That's right. I knowingly, and intentionally doomed (DOOMED, I SAY!) him to a life of yearning & want, . . . . or an empty bank account, one of the two. What follows is my long-winded, but hopefully amusing, tale of Saturday morning at the range.
Let me start with a little background. A few years ago, I bought a suppressor and a Ruger American Rimfire with the idea of building The Squirrel Sniper. I used the middle rifle in this photo:
After I got it completed, and I know I've mentioned this before, I went shooting with one of my best friends, and he had a Ruger American Rimfire, but his was the Target model. Sonofagun made me jealous, and I bought one. It's the bottom rifle in the photo above. It currently wears an Athlon rimfire scope, but I'm probably going to move the Nikon from the RAR to the RAT (Ruger American, Target), and we'll have to see what happens with the RAR. I might sell it. Aaaaanyway . . . . . now that he and I have virtually identical rifles, we've decided that we're gonna shoot for Bragging Rights. As you might imagine, I can't just let him walk away with Bragging Rights. I'll never hear the end of it if I do. If he's gonna win 'em, I'm gonna make him work for them. So getting the RAT properly zeroed is important. Let me also make this promise: If I win, I'll make sure he never hears the end of it. Should I outlive him, I will absolutely whisper "I won" into his coffin. After all, what are friends for?
Aaaanyway . . . . on Father's Day, I took 3 .22 rifles to the range. For reasons understood by neither man nor beast, except for the fact that I apparently just felt like fiddling with stuff, I zeroed two of the three at 75 yards. They had been zeroed at 50 yards, like they're supposed to be, but I just HAD to fiddle with them . . . . sigh .... Anyway, I came to my senses before I messed around with the zero on Rifle #3. In any event, it gave me a good excuse to head back to the range on Saturday morning for re-zeroing. Fortunately for me, Mrs. McGee doesn't think I need an excuse other than wanting to go.
So off I went, early Saturday morning to try to beat the heat. I got all set up, with some Shoot-n-C targets, my (rented) spotting scope, etc., and got to work. Fortunately, I'm finally kinda-sorta getting the hang of zeroing my rifles, so that didn't take long. The young man in the lane next to me . . . I'm not sure what it was, but he didn't strike me as being all that comfortable with his rifle. I definitely picked up a "new shooter" vibe. Maybe not brand new, but certainly new-ish. He was shooting a bolt gun in 6.5 Creedmoor (I later learned), but he just didn't look all that comfortable with it. (I also have a hunch that his gun was kicking him harder than he expected.) I wound up giving him a couple of Shoot-n-C targets, because he really couldn't see where he was hitting (with his target at 50 yards), and didn't bring enough $ to rent his own spotting scope.
I'd never really dug into the effect my suppressor has on POI, so I brought it along. I'll also freely admit that I am definitely affected by the Cool Factor. I like having a suppressor, and it's cool. There, I said it. And let's face it, everyone likes shooting the cool stuff, don't they? So after I was satisfied with my non-suppressed zero, I dug out my suppressor. While I was putting it on the RAT, I glanced up and, sure enough, he was craning his neck to see what I was up to. And then I doomed him. Knowingly, intentionally. The conversation went like this:
Him: Is that a suppressor?
Me: Yep. Bought it a couple of years ago.
Him: You like it?
Me: 'Bout as much fun as I'll ever have with pants on.
Him: So I guess it works?
Me: Quieter than my pellet gun if I load it with subsonics.
Him: Really?!?
Me: You want to see for yourself? Put a few rounds through it?
Him: Ummm . . . . . yeah. Yeah, I do. You don't mind?
Me: Not a bit. Hang on just a minute.
And I went to my bag, where I had a box of CCI Quiets stashed.... I loaded the mag and fired a couple of rounds, then handed it over. Three rounds into it, he actually asked me if I was sure it was firing. I'd seen the puff of smoke out of the suppressor, so yes, I knew it was. After that, I fired a mag of Federal Golden Bullets, to give him a frame of reference. As it turns out, adding the suppressor and switching to CCI Quiets dropped my POI significantly, even at 50 yards. That said, the CCIQs don't run all that well in my suppressed semiautos, but they're ridiculously quiet in a suppressed bolt gun, and run just fine.
