Austin Winter THR Shoot: an After-Action Report

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As some of you may have seen in the Rallying Point forum, today was the day for our Austin Winter THR Shoot.

The idea was proposed back in early winter, and really got going around mid-December. We ended up holding the shoot at Austin Rifle Club, being that most folks had one objection or another to other assorted local ranges. Since ARC works on a club/parliamentary procedure, the timeline was rather short, and the meeting where the shoot was finally approved was only two days before the actual event. But I went and stated our case to the board, and the shoot was approved by a vote of 6-0-2. LESSON LEARNED: if you want to hold a shoot at a members-only range, get started on the process early so that you can get it voted on at a board meeting.

Shoot was scheduled from 1-5PM, and actually ran right around that time, though I'd thought that such would be too long. Total attendance ended up being just over a dozen, with about half of those being current members of ARC. Some folks left after the first couple hours, other folks showed up around the midpoint, so it was never too crowded. We had as many as 28 people who were thinking of coming, so I'm curious if 50% is a pretty normal turnout off of a THR thread, what with the last-minute turns in most folks' lives.

Shoot was held on an IHMSA-type range, with racks and berms at 40-50-75-100, so our handgun work was all pretty long range. This made the gongs, spinners, clay-birds, balloons, and other reactive targets very useful. We ended up mostly using those, and had very few Range Cold periods since many of those targets didn't need to be changed. We expended many, many rounds of 9mm, and employed advanced artillery forward observation techniques, attempting to hit a steel sillhouette at 50m with the Rohrbaugh. We got within inches, but never quite dinged it; had a heck of a fun time trying though. Put much more hurt on the silhouette with the 9mm Colt AR and Ruger Bearcat.

Folks brought some really cool gear out: everything from a $35 Savage bolt .22 and $65 H&R revo, up to 9mm Rohrbaugh, DSA FAL, and the most-impressive Clay custom Winchester 30-30. I know it doesn't sound exciting at first, but it was stainless, takedown, ghost-ring, scout-scope, and the action was buttery smooth... Some very impressive collections overall.

A good, safe time was had by all, and we passed the hat and raised a cash donation to ARC's youth shooting club. If this event was par for the course, then I'm glad to see that so many other folks are putting together local shoots in the Rallying Point section. I hope this event can be held again in the future. Thanks to everyone who came out and made it a fun time,

-MV
 
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'twas a worthy time for all. Unfortunately, the friend I brought along with me was a bit intimidated by it all, and declined to shoot, but says that she still had fun. She commented that everyone kept asking her if she wanted to shoot any of their firearms, and I told her that this group just couldn't believe anyone would actually pass up a chance to fire off some rounds... ;)
 
My wife & I certainly enjoyed ourselves...

Matthew,

Thanks for putting this together. We had fun.

Thanks to Jeremy for letting me shoot his Mosin - my first time. It was cool!

The weather was a little cool & blustery - but at least we didn't have the drizzly rain we did today.

Jax
 
OK, sorry that I took so long, but here are some pictures from the shoot. I didn't get many because my camera ran out of batteries, and there were many there whom I didn't get a picture of, but here we are.

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I certainly had a good time, and a special thanks to Matt for making it such a success, and also to Jax, who was exceedingly generous with the use of his firearms.
My one regret is that nobody managed to hit the 75 meter gong with Jax's Rorbaugh.

Maybe next time...

Mac
 
You call that winter?

Looks like fall to me...

THIS is winter...

Oh, if you're looking for guns,,,they're there...

:D



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At least 2 THR members here

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me with my much loved BHP
 

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280, you have to understand that some of us were laying on pool floats when it was 84 on new year's day. I actually had to dig to the back of the closet to get that jacket I'm wearing. :D

Again, thanks for putting this together Matt. It was a great time.
 
indeed totally worth the trip

Totally worth the hour drive up from San Antonio.

I would definately do it again. Nice meeting everyone and getting to play with some cool stuff. That tricked out 30-30 was definately my favorite of the entire day. Damn I wish you had gotten a pic of that thing. It was sweet. Maybe Jax can post a pic of that bad boy really soon for all to see, Matts description doesn't do it justice, you just had to have seen this fine firearm. Shooting it was even better. Thanks again to the Austin Rifle Club for thier generous hospitality.
 
Glad everyone enjoyed the shoot. I'm half-tempted to try and get in on this weekend's DFW shoot at the last minute.

I'd say another Austin shoot in late spring could be a good deal, if someone is up to doing the wrangling and bush-beating for it.

I took a bit of the dirty work out of it for the next guy. I PMed everyone on THR who is self-declared Austinite and had posted in 2004, so anyone with any interest in an Austin THR shoot has already posted on one of the two threads in the Rallying Point. The PMing was kind of dull, but it should be easier for the next shoot.

Also had a couple San Anton folks who wanted to come up but couldn't. First, y'all need to hold your own shoot as well, second, if you're on the Winter 2005 Austin discussion thread, you'll probably get PMed for the next shoot.

If someone wants to take the reins a few months down the road and set up another shoot in May or June, jump on it. I may be studying abroad then, but I'll definitely look forward to seeing pics.

-MV
 
What is all that white stuff on the ground in the pictures posted by 280plus? Some kind of sand? And aren't those heavy coats kinda hot? A loose shirt works for IDPA rules.

:D
 
Glad you all had a good time, I was sitting in a server farm impersonating an enraged Wookie as I restored directories from tape ("power user" does not necessarily mean he knows what he's doing). Maybe next time. Thanks for all the work you put into this Matt, even though I couldn't make it, I appreciate the effort you expended.

S/F

Farnham
 
What is all that white stuff on the ground
If you was a ski resort, you'd be callin' that "white gold".

When we started it was ~15*F, by the time we took that group photo it had gone up to a "balmy" 23*F. :uhoh:

Notice the blue smiley...

Why is 280 wearing an orange hat? Cause Cabelas had em on sale for a buck 99... :p

Oh, BTW, I'm glad you guys pulled it off. I couldn't even get that many to respond at all here in CT. Looks like some fun was had! :D
 
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Well, I'm taking a a THR-vacation from now until March 1st, so I'll be bailing from this thread.

I hope to come back to the forum in March, with full reports on my new Dissipator AR-15, and eager to hear how the SHOT Show turned out. All I ask is that NAA unveil their breaktop pocket .32H&R.

Time to spend more time shootin', less time yakkin' for this boy.

Take care, -MV
 
Matthew,

Thanks again for setting this up. Was good putting a face to several of the names on here. Only drawback was getting exposed to all the cool new toys that are tugging at my wallet (can't get the can't-miss-9mm-AR15, and the Rohrbaugh out of my mind ... :) )

Thanks again!
 
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