Range Report

Well, I ended up going back to the range a day earlier than planned; this morning. My wife wants to go to the AppleJack Festival in Nebraska City tomorrow. Today after lunch we went to one of the Omaha malls. She bought a bunch of clothes. I bought some stuff for my shotgun, at Dick’s Sporting Goods: a 25 capacity plastic shotshell case – more convenient than digging 5 shells at a time out of the cardboard boxes they come in; a sort of wallet-style shotshell belt pouch that holds 10 shells; and a 12″ by 36″ cleaning mat. I also bought an nice gun bag for my shotgun at Wal-Mart before hitting the range. Shotgun pictures to come.

Before trying out my shotgun for the first time, I fired another 4 mags (48 rounds) through m PT111 again. No problems. My aim is all right. I won’t be winning any competitions anytime soon, but I can hit the body of a man-sized and shaped target.

Shooting the shotgun was fun. I’m glad I got a 20 gauge. It has more than enough recoil: not too much for me to handle or so much that it is no fun to shoot or throws off my aim, but enough to make me a little sore. A 12 gauge would probably be impossible for my wife to manage. As it is, she’ll probably have some trouble with the 20. I’ll have to get her to practice at least a little. I shot 15 shells of Federal Premium Vital Shok #3 buckshot and 10 shells of Remington Express #3 with the 18.5″ barrel. The Federal ammo had a noticeably more pronounced kick. It’s a good deal more expensive too. I seem to have a knack for hitting the upper-left torso of the target every time (from the sternum to the left side and shoulder, and from the upper stomach to the collarbone – good heart and left-lung shots). I’ll try the field barrel and slug barrel later. I think I’ll look for some slugs that can be fired through a smooth bore as well; #3 buckshot will be my primary home defense load but I don’t think it would hurt to have a few slugs on hand for that security barrel as well – perhaps one or two on the stock cuff.