Erik F said:
My current carry is a 5-shot .44 Special L-Frame. It's about the most un-cool weapon out there.
Anyhow, this doofus came in the other night with FOUR Kimbers. After chuckling at my inadequate choice in firearms, he proceeded to demonstrate the Death of American Marksmanship. Pray-and-Spray doesn't begin to describe it.
Ammo's too expensive for that, but you know young people.
There's a lot of that going around in the shooting community, it would seem.
FIRST EXAMPLE:
I used to shoot at a public range when I lived in OH. I was throwing some trap with the Mrs. one day, shooting with my old Mossberg 500 pump-action all-purpose: hunting, plinking, trap, deer, rabbit, pheasant, and turkey gun (who knew that you needed a different shotgun for each species of game?).
Anyway, some rich looking early 20-something snob shows up in his Beamer with his equally "fluffy" female friends (who were apparently there for simple moral support), and pulls out several very expensive looking shotguns (can't recall brands/makes now, this was 7 years ago or so -- but very nice looking pretty guns with lots of engraving and beautiful woodwork).
His guns were nice, needless to say, but he was about as proficient with a gun as your average tree-hugging hippie.
I wouldn't have cared about how poorly he shot, as we all go to the range for some form of practice or another... But, this mental giant had the audacity to make a comment in front of us about how "people with cheap crap like that (ours!) shouldn't be able to fill up the range", or something to that effect.
Ultimately we schooled this yuppie on marksmanship... First I beat him, then my (then) future wife beat him (which always makes rich macho tough-guys want to cry)
Neither of us shoot competitive trap, so it wasn't like he was going against the best in the sport or anything... we're just simple shooting enthusiasts!
I hate the folks who think this is a sport that only the rich should be able to enjoy!
SECOND EXAMPLE:
Other side of the coin was a group of young inner-city looking adults who would show up at the same range on occasion with their cheaper guns (
to put them in perspective, my brother would call this group "Lincoln Park" or "Eminem", depending on his mood).
These yahoos would show up at the range and start shooting, not even bothering to set up a target. They would essentially form a defacto firing squad across the range, and proceed to blast away at no apparently intentional target (this was a clean public range with no trash, so they were just shooting at a dirt berm). Occasionally spring-time rains would leave puddles in front of the firing line, and you would even see them hitting the puddles from time-to-time.
These were the world's biggest "hi-cap" fans, and they couldn't step to the line without running through 50-100 rounds per set (again, shooting at NOTHING!)
Thank god ammo was cheap back then, cause I can't figure out what these guys were trying to accomplish! To the best of our guess, they just liked the noise... And there must be cheaper ways to make that much noise!
Best part was, they seemed only to be interested in dressing to the rap-music look. They were polite enough, and didn't seem to be looking for trouble. In fact, a range officer at this place once told me that their pleasant demeanor was the only reason he hadn't found a reason to kick them out of the facility entirely (they were borderline dangerous, but mostly just pathetic).