I took my father to the range for Father's Day this past week.
It's been years since he shot anything. But I knew he had better fundamentals than me. And more patience. So I figured on him being a pretty good shot. He was on a rifle team in High School, and he gave me his .22 Mossberg bolty a few years back. I was sure he'd have a better trigger pull, and that's 90% of marksmanship by my lights.
On hand were a 1911 with a .22 conversion, a Commander, a coupla revolvers, 686 and snubbie, and an XD.
The XD was a bust. I got some freebie mags for it and they were jam city. Didn't have any of the confirmed good magazines with me to confirm it was them, but that's where the smart money leans... mags that don't work with the XD I have. Odd. I wanted to have an XD to show Dad what a 'modern' pistol was like.
The .22 1911 was problematic for him too. The sights are black on black with a dim indoor range (why are most indoor ranges so dark?) and a black target, so it was hard to get a good sight picture. You can see his shooting in the lower left quadrant of the un-shoot-n-see-ed part of the target.
Mine is all the top left target. Just messing around demonstrating. It also demonstrates that shooting skills are dulled by lack of practice. Grumble grumble.
Dad did best on the lower right target. Those 3 groups close to the bull are all with the Commander in .45 at 25 feet. The top right is single action .38 with he 686 at 50 feet.
He's had surgery on tendons in his thumbs for pulling back the hammer is a bit more difficult for him that it used to be.
The only good shot of mine is the one only one in the red, and that was my first shot with the Commander. I shoulda stopped there.
A fun time was had by both, and after, the traditional beer and duck fat fries. They had this on tap, and I was impressed. I'm normally a Victory man.
Have you ventured up to Frisco Taphouse in Columbia?
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't...go. Your belly will thank you. :)
Some Ranges keep it Dark because Goblins can be Nocturnal, and one should feel comfortable practicing in Low-Light conditions.
ReplyDeleteBut I think it's mostly an Electric Bill thing.
Range time is good, even better with family! :-)
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