Shooting aimlessly.

[huntsman]

Shooting just for the sake of shooting, yeah at a steel plate. But pulling the trigger and not aiming or just doing it for the bang, NO.

I used to stump shoot with a bow and have done it a few times with a handgun, it has benefits if you’re a hunter.

 

[Mizar]

MedWheeler, I was issued only the 74 - it was about 20 years ago and there were no pistols for the lowly infantry. I still miss it from time to time...

P.S. I just realized what you wrote (after my second cup of morning coffee) - wow! That is some serious dose of pure & undiluted luck!

 

[JeffG]

I was taught ammunition was precious, to be conserved, used for a purpose. The Marine Corps hammered that home. Shooting steel, and reactive targets is fun, but for hits, not mag dumps. I had a MAC10 in 45acp; darn thing wanted to eat me out of house and home, I sold it...

 

[Panzerschwein]

Mag dumps are a thing, and are fun from time to time.

 

[bannockburn]

Have always shot at some kind of target, be it paper, plastic, or aluminum cans. Never have felt the need to aimlessly waste ammo.

 

[MidRoad]

My one buddy likes to do it. He is also the guy that hunts from a tree stand with a 4-12 scope and won't shoot more than 50 yards. .

He's safe about it and it's his money on ammo so doesn't bother me. Try to help him with accuracy and the virtues of low power scopes like a 1-4 for his hunting ranges. But he's content with his methods. So I leave him be and usually say "you do you buddy"

 

[lightman]

Judging by how some of the brass that I pick up is scattered I suspect a lot of people shoot this way. I've burned up a magazine or two at nothing when playing with a full auto but the novelty wears of pretty quickly for me. My shooting usually involves a target and trying to hit it.

 

[Hasaf]

Isn’t that the definition of “plinking?” We used to wander through the woods with our 22’s looking for targets of opportunity.

I sometimes did this with friends. If someone spotted a piece of trash when out hiking we would all take a shot at it The first person to miss was the person to go and bag it for proper disposal.

 

[Tirod]

If all you do is measure accuracy at the range then ballistic gel tests would seem to be a worthless exercise. Just shooting at something to see how big a hole it can make. Gee, what a waste of time and ammo.

Discovering your favorite load and weapon are quite capable of going thru loose dirt, 8" trees, and discarded appliances will inform you about what it really can do around and in your house. It's something those in the service are trained and versed in. Almost nothing is cover in the confines of the American home. That is the reason for the extreme overbuilding in third world countries when you can afford it. Revolutions aren't particularly unknown there.

This is basically a thread on confirmation bias - since "those people" never shoot anything of value and it can't be quantified, then it must be worthless. Have to wonder - is it possible to do something for the sheer pleasure of the activity? Your parents might have a different take on that.

 

[ATLDave]

True, aimless blasting is of little to no interest to me. But I suspect a lot of times, the complaining old guy (the one who thinks anyone doing something other than shooting groups is doing it "wrong") simply has no idea what the person shooting fast is doing.

 

[buck460XVR]

Their gun, their ammo. As long as they do it safely, who cares?

^^^This. The shooting sports is home to many practices others do not feel practical. Still, as long as folks are safely enjoying their firearms and promoting the sport(The OP said he was asked to go along), who are we to question what they use for targets? I'd rather folks shoot at stumps, than their beer bottles/cans and then leave them lay.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

I've dumped an AR mag or 2 in my day.
I got no stones to throw.

 

[Rshooter]

I use targets but I hate the one shot a second rule.

 

[ATLDave]

I use targets but I hate the one shot a second rule.

If a range has that rule, it does without my company or money. Zero interest in such a range.

 

[bassjam]

As long as there's a safe backdrop or the shooter KNOWS there's nothing behind for miles, I don't have a problem with aimlessly shooting. I remember my first time doing a random mag dump after I saved up for my Butler Creek 30 round mag for my 10/22 back during the Clinton ban. It put a grin on my face.

Heck, I remember another time on a dove hunt at a buddy's place when the birds weren't flying the 4 of us continued to put rounds in a hillside at point blank range until we "dug" a hole further than any of us could reach into! It was pointless, it may have been wasteful, but it was fun to see the destructive power of a 12 ga!

 

[Pelo801]

Its not my thing either. But if FUN is pointless then we're all in trouble

 

[hdwhit]

d2wing wrote:
I was a little surprised because I shoot with the intention of hitting something and I like to know how accurate I am shooting. So is this a thing?

Yes.

It's really no different than someone with a new car taking the longer "scenic" route to his destination simply as an excuse to spent more time with the car even though it wastes gas and accelerates wear on the car.

