Target shooting thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Heck, we have everything else. So here we go - The SDMB target shooting thread.

Handguns
Rifles
Bow and arrow

I donno, general chit chat.

  • All questions welcome, regardless if you shoot or not.
  • Share as much as you want.

Myself, I started with a 100 yo Winchester shingle shot .22 rifle. I was 11 years old. Shot mostly rifles and shotgun (clay pigeons). I knew handguns though.

My wife got surrounded by a pack of coyotes about a year ago. She had one of our dogs with her. The dog clearly knew it was out matched. My wife managed to scare them away by throwing rocks and yelling. They figured it wasn’t worth it. My wife said she has never been more scared in her life. That’s saying somthing.

So she asked me to teach her how to shoot.

So a couple of table top lessons about safety. The five rules are never broken. Then general knowledge. Pistols/revolvers etc. Turns out there is a lot to cover, that is just ingrained in me.

I bought her a Walther pd 380. https://waltherarms.com/defense/pd380
and a Taurus 38sp with a 4" barrel.

She handles them both very well. And with respect for what they are.

How about you folks. Any target shooters?

Misinterpreted thread titles
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I used to be. There’s a club a few miles down the road from my house. My favorites were a Springfield Armory 1911 in .45 ACP and a Norinco SKS rifle that was barely legal in NJ at the time. I also had a .50 cal Hawken black powder rifle that was a helluva lot of fun to shoot, and just as much fun to hunt with. I went through a nasty divorce in 2008 and since it was pretty clear that my ex-wife was going to use my gun ownership against me in court I sold or gave them all away. These days I only hunt with a recurve bow that I shoot instinctive. During the course of all of this, I also lost a lot of my field of vision in my right eye, so I would have to get used to shooting left handed if I wanted to get into it again, but I don’t aim the bow so I’m still pretty accurate with it. I guess I could probably try to learn the same method with a pistol, but that seems a lot harder.

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I never hunted myself.

But used to shoot a recurve bow. Do NOT forget your arm guard.

When my wife and I go shooting, I take a Sig Sauer 9mm. p365. I have a few others all inherited. I inherited a bunch of guns, gave most away to friends.

I now have a proper safe and two biometric handgun safes. Just feels better that way.

Anytime that my wife or me handles a gun, we show it to the other to show that it is completely empty. Of course you still treat it as loaded. It’s a good habit.

Gawd, I was in a jury box once when a LEO was testifying about something involving an AK 47. He picked it up and painted the whole room with it. Idiot. “It’s unloaded.” Not to me it isn’t. They ended up bringing the AK into the jury room (evidence) and set it on the table pointing right at someone’s chest. I gently picked it up and leaned it in a corner. Where do they get these people?

Bummer about your eye. My wife is ambidextrous it seems. She shoots handguns with her right hand, but throws darts with her left :man_shrugging:

I’m getting off target here though. I had never been to an inside range before. Always shot outside. My wife is taking a one on one instructor course next week. That’s great. I shared everything I know with her. Never hurts to know more.

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I am a firm believer in chamber flags. My club requires them for anything on the firing line that someone is not handling.

5

I hit up a range about every 5 years or so to ensure that I generally still know my way around firearms.

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I used to do a lot of target shooting. I learned on a Cooey .22 cal, likely a Model 60. Way the hell back in the woods, pin a target on a tree, pace off 20 yards or so, and shoot.

Later, I joined a club, and moved up to an Anschutz Model 190 sporter rifle. Single-shot, designed for target shooting. I still shot my Cooey there, but mostly for fun. The Anschutz became my serious competition firearm.

At some point, I moved up to an Anschutz Model 1813 .22LR cal match rifle, and things got really serious. As in, I was practicing seven days a week, and got to the point where I could put five shots through a dime at 50 meters, and not touch the edge. That got me noticed, and I ended up trying out for the national Olympic team.

Yes, I’ve shot handguns and shotguns before, but I much prefer rifles. Something about the precision, I guess. Shooting was fun.

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I have a Benjamin Marauder air rifle. .22 cal. You need a special pump to get it up to it’s 3000psi (yes 3000). It has a 12x scope on it, and it can use that. It’s crazy accurate, dime size shots at 100 feet. Again, and again and again.

I figured out it’s ft/lb ballistics. It’s about a .22 short. The pellet is much lighter, but much faster.

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I did that for a while until my wife asked me to teach her. I’m actually quite a good teacher. I’ve done a lot of GIS training. A difficult subject.

Anyway, when my wife asked, I had to roll my knowledge in to make it presentable and put it in order. I bored my wife to death with “Safety, safety, safety” Fear of firearms is not your friend. Respect and safety are.

A couple of weeks ago I declined to go to the range. I had ridden my bike a lot over the last 2 days and my legs where a bit wobbly. Nope, not today.

9

Pre-Covid, I went target shooting / practice shooting about 3-4 times a year, almost always with my cheaper calibers. With the (probably justified) riots and protests immediately prior to Covid though, ammo got expensive fast, and then distancing and then… lack of opportunity.

Political issues do keep ammo prices and availability variable, and it wasn’t ever super cheap, so I just went back to the range for the first time in years a few weeks ago.

Sighed in the 10/22 I got as a gift a few years back and spent time zeroing it for a good time - and I have thousands of rounds of .22LR.

Otherwise, sighted in and zeroed the fun Keltech Sub9 Gen 3 with a Sig sauer Red dot I mentioned in a prior thread. Yeah, it’s kind of cheap, but it’s a ton of fun to shoot.

Was at a semi-private range with my Father-in-law. Semi private, in that it has open days (for a small fee) on the weekends, but weekdays it’s members only and it was empty when we went mid week. Lousy weather though, so we only spent about 2.5 hours there, and it’s about a 50 minute drive from town.

