You got the highlight of the summer...my fishing trip to Chitina. I mentioned that as my first open-carry experience, and a good one at that.
I hadn't done much gun-related since. But that changed today. I had a few friends over for a "guy's night out" (only during the day). Feasted on beer & bratwurst, and I had thoughts of taking them out to the old dump for some plinking. As we were winding down our lunch, another neighbor came walking along with his .22 pistol and 9mm carbine, obviously with the same thought in mind. So, I brought out the USP and some partial boxes to shoot with.
As it turned out, he was meeting some other of our neighbors just down the road, to do some plinking at some steel plates they had set up in their back yard. Mark had bought his son a .22 Beretta, and every so often they blaze through a brick.
This week, Mark has been entertaining some guests from Canada, and treated their son to a little shooting. It seems we're always happy to show our neighbors immediately to the east of us what they're missing.
The USP was the center of everyone's attention. Mark's son was practically drooling over it. I gave everyone a few shots with the gun, which they enjoyed, if they weren't a little intimidated by the blast from a caliber with some decent heft to it. Even Mark's wife got to send a few downrange.
People weren't hitting much with it--the targets were small steel plate animals about 25 yards from a picnic table--although they were doing decently with the .22s that were on hand.
But for me, the USP reminded me why I love it so much. Lined up the sights, put the animal behind the middle dot...keep yourself from flinching...squeeze the trigger...*Blam!* *ding!* Whereas the .22s were barely moving the steel, my 230gr FMJs gave them a good swing.
But this is what got me jazzed--25-30 yards is the furthest I have attempted to hit something with this gun, and succeeded. And this without having fired a shot in some three months!
But you know, I wasn't thinking about the distance. I was just thinking about hitting the target. That's where all my concentration was at. So, there's something to be said about having the right mindset when shooting. If you're distracted, you're going to be off.
Anyway, Anthony brought his digital camera along, and will be emailing me the pictures, which I will be posting here sometime soon. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the aftermath of a good afternoon's shooting:
You know it...the ol' brush & nitro solvent routine. Got to keep the ol' girl in shape for the next time...or have her ready in case of a crisis situation. You never know...
Now that it's getting darker, I should be able to get some good fireball shots before it starts getting really cold.
2 comments:
Good to hear from you again; I was afraid something had happened to you, or you had given up blogging.
Stuff happening in the real world...that, and for some strange reason, my network card decided to disable itself. So, I went for a month without internet access at home, which was fine.
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