Shooting aimlessly.

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A stump is a target. Ain't it? It would bother me if they were blasting away without knowing or caring what was beyond their (rock, trash, stump, limb) target, but as long as they were keeping the safety rules and picked up their own mess, how they blow their ammo is their own business.

Blowing off the safety rules... now that is a problem.
 
Having full auto it only takes a short time to get over this mag dump thing.:p So now I use the less accurate/older rounds I make to feed them. Also I usually give guests a MAG full to blow off just to see their smile. One High school kid that was there with his father complained about me having high capacity MAGS to use so I handed him the MAC with a mag and six rounds in it.:D Every one else got a full mag to shoot.:thumbup: When he complained I said "I thought you didn't like high capacity MAGS so I fixed that for you".:evil: Sheesh! Shooting to make noise is fun at times, just to let off steam and as long as it is safe and not hurting anyone then have at it. If you can afford to do it.;) Those that do it all the time must enjoy it---or watch too many A Team reruns.:neener:
 
When I saw the title of this thread I thought is was about police tactics. I'm always amazed at the lack of marksmanship demonstrated by so many LEO's, firing multiple rounds at close distances and not hitting a thing.
 
I have never just fired aimlessly. Always shooting at something for a target. When I was younger it was bottles with enough water to make the bottom hang low floating in the river. I realize we shouldn’t have because of pollution.
 
Sometimes, if the wind is right and I know the sound will carry to my liberal neighbor down the road, I will do a mag dump on my AK. It's a legal semi-auto civilian gun, but I am quite proficient at bump firing using my index finger alone. I can dump 30 in about three seconds. This irritates her and amuses me. She used to call the Sheriff but she gave up on that when he told her to move if she didn't like it. He thought it was pretty neat and he came over to my place and I taught him how to do it! The cops in Henry County , Illinois are pretty cool. There are a lot of firearms manufactures in the area and the sound of machine gun fire does not cause the sheriff or any of his deputies to so much as raise an eyebrow.

So....to answer the OPs question, Yes, I think AKs WERE invented to make bloodcurdling noises and only occasionally to actually hit what one is aiming at. That's what ARs are for.

I DO love to occasionally just walk out the back door and mindlessly blast away at nothing in particular. My liberal neighbor knows this, too.

And THAT irritates her even more.:uhoh:
Good thing she isn't a combat vet that would react differently......like flash back and take care of the situation themselves.:uhoh:

I loved doing mag dumps on Uncle Sugar's dime. I used to have the darndest time getting the ammo order for ranges right as an S-4 clerk; ;) and as the Armorer, I had to 'get rid of' the excess ammo. (not as much as FN in MT had, though!) We did have targets up when we did it though, and usually hit them. I had a chance to fire a MAC-10 in .45 ACP like Jeff G's, (though I suspect there was no paperwork involved; the owner and his friends were members of a club that rode a certain brand of American made motorcycle) and yes that was a complete waste of ammo; but fun as heck! :D
 
The other day at the range, two idiots wasted a few boxes of ammo shooting their ARs fast and trying to film each other shooting with flames coming out of short barres. Idiots.

Shoot to train or hit the target. Shooting just to hear the noise or watch the muzzle blast or annoy other people is a waste, the kind of thing a 12 year old does.
 
The other day at the range, two idiots wasted a few boxes of ammo shooting their ARs fast and trying to film each other shooting with flames coming out of short barres. Idiots.
Well, it was their ammo to waste, I suppose. Just because they did something you didn't like doesn't make them idiots.
 
Shoot to train or hit the target
Or shoot to have fun, whatever that looks like to the individual. Fortunately its up to them to decide what that looks like for them.
 
Over the weekend, I spent a little time shooting aimlessly for a very specific purpose. I was working on weak-hand-only pistol shooting, and was having a hard time tracking the sights, not to mention fighting anticipation and sympathetic hand-squeezing with trigger pull. In short, I was shooting like garbage. So I set aside the target that I had been shooting at (and generating a shotgun-type pattern on!). I pointed the gun at the backstop/berm, and just shot for a while. I just shot while trying to watch the sights and hold the gun steady. This relieved me of the psychological need to try to "grab" the shot while the gun wobbled (and boy did it wobble - left-handed shooting takes work) through the bullseye. I wasn't trying to hit anything in particular - I was just paying attention to the gun, my grip, the trigger pull, etc. I shot slow this way, and then shot some faster this way (not actually fast, but far more than one shot per second). Then I put the target back out and shot much better in terms of results on the cardboard.

I did all of this on purpose. I was literally shooting "aimlessly," but it was anything but pointless. Some of the other people at the range may have thought I was wasting ammo, but I got more out of the ~30 shots I fired than I did all the shots before I took away the target.
 
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Over the weekend, I spent a little time shooting aimlessly for a very specific purpose. I was working on weak-hand-only pistol shooting, and was having a hard time tracking the sights, not to mention fighting anticipation and sympathetic hand-squeezing with trigger pull. In short, I was shooting like garbage. So set aside the target that I had been shooting at (and generating a shotgun-type pattern on!). I pointed the gun at the backstop/berm, and just shot for a while. I just shot while trying to watch the sights and hold the gun steady. This relieved me of the psychological need to try to "grab" the shot while the gun wobbled (and boy did it wobble - left-handed shooting takes work) through the bullseye. I wasn't trying to hit anything in particular - I was just paying attention to the gun, my grip, the trigger pull, etc. I shot slow this way, and then shot some faster this way (not actually fast, but far more than one shot per second). Then I put the target back out and shot much better in terms of results on the cardboard.