But the local public ranges tend to be loud and filled with our extensive local military population and/or wannabees.

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Wow! I had a whole different impression of this thread, thinking it was about mayhem in a certain department store!

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I go very occasionally to keep skills up. I probably should go soon. I used to take classes with a SWAT instructor and think about shooting more formally in competitions, but the sport is very chud coded. I stopped with the instructor when he started bragging about how he got new bumpers on his truck to better run over protestors.

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I used to shoot IDPA practical pistol. I eventually became the chief range office at a local club. It was a lot of fun setting up different scenarios to shoot every Wednesday evening. We shot all firearms - pistol, rifle and shotgun.

I also shot at the National Matches at Camp Perry in the Garand Match and bolt action military rifle match.

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A while ago, I did some bullseye shooting with a rifle, but now honestly my vision is not that great. Is there any way to shoot accurately while using corrective lenses (contacts or specs)?

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I’ve never shot competitively, but somehow I am a decent shot. I know a couple that I am friends with who like to shoot, and a few years back one of them had a new pistol and invited me to shoot with them. Now, they had training and concealed permits that they had to shoot and qualify for. But the wife was having trouble with her new gun and could barely hit the target at about 15 yards. So I tried it and basically was able to put in 2 inch groups in with no problem. Uh, that was a bit uncomfortable.

Every now and then, I am a great shot with a shotgun. But that wasn’t the case this last season. And I honestly cannot figure out what I am doing wrong.

I started handloading because my dad gifted me a .270 Weatherby, and reloading was the only way I could afford to shoot it. One year I worked up some hunting loads using some superduper Barnes or Hornady premium bullets. A somewhat hot load with IMR 7828. Manuals had something like 72-74 grains as the top end for this load, and I decided to start on the higher end and check carefully for signs of overpressure. Carefully trimmed cases, meticulously measure powder, etc. loaded 6 rounds at something like 73.5 grains, 73.6 grains, and 73.7 grains. So 18 rounds total, and these were not cheap bullets so I was trying to not be wasteful. Now, it should be noted that with factory Weatherby rounds this gun would shoot about 1.5" groups at 200 yards. First set of the 73.5 grain rounds grouped at about 5 inches. Not good. The 73.6 grain rounds were worse at about 7 inches. Man, I am just wasting money here, this isn’t going well. But what the hell, I decided to shoot the 73.7 grain rounds. And the group was just under 1 inch. And while that made me happy, I realized that this was just voodoo. If a tenth of a grain of powder made so much of a difference, then what would 40 degrees of ambient air temperature do? I was sighting in at about 70 degrees, but would likely be hunting at near freezing. Would it still shoot a tight group? I’ll never know.

Now I am older and can afford factory rounds, but dad couldn’t you just have given me a .30-06?

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I’ve always shot with either glasses or contacts. Never had a problem with either. What sort of issues did you have? Or have you not shot since needing glasses?

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I’ve worn glasses since I was 13; I’ve never shot without them.

I haven’t fired a weapon since I finished with the reserves 7 years ago. I miss it a bit. I was always a pretty good shot, despite shooting right handed with a dominant left eye.

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Likewise. Got glasses in 3rd grade. I’m not an expert shot, but I do fine.

When I got cataracts I had them fixed with the best lenses I could get and still do fine.

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Re shooting with glasses, I’ve been nearsighted for nearly my entire life. I normally wear bifocals. (Tried trifocals and progressives and did not care for them at all.) My shooting glasses are my regular prescription in a safety glasses frame, including side shields. When I had them made, I had the bifocal line moved up significantly so I can see my sights and slide clearly without tilting my head up. I also had the near vision prescription changed slightly to help me focus better on the front sight at arm’s length. Very inexpensive to do, but it helps a heck of a lot.

They are a bit weird to wear driving to and from the range.

20

I did some shooting when I lived in the country with my parents, and would still shoot at some targets occasionally when visiting. My Dad was a highly ranked bench rest shooter, and held world records at one time. He and his buddies turned out old chicken house into a shooting range. I can remember him being impressed when I came down from the city and filled a bull’s eye full of holes.

21

I’m an archer at heart and in identity, having shot bows and arrows from chilhood on up. As a kid, I had access to bows and arrows (by making 'em myself), but zero access to guns, even airguns. Robin Hood was an early inspiration - I wanted to roam the summer woods romantically with bow in hand, and did. Like for many, the historical context was important, and history after the adoption of firearms was dull as dishwater, then. I also wanted to create shootable things with my hands, and bows and arrows were doable.

From a practical standpoint, I have always loved the fact that archery is silent and clean: no Bang Bang, no acrid smoke, no barrels that urgently need cleaning after every shooting session, and no lead exposure.

That being said, guns have their place and their point in leisure, and they are not without some cool history themselves. I have a couple of firearms and many more airguns, ranging in mode of propulsion, style and power level into serious, quality hunting tools.

Compared to firearms, airguns somewhat share many of the advantages of bows and arrows, or looked from another direction, they are less loud, less smelly, less expensive to use, and more hassle free than firearms. They are also infinitely tunable and tweakable, which is important to me.

But the topic at hand was target shooting, oops. I have shot countless thousands of target shots with my weapons, but it almost invariably involves practicing my skills / tuning my setups for hunting / pesting. I do get distinct pleasure from a good score at a target, be it at 20 yards with my selfbows and arrows, or at 60 yards with my scoped pellet guns. The reward gets bigger as the challenge gets harder, is the basic guiding principle.

As far as eyesight goes, I have recently started to lose my ability to see iron sights sharply, my always-preferred method of shooting rifles. I hate it!