Trap Shooting practice

Hi;

The Spring Wednesday Night Trap League begins on April 3rd.  It came up so fast.
My husband and I had to get out and practice asap!

It has been cold, as you can see I have my heavy camo coat on under my shooting vest.  Fortunately yesterday and the day before were beautiful sunny days, even if it did only get into the low 50's.

After two day's of practice I think I am getting back into the swing of things, literally and figuratively. Swinging the shotgun to shoot at the clay bird, and in my mind swinging the gun to catch up to the bird.  I need to make sure I know where the bead placement is when I sight down the barrel.  I also do not want the stock of the gun to high on my cheek, or I'll shoot over my target.  We did not keep track of hits and misses.

We were mainly concentrating on form.  We felt pretty good about our shooting, there were more hits than misses.  I think I'm ready for the league to begin.

We got the list of team members and which field my husband and I will be shooting on for opening day.
I peeked ahead on AccuWeather.  I hope I can believe them, the early evening is looking very nice. Low wind, mid 50's and sunny.
The trap league will run for 8 weeks.  By the time this one end at the end of May, I'll probably be wearing shorts, tee shirt and defiantly no heavy jacket!  Cannot wait for warmer weather.

(just a note:  no one was harmed in the taking of the above photographs:  Safety is number one with us.)

Take care.  Good shooting and good hunting.
M.

Bowling Pin Shooting begins again !

Hi;

First day of the season for the Bowling Pin shooting match.  Hopefully I can make it to all of them this year.  The matches run the second Sunday from March thru October.

It was very cold this morning, maybe 36 degrees.  Fortunately no wind.  Clear blue skies allowed the sun to do it's warm up job and by the time I left it was in the lower 50's.

Here's the scoop if you have not read my blog before.  There are 6 bowling pins (real regulation pins) set up on a wood table set up at 10 yards.  The shooter has 10 rounds to take down the six pins.  The pins must fall off the table to count, if not there is a 3 sec. penalty added to your time for each pin left on the table.  The object is to shoot the least amount of shots in the shortest amount of time.
I had a fantastic run with my Ruger 22 Auto. I shot 6 rounds knocking all the pins off the table in 4.1 seconds.  I was very happy!!
The second round is to shoot 6 plates at 15 yards.  The plates are shaped like bowling pins, and are regulation size.  But, at 15 yards they look a lot smaller :(  Same object, shoot up to 10 rounds at the six plates, knocking them all backwards.  Any plate standing adds a 3 second penalty to your time.
I did well on the plates.  On one plate I missed the first time I shot at it. So, I ended up shooting 7 times to take down 6 plates in a total of 8.2 seconds.
The two run times are added together to get your total score.  I was very happy with my score.  It surpassed last years best run. I believe I will come in first for the ladies.  I am not sure where I will come in if I were in the men's group.  Some time this week the scores will be posted.

Now for my bad run.  I bought a Springfield 9mm 1911 a few week back.  I bought it for bowling pin shooting because the recoil is so much less than my 9mm Glock.  I have been happy with the gun in practice.  I have had some issues with it not liking all ammo.  I thought I figured out which brand it likes, but I had a jam during my run :(  Although I did well during the first round at the real bowling pins, 6.56 seconds, my second round at the plates was dismal.  My time was 8.3 seconds, but I left 3 plates standing after my gun jammed.  It was better for me to take the 9 second penalty than to take the time to clear the jam and shoot the rest of the plates.  I think if I had done that my time to do that would have been more than the penalty time. Oh well!!  There is always next month.

I will be practicing with a few more brands of ammo, if I can find any ammo at the gun stores.  As you know ammo is becoming a scare commodity these days.

On the bright side of things.  I had a great time, and I will be at the next bowling pin shoot in April
Take care, good shooting and good hunting
M.

New semi-auto for the bowling pin shoots

Hi,

I bought a Springfield 1911 9mm for this years bowling pin shoots.  I tried my husbands Springfield at the range about two weeks ago.  I really liked the point of the gun and the low recoil when compared to my Glock 9mm.  At that practice I went back and forth shooting the Springfield and the Glock.  I was so impressed with the low recoil and speed at which I could reacquire the next target that I had to make a change in guns.

After buying the new gun, it was off to the range.  I am in love with it!!  I had some very good runs on the metal plates.  Under 6 seconds is really good for me and a 9mm.  Last year I think my best time was around 7.4 seconds.  One more practice day, then the matches begin, March 10th.  A new sponsor is running the shoot this year.  Prizes will be some free runs at the pins during the next months match, and your name in the club bulletin as one of the high scorers.  My 15 minutes of fame.

I am looking forward to it.
Good shooting and good hunting.
M.

Super Bowl was awsome

Hi;

I hope all you football fans enjoyed a great game yesterday.  Unusual with the long lights out delay.  I think that helped the 49ers in their amazing (almost) come back.  That made the game very exciting. I loved that it came down to the last minute, 5 yard line and 4 downs to get into the end zone.

