Range Day

I had a few days of "use or lose" leave time built up, so I took a couple days off mid-week. Fortunately, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week were unseasonably warm, and dry. Just perfect for a trip to the range on Tuesday. A friend was visiting for the day who is also a shooting enthusiast. He had just purchased one of these spinner targets so we were looking forward to trying it out as well. We loaded up the care with target stands, shooting gear, and lots of ammo and headed out mid-day.

I've lamented previously that the range where we shoot is getting crowded and the ranges are more and more frequently in use. When we arrived this day, I noticed a backhoe working on one bay and the other bay was already in use. We stopped at the bay being worked on and were told they'd be done in about 15 minutes. That was great timing.

So we were the first people to shoot at the newly re-built bay. While the bay floor was still loose dirt, the berm was now higher and wider. I was told reseeding will happen this week. It was great to see the work being done as the berms were getting a bit worn. I also learned that the club is reviewing the possibility of adding a third pistol bay.

We set up our three target stands with paper USPSA targets and the new spinners. As always we took a few minutes "just shooting" before moving onto the new spinner target. Wow. The circles on the three hanging spinners are just 3 inches across. Slow down, work on a good trigger press, and watch it spin.

We got out the shot timer for some friendly competition. Buzz! Two shots on the right USPSA paper, moving left two more on the next, then slow down and one shot at each spinner, and finish with two on the last paper. We casually checked time, but the main point of the "competition" was whether or not your three shots at the tiny steel were all good. We did another game were we just timed hitting all three spinners once. Good natured ribbing and laughs were the order of the day.

Sufficiently warmed up, we decided to mix in some short bursts of running. Start at 15 yards, at the buzzer sprint to the 7 yard line and then put take the predetermined shots — 2 center mass, or 2 head shots, or 2 body, 1 head, etc. It was a great drill to work on getting the gun on target quickly at the same time as stopping your forward motion.

Shooting on the move is something we are fortunately allowed to do here as well. We spent time shooting both while and advancing and retreating, with both slow and fast movement.

I am sure we threw other fun activities in there too but I wasn't taking notes. At the end of our range visits, we typically expend a few magazines shooting at will, when each person just does whatever they feel like doing. For me, that meant tacking a paper plate to the well-shot target and simply working on a smooth draw from the holster followed by two hits on the plate.

I ended up putting about 250 rounds down range. (We're going to need more ammo.) With the running and moving I really felt like I had shot a match that afternoon, but it was a good sort of tired.☺

A beautiful afternoon spent shooting with my lovely wife and a good friend. It was a wonderful way to spend the day, and it only got better as we headed off to the local pub for good beer and food.