Today the Ontario Rifle Association hosted Canadian Gun Nutz for a day of shooting at camp Borden. We were blessed with a day of comfortable weather with just enough wind that at 300 you had to pay attention to it.
Another group of new shooters were being conducted through a New Shooter school, so we used the range alongside, and were able to shoot at 200, 300 and 100 yards.
Gun Nutz range from experienced shooters to relative newbies. The object of the day was to introduced Nutz to how a military range can be used for a shooter program (I suspect that many today had never held a target in their hand, over their head, while someone else shot at it). We were able to establish a good zero on each rifle at 200 yards. At 300 the military irons sights were raised. Those with scopes just aimed 6 inches higher. At 100 yards we just aimed 6 inches lower.
We started the day shooting 3 shot groups that were spotted with orange plastic spotting disks, each shooter adjusted his zero, based on the average of the 3 spotters. Once zeroed, we shot a 10 shot deliberate exercise, with the target staying up for all 10 shots, then being spotted with 10 spotters. Almost everyone was able to put all 10 shots into the figure, about 22” square.
Then we moved back to 300 yards and did the same thing and in addition to the 10 shots deliberate, we shot a 10 shot snap shoot at targets exposed for 4 seconds. Most shooters discovered they could hit the snap target 10 times and were very pleased with themselves. More than one commented he had never fired beyond 100 yards before, so shooting at a snap target at 300 yards was a huge leap in challenge.
The 200 and 300 shooting was done prone, with rifle rested on whatever was handy. But at 100 yards we shot the deliberate and the snap from the standing position. I used my Lee Enfield and my new Russian SKS for this. Both shot decent groups, but I over did the “aim low” a bit. That is me holding my two targets.
I encourage provincial rifle associations and shooting clubs to invite Gun Nutz out for a day of shooting. They are great guys who take advantage of the opportunity to shoot their prize toys. I saw 3 garands, 3 new Norinco M14s, 1 new Russian SKS, 1 old Chinese SKS, 2 #4s, and a variety of scoped bolt rifles. Oh, and one BLR with open sights. It worked perfectly on these targets at 100,200 and 300 yards.
For those of you in Southern Ontario, please make sure I have your name and email address so I can invite you to the next ORA shoot:
Vintage Rifle Shoots, Camp Borden with Jim Bullock (SKS, M14, Mauser, Lee Enfield, etc. at 100, 200 & 300 yards)
9 May
11 July
1 Aug
Precision Rifle (Sniper) 400 to 800 yards
16 May
18 July
15 Aug
This opportunity was made possible by the gracious offer of Ric Melling for us to shoot alongside his class of New Shooters and by Bill Vincent who gave up some of his shooting to help Gun Nutz learn the ropes in the butts.
Another group of new shooters were being conducted through a New Shooter school, so we used the range alongside, and were able to shoot at 200, 300 and 100 yards.
Gun Nutz range from experienced shooters to relative newbies. The object of the day was to introduced Nutz to how a military range can be used for a shooter program (I suspect that many today had never held a target in their hand, over their head, while someone else shot at it). We were able to establish a good zero on each rifle at 200 yards. At 300 the military irons sights were raised. Those with scopes just aimed 6 inches higher. At 100 yards we just aimed 6 inches lower.
We started the day shooting 3 shot groups that were spotted with orange plastic spotting disks, each shooter adjusted his zero, based on the average of the 3 spotters. Once zeroed, we shot a 10 shot deliberate exercise, with the target staying up for all 10 shots, then being spotted with 10 spotters. Almost everyone was able to put all 10 shots into the figure, about 22” square.
Then we moved back to 300 yards and did the same thing and in addition to the 10 shots deliberate, we shot a 10 shot snap shoot at targets exposed for 4 seconds. Most shooters discovered they could hit the snap target 10 times and were very pleased with themselves. More than one commented he had never fired beyond 100 yards before, so shooting at a snap target at 300 yards was a huge leap in challenge.
The 200 and 300 shooting was done prone, with rifle rested on whatever was handy. But at 100 yards we shot the deliberate and the snap from the standing position. I used my Lee Enfield and my new Russian SKS for this. Both shot decent groups, but I over did the “aim low” a bit. That is me holding my two targets.
I encourage provincial rifle associations and shooting clubs to invite Gun Nutz out for a day of shooting. They are great guys who take advantage of the opportunity to shoot their prize toys. I saw 3 garands, 3 new Norinco M14s, 1 new Russian SKS, 1 old Chinese SKS, 2 #4s, and a variety of scoped bolt rifles. Oh, and one BLR with open sights. It worked perfectly on these targets at 100,200 and 300 yards.
For those of you in Southern Ontario, please make sure I have your name and email address so I can invite you to the next ORA shoot:
Vintage Rifle Shoots, Camp Borden with Jim Bullock (SKS, M14, Mauser, Lee Enfield, etc. at 100, 200 & 300 yards)
9 May
11 July
1 Aug
Precision Rifle (Sniper) 400 to 800 yards
16 May
18 July
15 Aug
This opportunity was made possible by the gracious offer of Ric Melling for us to shoot alongside his class of New Shooters and by Bill Vincent who gave up some of his shooting to help Gun Nutz learn the ropes in the butts.
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...but we need pics, all the same...
