Most of my range time is consumed with shooting paper targets and working on form and accuracy. It's not that I prefer that type of shooting but it's generally what's available since I shoot at an indoor range most of the time.
This weekend though while we were down at the farm deer hunting we did a little plinking in between the morning and afternoon hunts. I had planned on walking down to our "range" and shooting some paper targets...but on the way there I noticed that there was a huge pile of scrap lumber in the burn pile right in front of the barn.
I walked over to the burn pile and grabbed a few sawed off ends that were perhaps the size of a brick...then I tossed them out in the grass next to the barn then I had the kids round up some soda cans to add to the mix too.
We were now looking at a bunch of soda cans and brick-sized chunks of lumber arrayed in front of us at various distances. To sweeten the pot I grabbed an old iron disk off one of the farm implements and we set it up about 40 yards away. It was essentially a big gong.
With the targets set, I began pulling out pistols. I had several hundred reloads for the 44 mags and the 41 mag as well as a new 10mm to shoot and my son just got a .380 for his birthday and we wanted to run that too.
For the next hour we shot and laughed as we watched cans flying high through the air and wood chunks being slammed around with splinters flying. Any miss with the 44 mag was obvious as the 240 grain bullet would leave a deep un-missable gouge in the earth about 12 inches long that let you know if you had missed high or low. The iron disk would sound off with a satisfying "GONNNNG!" each time you made it jump with a hit.
At one point I set out a short piece of circular piling intent on seeing if I could make it roll. The big 44 shattered it on the first shot, sending one chunk rolling down range to the left. I shot at that rolling piece just as it was coming to rest and rolled it again sending an even smaller piece down range again which gave me another opportunity for a shot at a moving target. Most of these guns are new to me and it was a great way to get familiar with them.
It's been a long time since I had so much fun shooting the pistols. I'm going to have to do more of this.
What do you do for plinking?
This weekend though while we were down at the farm deer hunting we did a little plinking in between the morning and afternoon hunts. I had planned on walking down to our "range" and shooting some paper targets...but on the way there I noticed that there was a huge pile of scrap lumber in the burn pile right in front of the barn.
I walked over to the burn pile and grabbed a few sawed off ends that were perhaps the size of a brick...then I tossed them out in the grass next to the barn then I had the kids round up some soda cans to add to the mix too.
We were now looking at a bunch of soda cans and brick-sized chunks of lumber arrayed in front of us at various distances. To sweeten the pot I grabbed an old iron disk off one of the farm implements and we set it up about 40 yards away. It was essentially a big gong.
With the targets set, I began pulling out pistols. I had several hundred reloads for the 44 mags and the 41 mag as well as a new 10mm to shoot and my son just got a .380 for his birthday and we wanted to run that too.
For the next hour we shot and laughed as we watched cans flying high through the air and wood chunks being slammed around with splinters flying. Any miss with the 44 mag was obvious as the 240 grain bullet would leave a deep un-missable gouge in the earth about 12 inches long that let you know if you had missed high or low. The iron disk would sound off with a satisfying "GONNNNG!" each time you made it jump with a hit.
At one point I set out a short piece of circular piling intent on seeing if I could make it roll. The big 44 shattered it on the first shot, sending one chunk rolling down range to the left. I shot at that rolling piece just as it was coming to rest and rolled it again sending an even smaller piece down range again which gave me another opportunity for a shot at a moving target. Most of these guns are new to me and it was a great way to get familiar with them.
It's been a long time since I had so much fun shooting the pistols. I'm going to have to do more of this.
What do you do for plinking?
