This is not intended as bragging (but I guess there might be a bit in it anyway) but just as a way of acknowledging my wife's willingness to share some of my activities.
It seems she and I have just created a new Valentine's Day tradition. Besides buying her a box of chocolates and a card, I took her to the shooting range.
We are moving in a couple of months, and I plan to sell some toys before we go. I wanted to try out some new acquisitions, and revisit some of the current crop of shooting toys. Since it was a relatively calm day, and there wasn't much on the plate work-wise (we both work from home) we loaded up and headed out to the range.
As it turned out we took 10 guns to play with. They were:
357 mag Handi, 357Max Handi, 30/30 Handi, .308 Ultra, 22RF Sportster, Rossi Mod 92 in 357, Ruger old model Black Hawk 357mag, S&W 640 stainless 38spl, and two Henry 22LR lever actions. (I actually took along a 20 ga Stevens 311 'coachgun' - but forgot to use it because we were having so much fun with all the other stuff)
The 357 Max, the 357 Mag and the .308 Ultra were 'new' toys, and though the 30/30 Handi I've had for awhile, I put a different scope on it so there was some of sighting-in to do. The Rossi, Ruger, S&W, and Henrys were there mostly for play. (The Rossi, is my wife's favorite toy!)
I set her up for some plinking at plastic drink bottles and cans while I got down to bore sighting the 'new' toys. She happily popped away with the Rossi, and her Henry.
After bore sighting, I asked her to man (person?) the spotting scope while I fired a few rounds at a target with the 30/30 and the 308 Ultra (both scoped). Then with the Topper 357 Mag and the 357 Max (both with aperture sights). When all these tasks were done, I had 4 centerfire rifles all putting their shots inside an inch at 50 yds.
More work to be done at a later date at longer ranges, but I'm happy for now. Besides, she was having fun plinking and I wanted some of that action.
We set up cans, plastic bottles and clay birds from 10 yds to 50 yds out and proceeded to have a free-for-all with the two Henrys. When the dust and smoke cleared we set up more, and she went at it with her Rossi while I tried to keep up with her with my Henry.
We reset stuff, and I asked her to try the Handi rifles. She got quite fond of the 357 mag on the Topper frame but found the trigger to be less than satisfactory. She also liked the 357 Max, but because it has the Laminated straight stock, it was heavier than the wood stocked Topper, and was kind of awkward for her.
She also surprised me by happily shooting the 30/30 with synth stocks (first time for her shooting something at that power level). She said she liked the scope and that the recoil wasn't much more than her Rossi with 357Mag loads.
She said neither the Topper or the 357Max had as much recoil as her Rossi with 357 mag loads. Since the Rossi only weighs about 5 lbs, and the Topper and Max both are close to the 7lb mark, it is not surprising. And truth be told, she shoots 38 spl in the Rossi more than anything else, and that ain't much more than .22LR type recoil .
The only gun she didn't try was the .308 Ultra. It seemed too heavy for her with the laminated Monte Carlo stock and scope... and it had a bigger 'boom' (so she said) when I shot it.
After a bit more plinking, and shooting the two six guns (the S&W is our 'house' gun so I wanted her to try it at close range using the appropriate ammo), and with dusk approaching, we set up for the piece-de-resistance.
I always bring some half gallon plastic jugs and/or milk cartons full of water when we go shooting... to end the day with a bit of a finale and spectacle.
I let her go first, and she chose the Topper 357mag with 158gr semi-jacket soft point Magtech factory rounds. First she vaporized a couple of clay birds, then blew a half gallon jug full of water literally to pieces. It was very impressive.
I then duplicated the process with the Max using 180 gr Sierra FP handloads. Very impressive too!
Finally as the light faded (gorgeous sunset I might add!) we set out all the remaining water jugs, and filled up some empty fruit and soup cans with dirt from the berm and just used up what ammo that was left. She used her Rossi and the Topper, and I used the Max, the 30/30 and the Ruger Black Hawk. Yee-haw what fun! :-D
We picked up all the shattered and battered cans and jugs, put away all the toys and went off for pizza and snuggling on the couch while watching the Olympics.
A great Valentine's day! One worth repeating.
Cheers
Kerry
