I had a good friend and his family out yesterday, which has become a tradition for us; family shoot in the AM, BBQ, then catch the fireworks on post in the evening.
1st some range improvements that went in on Sunday. I've had the bowling pins (AR500) for a few years and we used to shoot them off the railroad ties. We'd finish just about every practice session running pin competitions against each other; winner runs his set, then hits the swinger in the middle. Problem was the ties got shot up, and we spend more time trying to get the pins to stand up than it's worth. Other stands would vibrate when hit and all the pins would fall over. The solution was to weld a couple 6' stands made of 1/2" steel with legs that we drove in the ground 1.5'. We tested them by racking the pins and purposely shooting the stands......zero movement at least when hit with .45ACP 230 ball and my 357 SIG:
Friends 16 year old daughter tries her hand at pins with his 226:
We also ran some simple "family" oriented drills/ stages kind of IDPA "light":
To include a Tueller Drill (Daughter's Boyfriend):
His family had never shot at moving targets before, so besides the "Tueller Drill" we rigged the target (pulley) for lateral movement, pulled it across the range and gradually increased movement speed until they were getting the hang of it. They literally had a blast. Finished up by doing 35 yard pin runs with my 9mm carbine, which was a big hit. Then we painted steel, policed brass, grilled some brats, and called it a day.
Chuck