what the other was thinking with a look...

I just stumbled across a "twisted tea" can he chucked in my woods last time he was here, it's tough to lose a brother. I wish I spent more time with him, it just happened so unexpectedly I didn't see it coming. I take solace in the fact that he made it back to his hometown and was "ecstatic" to reconnect and still have videos of us at the range having a great time. I watch the videos from time to time because I know he was having the time of his life shooting everything we could. We had a blast.

I remember being a 15 year old young man and his folks had this great place on the black River and they had a nice pond out back with a few tons of sand brought in to make a nice lil backyard beach and there was this big gathering/party where his step-dad (ranger) and his uncle (navy seal/University professor) had a bit of a **** measuring contest and his uncle George claimed that he could enter the pond under the watchful eye of everybody (approx 60-70 people) and could exit the pond undetected, of course everybody was watching, and it was a pretty small pond to tell the truth. After about a half hour some people lost interest and forgot what was even happening but there were still a handful of us watching very closely... about 40 minutes later me and my friend, still intently watching heard a "spchshhh" right behind us, it was his uncle George opening a budweiser he managed to grab from the cooler behind us, coming out of the pond completely undetected long after people had lost interest and forgot what was even going on. He was in his underwear, covered in mud, we asked him how he did it and he just laughed at us.


I wish you peace in your time of grief, I'm sorry for your loss. Life is fleeting..... enjoy it while you can and just try to reflect on the good times you had together...

Moving on. I try to remember to thank God for the good times and memories. The loss is real, but the memories can still make me smile.

It's not quite the same I realize but my dad died about ten years ago. I haven't hunted since he passed and maybe never will again. It's just not the same without him.

My dad was a jr high school teacher, taught English. Just after he took early retirement, 35 years in binghamton City school district, he and my stepmother decided to travel the US, bought a motor home. He was concerned about SD and asked what he could get that was legal for them to travel with. I showed him some pics of an 1858 new army Remington, he liked it so u bought 2 one for him and one for myself. His first pistol, only pistol, and first black powder arm.

Orion8472 said:

Earlier this year, I lost my brother to a sudden heart attack. It was a huge hit on me, emotionally. When you know someone for over 50 years, and then they're just gone, it can affect a person greatly. This is what happened for me.

My brother was 4 years older than me and I went over every Saturday. I helped with a lot of things around their apartment [him and his wife] because they both had back problems. Can't help but have an "every Saturday" thing affect your personality....eventually. We did a lot of different things. Sure, sometimes it was boring....just watching TV or something. But it was my brother. The things he enjoyed, I did also, by default. Music, train videos, dash cam videos, Impractical Jokers, etc. Much of that, now, isn't funny anymore.

But we did some shooting from time to time. And this is where I feel a special type of emptiness. Yesterday, I went to the range to sight in two scopes on my 22lr rifles. But after I did, I managed to find a fist size rock on the 100 yard backstop. I was able to hit it each time, with my target 10/22, and most times with my Thompson Center 10/22 clone. And then it hit me...how much fun my brother and I had doing that at the range. Rather than simple "paper punching", finding a dirt clump or rock was what we really liked doing. My brother would have gotten a huge kick out of hitting that rock....himself, and me as I shot.

Have any of you experienced a similar loss in your life...and have it affect your life?

Click to expand...

So sorry for you. Losing a loved one can be devastating, hope over time that you can find comfort for your loss

When I lost my dad, I lost my passion for shooting and hunting for several years. I don’t think I bought a new gun or stepped into the woods for a couple years afterwards. Dad was the guy I called whenever I bought a new gun. He was the person I learned to hunt with. It just never was the same and in a lot of ways, I guess it never will be the same.

But, I did regain my passion for both firearms and hunting recently. I post about my new guns and hunting experiences here since I can no longer call my dad and talk to him about them. Your hobbies and habits are changed forever, but you’ll find joy in them again eventually. The flavor may not ever be as sweet as it once was, but the blandness that comes with the death of a loved one, will eventually be replaced with the taste of sentimentalism. I buy guns now because I know my dad would have enjoyed them. I think about my dad every time I step out into the deer woods.

I’m truly sorry for your loss, but know that life will go on and the pain will eventually subside and the hole in your heart will shrink with time until it is finally completely filled in by memories.

I feel for you.
My Father died this past February. He was the one who introduced me to shooting and reloading.
The emptiness should be momentary because you remember the joy you had together. He is still with you in your heart.
Focus on the good. Not the loss. His back pain is gone etc.

My Brother was also 4 years older than me, lost him almost two decades ago. Wish I had something comfortable to say or that the loss subsides. Sorry for your loss.

Timely post OP. My best friend (one of three) just died of a heart attack a week ago. We moved into a small town at the same time. He mustered out of the coast guard and I got a job here. He joined the local PD. We both joined the local FD at the same time. That was 1978. Time and jobs, family, fun times over the many intervening years. Talked at least every other day. Miss him a bunch but he would say I was foolish to think like that. Actually closer than family. Will miss my shooting buddy.

I'm sorry about your brother. That hollowness doesn't go away, but you'll soon start focusing on fond memories.

Dad and I fished together a lot. The morning after he died I went to his favorite spot with his fishing rod. Immediately a gorgeous dragonfly lit on his rod. I'll let you finish that little story.

Do, look for those things, and count them as blessings, for you were blessed to have had such a brother.

Prayers for you and his family.

I’m sorry for the loss of your brother. If you were close, I’m certain that in the coming months and years, you will have many occasions that the empty feeling will hit you. Just remember him when you do the things you did together.....and reminisce of the good times! memtb