The Dime Club

Vuurwapen Blog reminisces about Scout Camp, and the shooting sports area, leading to a .22lr shooting challenge and ammo comparison.  I like going back to this type of shooting from time to time, simply to brush up on the basics, and I've found it helps almost all forms of shooting (I did find it severely handicapt me when going to skeet however.)

At the camp I worked at a couple years back, we have the full out NRA Marksmanship Course for the Rifle and Shotgun areas.  Turns out the medals are authorized for wear on the Scout uniform, and there's a sweet certificate to go along with them-

After a bit I was allowed to use one of the three Anschutz rifles the camp has (in this case, a beautiful vintage Match 54,) and since I had nailed my Expert rating the first year, I concentrated on the weekly staff high score.

I went undefeated for two summers straight.

That was my first "perfect" target, a score of 50.  Round number 4 nudged itself a touch up and right, but it's still breaking the ten ring.  The total size of the group from edge to edge is under .3"... that's firing 5 rounds from the prone with a sling at 50' using target peep sights (no optics.)  I shrank them down from there on a few occasions, probably averaging about .25"-.27" if I had to guess.

After my first year there, I had weapons qualification for the Army Reserve, and managed a 37/40 (those 250M targets always get me... can hit the 300 all day though.)  I also pegged a Cambell's Soup can at 100 yards with my buddy's M4gery at an informal range session with the first shot. It's tough to see a soup can at 100 yards, let alone shoot the silly thing with an unfamiliar rifle.

So if you get around my bragging, what I'm saying is a simple extended range session with your favorite .22lr, a brick of ammo, and some simple bullseye targets can do wonders for just about any shooting.  Plus it's cheap, and you can do it at just about any gun range.  There's really no excuse not to give it a try.