Hunting season is upon us.\u00a0 Be sure to sight in!\u00a0 The deer rifle that was spot on last year may not be so as of now.\u00a0 Moisture getting into a wooden rifle stock, swelling the wood so that it applies pressure on the barrel\u2026a bump to the scope or the iron sights between last season and now can throw shots of the course of aim\u2026a change in ammo can alter elevation and even windage\u2026there are lots of things which can mess up point of aim\/point of impact coordinates.<\/p>\n
I was reminded of this some ten days ago in Arkansas, when I was testing a new pistol and teaching a first-level class simultaneously.\u00a0 Using the test gun to teach with seemed like a good idea.\u00a0 I sneaked onto the line with the new 9mm Walther (the PPQ M2, a pretty cool little gun, actually) and put a few shots downrange offhand with 115 grain ammo.\u00a0 It shot where it looked. I figured it would do to demonstrate the qualification course to the class on the last day.<\/p>\n
When that day came, I loaded the Walther with 147 grain ammo I grabbed out of the back of my van.\u00a0 All went well until we hit the 15 yard line, and after the first six shots I noticed the group was going way high.\u00a0 I corrected with \u201cKentucky windage,\u201d holding proportionally low, and finished with a 298 out of 300 possible points.\u00a0 Four of the rising six had gone into the upper part of the eight-inch circle in the center of the IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association) target, but two had gone just over, costing me one point down apiece.<\/p>\n
The deal I make with my students is that I and the staff will demonstrate the course of fire they\u2019re expected to perform, to \u201cmodel\u201d it so they have a fresh mental image of what is expected of them in the next few minutes, and to \u201cset their internal clock\u201d as to the time frames in which they\u2019ll have to perform the sequences of fire.\u00a0 If they tie my score, they get an autographed dollar bill that says \u201cYou tied me at my own game,\u201d and if they beat me, an autographed five dollar bill inscribed, \u201cYou beat me at my own game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Out of 40 or so shooters, that 298 cost me four five dollar bills and change.\u00a0 It\u2019s more than worth the money to have graduates who can shoot like that.\u00a0 Still, as much as it pleases me to give out the $1 bills, I confess to mixed feelings about the $5s.<\/p>\n
In the advanced course that followed, on the first day when that crew of students was watching the mandatory safety film, I slipped out to the range and tested the Walther on a bench rest.\u00a0 Interesting thing: that particular pistol put its shots center at 15 and 25 yards with 115 grain ammo, but sent them way high at both distances with the 147 grain rounds I used in the qual. I should have done that part of the test before the first qualification.<\/p>\n
Nobody\u2019s fault but mine: I had not tested that <\/i>gun with that <\/i>ammo at \u201cpredictable using distance\u201d before <\/i>shooting it for anything serious.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a lesson there.<\/p>\n
The price I paid was cheap compared to losing the winter supply of elk meat because I had sighted in with a different load than the one I took into the hunting field. And a whole lot cheaper than if I had been shooting for survival instead of a \u201cfistful of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Learn from my mistake.\u00a0 Get sighted in.<\/p>\n
And if you have any experiences in this vein, please post them here, so others may learn in time to prevent poor shot placement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hunting season is upon us.\u00a0 Be sure to sight in!\u00a0 The deer rifle that was spot on last year may not be so as of now.\u00a0 Moisture getting into a wooden rifle stock, swelling the wood so that it applies pressure on the barrel\u2026a bump to the scope or the iron sights between last season […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-firearms","8":"category-preparedness"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}