Today’s trip to the range went very well. Although the range was fairly busy, we got right in and had our lane within minutes of arrival. We set up the first target at seven yards – a bullseye pistol target. We initially took out the S&W 686 revolver and shot about 50 rounds of .38 special to warm up.
After the target became fairly perforated with our warm up shots, we reeled it back in and patched it up with several adhesive spots and resumed with our .45 pistols – Damsel’s Warthog and my Glock 30. We fired some more rounds at the patched-up target and retired it in favor of a silhouette target.
Image – Gunography: Glock 30, Warthog and S&W 686
We brought the .45s today because we scored two hundred rounds of Remington UMC .45ACP yesterday at the sporting goods store at a bargain price. Interestingly, they had NO 9mm Luger ammo. We still have 9mm on hand in the safe, but decided to take the bigger guns this week because of the availability of the .45 ammo.
The range gun shop was also out of ANY reloaded ammo. They did have a palette with 500 round cases of .40 and 9mm for a nominal price. We would have purchased a couple cases of the 9mm, but we’re saving up for our visit to Phoenix and the 2A Blog Bash in a few weeks. We can wait for the ammo until we get back.
The session concluded with shooting the shotguns. I don’t have video to verify, but we each had a satisfying time by blowing a silhouette target in half. We shot 25 rounds each of 12 and 20 gauge.
There was one event to report in connection with today’s session. We saw several parents with their old-enough-to shoot children in the range today. We like to see the kids shooting with their parents. However, there was one youngster – about 14 or 15, who was in the range WITHOUT PROTECTIVE EYE WEAR. I spoke with the young man and asked him where his goggles were. I got a sort of a blank look from him when his parent took over with the line of questioning. The group he was with quickly rustled up a pair for him. I got hit with a fragment in my shoulder today and I shudder to think what would have happened if it had hit the kid instead. Even ejected brass can be very dangerous.
Folks, take your kids to the range – but make sure that they – and you – are using the maximum safety practices.