Range Report: 06/01/2010

As I was sweating my [deleted] off fixing a foot-sized hole in my attic floor, my Darling Wife said she wanted me to "be done for now" so we could go to BH's place.

BH's place is the place with a standing invite to go shooting anytime.

Then she said the B family would be there. Dad B had expressed an interest in having a gun class (see "Let me take you shooting" on the right side of this page) but never worked up a schedule. I brought out some guns, ammo, and teaching equipment (including PPE) just in case, then loaded up #2's bicycle so he could ride around BH's land, and off we went.

Lunch, and socializing with another family that showed up kept us busy for the first part of the afternoon, but around 16:00 I told CB if he wanted a class, it had better get started or we'd run out of time. By 18:30 we were packing it in, because my Darling Wife is 8 months into the cooking process for VFDkiddo #4 and she can only be up and doing for so long. Between those times, I ran a class with two boys and a man, and we did much less shooting than I would have liked.

I started Boy 1 off with a .22LR Ruger revolver which he liked, except that it was heavy for him. We were about 5 yards from a few aluminum cans, which danced nicely with a good hit. He kept wanting to lean backwards from his hips for some reason. Then his dad was up, and he did quite well, only requiring a couple of minor pointers. Boy 2 has been shooting before but hadn't been through my lecture, so he sat through it and waited for the n00bs to have their turns, then he lit up the berm with his hi-point 9mm carbine. It put the hurt on the cans, including sending one flying clear off into the tall grass. I sent him to get more cans.

Boy 1 wanted to have a go at the Glock foh-ty, but one shot was all he wanted from it. I think he was surprised at the much-larger recoil He handled it ok, but the Glock may as well have been a 2x4 in his little hands, so that first shot was plenty. His dad did better with it, and was happy to see one can scoot halfway up the berm from a solid hit.

I like to start folks out with light-recoiling guns, and they were up for it, so we broke out a Marlin .22LR rifle. I think Boy 1 might need glasses or something, he had such a hard time seeing the front sight. It was also heavy for him, so I provided a third hand (mine) for a forend rest. He struggled with the sights for a minute and ended up not firing a shot. Boy 2 took a turn on it and chewed the cans up. Boy 1 saw Boy 2 having fun at it, and said he wanted another try. I held the front of the stock again, and Boy 1 was having a hard time getting off a shot. The difference between the single-stage revolver and the 2-stage rifle triggers was throwing him, plus he was maybe a little scared to be shooting actual guns. I saw him struggling with the (5lbs) trigger, so I told him to just squeeze it without aiming, to see what it was like. He did, and found out it wasn't so bad, and then he got a few shots off. I need to get some child-sized safety glasses. . . the ones he was wearing were slipping off his head. Oh well.

I could tell the Dad was having fun, and he was dealing with recoil pretty well, so (after a word from my Darling Wife that time was running out) I ran him up the power ladder pretty quickly. He liked the SKS, and was impressed with its report. #3 commented from the house 100 yards away in a 2 year-old's voice that he was also impressed with the noise from the SKS (we heard "LOUD" after each shot, very cute). Then Boy 2 broke out a Mosin Nagant and THAT was the winner of the 'loudest gun yet' award, in addition to tipping Boy 2 back on his heels despite being well-positioned. The Dad shot that one, and was suitably impressed with the recoil coming through the steel butt plate. He was also impressed with the price . . . Mosins can still be had for <$100 in good condition these days. If only they had a longer frikken bolt handle . . .

Then it was time to go, because my Darling Wife was at about 97% of her capacity for not being on a couch with her swollen feet up. One of my goals for the day was to see if a few new parts for an old Bryco 59 would turn it into a functional pistol. It got off two shots. Then it stovepiped on a live round (FTF) which I cleared. Boy 2 was curious throughout the afternoon about this gun. He had never seen one and wondered why I kept saying it was cheap junk. After the third shot it showed me the new striker spring was NOT the right part by halfway disassembling itself as the slide was going back into battery. Boy 2 was watching me shoot, and I held up the partially-disassembled weapon, and called back to the spectator's area and said "Piece of Junk." He finally understood, agreed, and said back in a suitably impressed tone: "Piece of Junk."

Then we loaded up and left. We got home around supper time, and then the Zoo went down for the night. A couple of guns got a light cleaning and fresh grease, then put back in the safe. Then it was bedtime.

Good times.