Shooty Goodness

Went out to the range on Monday with my new shooter friend. Scoped .22, my evil black shotgun, a battle-rifle, and my Jim Doyle Edition USP Compact all came with us.

Though initially scared of the shotgun, my friend did quite well with it, remarking that it was fun and had way less recoil than he'd thought. Moving on to the rifle range, he and I did some work with the scoped .22 at 25 yards (he is a new shooter) before he set a target out to 100 yards and I went over to the nearby pistol range to get to know Jim Doyle a little better.

I loaded up a couple magazines with 5 rounds a piece and started shooting it off a rest. Grouped nice, but shot down and to the left. 50 rounds shot that way really confirmed that.

Meanwhile, my friend is banging away at 100 yards with that .22. For kicks we put the guns down and check our targets. Mine is the same as I can see from the firing line (but with a lot more touching holes than I had originally thought). His target from 100 yards is scary. The black target is a little larger than an orange, and I've got way better eyesight than he does. Despite this, he's got just a handful of fliers on the paper from getting the range, and then all the rest are in target. Headshot quality.

Next I run 5 rounds off through my battle-rifle, and then give it over to him. He did poorly, though I don't think he was aiming correctly. We'll have to work on that next time.

Back to the .22 for him, and I went back to my USP. Now I try it standing. Still grouping good, But now high right. Perhaps because I'm overcompensating for the low left. Now I try doing reload drills. 5 shots, as accurately as I can, drop the mag as I pull the gun in towards my waist, pull another from the holder on my belt, plug it in, rack the slide overhand as I bring it up. Over and over again. At first I was fumbling, but about 35 rounds later I was going a little faster. It's an enjoyable drill. And I can (and do) practice it in my house with empty mags.

My friend's final targets were very good for a beginner. Standing with the .22 rifle he'd placed all his shots inside a 1.5-2inch target at 25 yards. Seated with the same rifle at the same distance, he'd put so many shots inside the target the black was almost gone.

A fun time was had by all. My school/work schedule and his look to coincide to a degree that will allow us to do this nearly every Monday morning. And he's started to offer financial support for the ammo, which is good.