Learning to shoot, part IV
Not long after I got my 22, and before I got very good with it, I took it to a Boy Scout shoot, a dozen or so of us shooting at paper targets stapled to the back of an empty barn.
I wasn’t good enough to be “good” but I was ok. I put ’em on the paper.
Next to me, Randy, one of the endless stream of toadies for the main bullies, sat and bitched how his MArlin 22 auto kept jamming- switched to his lever action, and then to a boltie. He was supposed to be shooting single shot, but he kept loading from magazines- and he had no idea how to load a magazine, so he’d jam.
I sat there, patiently loading my rifle one shot at a time, and put all my stuff on the paper. Standing I wasn’t so good yet, seated I wasn’t bad,. prone I was keeping all my shots in a ragged hole. OK, the hole was an incha nad a half around, and the targets were less than twenty yards away, but I was impressed.
Meanwhile, randy, next to me, had pretty much kept his target safe from being pierced by a single projectile.
He later claimed my target was his, and he was shooting at it and not at his, but I saw and knew better.
So the lesson for today is: No matter how many weapons you have, no matter how fine your collection is: The man with one gun he can shoot will kick the ass of a man with a dozen guns he can’t shoot. or, as jeff Cooper was known to say (though I don’t know if the saying originated with him) “Beware of the man with one gun. He probably can use it”
I remember shooting the .22s at Scout Camp. I was trying to qualify as expert. I did my shoot, all of mine were in the blck, I knew. When we retrieved the targets therewas a hole in the bottom left of the target, the rest centered into a very tight group. Whoops, too many shots in the target, disqualified. The jerk next to me forgot which target was his.
My oldest beat up Ruger .22 can shoot ragged holes. I’ve bought a lot more .22 rifles of all types and I cannot do half as good with guns that cost many times as much.
Cooper often repeated the old adage about the man with one gun. He was correct as usual.
Basic Training I put 62 out of 60 into the target. TI said at least the guy next to me put something somewhere.
I really try not to be “that guy”. I’ve always had a pretty good selection of firearms to shoot (via the Graufather), but no place or time to shoot them (damn northern Illinois…)
Something that I’m working to rectify as much as I can. In fact, Contagion and I have been talking that we need to drag your ass our way some weekend to burn some powder….