There are several fields, each surrounded by woods and brush. The house is a nice double wide trailer ("nice trailer" sounds a little odd but it's much better than a couple of houses I've lived in); there's a second house, about 1600 square feet, that's framed and roofed but not finished past that. We spent most of the time
taking the four-wheel ATV up and down and back and forth, seeing the
upper field and the lower fields, and the old slave house and tobacco drying shed and such.
There's a pond with bluegill and catfish, and we fed cheerios and puffed rice to the fish.
I hit a few targets with a .22 rifle; when it came to the shotgun, we very nearly hit several clay pigeons. In the evening we sat outside, watching the stars and occasionally putting another log on the campfire. It was a very pleasant, peaceful weekend.
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Bugbear (Derek) took me shooting recently at a range near Napanee. Fired some .22 LR (lever action, tube mag feed), a few .30-30 (lever action, side feed like the Winchester) and a couple of .45-70 (breechloader!).
Derek was worried about the noise - I found the .30-30 and the .45-70 fine with just my ear defenders. When I shot in the military, the FN was louder. The .45-70 had a wonderful boom to it and a good kick (not the shoulder breaker I was led to believe from Derek, mind you).
My accuracy was questionable - I hate the U shaped rear sight/ball front sight combination entirely. I never have liked that and much prefer even a low power optic with a crosshair or even just a good peep sight with sharp blade sight at the front. But I'd have hit deer or men.
Given some time to practice, I could really get to enjoy shooting the .45-70 breechloader.
Makes me wish I could afford to get back into pistol shooting. I loved the 1911 and the .380 Browning.
Wow, I don't know why I feel a little sense of surprise when I hear people talk abt different types of pistols/rifles & target practice, but I do. I realized 2 yrs ago that b/c I'd nvr been acquainted with anyone who owned guns, my frame of reference for them had been reduced to hearing about crimes on the news. I associated gun ownership w/criminals or extremists.
Then I met someone and started dating him and discovered he knew a million things about this subject, had a concealed weapons permit and owned about six different things. He was rather passionate abt the 2nd Amendment and chuckled at my naivete and prejudices regarding the subject, especially since I had been in the military as an 18-year-old and handled an M16 A-1 (like--a million years ago now).
But the day he took me out to the west desert area a couple hours away, I redeemed myself in his eyes. It was right after Halloween, and we'd carved several pumpkins for his porch days before. He suggested we load up the jack o'lanterns and head out for a drive. On the way, I told him I'd won a sharpshooter medal in the army and turned out to be a rather good shot with the M16. Hmmm, was his response.
When we found a good spot out in the middle of nowhere and we set up all the pumpkins in various worried positions smiling back at us or looking alarmed and scary, he opened a couple different weapons and showed them to me. I don't remember what they were really, except for the heavier Baretta of some sort. I picked it up, stepped forward a few minutes later and shot the farthest grinning jack o'lantern right between the eyes twice, then deliberately took the lid off the one next to it. First time firing any weapon in more than 20 years. (No, they weren't just 7 feet away, either, lol.)
Haha... but I'd forgotten the earplugs those first few shots, and yeah... it was loud.
The .22 had that bead-and-U and I wasn't thrilled with it, but I got all the rounds into the (stationary, non-evading, not-firing-back, well-lit) target. Next time I go shooting, I'll take some binocs or something so I can see where the shots fall.
It's not a trailer, it's a modular home :)
I believe the correct term for your clay pidgeon shooting was 'I scared the daylights out of some clay pidgeons'. Remember, near misses have morale effects!
"Modular home"...yeah. Well, when I grew up, it was normal to see both cars and houses up on blocks in the yard.
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