HotRodZilla
GOD BLESS AMERICA
As many of you know, I have three daughters. God, if he exists, is pissed at me for my behavior when I was younger and single. So instead of the boy I wanted, I got three girls. Some punishment this is so far...I love my babies and they love me back. The oldest is 11, so no teen years yet. I'm kind of dreading the hormones and drama, but we'll see what happenes.
Since I have no boys, the girls are the only ones I have to do stuff with. They play softball and soccer. They love motorcycles, four wheel drives, swimming, working on stuff and guns. The oldest one is especially into guns. I think mostly because the noise doesn't scare her and she's old enough to be productive with them.
Since she's the oldest, she has the most access to stuff. She has two horses. An Arabian dressage horse she is training to jump and a Paint ranch horse she will learn to rope on. I grew up on a ranch, so stuff I could do from the time I could walk takes longer to teach to kids that live in the city.
Anyway...Back to guns.
Some of you know I shoot competitively and do pretty well. If I had more time and money, I could be great, but I have three girls who are not cheap. I shoot with two USPSA clubs and get together with the Glock guys a couple times a year. I shoot .22 steel matches, sporting clays, Tactical Rifle and Multi-Gun (Three Gun).
Last week, my buddy called me and said some guys from our club who were off on Friday were gonna have a Three Gun match on Friday afternoon. Well, I was off, so I wasn't passing that up. On Friday, I loaded all my stuff up and took the 11 year old with me to the range. My girls go to a Charter School and go Monday through Thursday. They are off in Fridays, which is cool.
So we got to the range and I found the guys on the 1000 yard range setting up poppers and 8" steel swingers with flashers. Basically the poppers are about 6" thick at the widest point and shaped almost like a person. The flashers are swinging plates hanging from a cross member. Attached to the down tube is a white plate in front and an orange plate in back. When the target is hit, it causes the flashers to move, so the shooter and spotters know it was hit. Make sense?
Turns out, we were shooting long distance .223 and not Three Gun, so I had to change modes. I also realized the 11 year old could shoot with us since we were not running and gunning. We got set up and ended up with multiple targets from 200 yards to 500 yards. We kept it short because the wind decided to blow and a .223 isn't worth **** beyond 500 anyway.
We all kind of saw what was going where with the wind and then I put the kid behind my buddie's rifle. It is a very nice JP AR15 with a worked trigger and a Swarovski 1.7-10 scope with bullet drop compensation. She has shot a lot of pistol and some shotgun, but no rifle. She had some ergonomic issues at first, but we got her set.
I decided to start her on the 200 yard popper since it was the closest and easiest to spot for. I helped her adjust for the wind and told her what to do. She missed the first shot and took her cheek off the rifle to look for it. I corrected that and had her do it again. She made another adjustment for the wind and pounded the popper. Beginner's luck I figured, but she hit it three more times in a row.
I moved her to the swinger. After the first hit, I told her to take a second shot before the target stopped moving. She was on and started hitting it with one to two second splits...Boom, whack. Boom, whack....
Well, we'd had enough of that, so I directed her to the 300 yard targets: two poppers and a swinger. She was shooting in a full value 20-25mph wind. Which means we were shooting north, but the wind was blowing almost directly west to east. That kind of wind will blow a .233 round 20-30 inches at 300 yards. Again, I helped her use the hash marks on the reticle to get to the target.
She got her first hit on shot #3 and for the next 10 rounds only missed when the wound suddenly stopped. She blew through three 20 round magazines laughing the whole time.
She is now hooked, which is where the "making of the monster" comes in. This **** is expensive and suddenly I have gun magazines on the kitchen table opened up to tricked out AR15 rifles with adjustable stocks. My buddies rifle does not adjust which made her reach difficult. She wants one that she can shorten like my M4.
I told her that I never made shots like that until I was into my 20s. I didn't have the equipment or the instruction, but she was adjusting well and picking up very fast. I've been a fire arms instructor for 14 years and I've never had an adult student pick up so fast.
