New Hobby

Bathroom remodeling.  Shooting on hold til I get it sorted out.

Book Report

I just finished reading Glock: The Rise of America's Gun.  It was a great read.  It starts with Gaston Glock deciding that he would go from making plastic equipment for the Austrian army to making plastic pistols.  Then the subsequent rise of polymer pistols and how they captured the law enforcement market away from US manufacturers of revolvers.  Not only was the pistol a very clever design and a better product but the company was a great marketer and outwitted politicians and rivals at every turn.  Especially how they beat S&W to the market with their own .40 pistol after Glock picked up S&W's then new bullet samples at a trade show.  The author was very objective, the book does not demonize Glocks or gun owners.

Dumb Bet with 10-Year Old = -$100

Great weekend here.  Cal and I spent almost all day Saturday and Sunday at the gun club.  We shot pistol, the club's .22 rifle match, archery and trap.  Lunch at Schmidts with some friends.

He was shooting at the deer below from 20 yards and he kept backing up.  He was hitting the deer but was all over it.  He asked what I would give him if he hit the orange dot at 30 yards, suggested a Benchmade knife, I said sure, "no way." 

Medicore Effort = Mediocre Scores

I haven't put a lot of effort into trapshooting this year.  Prior to the Grand, I'd shot at 200 ATA targets.  I've been switching guns.  Haven't actually practiced, just gone out and shot (and repeated mistakes).  Haven't worked on weak spots.  So I didn't expect to do particularly well at the Grand and I didn't.

I did shoot singles a little better each day and was able to identify where I was consistenly missing (left handers on post 1 and 2).  Throw in a couple of misses on first and last targets of the round.  Couple of flinches.  I went 88, 90, 89 in handicap, which is mediocre but at least consistent, a lot of 22s and 23s. No melt-down rounds.

If I practice, I can fix some problems and get back to shooting winning scores.

That said, the Grand was great.  The weather was nice, Dad shot his best ATA score to date, Cal had a good time. 

Now he has a Marlin .22.  Lots of fun.

Lots of shooting, but not at clay targets.  Found a great archery shop in West Dundee, got Cal properly fitted to his bow and a recurve bow is headed my way.
Did shoot some trap today with my dad.  Shooting my Guerini, broke a 22 and a 23 from 25 yds, I'll be shooting penalty in Sparta.  Headed down there Tuesday.

Here are the boys in Utah.

Update

My shooting buddy is in Utah at a dude ranch with my parents, it doesn't look like he's having any fun.

I shot Tuesday night for the first time in about 2-weeks.  I broke 48/50 in singles and shot some decent handicap scores (for me).  Felt pretty good, no flinching.  I haven't shot that well this year at all and I'm trying to just forget about scores, do the right thing and have some fun.  Headed off to the Grand in a couple of weeks.

I have been shooting more pistol, a friend of mine did a trigger job on my G34 and put new sights on it, what a difference.  I shot this at 7 yds, 10 rounds.  A flyer on the last one out of the barrel, concentration lapse.  Who knew punching holes in paper could be so much fun.

Got some range time in

Had a chance to shoot the G34 tonight, a couple of hundred rounds.  I started to get some decent groups at 21 feet.  I'm getting the flyers on the first round out of the gun.  After the first bullet, you let the trigger out a little and it will reset and then fire at <3 lbs pull.