Range Day Report

FINALLY got in some range time Friday. We hadn't been to the range since late last summer. My Mrs got a rare weekday off, so we made a dash over to Garland to send some lead down range. My main objective was to sight in the red dot on the WASR10, which was equally long over due. As I said before, I've never used a red dot scope before - so I was very curious if I would like using one.

I'm happy to say that I love it! Even the cheap BSA scope that I was using performed really well. Here's my sight-in target:

I wandered a bit at first. Getting used to the scope and zeroing it in took 10 rounds. As you can see, the remaining 20 rounds were all pretty much touching in one big jagged hole. My Mrs. took a turn shooting the WASR, and she dug the red dot too. She wants one on whatever battle carbine we end up getting for her. The ATI Strikeforce stock was a wonderful upgrade to the WASR10, as well. Its like shooting a different (and better) gun now.

Oh.. and I zeroed the scope to shoot a little high on purpose. I was shooting at 50 yards to get the scope zeroed, and we didn't have time to shift over to the 100 yard lanes. I left it shooting a touch high at 50 yards, so that it would be just about dead on at 100 yards. I'll test that theory on the next trip.

The range was really crowded, even though it was a weekday. Nice weather is keeping folks coming in, which is good - even if I don't like crowds. I'd estimate that there were around 45-50 people there shooting, counting pistol, rifle, and shotgun lanes. Sounds like the invasion of Normandy when everyone gets going at once.

We both shot really well considering how rusty we were. I shot my favorite carry gun, the Beretta 85fs, as well as the FNP9. My Mrs shot her normal carry piece, a Bersa Thunder 380, as well as her Bersa Ultracompact 9mm.

That's my FNP9, 50 rounds at 21 feet. Not up to my usually standards, but I had a case of the "yips" at first. Guess I shouldn't wait so long between range trips, huh? I tightened up the group as I settled down. Cheaper (and more available) ammo should make more frequent range trips easier this spring and summer. The Beretta target was a bit better.

I was surprised at the quality of shooters on the line this trip. Usually its really pathetic. We aren't expert marksmen (markspersons?), by any stretch of the imagination... but generally we still shoot circles around 99% of the other people at the pistol range on any given day. Of course, there were still the Gomers that couldn't keep their shots on the colored portion of the target - when they managed to hit paper at all. However, several of the shooters were actually pretty good this time. I don't know if it was just a fluke, or if all the increased traffic at the range over the past year is actually paying off :)

Oh.... and in case you're wondering - my Mrs. is not to be trifled with.

That's 7 shots from her .380 ACP Bersa Thunder, at 21 feet.