Is this why AK's are popular?

It's not unique to AKs.

Literally shooting aimlessly. I guess if you don't hunt and just like the bang has merit. What do you think?

When my grandmother was a teenager, 22LR rounds and shotgun shells were doled out to her and one of her brothers one or two at a time. And if they didn't bring back something "for the family" (i.e. some form of dead animal) they got spanked.

I can comprehend economic conditions that hard - barely. I've thankfully never had to live it, but there were times in my life when there was money for gasoline, rent and food, but not all three. Since graduate school, things quickly became very good for me economically so today my ability to eat doesn't depend on my skills with a rifle and I do occasionally allow myself the frivolous expenditure of a few rounds for fun. But the voice of my grandmother is always there in the back of my head, so it never goes beyond a few frivolous rounds.

 

[hdwhit]

Curator wrote:
I think this is because the range rules prohibit shooting at beer kegs, propane tanks, TV sets, and home appliances.

Boy, these people with their firing range rules really know how to suck the fun out of everything.

After all, if you can't take a used fire extinguisher, put a few ounces of black powder in it, run several feet of cannon fuse into it, screw the lid back on, light it and then take turns seeing whether who could shoot the lid off before the fuse blew it up, what's the point of having a range?

 

[tark]

When I first moved back to the Midwest from California, in 91' I worked briefly at Springfield Armory. One day, Bob Reese needed some volunteers to work a Saturday......to run some rounds through a batch of BM-59s he had just bought. Military BM-59s as in full auto. I got picked. We grabbed a few thousand rounds of 7.62 M-80 Ball and spent an afternoon mindlessly and aimlessly blasting away at a barren hillside. About half of the guns ran well and the other half had issues. I think we shot up almost 5,000 rounds.

It was a horrible waste of ammo, I suppose, but Bob wanted at least five mags through each gun. Semi on the first mag, auto on the other four.

I came away from the experience realizing two things. I have never had so much fun wasting good ammunition. If it provided that much entertainment was it really a waste? (It doesn't hurt that it was Bob's ammo)

And a BM-59 isn't worth a dried up turd in full-auto mode. 750 RPM + 7.62 mm + 10 pound rifle = spray and pray. Couldn't hit a thing.

 

[bikerdoc]

Last year I was at The old Blackwater campus for some business. My host was kind enough to take us out to the range with a 9 mm suppressed full auto
He gave me 5 30 rd mags and pointed to an old vehicle about 80 yrs away and said " have fun"

I know I took out the imaginary driver and all the passengers and cut the driver side roof support in half.

First mag was learning burst control and controlling rise. After that 4 bursts per mag got the job done.

 

[d2wing]

I did not say I was against it. I guess i was raised not to waste anything. I was born in the forties and lived on a subsistence farm. I am all for folks having fun, I just don't see much fun in it. I used to let people shoot my AR but it gets old fast watching someone shoot up all my ammo. Not so bad if they would chip in or bring some. Since I flew out to see my friends I did not have my own guns or ammo. I bought some to share with my friends. It was money well spent.

 

[FN in MT]

MANY years back while in the military...We had a BIG inspection coming up and we were terrible overstocked on ammo. Mostly fifty cal, but a few pallets of M-60 too. Our two bunkers were full of way too much ammo.

They took several of us, the Supply guy and one of the Armorers out to the Range along with FOUR five tons just full of ammo and the guns to shoot it all. I never shot so much fifty or M-60 in my life. After a few hours...it wasn't even fun. It was work.

I will ALWAYS remember that silly waste of ammo. Then again....I DID get to take home forty , .50 ammo cans. Each one with a .30 can inside of it.

 

[d2wing]

I did get full auto time in the Army, I was an expert with the AR and M-60 and spent some time as a gun trucker in Nam. But that is separate to me. That was business. Oh that is me on a Gun truck with an M-60 in my pic.

 

[mjsdwash]

At our local public range about 25% of the AK shooters don't bother putting up targets. I think this is because the range rules prohibit shooting at beer kegs, propane tanks, TV sets, and home appliances. They also seem to believe that russian steel case ammo is biodegradable so don't bother to pick their cases up when they run out of ammo. One good thing about them is they don't hog up range space since they run out of ammo pretty quickly. They also keep the local gun stores in business and it makes the woods safer having them shoot here. To each his own!

This is how virtually all public land is. The Steel case is degradable though. After a few years its rusts away

 

[Browning]

I've seen people do it before, but I don't agree with it.

Even if I'm checking function I always have a target. I always use the sights.