what to do when it's too hot to go shooting

[bearandoldman]

Help ma and Bear and I pray for his safety.

Consider it done. It takes a special person to volunteer for S/F. Godspeed to your grandson in facing the many rigorous challenges ahead.

R,
Bullseye

Thanks my friend, Dylan is a fine young man and since he started high school his goal has been S/F. Three years ago he wanted to be a Ranger but a year or so ago his goal was to make to make the Navy Seal program,guess he thought the Rangers were tough but he wanted to be a Navy man because of the white uniforms gathering chick or something. On the 11th he passed all the physical tests again with his best score yet and on the 14th he left for boot camp at Great Lakes.

[greener]

Sounds like an excellent young man. Godspeed

[greener]

Unloaded my youngest at school and decided that it was too hot for Zen and the art of Cavalier restoration and went shooting. Glad I did. Got in a zone with the Single Six and it shot very well. Was beginning to think I might have the makings of a good shooter, but the P22 added a dose of reality. I'm pretty sure most of the rounds went close to the target.

[bearandoldman]

Unloaded my youngest at school and decided that it was too hot for Zen and the art of Cavalier restoration and went shooting. Glad I did. Got in a zone with the Single Six and it shot very well. Was beginning to think I might have the makings of a good shooter, but the P22 added a dose of reality. I'm pretty sure most of the rounds went close to the target.

Who cares, as long as you had fun, no one has to keep score.

[greener]

Who cares, as long as you had fun, no one has to keep score.

I certainly had fun. The only scores I keep are mental notes on how well I shoot a particular pistol and a particular day. Took most of my menagerie of rimfires. All did pretty well. The P22 is a special case. I do not shoot it well, no matter how well I think I'm shooting something else. It certainly brings me back down to earth when I get the misimpression that I'm beginning to shoot pretty well.

[arizona-hermit]

I had that same problem with a Browning Buckmark I once owned. It would not hit a 7" balloon at 25 paces. I could bust them all day long with a Jennings .22 (or any other of my myriad .22 pistols/revolvers).

That Buckmark was possessed. I am SO glad someone had the hots for it and was willing to trade it away from me (for a nice Ruger MK II Gov't Model in Stainless) and I was not unhappy to see it go at all.

As long as you had fun, that is what counts. Smelling cordite 'is' fun, regardless of how well (or poorly) your marksmanship happed to be.

It's a lot like fishing... I don't really care if I catch anything, I just enjoy being there.

[greener]

Still, it's a bit frustrating when you pick one up and shoot a lot of "where did they go?" groups. Guess there are some guns you just can't shoot. Having confidence that the gun shoots well goes a long way toward sticking with it. Haven't got much confidence in the P22.

I go fishing because I like being on the water. I get pleasantly surprised every now and then when something bites.

[arizona-hermit]

I understand completely. I tried to 'pattern' that possessed Buckmark on a target once and even moved to a 3x5' white board with a center mass black dot just to see if I could adjust the sights enough to allow some decent groups. No luck. Never got a good enough grouping to even start adjustments.

I guess it just did not suit my hands, my grip placement, my stance, the way I held my mouth... whatever.

Did I mention I just did not like that pistol?

My 'normal' method of determining if I can live with a pistol is to set up a shooting stick with about a dozen balloons attached and walk back about 5 paces. I then turn, draw, point from the hip, and fire a full mag at hip level at the balloons. The more balloons that pop, the more I 'like' the weapon. If I cannot shoot it from just a blind point, I will often try from a sandbag rest to see if it is me, my eyes, the grip, etc, etc, etc. Regardless of what I tried, that possessed Buckmark was not cooperative.

My friend that trading it off me is still my friend and he absolutely loves the blasted thing. Go figure.

[greener]

A-H, wish I had a place I could do stuff like that. It would be a nice break from stationary black dots. Did something like that back when I was a kid. I"d line up bottles, cans and whatevers in a drained pond, walk 5-15 paces, turn and fire at them from the hip with my .22 rifle. Got pretty good at it. The downside was that when I did my first qual with an M14 on a pop-up range, I fired the close targets from the hip. All of Ft. Bragg stopped while the error of my ways were explained to me and I got some additional, much needed, aerobic exercise. Hit the targets, though.

I understand about the Browning. I believe that there is a genie imbedded in each pistol that wakes up and makes bullets go random for some folks. 99 out of 100 can fire that pistol well, and the genie takes a dislike to Number 100. I'm not giving up on the P22. One of these days I will shoot it consistently. When that happens, I'll trade it for a couple of boxes of Federals from Walmart and live with the satisfaction that I defeated the genie.

[arizona-hermit]

P22 are sweet little pistols.

Buckmarks are not (IMHO)

Almost 'anything' Ruger is awesome (I have about 8 MK Is and IIs)

Shooting from the hip is fast, accurate (with practice) and fun.

Drill Sergeants just love to make you try and push the earth away... must be in their genes.

If a weapon will not shoot 'right' for me, I don't mess with it usually. Too many other guns are out there calling my name