Carter
Member
For awhile now I've been going with my friend to his range since my usual spot got shut down by the wild life service. Today, however, my girlfriend's brother invited me to go with him to a guy's house out in the country where he has his own range. I got there and the range was literally 25 yards from the back patio. The guy has 30 some acres of land so we weren't shooting at anything but woods.
I started breaking in my new XCR with American Eagle ammo. The only problem I had was it skipped a round when the bolt was cycling forward. The manuel said shoot 200 rounds on gas setting 4, but after getting trigger slapped excessivly for 50 some rounds I went down a setting. It shot once inch groups at 25 yards while I was trying to sight it in. I was focusing more on breaking it in than finding a zero (although its pretty close) because I'm going to focus on that monday with my friend and his stabilizing bags.
After that we put up some targets my gf and I made that had bags of paintballs center mass or over the head depending on which one. They made a pretty good reactive target for about five hits, spraying paint a little bit. After a few minutes the paint started to run down. Poor targets bled out.
The guy who owned the range then brought out his M1 carbine and Thompson (extended barrel version). The thompson is by far one of my favorite weapons from WWII. After drooling over it for an hour I asked to shoot it. It was putting a decent group at 25 yards. A little tree off to the side kept catching my eye though. Three shots later (all three hits) I had cut the tree down.
Very satisfying. My gf missed it and I tried it again and missed every shot (about 4) till the mag was empty. Guess it was a one time deal.
The M1 carbine was extremely accurate and felt great to shoot. I don't know which one I'd rather have more, the M1 carbine or thompson. Either way I fell in love.
We spent most of the time teaching my gf's brother's son to shoot. He couldn't hold one of the rifles well enough to shoot, but he surprised us with the pistol. He got a bullseye with a 1911 and would pick out ballons and shoot them with a .22 handgun. We were pretty impressed. A kid who lived near by came riding by on his bike and promplty joined us and the land owner taught him a few basics and let him shoot the .22.
I also got to shoot my first revolver. It was a slightly large pocket pistol type .38 special, double action only. The trigger pull was a lot different than my sr9c, but I liked it. My grouping wasn't exactly a grouping at first...but I managed. I was surprised however that a .38 special +p HP only went partly through a phone book. My 9mm +p+ ranger t-series went all the way through it before expanding once it hit the plywood target stand. Guess that pokes a hole in Burn Notice's phone books make cheap bullet proofing material for a car.
Towards the very end we put up a piece of cardboard that had a deck of cards on it and played poker with .22's. I used open sights, everyone else used a scope...cheaters. I lost once due to a slight jerk, almost had a royal flush.
All in all it was a great day. No range fees, no strangers acting foolish, teaching two kids shooting basics, and paint spewing targets. Makes me wanna move out to the country so I can build my own range too.
I started breaking in my new XCR with American Eagle ammo. The only problem I had was it skipped a round when the bolt was cycling forward. The manuel said shoot 200 rounds on gas setting 4, but after getting trigger slapped excessivly for 50 some rounds I went down a setting. It shot once inch groups at 25 yards while I was trying to sight it in. I was focusing more on breaking it in than finding a zero (although its pretty close) because I'm going to focus on that monday with my friend and his stabilizing bags.
After that we put up some targets my gf and I made that had bags of paintballs center mass or over the head depending on which one. They made a pretty good reactive target for about five hits, spraying paint a little bit. After a few minutes the paint started to run down. Poor targets bled out.
The guy who owned the range then brought out his M1 carbine and Thompson (extended barrel version). The thompson is by far one of my favorite weapons from WWII. After drooling over it for an hour I asked to shoot it. It was putting a decent group at 25 yards. A little tree off to the side kept catching my eye though. Three shots later (all three hits) I had cut the tree down.
Very satisfying. My gf missed it and I tried it again and missed every shot (about 4) till the mag was empty. Guess it was a one time deal. The M1 carbine was extremely accurate and felt great to shoot. I don't know which one I'd rather have more, the M1 carbine or thompson. Either way I fell in love.
We spent most of the time teaching my gf's brother's son to shoot. He couldn't hold one of the rifles well enough to shoot, but he surprised us with the pistol. He got a bullseye with a 1911 and would pick out ballons and shoot them with a .22 handgun. We were pretty impressed. A kid who lived near by came riding by on his bike and promplty joined us and the land owner taught him a few basics and let him shoot the .22.
I also got to shoot my first revolver. It was a slightly large pocket pistol type .38 special, double action only. The trigger pull was a lot different than my sr9c, but I liked it. My grouping wasn't exactly a grouping at first...but I managed. I was surprised however that a .38 special +p HP only went partly through a phone book. My 9mm +p+ ranger t-series went all the way through it before expanding once it hit the plywood target stand. Guess that pokes a hole in Burn Notice's phone books make cheap bullet proofing material for a car.
Towards the very end we put up a piece of cardboard that had a deck of cards on it and played poker with .22's. I used open sights, everyone else used a scope...cheaters. I lost once due to a slight jerk, almost had a royal flush.
All in all it was a great day. No range fees, no strangers acting foolish, teaching two kids shooting basics, and paint spewing targets. Makes me wanna move out to the country so I can build my own range too.
Last edited:
