Army Brats and New Shooters

[quidni]

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I would be highly suprised if the Dems DIDN'T try instituting some new gun control, or reinstating the AWB. They'll quietly back-door it, putting it on some unrelated piece of legislation, but they'll try it.

The election was last night. Today, a brand-new DPMS Light 15 "assault rifle" sits by my door. Had to use up some trade fodder to get it, but it's worth it to spit in the gun-grabber's faces.

And less than a week later, on Veterans Day, a gently used Mini-14 followed me home.

I grew up as an Army Brat. I consider the Mini-14, the Universal M-1 Carbine, AR-15, and similar firearms to also be "army brats" - direct civilian descendents of well-known, respected military firearms.

We'd planned on heading out to the range on Sunday afternoon. A couple of my husband's friends have gone shooting with us a couple times, & they'd left a message on our phone that if we "were going out" they'd like to join us. We also had a young lady (17 years old) from our church who wanted to tag along, and got permission from her Mom. Steve's friends showed up with a newbie of their own - an exchange student from Japan, named Yoshi.

In honor of Veterans Day, I suggested that we make this an "Army Brat" day - taking rifles that had military "ancestors" or were milsurps themselves. We took the AR-15, Mini-14, Universal M-1 Carbine, and my .30-06. The friends showed up with a Mosin-Nagant M44. Between us there were also a couple of older 12ga shotties, a .22lr rifle, and 3 different calibers of handgun.

Cora had some experience with firearm safety rules, having been along (without shooting) on a trip with other folks, & she'd used a BB-gun. But, neither Cora nor Yoshi had ever shot a "real" firearm before in their lives.

For targets we had scads of water-filled plastic soda bottles, a box of clays (thrown, and hung on backboards or from bamboo stakes), and one (1) 1-gallon can of stale-dated pizza sauce.

First magazine out of a .22 semi-auto, Cora hit 9 out of 10 shots on her chosen bottles. Yoshi started out on the .22 rifle & did pretty well. We couldn't talk Cora into trying any of the rifles except the .22, but she did shoot the 9mm (she outshot several of the guys, too!) I think Yoshi tried everything. And he spent a lot of time laughing.

Steve made the comment to Yoshi that now he "knew what American Rednecks did on a Sunday afternoon." Yoshi replied that there were rednecks in Japan, also - as he was from Osaka!

The last shoot of the day was saved for the can of pizza sauce. Josh set up the can, & asked for a volunteer to try his luck with a 12ga slug. We all volunteered Yoshi!

One shot - one kill - one pizza can split wide open, leaving a bright red rooster-tail as it flew up and backwards some yards from its starting point. Yoshi had a sore shoulder afterwards, but he couldn't quit laughing for quite a while. (Neither could we.... sweet!)

A coupl'a new "army brats" in the family, and a coupl'a new shooters hooked on the sport. All told, I think it was a beautiful Veterans Day weekend. Cora wants to go shooting with us again, & her mom has reluctantly agreed to tag along some time. (Her mom hates guns... she was on the scary side of a holdup once when she used to work at a convenience store. It's a big step for her to allow her daughter to shoot with us, and even more so to be willing to come herself.) No question about Yoshi wanting to try it again.

What more could one ask for?

[longtooth]

Great post quidni. Excellent PR work. Tell Yoshi, I never thought I would hear of a Japanese Redneck. Thought you had to be born in the South.

[lrb111]

Now that's a party!!

[Roger Howard]

one word AWSOME

[Thane]

And a good time was had by all.

I think we shot up most of our supply of .223, an appreciable amount of .30 Carbine, and at least a box's worth of .45. We also need to restock on 9mm as well.

A couple of "interesting" things...

I started Cora out shooting the Ruger Mk. II, a pistol I'm decently competant with. Don't expect me to pluck nickels out of the air, but I can hit what I aim at.

Cora outshot me. With my own gun. And she'd never fired ANY sort of pistol before. I don't know whether to call that innate talent on her part, or good teaching on mine, but she was hitting targets halfway up the hill, 9 shots out of 10, every time. I was doing good to hit half that many, and a couple of the guys were having trouble with the rifle at that range.

The DPMS Lite 15 shoots nicely. I didn't "group" it, as it was a rather informal setting (plus, I was shooting 55-g rounds; 62-g were recommended to me for greater accuracy with its rifling). However, it will hit whatever I point it at, pretty consistently. I'm still getting used to hearing the buttstock go "SPROING" every time I pull the trigger, though...

The biggest hits of the day, though, were probably the .45, the DPMS, and my ancient Remington Auto-5 clone, which is what Yoshi used to destroy the pizza can. (BTW, Mom underestimated how far the can flew. It landed at least 20 yards from the point of impact, and a fine tomato-ey mist lay on the ground for dozens of square yards in between.)

We'll see about another possible shoot here in the not-too-distant future.

[nitrogen]

I went to the gun store this previous saturday to look at AR rails for an AR-15 build I was planning on. Then, I saw this really cute Bushmaster A2 in the window, just looking at me with it's cute little iron sight eyes. I couldn't resist; besides the price was right.

I was planning on building a flat-top, and I still might build my dream-rifle, but at least I have a rifle with all sorts of ugly bannable features now.

[cyphur]

Great post quidni. Excellent PR work. Tell Yoshi, I never thought I would hear of a Japanese Redneck. Thought you had to be born in the South.

Upstate New York(Adirondack Mountain area) has some rednecks that would give even the most devout Southern Redneck a run for their money. Mountain folk can be pretty interesting.....