The 2013 Gun Range Thread

Did you hit the range today? Tell us about it.

A friend and I hit the indoor range this morning, outside temps were in low teens, in the range it must have been in the low 30s, it was freezing.

I took my 9mm Sig P226, and christened the new Glock 26. He brought a Springfield XD9, a Walther PPK, Browning Buckmark, and a Walther P22. Unfortunately, the .22 ammo he brought was crap and half the time wouldn't push the slides back enough to eject the spent shells.

Every time I shoot someone else handguns, I like my Sig more and more.

I've heard a lot of times the P22 works best and it's recommend to use CCI mini mags. I hope to hit the range real soon, it's been a couple weeks.

I go to the range often, but for me that just means walking out my front door about 50 yards (a little further to my handgun range). I love living out in the sticks .

Anyway, I did forego some things on the house todo list this past weekend to do some more work on load development for my Sig M400. I think it's going to be a decent shooter. I'm getting 1.25" - 1.5" groups at 125 yards with various hand loads. Not too bad for my shaky butt (and not great eyesight).

jamesspo said:

I go to the range often, but for me that just means walking out my front door about 50 yards (a little further to my handgun range). I love living out in the sticks.

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+1 - When I'm down at the farm my nearest range is wherever I happen to be standing.

Back in December I determined that I was a REALLY REALLY bad shot any of my guns at an estemated 25 yards. That encouraged me to research good technique online, since I have not been able to track down any kind of live coaching in my area. I believe there is a law enforcement acadamy in Des Moines that teaches public classes, but I figured I would look into doing some improvement on my own before taking that step.

On January 5 I took out my Charter Arms Undercover (clone of S&W snub nosed 5-shot .38), Armscor M204 (clone of Colt Detective Special .38 w/4" barrel), and my RIA 1911. At a measured 10 yards I'm still rubbish with the CA and RIA, but had a few good scores with the M204. I determined that I do better with an isoceles stance than the Weaver stance.

On January 19 I borrowed my Dad's .22 pistol. It looks like a clone of the Ruger Mk III, but the only thing I could make out was "Sport-Rite" on the side. By the time I put 100 rounds through it I was shooting pretty fair but not great at a target a measured 50' away.

That pretty much settled it in my mind that I just need to get some more range time this year with each of the guns in order to get a decent level of proficiency with them. Having them isn't the same as being able to shoot them when you need to.

PugslyCat said:

+1 - When I'm down at the farm my nearest range is wherever I happen to be standing.

Back in December I determined that I was a REALLY REALLY bad shot any of my guns at an estemated 25 yards. That encouraged me to research good technique online, since I have not been able to track down any kind of live coaching in my area. I believe there is a law enforcement acadamy in Des Moines that teaches public classes, but I figured I would look into doing some improvement on my own before taking that step.

On January 5 I took out my Charter Arms Undercover (clone of S&W snub nosed 5-shot .38), Armscor M204 (clone of Colt Detective Special .38 w/4" barrel), and my RIA 1911. At a measured 10 yards I'm still rubbish with the CA and RIA, but had a few good scores with the M204. I determined that I do better with an isoceles stance than the Weaver stance.

On January 19 I borrowed my Dad's .22 pistol. It looks like a clone of the Ruger Mk III, but the only thing I could make out was "Sport-Rite" on the side. By the time I put 100 rounds through it I was shooting pretty fair but not great at a target a measured 50' away.

That pretty much settled it in my mind that I just need to get some more range time this year with each of the guns in order to get a decent level of proficiency with them. Having them isn't the same as being able to shoot them when you need to.

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There is a lot of conflicting advice online about proper pistol technique.
This is one of the best articles I've found:
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/ayoob85.html

Another thing that I've found to be very helpful, is Snapcaps. If you have all the basics down, but are still not shooting well, chances are you are flinching, or anticipating the recoil. Mix a few snapcaps in with live ammo at the range, and it will uncover your flinch, if you have one.

I hit the range this afternoon to try out my new Maglula mag loader. I should have gotten one of these a while ago. Drastically cut down on reloading time, but OTOH I went through almost twice as much ammo as usual in the hour I was there.

Commander Quan said:

Every time I shoot someone else handguns, I like my Sig more and more.

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My P229 and I agree with you.

The Uplula is a necessity for anyone that shoots often. It's so dang easy. Especially with new mags, and really saves your thumbs. I've gotten to the point where I only load 1 mag at a time otherwise I'd only be there for 15 minutes.

