Blogshoot

Let's get the preliminaries out of the way  Attending the event at the Peacemaker Range was our host Lagniappe, OldNFO, MBtGE, and Tempestuous Sea.  Plus some new bloggers I hadn't met before.  AnotherDayAnother and Proud Hillbilly.  Plus some frequent Commenters like A, and Stretch and Bubblehead Les.

Great fun was had by all.

There was discussion on what to call this.  First annual Mid-Atlantic Blogshoot?  Great Eastern Panhandle Shoot? 

First off, this range is brand new.  Opened in September.  And it had the best view of any range I'd ever been to.  West Virginian hollers and ridgelines and open sky.  I'm used to dense wooded areas or the back end of the County Dump when I shoot long guns.  So that was pretty nice.  The point of this place is to make a goto training facility where 3 gun competitions can be held.  It has a fully electronicified (it's a perfectly cromulent word.... electronicified) 1000 yard range.  You shoot, and a camera connected to the internet is looking at your target and displays your results.  So you and the rest of the world can see that 10 ring shot you just made.

The long range is restricted to members at this point.  $500 initially, $400 to renew.

And it's only an hour and a half from MBtGE's house.

Their intention is to host as many training evolution there as possible.  

Open to us, and the public is a pistol range pit, a shotgun area for skeet, and a rifle area.  The primary berm is 100 yards out with decent concrete and shaded shooting benches.  But they also have a 250 yard berm and are planning a 400 yard berm. So, finally a place to do relatively serious rifle work available to the DC area general public.

At the 250 berm there was a steel gong target and this was the only item to shoot at.  It was the big hit of the party.

OldNFO had one of his sniper setups that he let me try.  He had zeroed it for the gong, so when I got my chance the thing was practically set on Easy-Button.  Put the cross hairs on the steel, barely touch his trigger, and wait for the the sound of the 'ding' to get back to your ears.  It was 100%.

Then the fun began.  My M1A with iron sights rings the bell more often than not, but it's a well set up and made rifle.  MBtGE was shooting 100% with THAT.  My first shot hit the support post, low, so I adjusted my point of aim from the 'chest' to the 'neck' on the plate and started hitting.

MBtGE had his Beretta CX4 storm that shoots .40 cal pistol ammo.  After using OldNFO's spotting scope to help MBtGE walk in a shot to learn the point of aim on his EOTech optic, he gave me a try.  I dinged it on my second attempt after a simple point of aim adjustment was called.  MBtGE later was using his 10/22 to ring the gong with iffy ammo.  The immediate feedback of a steel plate was one of the most satisfying shooting experiences I have had, ever.  I was just pleased my M1A was set up where I wanted it and the proof was in the gong-y pudding.

Effective range for a pistol caliber carbine is now 250 yards, too.  Sweet.

Also had fun trying out the new Ruger mags in my 10/22, but this was more a function test of those mags than marksmanship.  They worked great, and my shooting wasn't that bad, either.  Bubblehead Les was good to his word to trade me a M1 Carbine type sling to attach to it, too.  Thanks Les!  I have it adjusted for length to be a hasty sling, now.  

At the pistol area, I shot Proud Hillbilly's FN1922 (serendipity from Tam's post) and her airweight j-frame.  That FN has odd grips, narrow in the front-to-back orientation.  My trigger finger has to curl way back toward me to get to the bang switch.  Euro types must have teeny hands 90 years ago.  And the super lightweight revolver was a handful even with regular .38 special.  I like getting the chance every now and then to shoot these lightweights as it reinforces my decision to get the all steel versions.  It's just not a pleasant gun to shoot.  I'd rather it be pleasant to shoot for .0001% of the time than light to carry 99%+ of the time for this type of weapon.  Size, not weight, is my bugaboo. I'm a BIG fan of the j-frames.  And I LOATHE the airweights.

There was Arisaka rifles present that Lagniappe reloads .30-06 down to and he has a Ruger .44 rifle with a integral suppressor that was also a hoot to listen to.

An entirely enjoyable day of shooting.  And JT's (I like the initials...) had really good prime rib sammiches.  Eat there, but don't trust your GPS.  The GPS lead us to a strip joint called Vixens.

Below is a couple of Dirty Bird targets.  My last, as I prefer the sticky and yellow of the Shoot N See.  The left is 50 yards, right is 100 yard.  Looks like I may need another notch or two of windage for the .22.  You can see 2 .308 in there, too.  My .308 may need a notch or two of elevation.  But that's a solo range trip to work on that, not a fun range trip like a blogshoot.  I want to be a little higher on 100 yards.  Ugh, the only trigger worse than my 10/22 is the CX4 carbine.  Still, not too much to complain about for a journeyman effort.