armedandsafe
Member
Just got back from a bachelor's party. Hoooooweeee!
A few weeks ago, one of my fellow bus drivers, a Baptist Minister, was ruminating on what kind of bachelor's party he wanted to throw for the last daughter's fiancee. In the course of the discussion (OK, monologue) he mentioned he would like to take them shooting, but had lost his favorite shooting gully to developers. Soooo, I heard myself say, "I'll host you guys out at the range. There shouldn't be many nuts errrrr other shooters out on the 4th."
We started at about 08:30, when I met Pastor Fred, his adult son, the groom2be and the best man at the gate to the range. I unlocked and we headed down to the 50yard lanes. I gave my usual little spiel about safety, I apologized to the groom2be for not having my formal, white-with-lace shotgun available for this party, and then we began to unload guns. They had brought a Marlin .22 semiauto rifle and a Woodsman target pistol. I unloaded my Savage Mark II, the Nylon 66, the 03A3, the 8mm Mauser in Scout configuration, the Dan Wesson .357, the Ruger P85, the Rohm .22 revolver, the Remington 1858 .44 caliber revolver, the old Hawken .50 and the new Hawken .50. Then I set out 2500 rounds of .22LR, 80 rounds of 30-06, 120 rounds of 8mm, 3 possibles bags, drinking water, wash water, 24 iced cans of soda pop, and targets.
To make a long story short, they went through about 750 rounds of .22LR, 50 rounds of 8mm GI, 75 rounds of 30-06 GI and 5 rounds of 30-06 commercial (more story on those 5 rounds, later.) I had to refill the field powder flasks twice and broke into the second box of .454 round ball. Somebody found my bag of 250 grain .50cal hunting slugs and depleted them badly.
About 14:00, I recognised that they were starting to sag, so I broke out the hi-viz targets. I taped a John Adams dollar coin to the bull of 5 targets and told them about the rules of the game: "Choose your weapon, one round, hit it and you keep it. However, to make it fair for the non-shooters, we'll call it one load. That means 5 rounds in the big-bores, 10 rounds in the .22 rifles and one magazine or cylinder in any of the pistols. If you really want to use the black powder rifle, 5 rounds." They each signed a target and posted them out at 50 yards. Pastor Fred hit his dollar on his 5th shot and it just flat disappeared. When they were all done shooting, I called the range cold, but they stopped me. I had made 5 targets, there were 4 of them, I had to shoot. OOOOOOPS.
I grabbed the 03A3 and loaded up, thinking how I'd been shooting only black powder for over a year. UH-OH. Sat down at the bench and popped off a round. John was on the spotting scope and he, very casually, said, "You hit it." HUH???? I CAN'T be THAT lucky. Yup, I took the wig off of Mr. Adams. I just shrugged and unloaded the other 4 rounds.
They all had a GREAT time, and I had one of the most enjoyable shooting fests I've attended in many a moon.
Now, THAT'S what I call a bachelor's party.
Pops
A few weeks ago, one of my fellow bus drivers, a Baptist Minister, was ruminating on what kind of bachelor's party he wanted to throw for the last daughter's fiancee. In the course of the discussion (OK, monologue) he mentioned he would like to take them shooting, but had lost his favorite shooting gully to developers. Soooo, I heard myself say, "I'll host you guys out at the range. There shouldn't be many nuts errrrr other shooters out on the 4th."
We started at about 08:30, when I met Pastor Fred, his adult son, the groom2be and the best man at the gate to the range. I unlocked and we headed down to the 50yard lanes. I gave my usual little spiel about safety, I apologized to the groom2be for not having my formal, white-with-lace shotgun available for this party, and then we began to unload guns. They had brought a Marlin .22 semiauto rifle and a Woodsman target pistol. I unloaded my Savage Mark II, the Nylon 66, the 03A3, the 8mm Mauser in Scout configuration, the Dan Wesson .357, the Ruger P85, the Rohm .22 revolver, the Remington 1858 .44 caliber revolver, the old Hawken .50 and the new Hawken .50. Then I set out 2500 rounds of .22LR, 80 rounds of 30-06, 120 rounds of 8mm, 3 possibles bags, drinking water, wash water, 24 iced cans of soda pop, and targets.
To make a long story short, they went through about 750 rounds of .22LR, 50 rounds of 8mm GI, 75 rounds of 30-06 GI and 5 rounds of 30-06 commercial (more story on those 5 rounds, later.) I had to refill the field powder flasks twice and broke into the second box of .454 round ball. Somebody found my bag of 250 grain .50cal hunting slugs and depleted them badly.
About 14:00, I recognised that they were starting to sag, so I broke out the hi-viz targets. I taped a John Adams dollar coin to the bull of 5 targets and told them about the rules of the game: "Choose your weapon, one round, hit it and you keep it. However, to make it fair for the non-shooters, we'll call it one load. That means 5 rounds in the big-bores, 10 rounds in the .22 rifles and one magazine or cylinder in any of the pistols. If you really want to use the black powder rifle, 5 rounds." They each signed a target and posted them out at 50 yards. Pastor Fred hit his dollar on his 5th shot and it just flat disappeared. When they were all done shooting, I called the range cold, but they stopped me. I had made 5 targets, there were 4 of them, I had to shoot. OOOOOOPS.
I grabbed the 03A3 and loaded up, thinking how I'd been shooting only black powder for over a year. UH-OH. Sat down at the bench and popped off a round. John was on the spotting scope and he, very casually, said, "You hit it." HUH???? I CAN'T be THAT lucky. Yup, I took the wig off of Mr. Adams. I just shrugged and unloaded the other 4 rounds.
They all had a GREAT time, and I had one of the most enjoyable shooting fests I've attended in many a moon.
Now, THAT'S what I call a bachelor's party.
Pops