I can't ride my FJR alone because I've created 3 monsters. I spend my Saturdays trailering horses around or going to softball games because I've created monsters, and now I've successfully turned my kid onto expensive rifles and optics...I guess its better than boys!!
Since I have no boys, the girls are the only ones I have to do stuff with. They play softball and soccer. They love motorcycles, four wheel drives, swimming, working on stuff and guns. The oldest one is especially into guns. I think mostly because the noise doesn't scare her and she's old enough to be productive with them.
Since she's the oldest, she has the most access to stuff. She has two horses. An Arabian dressage horse she is training to jump and a Paint ranch horse she will learn to rope on. I grew up on a ranch, so stuff I could do from the time I could walk takes longer to teach to kids that live in the city.
Anyway...Back to guns.
Some of you know I shoot competitively and do pretty well. If I had more time and money, I could be great, but I have three girls who are not cheap. I shoot with two USPSA clubs and get together with the Glock guys a couple times a year. I shoot .22 steel matches, sporting clays, Tactical Rifle and Multi-Gun (Three Gun).
Last week, my buddy called me and said some guys from our club who were off on Friday were gonna have a Three Gun match on Friday afternoon. Well, I was off, so I wasn't passing that up. On Friday, I loaded all my stuff up and took the 11 year old with me to the range. My girls go to a Charter School and go Monday through Thursday. They are off in Fridays, which is cool.
So we got to the range and I found the guys on the 1000 yard range setting up poppers and 8" steel swingers with flashers. Basically the poppers are about 6" thick at the widest point and shaped almost like a person. The flashers are swinging plates hanging from a cross member. Attached to the down tube is a white plate in front and an orange plate in back. When the target is hit, it causes the flashers to move, so the shooter and spotters know it was hit. Make sense?
Turns out, we were shooting long distance .223 and not Three Gun, so I had to change modes. I also realized the 11 year old could shoot with us since we were not running and gunning. We got set up and ended up with multiple targets from 200 yards to 500 yards. We kept it short because the wind decided to blow and a .223 isn't worth **** beyond 500 anyway.
We all kind of saw what was going where with the wind and then I put the kid behind my buddie's rifle. It is a very nice JP AR15 with a worked trigger and a Swarovski 1.7-10 scope with bullet drop compensation. She has shot a lot of pistol and some shotgun, but no rifle. She had some ergonomic issues at first, but we got her set.
I decided to start her on the 200 yard popper since it was the closest and easiest to spot for. I helped her adjust for the wind and told her what to do. She missed the first shot and took her cheek off the rifle to look for it. I corrected that and had her do it again. She made another adjustment for the wind and pounded the popper. Beginner's luck I figured, but she hit it three more times in a row.
I moved her to the swinger. After the first hit, I told her to take a second shot before the target stopped moving. She was on and started hitting it with one to two second splits...Boom, whack. Boom, whack....
Well, we'd had enough of that, so I directed her to the 300 yard targets: two poppers and a swinger. She was shooting in a full value 20-25mph wind. Which means we were shooting north, but the wind was blowing almost directly west to east. That kind of wind will blow a .233 round 20-30 inches at 300 yards. Again, I helped her use the hash marks on the reticle to get to the target.
She got her first hit on shot #3 and for the next 10 rounds only missed when the wound suddenly stopped. She blew through three 20 round magazines laughing the whole time.
She is now hooked, which is where the "making of the monster" comes in. This **** is expensive and suddenly I have gun magazines on the kitchen table opened up to tricked out AR15 rifles with adjustable stocks. My buddies rifle does not adjust which made her reach difficult. She wants one that she can shorten like my M4.
I told her that I never made shots like that until I was into my 20s. I didn't have the equipment or the instruction, but she was adjusting well and picking up very fast. I've been a fire arms instructor for 14 years and I've never had an adult student pick up so fast.
I can't ride my FJR alone because I've created 3 monsters. I spend my Saturdays trailering horses around or going to softball games because I've created monsters, and now I've successfully turned my kid onto expensive rifles and optics...I guess its better than boys!!
