I'll never turn down a day at the range so when the wife told me I could have the day to myself for getting my chores done, I headed out to the range on Sunday. I usually try to get there at or before 11am when they open to get a good bench rest and target stands for rifle before a ton of people show up. I'm usually there longer than most, so a lot come and go before I'm done. I went yesterday and spent 5 hours. This was my line up for yesterday:
Rifles
--------
M1 Garand
M1 Carbine
Mosin Nagant 91/30 Hex
Chinese M53
Pistols
---------
Yugo M57
Chinese Type 54-1
Walther P1
CZ-50
I pretty much had the whole rifle range to myself as the weather looked like it was going to rain and no one stayed. It turned out to be a really nice day and the only other person(s) on the rifle range were a young DPS Trooper and his family. We hit it off chatting and I let him, his wife and his kids all take a turn shooting each of the rifles I brought. I told them about the history of each type, when they were made, why they were developed, which army used them and how they were used. I showed them the classic 'ping' of the Garand and told them the story/myth about how GI's would use it to trick the Germans into showing themselves. I even gave his kids one of the En Bloc clips as a souvenir so they could tell their friends about the use of the Garand during WWII. It was a fun day sharing with them and teaching them some history on military firearms; they all took pictures of each other shooting the various WWII weapons. It was made even better by being able to teach some young ones and preserve a bit of history. All in all a terrific day at the range.
Rifles
--------
M1 Garand
M1 Carbine
Mosin Nagant 91/30 Hex
Chinese M53
Pistols
---------
Yugo M57
Chinese Type 54-1
Walther P1
CZ-50
I pretty much had the whole rifle range to myself as the weather looked like it was going to rain and no one stayed. It turned out to be a really nice day and the only other person(s) on the rifle range were a young DPS Trooper and his family. We hit it off chatting and I let him, his wife and his kids all take a turn shooting each of the rifles I brought. I told them about the history of each type, when they were made, why they were developed, which army used them and how they were used. I showed them the classic 'ping' of the Garand and told them the story/myth about how GI's would use it to trick the Germans into showing themselves. I even gave his kids one of the En Bloc clips as a souvenir so they could tell their friends about the use of the Garand during WWII. It was a fun day sharing with them and teaching them some history on military firearms; they all took pictures of each other shooting the various WWII weapons. It was made even better by being able to teach some young ones and preserve a bit of history. All in all a terrific day at the range.