My work here is done.
Let me start with a little background. A few years ago, I bought a suppressor and a Ruger American Rimfire with the idea of building The Squirrel Sniper. I used the middle rifle in this photo:
After I got it completed, and I know I've mentioned this before, I went shooting with one of my best friends, and he had a Ruger American Rimfire, but his was the Target model. Sonofagun made me jealous, and I bought one. It's the bottom rifle in the photo above. It currently wears an Athlon rimfire scope, but I'm probably going to move the Nikon from the RAR to the RAT (Ruger American, Target), and we'll have to see what happens with the RAR. I might sell it. Aaaaanyway . . . . . now that he and I have virtually identical rifles, we've decided that we're gonna shoot for Bragging Rights. As you might imagine, I can't just let him walk away with Bragging Rights. I'll never hear the end of it if I do. If he's gonna win 'em, I'm gonna make him work for them. So getting the RAT properly zeroed is important. Let me also make this promise: If I win, I'll make sure he never hears the end of it. Should I outlive him, I will absolutely whisper "I won" into his coffin. After all, what are friends for?
Aaaanyway . . . . on Father's Day, I took 3 .22 rifles to the range. For reasons understood by neither man nor beast, except for the fact that I apparently just felt like fiddling with stuff, I zeroed two of the three at 75 yards. They had been zeroed at 50 yards, like they're supposed to be, but I just HAD to fiddle with them . . . . sigh .... Anyway, I came to my senses before I messed around with the zero on Rifle #3. In any event, it gave me a good excuse to head back to the range on Saturday morning for re-zeroing. Fortunately for me, Mrs. McGee doesn't think I need an excuse other than wanting to go.
So off I went, early Saturday morning to try to beat the heat. I got all set up, with some Shoot-n-C targets, my (rented) spotting scope, etc., and got to work. Fortunately, I'm finally kinda-sorta getting the hang of zeroing my rifles, so that didn't take long. The young man in the lane next to me . . . I'm not sure what it was, but he didn't strike me as being all that comfortable with his rifle. I definitely picked up a "new shooter" vibe. Maybe not brand new, but certainly new-ish. He was shooting a bolt gun in 6.5 Creedmoor (I later learned), but he just didn't look all that comfortable with it. (I also have a hunch that his gun was kicking him harder than he expected.) I wound up giving him a couple of Shoot-n-C targets, because he really couldn't see where he was hitting (with his target at 50 yards), and didn't bring enough $ to rent his own spotting scope.
I'd never really dug into the effect my suppressor has on POI, so I brought it along. I'll also freely admit that I am definitely affected by the Cool Factor. I like having a suppressor, and it's cool. There, I said it. And let's face it, everyone likes shooting the cool stuff, don't they? So after I was satisfied with my non-suppressed zero, I dug out my suppressor. While I was putting it on the RAT, I glanced up and, sure enough, he was craning his neck to see what I was up to. And then I doomed him. Knowingly, intentionally. The conversation went like this:
Him: Is that a suppressor?
Me: Yep. Bought it a couple of years ago.
Him: You like it?
Me: 'Bout as much fun as I'll ever have with pants on.
Him: So I guess it works?
Me: Quieter than my pellet gun if I load it with subsonics.
Him: Really?!?
Me: You want to see for yourself? Put a few rounds through it?
Him: Ummm . . . . . yeah. Yeah, I do. You don't mind?
Me: Not a bit. Hang on just a minute.
And I went to my bag, where I had a box of CCI Quiets stashed.... I loaded the mag and fired a couple of rounds, then handed it over. Three rounds into it, he actually asked me if I was sure it was firing. I'd seen the puff of smoke out of the suppressor, so yes, I knew it was. After that, I fired a mag of Federal Golden Bullets, to give him a frame of reference. As it turns out, adding the suppressor and switching to CCI Quiets dropped my POI significantly, even at 50 yards. That said, the CCIQs don't run all that well in my suppressed semiautos, but they're ridiculously quiet in a suppressed bolt gun, and run just fine.
My work here is done.
)
