Monday, February 29, 2016

Range Day - Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

Today I broke away from all the other playing I've been doing around here and we went down to our gun club to play with rifles.  We took our ARs and my 30+ year old Remington 700 in the Stocky's stock (pictured here) down for a few hours.

Unfortunately, I boneheaded it.  We have a chair that we always bring for the diminutive Mrs. Graybeard.  The small, wood benches that the club provides are far too short for her to reach her AR on the bench, so we use what's actually an astronomy observing chair.  I forgot it.  In fact, I double-boneheaded it and didn't bring my spotting scope either. 

Not to be kept from using her AR (and she absolutely loves the term "my AR"), she found one of the trash cans they provide for wolf steel cases, .22 cases and other things folks are throwing out.  Poured the trash into a second can and made a booster seat out of it.  Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome.
As I used to say when I was a project leader or hardware task leader: if anything is wrong it's all my fault.  Today it was.

Aside from that, it was a fine day.  We haven't gotten out to the rifle range for a while, so we re-familiarized ourselves, and then put some lead down 100 and 200 yards.  In the pic, BTW, Mrs. Graybeard is using her High Standard AR with BSA scope on a Caldwell lead sled.  The closest row of targets is 25 yards; what appears to be a continuous line above that is 100 yards, and a few light colored rectangles above those are the 200 yard targets.  The geometry was awkward and it was difficult for her to run the Remmy 700, but she still successfully shot the 700 to 200 yards.  I watched the rounds hit the target with the scope on my AR. 

Just a little blog-bragging.  It's always a good day when you get to go put some rounds downrange.  As we always say, that's why carnivals have shooting galleries and not sitting around galleries.  Shooting is fun!


5 comments:

  1. Very cool!

    Looks like a nice range.

    Because I "took the course", I'm allowed to shoot my AR at the local indoor range, but it's only 25 yards.

    I haven't been out to the "real" rifle range I go to in over a year. It's a 45~60 minute drive there, depending on traffic, and I suppose I should head out there soon.

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    1. Understand. It's about 35-40 minutes to this one, and a pretty hefty fee (to my mind) for the two of us every year. At least 15 trips to the indoor, commercial range. But it's got a bit of everything: a 50 yard shotgun/rifle range, two or three shot gun ranges, (sporting clays, skeet), Cowboy action, IDPA, a black powder range, two pistol ranges (adjustable range and 15 yard(?) fixed), and even a 600 yard range, in addition to this 200 yard range.

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    2. The outdoor rifle range I go to has ranges out to 600 yards. It's fun to watch the shooters over there, but I stick to the 300 yard and under range!

      I can't even see what those guys are shooting at unless I use my binoculars.

      My indoor range is $200/year, but I can bring up to two other shooters without charge, and they give me a stack of targets to use.

      Really nice to go during the week now that I'm retired. The range isn't busy at all, and it's fun to BS with the counter guys.

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  2. We used to belong to an outdoor range, nicely set up, and the range had been there a long time. When I started shooting there it used to take about 35 minutes to drive there. Fast forward 20 some odd years and the drive was pushing an hour. We did not move, nor did the range, but population growth added traffic lights, traffic congestion, stop signs and more.

    We changed to a smaller close range, but they were firmly in gun culture 1.0 and we did not mesh culturally.

    The local indoor range has gone through several changes and gotten cleaner and better ever time. The distance limit is 25 yards, but they are all weather and close to us.

    Looks like you had a very good day at the range.

    Sadly, part of the aging process is a change from "Did I forget anything?" to "What did I forget." (sigh)





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    1. When we joined the club five or six years ago, it was either a 45 minute drive north to the best indoor range, or a 40 minute drive south to the club. Since then a good indoor range opened a few miles away, but since we pay dues to the club we tend to go there and put up with the outdoor pistol range. The indoor range even allows 12 ga. and .308s, but it is a short range compared to the club.

      In the summer, indoor ranges seem like a much better idea.

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