Let's go for a shoot, offered a young Sergeant, and I weighed up his rambunctious proposal. Is it sunny? Yes. Is it wet? Not very. Do you have guns? Obviously, and it's New Years Day to boot. So, "Yes, let's go," and off we went via Walmart and a purchased box of skeet to the range.
The range being about 15 minutes drive into the country, just past Brandon. And what a great little 100 yard range it is, with a small shooting house, a bench, and an all 'round berm. There you are, out in the field, under the Texan sky with plenty of room to swing a shotgun, which is what we did.
In this case, a CZ Drake O/U 20 gauge. It's light, at 6 pounds 9 ounces, swings well, has a generous white polymer front sight, and gets on target like a champ, and all for around 600 bucks. Field & Stream thinks it's great value for money and so do I. Hey, this light, attractive but nothing fancy field gun works. And work it did.
After a few moments of nostalgic reverie, we've been shooting here for 15 years, we opened up a box of White Flyer and got down to business. I went first, with Sergeant LSP as thrower, "Ready!" he'd shout by tradition, and I'd shout back, "Pull!" and up goes the orange adversary and boom goes the gun. Clays smoked. Result.
What a lot of fun, and we shot well, pretty much a 100% hit rate; if it'd been a dove hunt there would've been a tailgate full of birds. As it was, a field full of shattered skeet, and there's nothing wrong with that either. On the contrary, keeps your aim in and getting out in the field's a good in itself.
We finished off with a gentle Ruger American .22 plinkathon, targeting steel plates, the smaller the better, a Red Bull, yuck, can and a rusty old aerosol spray paint can. I tell you, those enemies met their match and then some. Shoot over, we headed back to the Compound, mission accomplished.
Happy New Year,
LSP
