It's been since our son was small that I went an entire year without shooting a gun, maybe thirty five years. "Never done a pandemic, neither," he drawled.
As my two-weeks-from-second-shot-day approached, I recognized an opportunity. Now, in the ensuing months I've done some snap-capping with the 1911. Shot my bows quite a bit. But nothing going bang headed downrange. So I thought I'd go to Downrange Chico, my membership range in town. Took just the Ruger MKII Gov't Model .22LR with the long bull barrel. Target pistol.
Sure felt nice going into the range, I must say. I figured the best thing to do was without any warm up, shoot the Bullseye match one-handed to see what would happen.
I took my time taping on the target and getting set up, just to savor that missing part of my life. Ran the target out to 15 yards. Dang. That's a fur piece, as they say. I'll probably never get a chance to shoot that first shot again: I carefully loaded my magazine--after the second round remembering what that button on the MKII mags is for--and slipped it up. Wriggled my fingers, felt the grip. Took off the safety. Slowly raised the pistol to just below the bull, brought it up slowly, click. Rats. Forgot to rack a round. So. Racked and I shot in order Slow, Medium, and Fast. Then I put those three away and shot 20 more rounds one handed for a total of 50. For the last 20 I shot mags of five at the range's target, has a red X ring. Out of 50 rounds, I missed the paper once.
My conclusion is that, as long as I rack a round, if I have to shoot a sabre toothed wildebeest at 15 yards, I can do it even after no practice for one year.
Good trip. One pistol. Looking forward to the next.
CDFingers
Unusual Opportunity Range Report 4/23/21
1Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eye Jack
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eye Jack
