Miguel Jr. and I spent nearly four hours at the Elwood Conservation Club today working on our marksmanship. Surprisingly, there were only a handful of other people there and all but one was on the 100 yard range. We shared the shorter lanes with a dude sighting in a new scope on his 10/22.
The day started out with an assortment of water and juice bottles at 25 yards, then we moved some of them over to the 50 yard range. Miguel Jr. had never shot at 50 before (he's 8...) and he was having issues until I set up our range bag for him to use as a rest. That helped steady him quite a bit and he was soon popping V8 bottles up the berm with his little Crickett! I used a sling on my Rem 597 and nothing but my elbows on the Marlin...iron sights, too -- I'm old school that way.
We had spray painted the bottles yellow to increase visibility, which really helped, especially when the shadows came into play mid-afternoon.
For the last hour or so, we went back to the 25 yard lanes and his shooting had improved quite a bit. He said he felt it was "easier" after spending about an hour on the 50 yard lanes. I told him, "Yeah, that's 'cause it is half the distance!"
After going through about 150 rounds of Aguila Super Extra, I made him switch over to Rem 550 green box, since I selfishly wanted to try the Eley-primed Aguila in my Marlin. After about a dozen rounds I tried to get him to switch back, but he refused, saying, "I think I shoot the Remington better than the other one." Kids...
We loaded up when he ran the Rem 550 box dry and ended with a debrief at McDonald's.
The end.
The day started out with an assortment of water and juice bottles at 25 yards, then we moved some of them over to the 50 yard range. Miguel Jr. had never shot at 50 before (he's 8...) and he was having issues until I set up our range bag for him to use as a rest. That helped steady him quite a bit and he was soon popping V8 bottles up the berm with his little Crickett! I used a sling on my Rem 597 and nothing but my elbows on the Marlin...iron sights, too -- I'm old school that way.
We had spray painted the bottles yellow to increase visibility, which really helped, especially when the shadows came into play mid-afternoon.
For the last hour or so, we went back to the 25 yard lanes and his shooting had improved quite a bit. He said he felt it was "easier" after spending about an hour on the 50 yard lanes. I told him, "Yeah, that's 'cause it is half the distance!"
After going through about 150 rounds of Aguila Super Extra, I made him switch over to Rem 550 green box, since I selfishly wanted to try the Eley-primed Aguila in my Marlin. After about a dozen rounds I tried to get him to switch back, but he refused, saying, "I think I shoot the Remington better than the other one." Kids...
We loaded up when he ran the Rem 550 box dry and ended with a debrief at McDonald's.
The end.