I need to give one of those a try, if they have something that will work for my Kel-Tec PMR-30 (22 magnum) mags. Those things are just a bear to load. I actually haven't successfully got a full 30 rounds into those mags yet. After about 20 it gets really, really hard to get the next ones in. I stopped when it got so hard that it felt like I might dent the brass and/or the bullet.

Commander Quan said:

The Uplula is a necessity for anyone that shoots often. It's so dang easy. Especially with new mags, and really saves your thumbs. I've gotten to the point where I only load 1 mag at a time otherwise I'd only be there for 15 minutes.

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Bah.. from their web site:

* The UpLULA™ does NOT load the following:

Kel Tec PMR-30 mags.

Bummer.

jamesspo said:

I need to give one of those a try, if they have something that will work for my Kel-Tec PMR-30 (22 magnum) mags. Those things are just a bear to load. I actually haven't successfully got a full 30 rounds into those mags yet. After about 20 it gets really, really hard get the next ones in. I stopped when it got so hard that it felt like I might dent the brass and/or the bullet.

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I made a range run today. A new state of the art indoor range named Eagle Gun Range (Lewisville, TX) opened about a mile from my house in September of last year, and they do a great job. 24 well ventilated and lighted lanes, pro shop, break area, etc. They allow rifles below .50 caliber and FMJ rifle rounds. They charge $20 for all day rather than an hourly charge like many of their competitors.

I've got an AMD-64 Hungarian short barelled AK variant, and I recently added a new quad-rail forend and red/green dot reticle reflex sight that Santa brought me. I had yet to have an opportunity to get it dialed in since I installed it. Just for fun, I brought along a Beretta Neos .22 and my two carry guns (Springfield XD-40 and a S&W 642 .38 snub).

After 10 rounds of 2 shot groups shooting over my range bag as a base, I had the reflex sight adjusted and dialed in on the AMD. I ran a total of 100 rounds through it with great results (granted it was only at 25 yards, but offhand shot grouped at 2" and 1" sitting on the bag was good enough for me today). With the muzzle brake and short barrel, the AMD is a noisy flamethrower, but a lot more accurate than one might imagine. I then put 100 rounds of cheap steel case Tulammo through my XD and 50 rounds of 158gr .38 range ammo through the 642 using both traditional stance and single handed shooting from different angles with both the left and the right hands at 7 and 10 yards. I do most of my shooting with the XD and 642 from a low ready position and quick pairs since the range doesn't allow holster work. I followed that up with around 150 rounds of .22lr through the Beretta at 20 yards just for fun.

My station today:


Cheers!

I was out to the range on Saturday and Sunday. On Friday I had picked up a little .22 semi-automatic pistol. If I can get ammo for it I should be able to affordably get some much needed practice. Unfortunately the extra magazine I got with it had 100% FTF problems, so I spent more time trying to figure that out than actually punching paper.

PugslyCat said:

If I can get ammo for it I should be able to affordably get some much needed practice.

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I feel your pain on that one. If it's anything like up here even 22LR is hard to come by. I have a Mark III that doesn't get much use lately.

Saturday was a good shooting day for me. In the morning I had an IDPA match. Used my Glock 34 and came in sixth. Later that afternoon, my brothers and I went and did some shotgun and revolver shooting. Much fun was had by all.

My wife is signed up for a women's gun class in a couple weeks, so we went to the range Saturday to shoot. I wanted her to shoot a couple guns to see which one she liked the best, and she picked the Sig. After a couple of mags she had started to get things dialed in.

On a side note, I will be avoiding the range on Saturday afternoons until some of this madness slows down. Some of the people in there

Hi all,

I ran and shot a revolver match this morning at my range in Staten Island. Bullseye pistol, centerfire revolver, iron sights, .38 cal+, 60-rounds @ 25-yards. Lots of fun. Shot my S&W model 14 with Zero 148gr HBWC.

Tom

Nope. California gun laws.

Still to *&^&$%$#* cold here and I refuse to pay the price that most of the indoor ranges around here are asking for an hour of shooting.

Haven't been able to get to the range for a while unfortunately. Ammo is so scarce in my area, that i'm hesitant to shoot what I have on hand knowing that I might not be able to replace it...

I took this past Friday off to go to the range. Sighted in my new Remmy R15 with Vortex Viper scope, and am very pleased with it. Also shot my S&W Model 64 and Walther P38. Was going to hit the trap range, but ran out of time. It was VERY windy while I was shooting the R15; which is what I am going to use as an excuse for my mediocre shooting.