George P
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At my local outdoor range, I see tons of .223 brass on the 15 yard ranges; who shoots ARs at 15 yards?
Pick Your Competition Carefully
- Thread starter J-Bar
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At my local outdoor range, I see tons of .223 brass on the 15 yard ranges; who shoots ARs at 15 yards?
jag1954
Member
Ok, so I'm at the bi-weekly get together with my buddy at his indoor range. I have my 686 and 9mm Shield EZ. He has his Glock. We're next to each other. I'm doing ok at about 15/20 yards, hitting the paper. Nothing to write home about, but as they say, practice makes perfect. So I've put around 2 dozen rounds through the 686, step back and nod to my buddy, have at it. So, he puts some more rounds through it, loves it and hands it back to me. All good. I put up another target, go back to around 15/20 yards to finish off and what do I do on 3 consecutive shots? Hit the clip that's dead center holding the target in place. First clip, I'm like, ok, tell the range guy sorry about that, he hands me another and I attach the second. Bang, same result. What? Am I sleep walking here? Once again apologies to the range guy (by now he's smiling) and he hands me the third, I attach it and bang, off it goes too. I'm done. The range guy says he's running low on clips and I tell him that I hope the cameras aren't working. He just points up behind us. We gather our kit, my buddy is just shaking his head laughing. I told him, you've jinxed me and the gun. Never again.....although he knows that's not true considering that we've been buddies for over 50 years. Ahh well, if you can't laugh amongst friends, what's the point?
Pat Riot
Contributing Member
I've never been nearly as good as the average guy on the internet, though.
Your comment is hilarious…
I don’t know how many times I have seen posts of other people’s targets after I post one of my mediocre targets that puts mine to shame. In many cases, after pressing them, they admit that it took several attempts to get the target that they posted.
I am not speaking of my experiences here on THR…other forums…of course…
tightgroup tiger
Member
Yeah, that's when I'm glad the walls are bullet proof. And I usually like to move a couple lanes away from them if I can. I'm always afraid they will step backwards out of the lane and do something stupid.
I had a couple girls shooting next to me one day and one of them was shooting one of the range's 22 pistol rentals and she suddenly stopped shooting, backed out of her lane with the gun and started trying to work the action on the pistol.
She pointed it at me twice before I was able to stop her. Fortunately it was jammed up.
I asked her what the problem was and she told me that she when she pulls the trigger it won't go off. (NICE!)
When I reminded her that she pointed a loaded weapon at me twice, she jumped and turned away. Now she is pointing it at her girlfriend.
I told her sternly to lay the gun down and walk away from it. She did.
I told the owner and he pulled her off the range before she killed someone. I don't think I ever saw her again, saw her girlfriend a couple times, she had much more common sense and seemed to be gun savvy.
I don't worry about others targets so much as I do about what is going on around me. That I keep a close eye on and I'm always looking around.
Even though every lane has a camera on it, I can see the monitor through a window and I never see anyone watching it.
.38 Special
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Your comment is hilarious…
I don’t know how many times I have seen posts of other people’s targets after I post one of my mediocre targets that puts mine to shame. In many cases, after pressing them, they admit that it took several attempts to get the target that they posted.
I am not speaking of my experiences here on THR…other forums…of course…
The "traditional" archery forums are the worst. Blatant lies about average group size - targets that would smash every record on the books - get passed around any time anyone asks an accuracy-related question. Mostly it's just funny, but I do feel bad for the occasional beginner who thinks he must be the worst archer who ever existed.
Over the years I have been tempted to start a thread at THR about "running groups". This involves bringing a target to the range and taking your very first cold, clean shot at it, then putting it away until the next trip. After a few trips, you begin to see what the gun is actually capable of in "real life" conditions. In my experience, those results tend to be two or three times worse than you'd expect, i.e. if your rifle is MOA in general, you shouldn't be surprised to see running groups of two or three inches at 100 yards. I still think it's the best way of determining realistic accuracy, but I'm so sure that the thread would devolve into extravagant lies about milsurps and grandpa's levergun that I can't bring myself to put it up!
GeoDudeFlorida
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I like that idea. Think I'll give it a try. Kind of bummed not to have thought of it myself. One target per gun, per load, or load and gun combo? Hmmm... this could get interesting.
.38 Special
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I like that idea. Think I'll give it a try. Kind of bummed not to have thought of it myself. One target per gun, per load, or load and gun combo? Hmmm... this could get interesting.
Not my idea, of course - I think I got it from gunwriter John Barsness. I was so disappointed the first time I tried it that I gave it up for a long while afterward. After my ego recovered I realized that, as brutal as it was, there was no more truthful way of learning what a gun is capable of.
Pat Riot
Contributing Member
I like that idea. I read this concept somewhere else before though I cannot remember where. It was in regards to hunting rifles, but the concept would be the same for any gun or type of gun.
Oldschool shooter
Member
Same thing happened to me with my wife. Shooting an old 1917 S&W military issue in 45acp. Never shot before in her life, after a few cylinders full, she was hitting empty shotgun shells at 30 feet about 70% of the time. Gained a wife, but lost ownership of a nice revolver.
Oldschool shooter
Member
None of us are that good.Back when I was "serious" about it, I did okay in the pistol matches and occasionally got my pick at the prize table. I've never been nearly as good as the average guy on the internet, though.
In a discussion about rimfire hunting rifle accuracy it was posted by one person that his .22 l.r. could put headshots on squirrels at 100 yards with boring reliability. First, it is great to have well trained squirrels at the correct distance, and second, it is even better to have days without wind! I am never that lucky and have even missed rabbits at under 100 yards.
When I was a range officer in a gun club and took care of the guns, I had to constantly sight the guns in again. Most people corrected wrong trigger finger placement, or flinching by wildly adjusting the sights. When I made them sit down and shoot the pistol from a sand bag, they realized that there was nothing wrong with the gun, or the sights and they worked on the basics of pistolcraft.
When I was a range officer in a gun club and took care of the guns, I had to constantly sight the guns in again. Most people corrected wrong trigger finger placement, or flinching by wildly adjusting the sights. When I made them sit down and shoot the pistol from a sand bag, they realized that there was nothing wrong with the gun, or the sights and they worked on the basics of pistolcraft.
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