Saturday morning about twenty shooters gathered in the foothills west of Utah lake and expended massive quantites of ammunition.
Weather was good except for the occasional giant killer death tornado, but as Utahns we are used to that.
It was a really fun shoot. Special thanks to PvtPyle for doing most of the work. He managed to get together some really great shade tents, and a whole bunch of styrafoam maniquin heads to use as targets.
We had ranges varying from point blank to a really popular jeep size rock at 600 yards to a giant rock at 800+. It was really interesting to shoot and AK74 at the 800 yard rock in high wind and watch the dust kick up from a bullet strike about sixty feet off to the side because the wind was so strong.
The selection of hardware was impressive, we had 2 picnic tables filled with various rifles. AK47s, AK74s, FAL, CETME, Dragunovs, AR15s, M1a, M96, SKS, Garands, a whole slew of bolt guns, lever action cowboy guns, you name it, somebody was shooting one. The tables looked like pictures out of Soldier of Fortune. And there were even a few belt fed Browning 1919s. It was rather impressive to watch the 1919 get dialed in and then chew the 600 yard rock up with round after round.
We had a good Balloon racing compitition again. (Kind of psuedo fast draw, anti balloon exercise, very cool). Ok, I can brag for a second. I was on one yesterday, I couldn't miss at first, I was a balloon terminator! But of course that was a fluke, because I'm really not that good of a shot, but everybody can have a good day once in a while.
And I'm sure that next time around there are several TFLers itching to make me look like a sucker.
Special honorable mention goes to PvtPyle who beat me once using a 1911 with no front sight! And another "Bob Munden shot of the week" came from Porter Glockwell who smoked a baloon about .000015 nano seconds after it went flying. Ok I exagerate, but it was a quick shot.
This was a total fluke, but I shot a maniquin head at 200 yards with my 1911.
Of course I couldn't do it again if my life depended on it, but luckily I have a few witnesses that I'm not making that up. I should have just quit and went home then, so people would be under the impression that I could actually shoot or something, as opposed to just being REALLY lucky.
We ended the day on a high note when Jay did his Gallehger impression and blasted a 22 lbs. watermelon with his 12 gauge at close range.
It was a wonderful spot for shooting, but it may have been a bit too good. Because throughout the day various morons would decide that they wanted to drive through our camp, see the piles of weapons and people shooting (obviously) in a certain direction, and then proceed to drive in that direction (usually very slowly). And my personal favorite, the guys that drove in that direction, and then stopped ON our backstop, got out and started wandering around with metal detectors. What the hell were they looking for? Lead?
All in all it was a great shoot, except for one problem that a member had. And I'm hoping that we hear from him soon that everything worked out for the best.
The BBq on Friday was really good also, thanks once again to PvtPyle's efforts. Our wives bonded, got together and started talking about our strange gun habits (Mrs. Correia: "Does your husband stand in front of the mirror with a gun to see how it looks on him." All other wives nod in assent). They have apparently formed an organization known as the Utah Range Widows Association.
It was a real pleasure to meet all of you good people, and see again some familiar faces. I really look forward to doing this again.
-Larry Correia