billsnogo
Member
Warning, LONG story.
I own a few guns, but oddly enough, I have only shot a gun once in my life. I shot my grandpas .38 when I was about fourteen or so up north on his land. I liked it, but it had a real hard trigger pull.
Well, fast forward to me at thirty. Bills gun range was having there '07 ANNUAL SPRING SHOOTER'S SHOW. Gun reps bring there goods, and you can shoot there guns for free if you buy the ammo and targets from the range.
My dad calls me up because we were supposed to get together for my b-day, and he had heard about it on the radio and wanted to know if I was interested. Sure, why not. I was hoping there would be something there I wanted to shoot, and if not I need to shoot one of my guns soon or a later, and thought I could while we were there.
I found out there was no open shooting for privately owned guns. Well, I looked at what they had for sale before I headed down to the range, and found a saiga in 7.62x39 for $260. Seemed like a good price, but after taxes and crap, I figured I would wait for now. Maybe they have an AK-47 down with the gun reps.
We walked around, heard the fully automatic machine guns going off, they had there full auto guns for half price rental. We watched that for a little while, then made out rounds. Nothing really grabbed my interest. No ak's, but there were a few ar-15's.
My dad wanted the machine guns, and I really did not. He was paying for my b-day, and the cost to go threw a box of .223 ($8 a box) would get REAL expensive since it only took about three seconds to go threw a 30 round clip!
So he kept at me, over and over about doing the S&W 500. I really did not want to do it. They had three of them there, one had a real long barrell, about 12" or so with a scope. I did not like now nose heavy it was, so we took the one with a 8" barrel and bought a box of rounds ($40 for 20 rounds! Ouch!).
Now remember, this is only the second time in my life shooting a gun. I know the S&W is the big boy in the hand gun world. I was a little worried about sore wrist with the recoil and had no idea what was going to happen.
I figured I would let my pop squeeze off the first five rounds. We put out the target at about 15 yards. The first round I was standing behind him and not paying attention. I feel this swoosh of air and hear a massive bang!
*** was that? So I started to pay attention and dang, that hand gun was like a friggin cannon! My turn after his five shots. Okay, lets get this right. Pull the hammer back for an easier shot. BAM! Holy crap, that was like a semi driving by me at close range! Can a gun really feel like that? I shot Osama in the mouth, sweet, pretty good for a noob.
The target was shared between me and my pop, two of the shots of his head are mine, the rest hit body. So eight out of ten shots. The two above his head were dual action shots since I wanted to see if I could keep it steady enough for a full trigger pull. Three total, one in the head and the other two above it. Not really stead with the full trigger pull. Oh well.
We return the gun, then look for the AR I wanted to shoot. The s&w folks had one with a red dot, sweet! The red dots battery was dead. Dang.
I go over to the sig table, and they had one, or so I though. He gave me a lecture about the only thing it being the same as a AR was that it was black and the mag was the same. It was more like an AK since it had the gas piston, ect, ect. Sweet, I wanted to know how an AK would feel anyways. This had a red dot to boot too!
We grabbed to boxes of .223 ammo, loaded up the magazine after being shown that you just push the round in, instead of feeding it in like a semi-auto pistol. We took a green guy target. My dad put it out at about 15 yards again, and made five head shots that were all grouped around two inches apart. I told him it was too easy for him and put the target out to about 20 yards. He proceeded to put the other fifteen shots in two close groups, one in the head, the other in the body.
I load the magazine, pull up and do a standing shot instead of using the bench, just like he did. I put the target out as far as it would go (25 yards), then proceeded to squeeze of the rounds at a rate of maybe one every three seconds. Then I tried a couple of rapid shots, and those were much harder. Too much muzzle flip to be very accurate.
It was much more managable to shoot the "AR" and was not scared of it at all.
So, to finally end my story. The s&w 500 was a pure adrenaline rush, I was both scared and thrilled by it! It was like being on drugs or something! Total high off of that beast. And for my first rifle shoots ever, I loved that. More controlable and less expensive for sure. I think I need to find an AK used locally that I can play with, if not, the saiga.
I think I am now addicted!
Only problem, no real rifle ranges are local to me unless you are a member, and it seems there is a long list. That 25 yards was too easy even with my shakey standing posture. oh, and those two shots, one in the shoulder and one over it came from someone with too big of a gun and too shake of a hand as they hit my target twice!
ps
I gotta rent a s&w 500 some day again, as that was too fun to never do again, but just can not afford to buy the gun or ammo!
bill (why did I wait this long to go shooting?)