I did all of this on purpose. I was literally shooting "aimlessly," but it was anything but pointless. Some of the other people at the range may have thought I was wasting ammo, but I got more out of the ~30 shots I fired than I did all the shots before I took away the target.
I'd say you were doing some good training. A laser sight is a great tool for dry firing the same drill.
 
I'm a great believer in dry firing (I dry fire several times more trigger pulls and minutes than live fire). But a lot of my issue was around anticipating recoil/flinching/pushing. Dry fire won't fix that, since it's a psychological problem more than a purely mechanical one - laser or no laser! I can pull a trigger straight to the rear with my left hand... doing it when my brain knows my left hand is going to have to deal with recoil is harder.* For me to improve what I was working on, there was really no other way forward than to put some rounds in the backstop.

* Some people are just naturally flinchers/pushers, and have to work hard to overcome that reflexive impulse. I'm one of them. I wish it were not so, but it's true. So I've long since figured out the things that "cure" me of it - or at least drive it into remission!
 
I don’t shoot things just to have them go bang unless I’m checking the function of a used firearm. And even then it’s only a couple rounds. Then I’m shooting for accuracy/consistency.

Precisely why most of my collection is not making trips to the range. They initially are shot for function and unless they prove more accurate than my regular shooters, they are regulated to the safe or gun rack. If I am going to spend time and money shooting I want to shoot what I know gives me the best chance of hitting what I'm aiming at.... However, I am very interested in design, mechanics and history of earlier cartridge guns, so my safes and racks are reasonably full....
 
While i always aim AT something my favorite stuff usually isnt a "target". Most fun i have is trying to break pieces of old clays left on the berm with what ever i have in my hands at the time.

Last true mag dump i did was 6-7 years ago. 6 of us shot up an old old tube tv with a combination of semi rifles pistols and a shotgun. Im not sure how many times any of us actually hit the thing but it was fun. Picking up all the pieces afterwards convinced us it wasnt THAT fun.

As to just shooting to make noise, i dont do it, dont like noise that much. But as long as folks are being safe about it i have no issues with it.
 
I had a 2 week love affair with an AR-15 before I came back to my senses. During that time I realized that I would not be able to afford to feed it. Traded it for a nice Marlin 1894 45 LC.
 
It's called plinking and different strokes for different folks seems to apply to what is fun and what is not. If it's a stump it is not like they are killing a tree so I say let them have their fun, their way.
 
I'm a great believer in dry firing (I dry fire several times more trigger pulls and minutes than live fire). But a lot of my issue was around anticipating recoil/flinching/pushing. Dry fire won't fix that, since it's a psychological problem more than a purely mechanical one - laser or no laser! I can pull a trigger straight to the rear with my left hand... doing it when my brain knows my left hand is going to have to deal with recoil is harder.* For me to improve what I was working on, there was really no other way forward than to put some rounds in the backstop.

* Some people are just naturally flinchers/pushers, and have to work hard to overcome that reflexive impulse. I'm one of them. I wish it were not so, but it's true. So I've long since figured out the things that "cure" me of it - or at least drive it into remission!
Dummy rounds and having my dad yell "WORRY ABOUT WHAT THE GUN IS GOING TO DO TO YOUR TARGET, NOT YOU!" did it for me. That and being taught the correct way to hold whichever type of gun it is.
 
I learned how to shoot with BB guns in the back yard, then .22s in gravel pits. We mostly shot at tin cans, but no bottles, and we picked everything up before leaving. With rifles, we shot at emblems on cans, but the whole can with handguns. I went through a lot of .22 ammo. I don't remember the first time I shot targets from a bench, but got pretty good shooting offhand. I was surprised when shot my Stevens .22 auto from the bench and saw how inaccurate it was. Traded it immediately, even though it had proven accurate enough to kill lots of dump rats, squirrels, and rabbits. A Marlin Mountie was the best shooter when a teen. It would group about 1/2" at 50 yards with a peep sight.
 
Dummy rounds and having my dad yell "WORRY ABOUT WHAT THE GUN IS GOING TO DO TO YOUR TARGET, NOT YOU!" did it for me. That and being taught the correct way to hold whichever type of gun it is.

Different people have different levels of subconscious/unconscious aversion to the bang and flash of a gun. No amount of yelling at some people will fix it for them. Dummy rounds are very good at proving a flinch/pre-ignition push, but there is a subset of people from whom those do nothing to cure it.

I've overcome my natural inclinations well enough to make A class in USPSA and have helped a lot of other people through the problem. The aimless blasting is strong medicine and cures the ailment for a lot of folks that otherwise are beyond help.
 
I used to shoot in a league (my wife called it bowling with guns) and there was this guy who won almost every season. I happened on him practicing one day. He had 8 mags (1911) and loaded them randomly with at least 2 snap caps per mag. He said that he assumed that the next round he fired, every time, would just go click, and that his sights would still be on the x-ring. He got surprised a lot, but he hit the x-ring a LOT. I don't think a mag dump was even in his vocabulary..
 
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