Firing range options

Depends on the range. I've only been to one that had "bad guy" targets. Are you asking if you can bring an image to stick on the target? Like putting Hugh Jackman's face on a silhouette?

My range has "bad guy targets" but I don't use them.

They are typically $.50 more each than standards (here).

Dunno really. It might be fun to put Jean-Claude Trichet up there or something.

Sounds like a bad idea to me. It's one thing to shoot at a generic "bad guy" target, but taping a picture of the President of the European Central Bank to a silhouette might freak people out. I'm not even sure if it would be permitted.

Any of you other guys ever see someone do something like that?

Nope. Over the line...

Yep, Osama bin Laden is the only living person I've seen turned into targets--someone actually gave me some for Christmas back in 2001 or so--and even so, I've never seen anyone actually shoot at them.

At the last gun show I went to, a lot of booths were selling zombie targets. They were kind of cool and I considered buying some, but ultimately didn't.

Back in the day some of our military pop-up rifle + grenade targets (hard plastic to be used ever + over) were Russian soldiers, with the red stars and everything. I think they were all phased out many years ago.

BTW (mentioned already) throwing a live frag grenade (or shooting one out of a launcher) is a ton of fun. I don't think I've ever paid as close attention to a Drill Sergeant as I did on those days!

But that was under controlled, calm circumstances. No such thing as a pissed-off, yelling DS on a grenade range. Can't say as I blame them there!

I'm no Rambo I guess...I don't like even having live grenades around under any circumstances other than 100 percent safety measures, which we did not have in Iraq....not even close to it.

I wanted to watch the grenade blow up. But, the only window while standing in line was all ... dirty and marked up. I couldn't see out of it. So, when it was my turn to throw the grenade, and the drill sergeant was telling me one more time how to throw it and what to do and I was like "yea, yea". So, I pull the pin and I throw it just like I was supposed to do, then I stood up on my tiptoes to see over the wall, but the drill sergeant grabbed my shoulders and threw me in the dirt.

He wasn't angry but I was.

I never did get to see a grenade blow up.

Seeing a grenade blow up might be the last thing you see. "Scent of a Woman" illustrates this quite well.

Too bad you didn't get to watch via the observation window. It does look pretty cool, no doubt. The best part is when tiny bits hit the window....making you realize just because you are outside the effective blast radius you can still get hurt.

It depends on the range.

I've been to ranges that will let you put up this:



I've been to other ranges where not only can you not put up human targets you can't even put up targets in the shape of an animal.

But putting up a target of a living person? Taping it onto a target? I wouldn't do that. The people at the range might not know who Jean-Claude Trichet is but they do know the phone numbers to the FBI and Department of Homeland Security and that you are a foreigner. Why take the chance?

"apostle83 agrees: I agree. This room gets trilled enough by folks who hate it. That "one of us" trolled you offends me. I apologize."

I'm not "one of us", Apostle. Don't ever lump me in with yourself again as part of any group nor ever apologize on my behalf again.

I remember how nervous I was in basic when I was waiting in line for the grenade range. They handed out live grenades to next 10 or so soldiers in line so you had to stand there for few minutes with it in your hand. It's impossible to feel casual with a grenade.

That's probably a good thing.

You want a scary grenade scenario? Try going to the grenade range with Korean augmentee soldiers who barely speak Engrish.....wow.

Man, it was funny, how narrow your field of thought gets when you're holding your first live grenade. They warn you not to do any John Wayne shit like count to three before throwing it or anything like that but the warning was completely unnecessary. All I could think about was that I didn't want the thing to go off before I was ready for it to and when I was ready for it to, I wanted it to be as far away from me as possible.

Now playing with C4, for some reason, that was a great deal of fun.

Agree, C-4 is no problem. I used to load bombs (tritenol mostly) up to + including "city busters" that make Horishima look like a cherry bomb. But all these are controlled, and don't explode from a simple metal lever - that's the difference I think.

Yes, we were told about "cooking off" so the enemy doesn't have time to respond prior to the explosion. No, we didn't do it...that DS made you throw it as far as possible immediately. Of course, every group of soldiers has the people that can't throw very far, giving the DS gray hairs!

Another scary weapon thing I just remembered......driving a truck full of young privates while they shoot out the back of the moving vehicle. :c:

You're just dreading hitting a bump and a round accidentally coming through the back of the cab into your melon! It will "leave a mark" to say the least. I don't need to reenact President Lincoln's last day on Earth, thank you very much.

I missed this the first time through.

Why not a hundgun the first time?

The first gun I ever shot was a pearl-handled, Colt six-shooter and I don't think I was 10 years old. Shot it just fine, hit the target, nobody got hurt...

The second gun I shot, tho .... a shotgun, not a 410 (I don't think) but whichever is the least powerful of the 8, 10 or 12 gage kind. Anyway, I shot that thing and it spun me around 180 degrees. The boyfriend didn't seem too surprised as he was standing right there behind me waiting to catch me and grab the gun.

So, of the two, I think the handgun is safer.

My shooting path is similiar to Jenee's. If I remember right I first shot a .22 revolver. Second was a 12 gauge. I weighed about 120 pounds and my stepdad put in light(er) loads for a couple of shots, so I could get the general feel. Then he slipped in 3 inch magnum.....yep, he caught me before I hit the ground and everyone was yucking it up except me.

There were even short "skidmarks" in the mud from my boots where I slid backwards as I fell backward.