I own a few guns, but oddly enough, I have only shot a gun once in my life. I shot my grandpas .38 when I was about fourteen or so up north on his land. I liked it, but it had a real hard trigger pull.
Well, fast forward to me at thirty. Bills gun range was having there '07 ANNUAL SPRING SHOOTER'S SHOW. Gun reps bring there goods, and you can shoot there guns for free if you buy the ammo and targets from the range.
My dad calls me up because we were supposed to get together for my b-day, and he had heard about it on the radio and wanted to know if I was interested. Sure, why not. I was hoping there would be something there I wanted to shoot, and if not I need to shoot one of my guns soon or a later, and thought I could while we were there.
I found out there was no open shooting for privately owned guns. Well, I looked at what they had for sale before I headed down to the range, and found a saiga in 7.62x39 for $260. Seemed like a good price, but after taxes and crap, I figured I would wait for now. Maybe they have an AK-47 down with the gun reps.
We walked around, heard the fully automatic machine guns going off, they had there full auto guns for half price rental. We watched that for a little while, then made out rounds. Nothing really grabbed my interest. No ak's, but there were a few ar-15's.
My dad wanted the machine guns, and I really did not. He was paying for my b-day, and the cost to go threw a box of .223 ($8 a box) would get REAL expensive since it only took about three seconds to go threw a 30 round clip!
So he kept at me, over and over about doing the S&W 500. I really did not want to do it. They had three of them there, one had a real long barrell, about 12" or so with a scope. I did not like now nose heavy it was, so we took the one with a 8" barrel and bought a box of rounds ($40 for 20 rounds! Ouch!).
Now remember, this is only the second time in my life shooting a gun. I know the S&W is the big boy in the hand gun world. I was a little worried about sore wrist with the recoil and had no idea what was going to happen.
I figured I would let my pop squeeze off the first five rounds. We put out the target at about 15 yards. The first round I was standing behind him and not paying attention. I feel this swoosh of air and hear a massive bang!
*** was that? So I started to pay attention and dang, that hand gun was like a friggin cannon! My turn after his five shots. Okay, lets get this right. Pull the hammer back for an easier shot. BAM! Holy crap, that was like a semi driving by me at close range! Can a gun really feel like that? I shot Osama in the mouth, sweet, pretty good for a noob.
The target was shared between me and my pop, two of the shots of his head are mine, the rest hit body. So eight out of ten shots. The two above his head were dual action shots since I wanted to see if I could keep it steady enough for a full trigger pull. Three total, one in the head and the other two above it. Not really stead with the full trigger pull. Oh well.
We return the gun, then look for the AR I wanted to shoot. The s&w folks had one with a red dot, sweet! The red dots battery was dead. Dang.
I go over to the sig table, and they had one, or so I though. He gave me a lecture about the only thing it being the same as a AR was that it was black and the mag was the same. It was more like an AK since it had the gas piston, ect, ect. Sweet, I wanted to know how an AK would feel anyways. This had a red dot to boot too!
We grabbed to boxes of .223 ammo, loaded up the magazine after being shown that you just push the round in, instead of feeding it in like a semi-auto pistol. We took a green guy target. My dad put it out at about 15 yards again, and made five head shots that were all grouped around two inches apart. I told him it was too easy for him and put the target out to about 20 yards. He proceeded to put the other fifteen shots in two close groups, one in the head, the other in the body.
I load the magazine, pull up and do a standing shot instead of using the bench, just like he did. I put the target out as far as it would go (25 yards), then proceeded to squeeze of the rounds at a rate of maybe one every three seconds. Then I tried a couple of rapid shots, and those were much harder. Too much muzzle flip to be very accurate.
It was much more managable to shoot the "AR" and was not scared of it at all.
So, to finally end my story. The s&w 500 was a pure adrenaline rush, I was both scared and thrilled by it! It was like being on drugs or something! Total high off of that beast. And for my first rifle shoots ever, I loved that. More controlable and less expensive for sure. I think I need to find an AK used locally that I can play with, if not, the saiga.
I think I am now addicted!
Only problem, no real rifle ranges are local to me unless you are a member, and it seems there is a long list. That 25 yards was too easy even with my shakey standing posture. oh, and those two shots, one in the shoulder and one over it came from someone with too big of a gun and too shake of a hand as they hit my target twice!
ps
I gotta rent a s&w 500 some day again, as that was too fun to never do again, but just can not afford to buy the gun or ammo!
bill (why did I wait this long to go shooting?)
