Keith
Member
There is a place at the top of a high cliff overlooking the ocean where I like to go and shoot. There's a convenient hillside that acts as a backstop for .22 and handgun shooting, or you can shoot off the cliff at convenient rocks out to five or six hundred yards. Nobody around for miles and miles and nowhere for the bullets to go except out into the empty North Pacific or into the hillside.
Anyway, I was out there yesterday with my 12 year old son, Connor. We unloaded a couple hundred rounds from the FAL, then began plinking with .22 handguns and a rifle. There's a lot of busted clay pigeons around to show that somebody has been using the same location for skeet, but we've never run into anyone else. The busted skeet make excellent .22 targets when propped up at various distances.
So, along comes two young guys and a girl who set up and begin busting skeet off the cliff. Eventually, they come over to say hello and check out our guns. The young lady has never shot a handgun, so I set her up with a .22 and she shoots a few magazines and just LOVES it! In fact, she makes a few pointed comments to her husband/boyfriend and it's obvious she has a handgun in her future!
They then ask me if I want to shoot some skeet. I decline, since they only have one gun and not many skeet or shells left. For some reason though, I ask if I can try and "clean up" the ones they miss with my .22. They go along with a sort of "oh sure" and some rolling of the eyes... I don't mind - I mean, I can't embarrass myself by missing skeet with a rifle!
I set myself some yards to their left with a 10/22 - a stock 10/22 except that I've added a peep site on the rear and a Firesight up front. It's adjusted to hit directly under the glowing bead. From my perspective (since I'm on the left), the birds are crossing from my right to left. Almost a crossing shot, but not quite.
So away we go, they begin tossing out the skeet and (generally missing), and so do I. I run through most of a magazine before realizing that I'm instinctively leading the birds as I would with a shotgun. It isn't working, so I resolve to just aim directly at the leading edge of the skeet... and I start busting them! They can't believe it - and neither can I, but I don't let on, just sort of smile and shrug as if I do this all the time...
I ran through a couple of magazines and busted about 50% of the birds I shot at before they ran out of skeet. They thought I was some sort of ballistic god! And best of all, my son was watching all this with an awed expression! I was amazed myself - I had no idea I could do that!
When we got home, Connor went straight to the kitchen and got on the phone to call one of his buddies and I overheard him bragging to somebody about how "My dad was busting skeet with a rifle!"
It doesn't get any better than that!
Keith
Anyway, I was out there yesterday with my 12 year old son, Connor. We unloaded a couple hundred rounds from the FAL, then began plinking with .22 handguns and a rifle. There's a lot of busted clay pigeons around to show that somebody has been using the same location for skeet, but we've never run into anyone else. The busted skeet make excellent .22 targets when propped up at various distances.
So, along comes two young guys and a girl who set up and begin busting skeet off the cliff. Eventually, they come over to say hello and check out our guns. The young lady has never shot a handgun, so I set her up with a .22 and she shoots a few magazines and just LOVES it! In fact, she makes a few pointed comments to her husband/boyfriend and it's obvious she has a handgun in her future!
They then ask me if I want to shoot some skeet. I decline, since they only have one gun and not many skeet or shells left. For some reason though, I ask if I can try and "clean up" the ones they miss with my .22. They go along with a sort of "oh sure" and some rolling of the eyes... I don't mind - I mean, I can't embarrass myself by missing skeet with a rifle!
I set myself some yards to their left with a 10/22 - a stock 10/22 except that I've added a peep site on the rear and a Firesight up front. It's adjusted to hit directly under the glowing bead. From my perspective (since I'm on the left), the birds are crossing from my right to left. Almost a crossing shot, but not quite.
So away we go, they begin tossing out the skeet and (generally missing), and so do I. I run through most of a magazine before realizing that I'm instinctively leading the birds as I would with a shotgun. It isn't working, so I resolve to just aim directly at the leading edge of the skeet... and I start busting them! They can't believe it - and neither can I, but I don't let on, just sort of smile and shrug as if I do this all the time...
I ran through a couple of magazines and busted about 50% of the birds I shot at before they ran out of skeet. They thought I was some sort of ballistic god! And best of all, my son was watching all this with an awed expression! I was amazed myself - I had no idea I could do that!
When we got home, Connor went straight to the kitchen and got on the phone to call one of his buddies and I overheard him bragging to somebody about how "My dad was busting skeet with a rifle!"
It doesn't get any better than that!
Keith
