Range Report

or, I Know What You Did Last Memorial Day

Yesterday (Memorial Day) we observed the holiday by spending it with those living people we love, including several families from our church and their families. In the morning, our a/c at the house was acting up, so I missed the 14:00 range session, but I figured our host, M.V. would at least like to see my highway patrol surplus Glock, so I took it and the Kel-Tek and a small pile of ammunition, on the chance that he might want to do some more shooting once the party thinned out some.

I knew that M.V. had shot a revolver and some pistol-caliber carbines, so I was somewhat surprised when he said he had never fired a pistol. C.B. may have a revolver (I'm not sure) but if he's fired off a full box of cartridges, ever, I'd be surprised.
E.M. has never been shooting.

We lit off some fireworks after a few hundred too many calories, and the majority of the guests split. Right at the crack of night, E.M. got clearance from his Wife to go shooting before they left. It was M.V.'s land, so he was good to go. C.B. joined us as we arrived on the range.

Distance: about 15yds. Target/backstop: some sacks of quickrete that had set up in the rain last summer, that were propped against some trees. I set my coke bottle on the sacks.

The 1st shot was mine. I went through the manual of arms for the Glock 22 and, with the first round, made a clean kill of my recently-emptied bottle. Everybody got a few rounds off with the Glock, and there were comments about the biggish recoil.

The next course of fire was with the Kel-Tek .380, and there were no more comments about the recoil from the foh-tay.

Then once more round with the Glock, me first. I was very pleased with the controllability in rapid-fire, and happy to put my first rapid-fire string out of it (Red's doesn't allow more than a controlled triple in rapid-fire). I also put out a much less accurate rapid-fire string from the Kel-Tek, and shot both single-handed. Fun.

We picked up some spent casings for souvenirs and recycling (and, for me, to have a quick check to see how the guns were running) and headed back up to the house. I tried to assuage E.M.'s fears when he asked how much all this shooting was costing me. The answer would have been different if we were shooting 30-06, but if you count the price cut I got on the Kel-Tek, I basically spent $0 on ammunition last night (yay!). We had a discussion with the neophytes about the relative power and size of various chamberings, including a discussion of E=MC(squared). Score: 3 made better militia members, 1 militia member got more gun time with his own weapons. Also, a 4-year old got to handle his first-ever live cartridge and got a very brief saftey & explanatory lecture, and E.M.'s wife heard from mine, that shooting really is fun. Plant the seeds!

The shooting was good. The quick-set concrete seems to be an excellent backstop for pistol fire. The Kel-Tek had zero malfunctions of any kind. The painted sights were of little use, due to low ambient light and a handheld spotlight that put daylight brightness on the target. The night sights on the G22 were of little use, also due to the spotlight's brightness. The Glock had one stoppage, a failure to feed, with a Speer Gold-Dot that had never been chambered before. That's a 5% failure rate and I think I'll be getting some Expanding Full Metal Jackets instead, in the future. Accuracy was fair, but since we were just shooting to shoot (no paper targets), the shower of cement shrapnel was much more impressive than the accuracy of the weapon.

Good times.

In the iterest of promoting familiarity with weapons of all sorts, and the advancement of the level of skill and knowledge amongst the members of the People, I will reiterate The Offer, again: if you have never shot a firearm, and are in the Central Texas region, contact me. I will take you to a well-lit, air-conditioned, controlled environment and supply the guns and ammunition. No strings attached. I want you to not be afraid of guns. I want you to know how to shoot. I want you (eventually) to be at least armed and able to defend your own home against Goblins.