Large Caliber Entertainment!

Every once in a while, when it isn't to hot out in the desert mornings, a few of the "gang" go out shooting. I've blogged about it before last Fall. Seems a little weird, this mix of ultra-liberals and conservatives gathering to shoot guns, but hey - it's Arizona! Thursdays are generally the days they go out, preferred by one of the doctors, but interestingly, he never goes the Thursdays I can make it... Since Melinda's treatments are normally on Thursdays, we were only able to join in a couple weeks ago on her last chemo break.

Doc Chuck is sort of our motivator to get out, and is always looking for new ways to compete. In the previous post from last year, he had a "dueling tree" that swings around when you hit it. That way you can compete against another shooter and usually the best shot hitting the 4" targets is easily recognized. This time they had a paper target with zones worth various point totals. Six shots and your point total is recorded. Ironically, I volunteered to be first out of the gate with my little .380 and immediately scored a perfect 60! It has little recoil and I seemed to aim better than with my 45.   In the images here, Chuck and Sue take a look at the scatter in her shots, and at right, the collection of guns available for shooting is shown.

Chuck then got the idea from Detective Dan (retired police detective) to shoot as fast as possible, where you got a higher score for both accuracy and speed. Not unexpectedly, police-trained Dan did the best with this method. Chuck thinks he can get a timer from his brother that records the length of time from the first-to-last shot for more accurate timing one of these next sessions.


I happened to take some pictures of the guys shooting and discovered some interesting things. Far be it from me to criticize anyone's style, but the pictures don't lie! At left are a pair of images of Sue shooting her 9mm, one just before firing and the next just afterwards as the cartridge is being ejected. The two images are stacked in Photoshop, and demonstrates the effect of the recoil. Sue has an unusual "lean-back" posture, and also the recoil seems a huge 20 degrees or more. She had a large scatter in her shooting, and corrective action might be in order. Dan, in comparison at right, has the more conventional "lean-in" posture and suffers much less recoil with his .38.


Finally we put the target away and shot a few rounds on the "dueling tree" again. At left, Sue and Sam are shown firing away, and at left Sue and Dan are competing. I did pretty mediocre in this round, but was still glowing from my perfect score on the paper target!

With November comes nearly perfect Fall mornings, and Chuck has dates in mind already. I've warned him we're generally not available Thursdays, so will see if we get out anytime soon, but will look forward to the next trip out...

It's What One Does in Arizona!

In many respects Arizona still seems to be frontier territory in the old West.  Most people forget that 160 years ago, Tucson was in Mexico and since the Gadsden Purchase many of the traditional stories of the West took place in that strip of land in southern Arizona.  I'm thinking the boom and bust mining of Bisbee, Tombstone and the OK Corral, that sort of thing.  And true to tradition even today, Arizona has some of the most lax gun laws in the country.  Though rarely seen, no permits are needed to carry a gun on your hip.  No permits are needed to purchase firearms through private sales.  There are a LOT of gun stores in Tucson, and guns seem to be accepted as part of the culture here.

With my self-proclaimed liberal status, I didn't feel much need for a handgun.  But over the years, I've spent enough nights in the desert that I've got stories to curl your toes, so thought it prudent like many Arizona astronomers to pack some "heat" with the other telescope accessories.  In fact, I got my little handgun from a local astronomy store, which had been traded in towards a telescope purchase!  I bought it about a year ago, and occasionally pack it when out alone observing. 

And in order to be a responsible and safe gun owner, it is best to use it occasionally to lessen the chance of accidents.  To that end, some buddies occasionally get together to go out shooting in the desert just outside of town.  My friend (ER) Doctor Chuck (shown at left) served as the range safety officer, reminding all of us of safe practices, and in the details of the guns we were using.  At left he is demonstrating a 9mm pistol, at right is the 38 service revolver of (retired detective) Dan above, and  Chuck's 45 below.  My little Sig Sauer .380 (nicknamed the "pea Shooter" by the guys) isn't shown.

