On Memorial Day we decided to have some friends over and shoot things.
Inanimate things. Targets.
Funny thing when you move to the country, a lot of your neighbors are really into guns. REALLY into guns.
Charlie and his wife Geri suggested the get together after church the day before. They offered to let the boys come over after church and pick some of their guns they would like to shoot. It was like Disneyland for my boys. Oh, the plans they have for buying more guns after seeing all Charlie and Geri’s. We of course had to be the party poopers and tell them it will have to wait until they are 18 years old. If they stop spending all their money on sweets then they could have enough to buy one…..maybe.
Michael and the boys set up targets in our lower acreage against a hill.
The orange circles are clay pigeons. Below those are steel circles that are fun to shoot. The fact that they are hanging from chain means the bullets fall down when the circle is shot rather than ricocheting off any which way.
Charlie and Geri suggested we start our target practice with some shotguns and skeet. Here is the skeet launcher.
I’ve never used a shotgun before. We shot a very nice Savage 410 shotgun (it was actually a 410/.22 combo). Charlie loaded the skeet and on the shooter’s command let it fly. It should be no surprise to anyone that I missed…all of my chances. I prefer to shoot at things that don’t move.
Joshua however nailed it the first time out. Beginners luck 😉
Nicholas was next. He shot one too.
Geri is a pro at shotgun. She killed a lot of those clay pigeons.
Michael gave it a try as well. Charlie thought he should try double clay pigeons.
After shooting skeet, Michael and Charlie decided to shoot the elephant gun. No idea what it’s real name is but the bullets are really big. I think it is a side-by-side in a .470 caliber .
We then moved back to 50 yards and we shot the smurf gun. Called so because the color of the gun is a lovely blue. It is actually a very customized Ruger 10/22. Custom trigger; barrel and muzzle break from Gem-Tech; Leopold scope; Boyds stock and an aftermarket magazine release. Michael is currently drooling.
Here I am shooting the smurf gun. Really nice trigger pull. Very smooth. Unfortunately it was about 1.5 inches off. That is fine with me because I still would have killed whatever I was shooting.
Everyone took their turn shooting this gun.
At this point I started to not feel well (came down with a bug that I STILL have) and needed to get lunch ready.
This is Michael finishing the re-cap:
We then shot the Ar15’s, everyone got time behind these rifles shooting the steel targets and we had a blast. Those targets were ringing!
Then we shot a few pistols, including a 9mm Beretta, Nicholas’ favorite. Everyone got a chance to shoot some clay targets from 25′.
At that time it was after 1, we had been shooting for over 4 hours and were getting hungry. So we packed up all the guns and made plans for our next trip shooting together. On the schedule for next time will be pistol proficiency for the adults only. This day was great because we were able to not only get our kids out shooting, but our neighbors teenage daughters came out too. Helping develop and encourage the next generation of 2nd amendment supporters.
So that is how we celebrated Memorial Day. Having fun shooting and being very thankful for the men and women who put their lives on the line daily so that we can enjoy our freedoms.
Enjoy the day,
Karen
PS: Michael was my technical consultant on this post. All techy sounding stuff came from my hubby. I didn’t want you to think I was that into guns to know all those names 🙂
Well done Karen … and Michael too!
Geri
We had a lot of fun. We should do it more often.
Hugs,
Karen
Karen, you never cease to amaze me. I come from a big gun collecting family. As a matter of fact, my husband gave me a pistol for my birthday when I was seven months pregnant back in 2000. That didn’t go over so well with me. Because he wanted me to take gun safety lessons.( At 7 months pregnant.) I just knew it would put me into labor. That pistol waited a long long time to get shot. We also shot clay pigeons growing up….Great practice with a moving target. Glad you all had a great day!
It’s a great skill to have, a great past time, and an important right to preserve.
I’m certainly not into them as my guys but I do like to know I can handle a gun if I ever need to.
You should check out a you tube video called “Beware of the Doghouse”. That might have been what you wanted to do to your hubby way back then.
Good intentions, not good timing 🙂
Take care,
Karen
Although I appreciate the pics of gardens and targets, I think everyone would agree we need more baby goat videos!!
You know Melissa, we should have another baby or two possibly within the week.
Maybe I can get some video of the birth!
I will do my best to fix your baby goat video addiction 🙂
Take care,
Karen
Oh let me know when you plan to do that again and we will bring all sorts of cool stuff with us. I’m amazed your neighbors didn’t get mad at you. That is very cool of them. I even have a pistol I bought a couple years ago that I have never shot. I don’t know why I bought this one. I should have got an H&K. I’m hoping I won’t be disappointed but I’m not going to hold my breath.
Actually most of our neighbors shoot.
We do try to communicate when we will be shooting so people know.
We can target shoot whenever you want to come down. It’s just that easy.
Have a great day,
Karen