Welp it has been raining here for the whole months of March and April, so I did not get any shooting in the last two months. When the weather cleared my wife had a list of "Honey-Do's" so for the last couple of weeks or so I have not been able to get to the range either. So yesterday I put my foot down and pleaded to be allowed to go shooting, I got my wish and the family loaded up in the Ford Exploder (wifey's car) and headed up to the hills. Of course the car was out of gas and I had to stop and fill it up, and we had to stop and get snacks for the kids, and since we were already at the supermarket why don't we pick up a few things? Well we can't keep the milk in the car all afternoon can we? So we had better drop off the groceries.
Finally we are on the road. On the trip I heard the usual: I have to go pee, I am getting carsick, uh-ho I dropped my lipstick, and that was the wife. The kids were even worse. Have you guys ever had to listen to an 8 year old give you an one hour detailed description of the Kingdom Hearts Video game on PS2? About 15 minutes into his description I wanted to jump out of the car. And did you know that when a little girl learns to read she reads the word then spells it? Every time we saw a road sign, she would say it Grizzly Flats, then spell it out G-R-I-Z-Z-L-Y F-L-A-T-S. California has a lot of road signs.
We finally made it to our shooting spot, and good news, no one is there. I start of by shooting some clay targets, my wife loves to throw them for me, and did I mention that she is a good wife? Any ways we spend the next hour shooting. My son shot everything I brought, he really liked the 12 gauge. Although he did mention that he needed a 12 gauge for Donald Duck in Kingdom hearts, I have no Idea what he was talking about. Donald Duck?
When I was loading the Exploder I very carefully considered what guns to take, after all I was going plinking. So I did not bring any of my target rifles, I was looking for fast shooting and easy for my wife and kids to handle. So I loaded the Mini-30, The Mossberg 500(Persuader), two 10-22's, the Ruger P-94, and my Walther PPK. And of course my two airguns for the kids.
The whole family was having a good time the kids were really getting into shooting the clay targets that I had set out for them with the air guns.
After we were there for about an hour a truck showed up with three guys in it, They came over and asked if it was ok to shoot there with us. I told them it was fine, after they got their stuff unloaded one of them noticed that I had a mini-30, he made some comment about how inaccurate the rifles were. Well I could not let that stand I picked up the rifle and shot at a target that I had placed about 100 yds off. I was standing up and placed all ten rounds into the black, a 3 1/2 group, open sites. I then told them to do the same with their rifles, one guy with and AK hit the 8x10 paper three times out of ten rounds only one in the black, the others were having some kind of sight problem. When my kids brought back the targets my wife's only comment was about my target she said " You didn't hit the X" my group was all about 7 o'clock. No one said anything else.
Well they went back to doing their own thing and I started shooting clays again with my shotgun. I was growing a little bored with that so I grabbed my mini-30 and with my wife throwing clays I started using that. I missed the first two throw, but I don't think that those guys were looking but I hit the third and the forth, and on the fifth I had to take two shots but I hit the clay on the second shot, and by now these guys were watching. Feeling that my luck was running out I stopped shooting the clays with the mini 30. By this time the kids were restless and we had been there for a couple of hours and my wife was reminding me that it was a school night and we had better be getting back. So we loaded up, and went home.
The trip home was just about the same as the trip up there, with my wife turning yellow because she pee, and my son talking about Donald Duck and Jimmy Cricket, what the heck are Donald Duck and Jimmy Cricket doing in a video game, and why does he want to shoot Donald with a 12 gauge. Then there was a small voice from the back seat that said, "Daddy is good at shooting", it was my daughter, and did I mention that she is my favorite?
I bet you smiled and felt better after writing that. An 8-year old shooting a 12 gauge? You're sons got more balls than I did at that age. When I lived in California last year I used to love going shooting. The San Bernadino Valley has unlimited resources as far as distance goes. I sometimes with being able to drive a couple miles of the freeway out to the middle of nowhere. Hope you had a good day
