There's Nothing Like Shooting Outdoors

Indoor ranges are fun. You have the controlled environment, the CSI-style shooting range with paper targets on wire runners and the large assortment of guns waiting, like various Wonka confections, to be sampled. But there's nothing like shooting outdoors.

The first shooting I ever did was sinking cans in the Caney River (OK) with a bolt-action .22 when I was about five. To this day, I still take every chance I get to do some open air shooting. As is often the case, I got a chance just last weekend while visiting my parents and brother.

My mission was two-fold. First, I wanted to pattern buckshot in my shotgun. Second, I wanted to try out two types of .22LR ammo I haven't tried before.

Patterning buckshot. You may or may not have run across this term before, but it's basically figuring out where a particular gun puts a particular type of shot at a particular distance. Contrary to popular belief, you do have to aim a shotgun. While buckshot and birdshot will spread as it exits the barrel, it does not just immediately fly into this lethal cloud that seeks out whatever you will it to. So, I set up a large cardboard box top with a large silhouette target stapled to it (something you can only do outdoors). Then, from about 25 feet I fired a couple of slugs for warm-up. They went were they belonged. I then tried out the buckshot, aiming at the center of mass. Surprisingly, the spread was a bit higher than I expected but turned out to be good, at least for defensive purpose. Aimed at center of mass, the 20 pellets spread from armpit to armpit and sternum to chin. The shot cup/wad left a nice big hole as well, roughly in the "love handle" region. Very satisfactory.

Fun with .22. I have gotten in the habit of buying only CCI Mini-Mags for my .22. It's a little pricier than the bulk stuff, but it is super reliable, accurate and has as much oomph as one could need in a .22LR. But, I ran across a box of Remington Subsonics not long ago and also thought I'd give the cheaper Federal brand bulk stuff ($9 for 550 rounds) a try.

The appeal of the Remington Subsonics may be obvious. I was just curious to see if it would really make much of a difference in decibels and whether a 10/22 would cycle them. Well, I gave them a try. Very slightly quieter than the bulk Federal but nowhere near "silenced" or air gun levels. They did cycle just fine in my rifle and seemed accurate enough, though I was shooting standing and not doing precise bench tests. My conclusion: nothing particulary special but they work. Some argue that standard and subsonic rounds tend to be more accurate than the high velocity rounds like the Mini-Mags. I'll have to put that to the test at some point and see.

The bulk Federal ammo is just an amazing deal on the surface at less than two cents per round. In looking at the rounds, I noticed that the quality control wasn't particularly good. The metal jackets on the bullets were uneven at the base, appearing to overlap the shell slightly on some. In terms of accuracy, they seemed to do fine, though. Again, I wasn't doing rigorous scientific testing, but it wasn't difficult to keep all 10 rounds from each magazine in the black. I only had one failure to fire with this ammo. My 10/22 has been extremely reliable over the years, so this was surprising, but I think it's reasonable to assume that the problem was with the ammo and not the gun. Still though, for plinking it's a steal.

[Follow-up: I took the bulk Federal to the range and again had problems with it. One failure to fire, which did fire with a second strike, and one failure to eject. It's still a good deal, but I'd recommend it only for plinking and maybe only for non-autoloading firearms. CCI Mini-Mags have always been reliable and accurate for me.]

Schedule through December '06

August—Weeknight outing to an indoor range, likely Maxon or Gun World.

September 23rd—Outing to Kishwaukee Archers in Sycamore. A fellow Plinker has generously agreed to let us use the facility and a couple of his bows to try out archery (or revisit it on a much more advanced level than in our youth). This is a bit of a drive, but I'd like this to be a family outing with a cookout and some good time of fellowship.

October—To be announced...

November— Firearm instruction with professional (not me). I’m currently researching options and am looking for something reasonably-priced and geared toward the novice. I’d need to have a commitment in advance so we can reserve the instructor and space.

December—Indoor range outing, possibly holiday-themed (Grinch targets? Santa hats? Firearm-themed gift exchange?).