What was your single most enjoyable shooting experience?

[mormonsniper]

Some years ago, my grandfather passed away leaving my Dad a little money. He asked me what WE should do with it. I "suggested" that he order a pair of left handed, consecutive serial numbered Remington 11-87 12 ga. shotguns. It took a while to get them needless to say (I think they only make them once a year). We then went out, bought some clay birds and a hand thrower (the orange & plastic one). He found a place we could go and shoot and did we ever. We had more fun throwing the birds and shooting them than you can believe. We still talk about it. We have kept them as a "matched" set. Bought some deer barrels for both and I had compact padded cases custom made for them that are identical. Both my children are left handed so they will get them one day! It will be interesting to see how long they can "stay together".

 

[greyhound]

30 years old, never fired anything but a BB gun. Bought a revolver, went to the range. Looked at the GF, said "Here goes nothing", acquired sights, cocked hammer, let fly.

Whole life changed.

Later she said she knew all along I was a gun nut waiting to happen.
Something to do with love of history.

 

[lycanthrope]

Hey Greyhound.

I spent YEARS avoiding a GOOD .45 ACP.

Join the Dark Side.

Don't fight it.

 

[Phil Ca]

There are two instances that stand out beyond teaching my kids to shoot.

In the early 70s I was working for the US Treasury Department in SF, CA. I decided to take the SFPD Reserve Officers Training program. On the day of the revolver qualification I had borrowed a friends Colt revolver as I had not bought a suitable revolver with a 4 inch barrel at the time.

It was raining and cold on the SFPD outdoor range at Lake Merced. It was fogguy and miserable as only San Francisco can be sometimes. We were shooting really bad SFPD surplus ammo that smoked something terrible. I fired the course to the best of my ability and went back to the range shack to get warmed up. After everyone finished and the range sergeant came in with the results I was resigned to whatever fate would be mine since I was not confident using an unfamiliar firearm and ammo. The sergeant went to the front of the room and said he would read the names off according to the highest to lowest score. Imagine my surprise when my name was called first and he said,"400 over 400!" I almost fell out of my chair! Some one spoke up and said, "Those Treasury guys always shoot good."


The other time was in Bern Switzerland at the Canton Police Training Range in 1983. I was visiting as a member of the IPA and my daughter was with me. She was attending school in the French Alps and we were travelling to Germany to see my old military barracks from the mid 50s.

Hugo the rangemaster was showing us the Sig-Sauer pistol in 9mm and a .22 LR handgun. I asked him why we would be taking the .22LR to the range. He said in his Swiss-German,"It is for your daughter to use as she is a petite lady and the backblast of the 9mm might be too much for her." I thought about what he said and then told him in my best German that I had learned 25 years prior that my daughter had been trained in the use of .357 Magnum and .45ACP and I was not concerned about the "backblast" of the 9mm. Besides, I reminded him, if we took two firearms to the range there would be two to clean. He took this good-naturedly and put the .22LR back in the cabinet.

On the range he loaded 6 rounds in the magazine and layed it on the table next to the pistol. My daughter told me she had not fired since she started college. I just told her to remember what I had told her and to use a good, steady two-handed hold. She loaded the pistol and fired all 6 rounds and hit the paper inside the rings each time, although it was spread quite a bit. Hugo had stood behind her, ostensibly to catch her if the "horrendous" backblast of the 9mm was too much for her. When it was my turn I had to shrink the size of the group since I was carring a handgun for a living at the time.