Like most avid shooters, I subscribe to a number of different Facebook Groups regarding firearms. This post deals mostly with the more advanced elements of shooting – precision shooting, use of Scout Rifles and precision rifles and the use of the 22LR rifle. It’s not unusual to see brand new shooters joining these groups a couple times a week. Their posts usually revolve around the rifle they purchased, and it’s associated “furniture” – bipod, scope, muzzle break, whether they need to change their stock to get better precision and accuracy . . . along with a host of other typical “beginner” q ..read more

  This past weekend I taught the “Beta” version of the Designated Marksman course that I’ve developed.  It incorporated the suggestions and changes from the “Alpha” version I taught back in April.  I had one holdover student that took the Alpha course and two newbies.   Day one morning was the lecture part of the course work.  It defines terminology, the purpose of a DM (in my opinion anyway) and the fundamentals of the skill set that I will be working through on the range.   I’ve included an image of the training flyer that summarizes the course and equipmen ..read more

  4th of July 2023 . . . what better way to start the day than with a range trip.  Susie and the granddaughter – Lucy – are off to horse camp so I was left to my own devices this morning.  The destination was a pretty easy choice.   I took the Ruger American 22LR and a couple of boxes of Eley Club to the 50-yard range.  I’ve been playing with the front bag a bit and am growing fond of Armageddon Gear’s “Game Changer” bag.  I’ve had it a number of years, but this is the first time I’ve worked my way through the front bags is a systematic fashion.  You can see ..read more

 I returned to the range the day following the 6/21 trip because I was unhappy with the performance of the Frontier 75gr ammunition.  My purpose was to see if PMC X-TAC 55 would work better.  I get to the range, post a target, set up my rifle and send one round at the “zero target”.  Low . . . so I reach for the elevation turret to adjust . . . and the scope “wiggled”.  Excuse me????  So, I grab the scope and try to move it around – and I can do this easily.  Closer examination showed that the scope was firmly attached to the rail . . . but the rail was NOT ..read more

  6-21-2023 Range Day   The range trip today involved the “intermediate” rifle in my course development for a Designated Marksman Course – the Ruger American Predator in .223.  I don’t consider a .223 large enough to fill a DM role, but it works fine to introduce the concept of recoil mitigation since the .22LR trainers simply have no recoil.  That said, when you move to this platform the goals of precision and accuracy remain . . . 2MOA regardless of the distance and all rounds within a 2” circle at 50 yards and a 3” circle at 100 yards.   At 50 yards I reduced the ..read more

  Range Trip 6-1-2023 First trip this year with the Ruger American 22LR.  I was very pleased with the results.  I fired a total of 100 rounds on 20 separate 2” targets, 5 rounds per target.  My goals for the trip were an average group size of 2MOA or 1.0-inches and all rounds with the 2-inch target.  My smallest group was .42-inches.  My largest was 1.3-inches.  The average group size for all 20 groups was .85-inches.  My first shot – a Clean Bore/Cold Bore shot was outside of the target (#1 on Sheet #1) as well as one additional round on #10 on Sheet #1 ..read more

  Range Trip – May 25, 2023   There are a number of reasons to go to the range.  Here are the common ones.   Training:  This is participating is a structured set of course work.  Typical examples would be various NRA courses, Rob Pincus courses, Tom Givens, Gun Site, various local instructors, our coursework developed by NAPSI – to name just a few.  These can run from a 4-hour safety course to a 3-day+ in-depth course on an AR, a shotgun or a pistol.  Round counts can vary from a hundred or so to 1,000+. In these courses you are typically learning a new ..read more

A busy range trip today.  I ran through my 4 major platforms today:  22LR Ruger Precision, .223 Ruger American Rifle Predator, Savage 110 Tactical in .308 and my carry Glock 17.  180 rounds total, I was down a total of 9 rounds across all the platforms for a 171/180 or a total of 95%.  I’ll take it! Let talk about the rifles first.  My intention with the 3 different calibers is to build a viable Designated Marksman program for small police departments.  The majority of the range work is completed with the 22LR Ruger Precision and is used to develop and maintain th ..read more

It’s a powerful emotion that can allow a person to recall a single instant in time . . . It can turn them into a quivering mass of flesh . . . It can make them cower . . . It can “change their mind” . . . it can destroy a person.  We all have such moments in our past.  A few of mine would be . . .   That moment when my teacher said . . . “If you don’t change your behavior, I’ll call your mother!!” My very first homecoming dance with Susie and my mom saying something like . .  . “Do you know what you’re doing??”  My first rocket attack and the real realization that I w ..read more

  I picked up my 110 Scout in March of this year.  I then chose and mounted the “furniture” and did a preliminary range trip to zero it.  That, and the purpose of choosing this particular rifle and it’s “job” were covered in my post -  ” Review – The Savage 110 Scout Rifle in 308”.    Since that time I’ve spent time becoming comfortable with it and coming up with a course of fire to fully evaluate the 110 Scout for its real job – that of a Designated Marksman. Let’s work through my overall impressions first.  This is probably the “lightest” shooting .30 ..read more