benefits of practice at the range

very rarely can i say that i've had enough time at the range. if i had my druthers, i'd be living on the range grounds. then, maybe, i'd have enough trigger time to satisfy me. but alas, i don't.
one nice thing about the range is they stay open until 1900, at least while the sun lasts. a quick hour or two after work helps. so what do you get when you actually practice more often than once or twice a month?click pix for other size options
for a non target pistol, this Springfield TRP does pretty well. i'd spent most of a box of handloads tweeking the sites in over sandbags at 25 yards. just before leaving, i loaded 5 rounds, and placed a new target. results off hand:that's 1.1 inches, center to center on 4 of the 5 shots. one flier wrecked the group, but it was still on the black, so i can't bitch too much. 3 of the shots were around 3/4 inch. not bad for a cigar smoking, coffee drinking, after work shooting amateur.
i took the new Ruger out too. here are two target spots, each an inch in diameter. the optics dot is bigger at 25 yards than the spots, so i am not unhappy in the least that they didn't group in one tiny hole. it's actually not too shabby for me. i'm still trying to figure out this holographic site. it's manufactured to have minimum parallax at 50 yards, but definitely moves around at 25. i'll figure it all eventually. it just takes trigger time. each spot had 10 rounds fired at it.

for those interested in my other gun pics, here's my flickr set for things that go bang.

imagine a perfect day at the range

when overhead you hear a seriously loud flapping noise, some cursing, and then see
a parachutist crashing into the trees along the edge of the 100 yard range.
My local rifle/pistol range is the Yolo Sportsman's Association. it's located at the end of the local airport, which sports a huge contingency of parachuters during the weekend.
it is a bit disconcerting to have the huge shadow cross over you as you are lining up for a shot. but it must really bug the hell out of the jumpers knowing they are coming down over an active gun range. dunno. seems to work for everyone.
here are a couple of shots i took during the day.
as always, click for more size options