Do you blame the equipment ?

[115grfmj]

I came to a realization yesterday and I thought I'd share it. I was shooting
my 686+ with my brother (with 38's not .357), he couldn't hit the
broad side of a barn with it, his immediate reaction was to hand it back to
me with a smile and say " I think you might want to send that back
to S&W, there's obviously something wrong with it", I took it from him
and put all 7 shots through a clover leaf group at 20 yds, his reaction
was, priceless . BTW my brother is an experienced
shooter. Had that happen to me before, one of my buddies, was trying
out my 1894c at 100 yds, he (an experience rifleman, who does quite well
with his own) could manage better than 10" groups, I promptly shot several
2" groups, he was amazed and told me he had initially though my rifle
horribly inaccurate. This got me thinking. Now granted these are my guns,
and I'm better aquainted with them then they are, but it seems like
lots of folks are prepared to instantly blame the weapon rather than
admit that they are not perfect. How many statements of fault with
guns, on these pages are for the same reason.

The way I see it there are two kinds of folks, those that realize that they need more practice, and those who blame the equipment .


Which are you

 

[TallPine]

It's the equipment, of course

Rifle scopes are my pet peeve. I have yet to find one that the cross-hairs didn't wobble. You would think that they could figure out a way to keep the cross-hairs from wobbling.

Open sights are no better. They make the front sight clear and the rear sight fuzzy, or else sometimes the other way around. Why can't they make both sights clear? Quality control has gotten a lot worse in my lifetime.

 

[jefnvk]

The way I see it there are two kinds of folks, those that realize that they need more practice, and those who blame the equipment

Somtimes I wonder if it is me or the equipment. For example, my M1 will hold all 8 to 4-5" at 100 yards. I always figure it is me, but when others can do no better, I wonder.

But yeah, you'd think they could make sights that didn't wobble so much

 

[smokemaker]

For me... it's always the scope's fault. To eliminate this problem, I have removed all optics from my guns, and now spend lots of dinero on good Iron sights.

 

[Bwana John]

Why, it's never my fault, so it must be the equipments fault. Or it could be your fault.

 

[Majic]

When I can look down and actually see the gun is broke then I can breathe a sigh of relief. Otherwise I'm sweating it might just be me.

 

[PlayTheAces]

I've only run into a couple of guns in thirty plus years of shooting that I can fault. One was a mauser that was so shot out, it keyholed. The other is my SKS - from a bench it does no better than 10"-12" patterns at 100 yards. I'm still not convinced it's the SKS - may be I just can't shoot it worth a darn.

What I have discovered is that I shoot instinctively better with some weapons, as opposed to others. Some just seem to point naturally, or fit better in the hand, or have better perceived balance. This isn't a reflection on the equipment. It's strictly personal preference on my part. Once in a while you run into a gun where everything just seems to click and fall into place. Those are the keepers.

Those blasted itty bitty blurry jumpy sights are a whole different matter.

 

[Preacherman]

It's gotta be the hardware! On my XBox game console, I can shoot minute-of-zombie all day, every day, with my software 1911: but at the range with a steel 1911, all I can hit is the berm. Goes to prove my point, doesn't it?

(Spoken with tongue firmly in cheek... )

 

[ksnecktieman]

Accuracy has a direct relationship to rifling, and the spin imparted to the bullet. The spin imparted to the bullet is important because it keeps the bullet in tune with the earths rotation (Is the term "corriolis effect"?). Bullet speed,the temperature of the projectile, humidity causing slippage in the rifling, or the firmness of the grip on a firearm can cause terrible accuracy problems, even the number of spectators watching can cause a blip in the earths rotation. That is why two shooters get different results from the same gun, or the same shooter gets different results on different days. Or even between reloads.

NO, I do not make excuses, it is just common sense phsysics.

 

[Group9]

My favorite comment heard at the range, "Could you adjust the sights for me? It's shooting to the right and to the left of where I aim.

 

[R.H. Lee]

Rifle scopes are my pet peeve. I have yet to find one that the cross-hairs didn't wobble.

Yeah. We must have gotten scopes from the same bad batch. I think it's George Bush's fault.

 

[Fed168]

The best excuse I heard was that "the sights aren't adjusted for my eyes." The gun had fixed sights.

Students occasionally say it's the gun's fault. But when an instructor takes it, shoots a nice little group, it usually shuts them up.

 

[LiquidTension]

Nah, I'm quite sure it's usually my fault when I don't hit what I'm aiming at. Now, when I get consistent groups that are off target, it may be the gun. My usual excuse is that I don't have enough time to practice, so I suck

 

[MountainPeak]

In my case, I've always believe it to be a target conspiracy!

 

[Azrael256]

When it's just me, I usually accept the truth.

When others who I am trying to impress (particularly those of the female persuasion) are around, it's always a mechanical problem.

 

[Standing Wolf]

It isn't often the gun; when it is, however, I tend to trot out every curse word and scrap of foul language I've ever heard. I don't know why I expect my guns to perform flawlessly forever, especially considering I don't.

 

[AnthonyRSS]

I was getting ill at myself one day when I couldn't keep the bullets on the pie plate at 15 yards. They were going everywhere. Then the rear sight shot out and made me feel better. It's better now.

 

[SnWnMe]

I'm a Navy Chief, I'm never wrong!