MatthewVanitas
Member
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
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
Last edited: