Range Report: A Frozen Day at the Range
Went to Martinsville Sportsman's Conservation Club on Sunday in the cold in order to plink some steel and AQT's with a couple of rifles. It's part of my resolution to shoot each and every week. Cold not withstanding.
In any event, I pulled up the front gate and nosed down the small hill in order to run my card and get the automatic gate open. Now, this where things began to get fun as the gate opened a couple of feet and stopped. Stopped.
And the stop was a LOUD one, you know, the bad kind:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPhyTrDzhHw]YouTube - Gate Fail[/ame]
Here's the fun part. The picture above shows the sheet of ice that I was trapped on, nose down, in front of the broken gate. I could not back up the small hill or get through the gate. Sheet of ice.
So how did I get off of it? As always, there is a way. And the solution is always in the car with me. As it turns out an axe makes a good ice breaker:
30 minutes of chip, move 1 foot, chip more and I was at the top of the hill - gate still broken:
But I am not one to come 30 minutes, chip for 30 minutes, only to drive back home for another 30 minutes. Nope!
I decided to just walk back to the ranges, see if anyone was back there (altruistic excuse), and do some plinking. I quickly grabbed one rifle, some ammo, a steel plate for a target, and eyes & ears and began the trek back. (At this point let me say, I should have taken a few minutes and chosen more wisely.) But off I went:
It was a nice day and the first time I saw the new clubhouse:
And the walk back was very pretty:
Once back at the range, I found no one there (good) and quickly set up for a tad bit of plinking. Between the AR and the AK, I made my choice:
Someone before me had left up a very nice target at 50 yards, and I started to setup my plate at 100. This was the first time I realized my mistake in choices. You see that morning I had geared up and at the last minute realized I had not bolted my knife to my belt. I NEVER LEAVE MY KNIFE AT HOME. But this time, I was running late and did. Didn't matter I told myself because I had a bigger one in the trunk. So as I was rigging up a steel holder with a tree limb, I got to remember that knife - the one at home, and the one STILL in the trunk.
Cutting wood with a key is both a bummer and an embarrassment.
Anyways, I got back to the line and decided to blast the target at 50 yards first. Since I did not bring the tripod, I just set the camera on the bench and did some "no stock" shots.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcD3Us8MZ_0]YouTube - DSCN0111.mov[/ame]
Fun, but not what I was there to do. So I setup to do some more accurate work and went to setup a sling. Except that was also in the car. Dang. Well, I decided to just have some old school fun and hit regular targets at 50 and then shift to the plate at 100. I improvised a tripod and learned something new about the usefulness of using a tripod:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ-mrQwUBpk]YouTube - Tripod Lacking[/ame]
Yeah, next time the tripod is higher on the list.
But the plate it did work:
So I played for some time longer and it was time to get back to the car and pick the kids up from school. But before going, there was brass duty. This was made more fun by the phenomena of insta-freeze. That is the awesome way that hot brass flash freezes to gravel and can only be picked up by kicking up gravel:
So brass cleaned up and off back to the car. There I reviewed the choices made the following mental notes:
1. Always use the range backpack even if you have to quickly refit it. I should have had it over my shoulder instead of the rifle case.
2. I need to modify the backpack to have straps for carrying the tripod.
3. I need a good carry sling for the krink. Something for comfy, non-threatening carry.
4. NEVER, EVER, leave your belt knife anywhere. (And I knew it was a bad idea too).
5. Always have an axe in the car. They are just too dang handy.
It was an unusual day at the range, but still a good one. Any day shooting is a good day.
Techres
P.S. The gate is now fixed.
