patrickg
Veteran Member
cp1969, I never cease to be amazed and delighted to experience the "connectedness" of the web of experiences we share which parallel and or complement each other.
I never had much opportunity to shoot in the military officially but liked it when I did. As a junior in high school we had Army Nat Guard guys give a talk to the junior and senior boys (way chauvinistic back then). I was the only one in school who took the invite and went out for a weekend with the Army national guard as they were courting high school students comming into the minimum age range with parental permission. Two days and one night all expenses paid and free food and lodging at Ft. Sill near Lawton, Oklahoma. I got to wear a field jacket and a uniform cap over my jeans and sneakers and ride in a deuce and a half and take turns stopping traffic for the convoy and on and on. I got to be in the target pits and pull targets down and patch them and hold up markers to show where the hits were or wave "Maggie's drawers" at a complete miss. I also got my turn to fire the carbine and was coached just like the real troops. I even stood guard duty (fire watch) with a live round to fire a warning shot should the camp need to be alerted. Imagine the liability!!!! Did I not say recently that Oklahoma was layed back, way back in 1960??? A highschool junior with a loaded rifle having signed no waver papers or nothing. Of course back then folks weren't sue crazy or so likely to go postal.
I qualified as expert in basic training where I had fun with the USAF popgun, that great semi-automatic .30 cal gas operated alternative to hand to hand combat known as the M1 carbine. I really got my a$$ chewed. The drill instructor said to hold the carbine in a relaxed position, arms extended below your waist, take a few slow deep breaths, and when you feel it is right, bring the weapon up hold your breath and take aim and squeeze off a shot, then relax lower the gun till you feel comfortable and repeat. Do not fire any faster than you can do so feeling comfortable and making every shot count.
OK, I didn't fire any faster than I felt comfortable. I shot definitely faster than one per second in a nice rythm. I squeeze off a shot and the recoil rocks me back (standing off hand) as I rock back into position as I have already started squeezing the triger it goes off as I came to bear on the target again etc. with a 15 round clip. My drill Sgt. comes down and starts shouting at me about not shooting faster than I can make each shot count and while shouting he looks through the spotting scope to tell me just how bad I did and then says OK so you made all 10's but you didn't lower the gun between shots like he said and continued to chew me out but I could tell it was like a tape recording and he wasn't really into it.
In the USAF I was in SAC (dates me, huh? as SAC no longer exists) We soldiered harder that the rest of the USAF which means I got to get more range time and loved it. The range master would announce over the PA to take so many stripper clips and load so many rounds into so many magazines (M1 carbine still) The USAF scored bullseye targets by counting from the center out and ignored any extra holes farther out. I used to load extra rounds and give the guys on either side of me a few extra bullseyes. Those range guns were so whooped that yo could lock the action open, ground your weapon, and start to hikek down to your target to patch it and you would hear a bolt slide home. Used to make the hair stand up on the back of my neck thinking some bozo locked and loaded a round. Those things would close when they felt like it or they warmed in the sun or from ground vibration.
Very perceptive of you to notice the short round in the old sixgun. You may not have been fully conscious of how you noticed but your subconscious was aware.
Gee, you mean it isn't just me? Does Ruger mess up a lot? I have only fired about 100 rds in my new Ruger MK II but it seems to be pretty normal, so far. Can't hold it on target for beans off hand.
Skeet from the hip, shades of Bond, James Bond in "GoldFinger" I believe. I shot my first clays in about 1975 with a group of ham radio guys who used to shoot once a month. They had launchers mounted on their tailgates and used to put a few bucks in the kitty and whoever got the most out of 10 won then ante up again. First time I ever shot at a clay but the closest call I had that day was a tie that required a shoot off. I shot perfect tens almost all afternoon. They thought I was sandbagging when I said I never did it before. They had me shoot doubles starting out standing with my back to the flight path and I got 19 out of 20 birds with one crashing into a ocotillo as I dusted it so I didn't get credit. Later I went with another friend and our wives and shot from hand launchers. My buddy complained that his double barreled 20 gauge was at fault for his poor performance in comparison to mine so I said hand it to me. He launched a bird and I dusted it shooting one handed like a pistol, then dusted the second bird the same way and handed it back before the "charm" was broken. It isn't that I am a super competitor, I'm not. Sometimes you achieve a zen like state and everything just works. Other times like a month later at a county run skeet range I couldn't hit 1/2 the birds. Maybe the cheap "Eclipse" all plastic shells were partly to blame, you think?