Our location in the desert was in a depression to contain shots that miss the target.  I'm not sure it was a dug-out hole for a watering hole for cattle, a mine exploration hole, or what, but it serves the purpose well.  At left, our location is shown with Chuck's "dueling tree" set up.  The targets swing around to the other side when hit, so two shooters can compete against each other for accuracy and speed.  The problem with my lil' "Pea Shooter" is that it doesn't pack enough power to swing the target. It will budge it, but not swing it around...  The location seems to be a popular place for shooting - at right is shown the ground peppered by casings and broken bottles from a wide variety of calibers of shooters from long ago, given the corrosion over the years.

It was a lot of fun to try different firearms - I did
best with my own and Dan's 38.  Hardly anyone preferred the 9mm - not sure why, we just missed a lot with it...  Sue, a new shooter shown at left shooting against Chuck, did well after some training and pointers.  Sam and Dan, who carried his 38 every day at work, did well too.  After an hour, folks had things to do, so we cleaned up our brass and packed up.  As for the part of the ammo that came out the muzzles, most disintegrated into shrapnel, but a few that hit the steel square on was located near the "tree".  Shown at right are a few of the bullet remnants I picked up - rather interesting!

We already picked dates into November.  Considering that it had been nearly a year since I've shot before, I'm looking forward to getting out again sooner!

Outgunned in the Desert!

I've blogged a few times about a couple buddies going out to the desert for some target practice. Each of us own a handgun or two and while one of us (Dan the retired police detective) carried one as part of his work, we all enjoy occasionally slingin' a little lead at targets. 

But it turns out that I work elbow-to-elbow with a certified bunch of gun nuts! During our holiday shutdown at work last week, a "shootout" was organized. Man - I had no idea what I was getting into!  I had rifles and shotguns growing up way back on the farm  - nothing unusual about that - hunting and varmint control almost requiring having guns around.

Most of my co-workers continue the hunting tradition - I've heard lots of stories about various outings for elk, deer and javalina.  Much of the arsenal was on display at the shootout. While there were a couple handguns in evidence, most of the shooting was with the rifles, from small caliber .22s to 30-06 rifles. At left our office staff Linda (left) and Danielle (right), get instruction in small arms. At right, Michael shoots the WWII vintage M1 Garand 30-06 while owner Ray looks on.


There was a wide variety in things to try. One of the newest "toys" was Kevin's AR-15 platform, built up module-by-module to the product he used here. Shooting supersonic 300 AAC (Advanced Armament Corporation) blackout rounds, it is actually licensed as a pistol with its short stock (designed to be strapped to your forearm) and short barrel. He is making an adjustment at left. It had a unity-power LED sight for aiming with arm extended...

Interestingly, between taking turns shooting high-power rounds, Linda admires Danielle's new fingernail polish color at right.



As time went by, shotguns and rifles appeared as if by magic! The image at left shows part of the arsenal, and you can spot the paper target at left and the steel target at right that you could hear "ping" when hit by the handguns. Not quite as much fun as the dueling tree my buddy Chuck has, which is better for head-to-head competition. The high-power rounds were aimed across the 100 meters or so to the other side of the catchment where we were shooting. At right, Heath, who organized the outing, was shooting targets from a sitting position.



Into the second hour of shooting, there was a shift to moving targets and shotguns. At left Kevin tosses a softball to bounce down the hill for Danielle to aim for (mostly successfully!) with a small 410 shotgun. And at right, Kevin is about to fling a skeet for Heath to aim for. They were shooting in pairs for the skeet shooting, but determining who hit the targets was sometimes difficult... I wasn't much interested in shooting rifles or shotguns, so I eventually drifted off and left them to their fun. The girls left before me, but I was next to retire, leaving the hunters going strong.

I'm thinking that after writing this post, there might be some crossover between my shooting groups - I can see Chuck's eyes lighting up shooting Kevin's AR-15... We'll see if we can get it to happen!