All my guns are defensive tools but they all bring a smile to my face. I enjoy bumping paper plate size targets out further and further. I enjoy pushing myself to shoot faster.
I’m not a very competitive person by nature. I more or less care that I shoot a little better every time I shoot. But when I look at other shooters in other lanes and see them all over a silhouette target or not even hitting the silhouette at like 7 yards, and I’m tearing a baseball sized hole through a paper plate size target at 20 yards, and shooting faster than them, I think “Maybe I’m not too bad.” There’s an entire universe of better shooters than me who are either faster, are more accurate shooters at short range, or can ring a gong at long distance, but I enjoy having reasonable competency levels.
When I shoot ammo I assembled myself and it shoots much better than factory ammo, it makes me smile.
Sometimes I just feel like plinking. I enjoy that.
I don’t even mind cleaning my guns.
Honestly, for the most part, owning and shooting guns, along with loading ammo brings a real sense of calm to my life. I have a high stress job with a lot of anxiety generating bosses and coworkers. If I didn’t have my firearms hobby, and a place like THR to come and discuss it, I’d probably be really unhappy.
I need a focus other than my career. This is one of the fun passions I choose to engage in to make life fun, and almost every aspect, save the monetary cost, makes me happy.