I forgot to mention before, we ruined an old but still good wool blanket with Speer rounds. Carpet pad and old carpet are good. Well, there you go... I never tried to shoot from a moving bike. As is often the case we limit our performance by our notions of what is possible. In those instances when I didn't know what to expect but just went for it I might do real well like the time I held a pool table for about 3 hours against all comers. Balls just kept falling into the holes when I shot, looked like PURE SLOP, but went on for about 3 hours. Couldn't do it again for $1000 dollars... My brother-in-law is a fair pool player and has a nice table in his rec room. Our wives go shopping and he says, pool? I took him 21 games straight at 8 ball and he said no more today. Any other time I win about 1 out of 4 playing him. The diff between my shooting targets or pool and the guys who are really good is their performance is more consistent nearly all the time not in bursts.
I've shot a lot of rabbits and squirrels with .22 single shot rifle but wing shooting with a rifle is dangerous to others. When I was 13 till about 16-17 I was really into bringing home edible game, some kind of hunter phase. I got a .410 break open single shot shotgun for my 13th birthday but didn't have the bucks to stock up on different kinds of shells so everything got shot with number 6. Bob White quail would come off the ground in heart stopping bursts and I would trail then way out into the distance ignoring my dad's friends who would say go ahead and shoot until the bird would get far enough out that #6 wouldn't ruin the meat then I'd drop it. Oh yeah, it had a full choke.
Parallel lives in the shooting sports? Did you ever get into archery? When I was about 6-7 I had a long bow that I could shoot over 100 yds. When I was 17 I used to put beverage cans on limbs in trees, orienting them so the end of the can was toward me then stand with my back turned to the tree, whirl around and shoot a can, then repeat the process. At the top of my form I was averaging about 8 out of 10. This was practice for taking squirrels with a bow. I was shooting a recurve then, having graduated up from the long bow. I have a compound bow now as well but am not experienced with it, don't know how to tune it, never used a bow sight of any kind always shooting natural point of aim but one of these days I'll go to a range and have my sight mounted, the bow tuned, over draw mounted, get some good advice and see what all the fuss is about regarding the superiority of the compound bow.
Now about good shots: There was a guy, civilian I believe but this has been a while, who was training some USAF shooters. They started out with lever action Daisy BB guns and were taught to shoot natural point of aim without sights. There were phases of their training. One important hump was shooting aspirin tablets out of the air which were tossed by the instructor. Later they were shooting BB's out of the air with their BB guns. For those who made it through the BB's out of the air phase, they started training with real guns. As this was fairly early in the escolation of US involvement in Viet Nam, your guess is probably as good as mine as to what purpose this training was put but it sure as "H" "E" double toothpicks wasn't to be a sniper.
Patrick
I never had much opportunity to shoot in the military officially but liked it when I did. As a junior in high school we had Army Nat Guard guys give a talk to the junior and senior boys (way chauvinistic back then). I was the only one in school who took the invite and went out for a weekend with the Army national guard as they were courting high school students comming into the minimum age range with parental permission. Two days and one night all expenses paid and free food and lodging at Ft. Sill near Lawton, Oklahoma. I got to wear a field jacket and a uniform cap over my jeans and sneakers and ride in a deuce and a half and take turns stopping traffic for the convoy and on and on. I got to be in the target pits and pull targets down and patch them and hold up markers to show where the hits were or wave "Maggie's drawers" at a complete miss. I also got my turn to fire the carbine and was coached just like the real troops. I even stood guard duty (fire watch) with a live round to fire a warning shot should the camp need to be alerted. Imagine the liability!!!! Did I not say recently that Oklahoma was layed back, way back in 1960??? A highschool junior with a loaded rifle having signed no waver papers or nothing. Of course back then folks weren't sue crazy or so likely to go postal.
I qualified as expert in basic training where I had fun with the USAF popgun, that great semi-automatic .30 cal gas operated alternative to hand to hand combat known as the M1 carbine. I really got my a$$ chewed. The drill instructor said to hold the carbine in a relaxed position, arms extended below your waist, take a few slow deep breaths, and when you feel it is right, bring the weapon up hold your breath and take aim and squeeze off a shot, then relax lower the gun till you feel comfortable and repeat. Do not fire any faster than you can do so feeling comfortable and making every shot count.
OK, I didn't fire any faster than I felt comfortable. I shot definitely faster than one per second in a nice rythm. I squeeze off a shot and the recoil rocks me back (standing off hand) as I rock back into position as I have already started squeezing the triger it goes off as I came to bear on the target again etc. with a 15 round clip. My drill Sgt. comes down and starts shouting at me about not shooting faster than I can make each shot count and while shouting he looks through the spotting scope to tell me just how bad I did and then says OK so you made all 10's but you didn't lower the gun between shots like he said and continued to chew me out but I could tell it was like a tape recording and he wasn't really into it.
