Shooting Try-out day

[crinkles]

Hey everyone,

Yesterday we (myself and my wife) attended a shooting try-out day at the local range (30 miles out).

It was awesome! I haven't had as much fun for a long, long time. I am very new to shooting and a very late comer being 32 and yesterday being the first to fire a firearm of any kind.

I recently applied for my firearms license as I have always had an inkling that I would be interesting in taking up shooting.

As for the shooting try-out I *barely* outshot my wife.

Here was the programme.

Other than for the clays and muzzle-loading, all were .22 LR calibres, and all except the clays of course, were shot at 25 metres. Targets were huge (maybe 1.5' by 0.75' plates).

#1. Trainers.

There were two benches set up. One had an unknown rifle, mine had a 1919 SMLE that was rebarreled to 22LR. Open sights. It was a real old stock. Had a warm elderly gentleman instructor which gave some good advice RE keeping the rifle roll level.

Score - me 10/10, wife 10/10.

#2. Scoped Rifle.

This setup was for scoped bolt action rifle firing at chickens and rams at 25m. unknown rifles; unknown scope settings.

Score - me 10/10, wife 10/10.

#3. Auto Pistol.

I didn't enjoy this one as much as the others. Much less control and harder to get on target.

Score - me 3/5, wife 3/5.

#4. Lever action rifle (western action rifle).

This was great. Rifle was a Marlin 39A, well worn. Got spoken to for being to girly on the lever, the bloke said they tend to jam if you are not firm with them. Had great fun once i got into handling the lever with some force. Open sights.

Score - me 5/5, wife, 4/5.

#5. Western Action Revolver.

I enjoyed this one more than the auto pistol. The revolver was relatively new, single action, had to cock by my left hand and fire by my right.

Score - me 5/5, wife 2/5.

#6. Shotgun. Clay shooting.

This was excellent. What a great feeling when you get one. there was a lineup of about 25m with people waiting to try out. I was really surprised at the ability for people to walk in and actually get some clays. The clays were real fliers and tended to hang a fair bit, probably on novice setting. The 12 gauge had a bit of kick to it. Ladies got a soft buttplate for protection.

Score - me 3/5, wife, 3/5.

#7. Muzzle loading.

Had a stand setup for muzzleloading rifles. These were both re-makes of old guns. First was 1840's era fur trader type gun. Second was slightly older, beautifully garnished front loader, with two stage packing. Second one had kick of a mule. Smell of black powder was awesome.

Score - me 2/2, wife 2/2.

Final scores - me 38/42, wife 34/42.

It was a great day all for just $15 each. I think the targets were deliberately large to avoid discouraging prospective shooters. Fair enough. Best sight was a tiny 12 year old girl shooting a 12 gauge and getting a clay. well done to her.

Before the day I had my heart set on a scoped 22 bolt action. After the day, I am leaning towards rather something like the Marlin 39A lever action 22LR with open sights. Something about the open sights feels more natural to me. In time I will expand with scoped things but for now I think the 39A will make a great starter.

Kids are still 6 years off being able to join in but sure will take them as soon as I can.

[BarryinIN]

That's great. From at least the late 70s until the late 90s when they folded, a gun club about an hour south of me held an Open House each year on National Hunting and Fishing Day. I am sure that got more people interested in the shooting sports than try will ever know. I wish more clubs would do it, but as I remember it, that club couldn't even get the local paper to publish an announcement by the time they quit. So there are some challenges involved in putting one on.

[crinkles]

Certainly a lot of lead got sent down-range.

The range itself is small, longest shots are 300m, and maximum caliber is 8mm to meet range template requirements for safety. That didn't bother the cows alongside the range (the range is only about 50m wide and there is evidence of cowpats along the range).

I estimate at least 200 people went though. For a region with only 30,000 people it's not too bad.

The only reason I had known about it is that I'd been looking at their roster for the year. No ads in the paper - I am sure it would probably lead to protests or complaints.

Weather was beautiful. Was just starting to get the shivers as it's turning into winter here now.