Luckily I get a little meat on my bones before my grandfather gave me his Marlin 30-30 lever action. BTW almost every family had a lever action 30-30 back then. It was one of the most prevalent weapons of the time, a classic design.

It had to be a 12 gauge.

A 10 is more powerful. An 8 would probably knocked you flat on your butt.

In fact I don't know of anywhere you can buy 8.

I think they were more prevalent back in the 70s.

If a 12 gage knocked oldfella on his butt, then I probably shot the 410. But ..., I thought he said he wished he still had the 410 so I could shoot that one, which is why I thought it was one of the other three. But, if the least powerful of those three is a 12 gage, and a 12 gage was too powerful for oldfella's 120 pounds ...

It musta been the 410.

It's not exactly a grenade, but I John Wayne'd my Coach Gun one time. Squeezed off both triggers at the same time. I'll never do that again. Ow.

As for targets, I just use Q targets.

Oh, another fun training exercise that'll stress you out: A platoon attack with live ammo against pop-ups--with a platoon of 2nd Lts.

I'm online just ahead of one of the SAW gunners (you have a staggered formation even when you're attacking in echelon) and we were off-center on the objective, so the platoon commander is "rushing" us right. I was just waiting for a couple .223 rounds to shred my left calf.

Why not? I apologize for wannabe mall ninjaz all the time.

It's what "we" have to do from time to time, unfortunately.

You don't apologize for other peoples actions. You explain how they are wrong and why they are wrong, and how to do it right, but you don't take responsibility for their actions.

Oh and this too, again: "I'm not "one of us", Apostle. Don't ever lump me in with yourself again as part of any group nor ever apologize on my behalf again."

I'm offended that Apostle thinks I'm part of any group with him in it simply because we both own firearms.

I'm offended that Apostle thinks he has the right to apologize for my actions. I stand behind my own actions without fear of the consequences. I gave some advice in this thread and then later needled Rick in good fun. If a mod wants to fuss at me over it then that is between me and the mods (and Rick).

Not Apostle, not you, and not anyone else.

Oh.

The funny thing is that I wasn't even apologizing for anything Zombie did. I was ashamed of Muad's point it at your head statement.

I wanted to hit on a couple more points in this thread.

1) Upthread someone asked why it would be so terrible to start out shooting a handgun. The reason is safety, but as I was waking up this morning I hit on a good way to illustrate it:

Your average handgun is maybe 6-8" long. It takes an active amount of constant concentration when holding one to not be pointing it at anything you don't intend to shoot.

Even your shortest rifle is around 3' long, with say, 2' of that from the part you hold it buy/the trigger to the hole the bullets come out of. It's still pretty easy to accidentally point it at someone if you're not paying attention, but exponentially harder than it is with a handgun.

At the other end of the spectrum you have Muad's rifle-muskets. I'm no expert on them, but I suspect it is almost impossible to accidentally shoot yourself. And if you're standing in even a remotely straight line (shoulder to shoulder) I bet you have a very difficult time accidentally pointing it at anyone else.

The lightness/compactness of an arm makes it most prone to accidents.

...and I'm going to put the other point in another post.

OK. Continuing on, if you DO shoot a handgun, an hour or two isn't nearly enough time to learn to do it well in and coaching by some guy over the Internet doesn't replace an experienced coach at the range, but here's two pointers that will help you get the most enjoyment out of shooting a handgun:

First, let me back up and explain the basics of sight picture: You have a front sight post, right on the dangerous end of the gun. As you point it at a target it looks a little like an "I". You have a rear sight notch at the other end of the gun. It looks a little like a "U". When you're shooting, you want the I in the center of the U so it looks a little like a "W" (well not really, but that is the letter that most looks like it so it'll have to do) with the center point of the W on the place you want to make a hole in something.

So the first trick is "natural point of aim." For that, you put the pistol into your shooting hand and quickly point it at the target without using the sights. Once you're pointed, without moving the gun, move your head over the sights and see how close to being on target you are. If the gun is pointing a bit to the right, carefully reposition your grip so it points a bit to the left. If your aim is a bit low, carefully shift it so it points higher. Keep repeating this process until you get the gun so you point it at something and it is automatically aimed at the target. Then you don't have to "muscle" the gun onto the target.

If you don't shoot a lot and/or you're firing an unfamiliar gun, this process takes a lot longer than if you're a regular shooter, shooting your primary weapon. Put my Walther or an M9 in my hand and I pretty much don't need to reposition it. An unfamiliar gun will take me 3-4 tries to get it "loaded" into my hand about right. And if you're using a familiar gun and you've got a lot of experience, you can more easily get away with setting the gun down or holstering it. If you aren't, once you've got it positioned in your hand, you don't want to change your grip at all.

******

The other point is trigger technique. The key to hitting the target is to having the barrel aligned with the target as the bullet leaves the barrel. To make that happen, you want to smoothly release the trigger--which is a lot harder than it sounds. One technique I'll use for slow fire to help make that happen is I'll imagine that the front sight post is attached to the trigger, so as I'm pulling the trigger to the rear, I'll focus on "pulling" the front sight post straight back to the rear sight while keeping alignment.

This isn't the end-all, be-all of shooting. If someone said that this makes you focus on the sights when you should be focusing on your target, I'd agree they had a point, but it accomplishes two things: It helps you keep your sights aligned and it takes your mind off the trigger "break" and anticipating recoil. You're so focused on keeping the sights lined up that you're not thinking about the noise and "kick" of the gun going off (which can lead to flinching and screwing up your shot).