In the USAF I was in SAC (dates me, huh? as SAC no longer exists) We soldiered harder that the rest of the USAF which means I got to get more range time and loved it. The range master would announce over the PA to take so many stripper clips and load so many rounds into so many magazines (M1 carbine still) The USAF scored bullseye targets by counting from the center out and ignored any extra holes farther out. I used to load extra rounds and give the guys on either side of me a few extra bullseyes. Those range guns were so whooped that yo could lock the action open, ground your weapon, and start to hikek down to your target to patch it and you would hear a bolt slide home. Used to make the hair stand up on the back of my neck thinking some bozo locked and loaded a round. Those things would close when they felt like it or they warmed in the sun or from ground vibration.
Very perceptive of you to notice the short round in the old sixgun. You may not have been fully conscious of how you noticed but your subconscious was aware.
Gee, you mean it isn't just me? Does Ruger mess up a lot? I have only fired about 100 rds in my new Ruger MK II but it seems to be pretty normal, so far. Can't hold it on target for beans off hand.
Skeet from the hip, shades of Bond, James Bond in "GoldFinger" I believe. I shot my first clays in about 1975 with a group of ham radio guys who used to shoot once a month. They had launchers mounted on their tailgates and used to put a few bucks in the kitty and whoever got the most out of 10 won then ante up again. First time I ever shot at a clay but the closest call I had that day was a tie that required a shoot off. I shot perfect tens almost all afternoon. They thought I was sandbagging when I said I never did it before. They had me shoot doubles starting out standing with my back to the flight path and I got 19 out of 20 birds with one crashing into a ocotillo as I dusted it so I didn't get credit. Later I went with another friend and our wives and shot from hand launchers. My buddy complained that his double barreled 20 gauge was at fault for his poor performance in comparison to mine so I said hand it to me. He launched a bird and I dusted it shooting one handed like a pistol, then dusted the second bird the same way and handed it back before the "charm" was broken. It isn't that I am a super competitor, I'm not. Sometimes you achieve a zen like state and everything just works. Other times like a month later at a county run skeet range I couldn't hit 1/2 the birds. Maybe the cheap "Eclipse" all plastic shells were partly to blame, you think?
I forgot to mention before, we ruined an old but still good wool blanket with Speer rounds. Carpet pad and old carpet are good. Well, there you go... I never tried to shoot from a moving bike. As is often the case we limit our performance by our notions of what is possible. In those instances when I didn't know what to expect but just went for it I might do real well like the time I held a pool table for about 3 hours against all comers. Balls just kept falling into the holes when I shot, looked like PURE SLOP, but went on for about 3 hours. Couldn't do it again for $1000 dollars... My brother-in-law is a fair pool player and has a nice table in his rec room. Our wives go shopping and he says, pool? I took him 21 games straight at 8 ball and he said no more today. Any other time I win about 1 out of 4 playing him. The diff between my shooting targets or pool and the guys who are really good is their performance is more consistent nearly all the time not in bursts.
I've shot a lot of rabbits and squirrels with .22 single shot rifle but wing shooting with a rifle is dangerous to others. When I was 13 till about 16-17 I was really into bringing home edible game, some kind of hunter phase. I got a .410 break open single shot shotgun for my 13th birthday but didn't have the bucks to stock up on different kinds of shells so everything got shot with number 6. Bob White quail would come off the ground in heart stopping bursts and I would trail then way out into the distance ignoring my dad's friends who would say go ahead and shoot until the bird would get far enough out that #6 wouldn't ruin the meat then I'd drop it. Oh yeah, it had a full choke.
Parallel lives in the shooting sports? Did you ever get into archery? When I was about 6-7 I had a long bow that I could shoot over 100 yds. When I was 17 I used to put beverage cans on limbs in trees, orienting them so the end of the can was toward me then stand with my back turned to the tree, whirl around and shoot a can, then repeat the process. At the top of my form I was averaging about 8 out of 10. This was practice for taking squirrels with a bow. I was shooting a recurve then, having graduated up from the long bow. I have a compound bow now as well but am not experienced with it, don't know how to tune it, never used a bow sight of any kind always shooting natural point of aim but one of these days I'll go to a range and have my sight mounted, the bow tuned, over draw mounted, get some good advice and see what all the fuss is about regarding the superiority of the compound bow.
Now about good shots: There was a guy, civilian I believe but this has been a while, who was training some USAF shooters. They started out with lever action Daisy BB guns and were taught to shoot natural point of aim without sights. There were phases of their training. One important hump was shooting aspirin tablets out of the air which were tossed by the instructor. Later they were shooting BB's out of the air with their BB guns. For those who made it through the BB's out of the air phase, they started training with real guns. As this was fairly early in the escolation of US involvement in Viet Nam, your guess is probably as good as mine as to what purpose this training was put but it sure as "H" "E" double toothpicks wasn't to be a sniper.
Patrick
