Range Trip

I've been fortunate to have gotten in a lot of range practice in the last few months. Always practicing with a plan in mind, the sessions were directed towards a specific goals and skills. I decided this week that I wanted to just shoot. Call it plinking or whatever, but my intent was just to have fun putting rounds down range.

In addition to the SIG P320 I shoot in competition, I grabbed my SIG P239 as well. Looking at my logs, I saw that I had not fired the gun since April 15 of last year, a little over a year ago. The compact SIG was the first gun I ever bought, and I always enjoy shooting it. The trigger time was overdue.

Forgetting to pack targets, I purchased a couple of the "Q" bottle targets to use this time. Hanging the first one at 10 yards, I very quickly went through my first box of ammo. Using just a quick flash sight picture I fired rapid strings of 3, 4, 5 or more shots. There's something immensely satisfying about just pulling the trigger quickly. (And still keeping the hits where they need to be.)

Next I loaded up the P239 mags. Setting a fresh target at 7 yards, my first few shots were essentially touching. Then, speeding things up, I realized just how quickly those 8 round magazines go empty! I quickly went through another box of ammo. By today's standard the P239 is a dinosaur of a "compact" gun, but it's accurate and easy to shoot. It's a shame, though not surprising, that SIG has apparently discontinued it.

Finally, I decided to slow things down just a bit. I found a folded up repair center target in my bag and "refreshed" the Q target. Setting it at 20 yards, I used my last box of ammo shooting a bit slower with the P320.

It turned out to be an extremely short, but most satisfying and cathartic outing.