Range Report

So, my one and only commenter (so far) asked recently for a Range Report. So here goes...

This weekend I accomplished a number of things.

1. I was actually home.
2. The weekend on which I was actually home coincided with my ranges' monthly IDPA match.
3. I was able to secure a Kitchen Pass for said match.
4. Additionally, two of the three Spawn-of-Azlibertarian™ expressed an interest in shooting with Dear Old Dad, and we had yet another trip to the range.

As to the details related to this weekend of shooting...

For the IDPA match, although at this writing the results haven't been released yet, I'm sure they will show that I basically sucked. The theme this month was distance, which is my nemesis. There were a couple of targets at 3-5 yards, but the vast majority were in the 25-30 yard range. Humbling to say the least. However, one of the guys in my group had serious problems with his gun. He's usually one of the better scorers, but was cursed this month with bad mag's, and bad ammo (reloads--of course). [Note to self: Perhaps I should rethink that dream of someday procuring a Dillon RL 550B.] He finally switched out his entire setup to a more reliable gun. My stuff worked just the way you'd want it--aside from the operator errors. The guys who do all the legwork for this match (bless their hearts) aren't usually all that creative in their scenarios, but this month they did have one very cool stage--a You're-Michael-Durant-in-Your-Just-Shot-Down-Helicopter Blackhawk Down stage. I imagine lots of ranges with active practical shooting groups have tons of props for use on their stages. However, how many of them have a real helicopter from which to do something like this? Cool. Very cool.

Although I always enjoy IDPA, my Sunday morning outing with the kids was probably more pleasant. Daughter#1 has fallen in love with my Browning Hi-Power, and wanted to shoot this. I also brought along my Glock23C, HK USP Compact, AR-15, and Mossy 590. I had intended to put a few slugs through the Mossy, and brought 2 5-round boxes, but as it turns out, I'd loaded the slugs into the Sidesaddle and Sling and left them at home as part of my "Home Load". The 10 rounds I'd brought consisted of 2 slugs and 8 buckshot rounds. So my son and I each shot off one of the slugs and I shot off 3 of the buckshot rounds. Son-of-Azlibertarian has generally shyed away from pistols, as he's much more proficient with rifles, but did seem to enjoy all three pistols this time. We all did pretty well with the pistols, and with the AR-15 (Iron sights) were each able to stay reasonably on the paper at 100 yards and regularly get hits on the 300-yard metal plate. Good times had by all.

As an aside, Daughter#1 will be an RA at ASU this year. She kept the targets we used, and we joked about her using them as room decorations. We'll see if (a)ASU let's her put these up and (b)she actually goes through with this.