Saturday, August 9, 2008

I Love Me


The last remnants of a fly at 25 yards, courtesy of my Savage MkII.

I was once again at my favorite shooting grounds, putting a few rounds through my .22LR Savage MkII rifle. My shooting buddy and I were taking turns putting up 10 round groups at 25 yards; he with his Remington 597, and me with the trusty Savage MkII. About five rounds into my string, a fly landed at the top of my target. I quickly chambered another Federal Champion 40 grain bullet, and took aim. I never thought I would connect, but I went through the motions: Breathe, release, aim, squeeze....bang! The fly exploded all over my target! I quickly placed my rifle on "safe", removed the magazine, and called the "range" clear so my buddy and I could go inspect my target. I sprinted downrange, spotting the blood splatter.


Same target as shown before; this is as close as my Nikon point-and-shoot will get with decent resolution.

I could not have been any prouder of my self than at that moment, or so I thought. We returned to the firing line, and I reloaded to finish my 10 round string. Just as I flipped my selector to "fire", another fly landed on the shoulder of my buddy's IPSC silhouette target. Pushing my luck, I lined up and started my routine; breathe, release, aim, squeeze....bang! Fly guts dotted the left shoulder of his target. I know, I know, I don't have any pictures posted of the second fly. I will get them if I can find that silhouette again. Or I'll just go shoot another fly.

Aside from my ego-massaging, the point is that once again, my $149 Savage bolt action rifle has proven to be far more than I paid for. Another point is that, with practice, you can also attain this level of marksmanship. Granted, I have been shooting since age 8, and I have been trained by the Army. However, everything I have been taught is available through friends, the internet, books, and good old fashioned practice.

Happy shooting!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess the term "so harmless he wouldn't kill a fly" doesn't really apply when you're using a semi-auto to finish the little bastard off! And as far the name of your blog, you are aware that Carl Sagan coined the term "Flatland" in Cosmos to refer to a one dimensional land where two and three-dimensional objects appear as a series of infinitely shallow lines? Let's hope the lines of your blog aren't as shallow! ;)

The Flatland Gun Nut said...

Let's get one thing straight: My Savage is a bolt-action, not a semi auto. One shot, one kill.

I'm surprised you never heard eastern Iowans call people from our neck of the woods "flatlanders". As for my blog being infinitely shallow; you're familiar with my work. You can polish a turd, and it's still a turd.

Anonymous said...

Well excuuuuuuse me! I was jumping from post to post and was just dropping a line. Next time I will correctly qualify the action of the weapon you used to murder a defenseless little fly! Murderer!