I enjoyed watching a good back and forth third and fourth quarter.  That is what makes the game exciting!
The commercials were good, some much better than others. The half time show was better than most in recent history.  I wished though that the mixing of sound had been clearer.  There were many time the sound was low and soft.  Don't know if that was the stadium acoustics or the sound guy.  Any way I enjoyed the show.

Take care, good shooting and good hunting.
M.  

Great day to practice for the Bowling Pin Shoot

Hi,

The weather has been unseasonable warm the past few days.  I took advantage of it, and went shooting Wednesday.

Bowling Pin matches begin in March.  I cannot wait : )  I've had a lot of fun at the matches, and I've met some very nice people. There are several ladies from a local shooting club that show up for most matches.  It is fun to discuss weapons, shooting techniques, optics, and hunting with them.
 
My shooting on Wednesday was very good.  I could only hope my time on the pins will be as good as it was in practice.  I was taking down 6 plates with the .22 Ruger in about 4.05 seconds.  The 9mm is a bit longer because of the recoil and having to reacquire the target after each shot.  I was running around 10.45 seconds.  There is just something intimidating about shooting in front of a group and with the timer person standing next to me, that makes me nervous. I think about what I will feel like when I miss, what the crowd may say, things that don't really matter but they play on my mind.   Then I think too much about some of the things that do matter like will I bring the gun up quick enough when the buzzer goes off, will I assume I hit a target and move to the next, then come back for any I miss. All kinds a thoughts in a split second that hamper my speed.

I've decided in this years practice to do drills on the first shot.  I have my husband call out the ready command and beep, I raise the gun from the ready position and shoot the first target.  Then repeat until I feel comfortable, and ready to shoot with out all of other cluttering thoughts.  Muscle repetition is what I hear this is called. We'll see.

I'll let you know how it goes after the first match of 2013.
Taker care, good shooting and good hunting.
M.

A little bit of target shooting

Hi,

Hunting season is over!

I was out this morning in the fog and mist to pistol shoot.  I need to start practicing for the Bowling Pin matches that start the second weekend in March.  I shot a .22 cal Ruger SR22.  Very nice.  I was happy with my shooting at the metal plates.  I am practicing on speed of shots between targets.  Moving the gun to the next target, bringing the gun under control after a shot (which is very easy with a .22 cal) and shooting accurately.  Later I will work on bringing the gun for the ready position (barrel on the table) to the first target, acquiring the target and shooting.  This motion is where I find I need the most work on, which will being down my overall time.  I will have to decide which of my .22 to use for the matches.

I also shot my husbands newest revolver.  The 7 shot .357 S&W.  It is very accurate.  I had a good time shooting it single action.  When I tried the double action pull, I felt that the trigger sat to far forward.  My finger did not sit fulling on the trigger pull.  Bruce had no problem with the double action and was kidding me about my complaint.  Well!  he's got a bigger hand, what can I say??  Plus it is his gun.  I am not worried.

Take care, good shooting and good hunting.
M.

Last day of the deer season

Hi;

Well the final day of deer hunting for us arrived last Saturday.  The weather was a little warmer than I might have liked, but okay, no breeze and partly cloudy.  We got to the property around 2 pm.  I went off to the front woods and got up in the stand. I've seen deer in this area almost every time I've been hunting there.  Unfortunalty today was one of the off days.  I did see plenty of squirrels and a fox.  Nice looking bushy tailed red fox.  My season ended this year with a good size doe, a 4 point and a really nice 8 point buck.  I am very happy with my success this year.

My husband took his dad to two spots to hunt today.  First was at a creek bed with lots of bramble and cover.  As they walked to the spot, there was a deer.  Bruce pointed it out to his dad.   Jim saw it, then raised his rifle.  He could not find the deer in the scope.  The deer walked off.  Frustration!  Later they moved over into a cow field with several islands of trees and bramble. They got within 30 yards of the island they wanted to stand in when Bruce saw a big doe in that island staring at them.  They stopped.  Jim could not see the deer.  Bruce is trying desperately to point out the deer, yet not make to much noise or movement.  The deer is broad side to the two of them, head turned to watch them both.  Again, Jim could not get the deer in the scope of the gun.  That was it for Jim's hunting season.  No deer.  We are going to have to figure out why Jim could not see the deer in the scope, so he can be ready for next season.

My husband had a really good year.  He took 6 does and 3 nice bucks.  He's happy.

We were able to give venison to many friends and to Hunters for the Hungry, plus stock our own freezer for the next year.

Now I will be working on my trap shooting and bowling pin shooting.  The trap team shoot starts in April, and the monthly Bowling Pin shoot starts in March.  I am looking forward to both.

Take care, good hunting and good shooting,
M.