A Day At The Range

One day I decided to take the camcorder to the range with me and tape some of the shots to see if I could capture the bullet in flight. The camcorder has a built in microphone and picked up a nearby conversation.

Audio file: A Load Recipe
Would that be with a drop tube ?

I was not able to catch the bullet in flight with the camera sitting at 100 yards. I will try it again and move the camera down range and at a greater angle to the target.

Got some pretty neat shots of the bullet impact in the dirt though and will put them up here soon.

November 4th 2001

Last chance to shoot before the Missouri Deer season opens on the 10th. I ran up to the shooting range to double check my work on my .243 and .45LC. At 8 AM the place was already packed. I spotted an opening at the 20 yard bench and that would work for the 45.

Next stand over there were 2 young men and a kid about 8 years old. They were shooting a 9mm rifle of some sort. They seemed to be having a good time.
I SAID, THEY SEEMED TO BE HAVING A GOOD TIME AND THIS IS THE WAY EVERYONE WILL HAVE TO TALK TO THEM IN THE FUTURE BECAUSE NONE OF THEM HAD EAR PLUGS OR EAR MUFFS ! ! !

One of the young men came by a few minutes later and commented that his ears were ringing.

"REALLY, NO KIDDING. WHY DON'T YOU HAVE EAR PLUGS?" "Ah, it's not that bad"
"NOT TODAY, WAIT UNTIL YOU'RE 30 OR 40", "THE RINGING IS PERMANENT".

See, my dad did not make me wear ear plugs.
That was 30 years ago, aren't we smarter than that today?
Yes we are !
I insisted that my kids wear ear muffs when we went shooting.

Ok, so it's not my problem. I finished up and snagged an opening at the 50-yard stand. Wanted to try the 45 there also. As I prepared to raise the gun and shoot, I glanced at the 8 or 10-year-old kid standing 4 feet to the left of me with his father. You guessed it, NO EAR PLUGS OR EAR MUFFS.

I started to go ahead and shoot and the thought occurred to me that if by some strange chance, my pistol did obvious, immediate damage; I would not be able to live with myself. I walked over to the truck, grabbed a fresh set of plugs and handed them to the kid. His father and he both thanked me. I guess my Wal-Mart is the only one that sells them for .43 cents a pair because as I looked down the row of benches, I saw lots of youngsters preparing for another deer season, maybe even their first deer season and I saw lots of naked ears.

It sure does get under my skin to watch "adults" take no precaution to protect those youngsters who are probably not be aware of the permanent damage that will occur. Hell, just think of the built in flinch those kids will have when they get serious about shooting.

Guns and equipment have evolved, haven't we?

8/29/2004

Went the the range with my brother this week. We fired, 22LR, 44Mag, 45 Colt, .243, .308 and 30-06.

Had a lot of fun and took a couple of digital video's of him with the 06. No sound but a picture is worth a thousand words.

Video 1

Video 2

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Last Modified August 29, 2004