BassCliff
Professional
Greetings friends,
If you've been following my boring and simple life story you know that I've relocated from Southern California to the upper Midwest. Today was my first visit to a local range not too far from me. The Wisconsin Firearms Training Center is a modern, well-kept facility with 15 lanes in two 25-yard bays. On busy days they will use one bay for pistols and the other for rifles. It was pretty slow when I visited early on a Friday afternoon.
Just inside is a full-blown pro shop with lots of firearms and accessories on display.
They seemed to be well-stocked with ammo for their rental guns. It's not cheap, I didn't even ask. The staff there that day were all young, uniformed, kitted up, friendly, and very indulgent to this old noob. Here's a view of the rifle bay. Since it was so slow at this time I was given lane #2. My RSO gave me the procedural low-down and followed me in after I paid my $18.
I was pleased to learn that rapid fire is allowed here. I immediately got out a few B-8 targets and my timer so I cold run a few 10-10-10 drills. It's been since April 23rd that I've done any practice and I can't remember the last time I ran "The Test".
The touch screen controls were easy enough for this bass player to figure out. They even provided tape to attach your targets to their cardboard backer.
Just after I arrived, one other pistol shooter joined us in the bay. I was able to time my targets between his so that my timer picked up just my shots. This was my first, cold, 10-10-10 drill. First shot was OK and I was under the par time.
Let's look at the holes in the paper. Drat. Seven shots in the black and three in the seven ring. I guess that's just OK since it's been over a month.
I shot a total of five drills on the B-8 targets. Here are the rest, in order.
For #3 they are all in the 8 ring. Yay!
Oops, I forgot to take a picture of #4 while at the range. It's good that I brought all five targets home.
It seems I manage to get seven or eight shots in the black. I'm gonna try hard to get my average up.
OK, that's enough B-8 practice for now. I ran a full size B-27 silhouette out to 20 yards to try some center mass and head shots.
The camera doesn't show the red silhouette so well but I could see it. I could not see any rings or numbers on it. I did my best to guess where the holes should go.
I shot most of a standard capacity magazine at this one, mostly at center mass with a few head shots. I need more long distance practice. I'm sorry I didn't note which holes were already in the cardboard backer. Not that it matters, but I managed to get most of the shots on center mass(-ish) and missed only one head shot.
Then I pasted on some 8" reactive targets. (Note the existing holes in red circles.) I used these two targets to practice strong hand only and weak hand only.
Well, it looks like I got most of the shots on or near the reactive targets, less accurate with my weak hand.
It's been a while since I shot the CW9. I had some new targets to try, the 12x18 reactive silhouette. From 10 yards I shot a 7rd magazine of SD ammo to make sure it still worked, then another 8rd magazine of practice ammo. I think they were all supposed to be center mass.
That's all I shot the CW9. I patched up the target and pulled out my P22. I shot four 10rd magazines at each bullseye on this target. I got close, I guess. Here's the first mag.
I patched up this target one more time. But you can see the other .22 shots in the head area and the dots on either side (from 10 yards). I also used this target to shoot 10 rounds from my XD9 at 25 yards, center mass. Two shots went below the target. Otherwise I guess I did some damage.
This facility is so nice that they even supply D-Wipes to help get the lead off your hands when you leave the range.
This was a pretty good session. I need to do this more often. I'm not sure if I want a membership here, $350 annually. There are a couple of other ranges in the area I'd like to try first. I'll let you know.
One little oddity I had during this practice session; I used mostly standard capacity magazines, which I'm not used to. (Training!) I brought four 16rd and two 10rd mags today. When shooting the 10-10-10 drills with standard magazines I found myself dropping the magazine to do a reload, even though there was still one in the chamber and five in the mag. Due to muscle memory, I did this twice. Doh! The third time I just set the pistol down on the bench and retrieved my target. Next time I do this drill I'll just load up the mag accordingly, or drop the mag and clear the chamber. The RSO did not seem concerned but it's probably best not to have a loaded and chambered weapon on the bench when messing with targets.
And there you have it, my first range report from the upper Midwest. Stay tuned. I'll be back next week with a brand new show! As always, thanks for putting up with me.
Hey, where has @TSiWRX been? Seems he hasn't been around to heckle me lately.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
If you've been following my boring and simple life story you know that I've relocated from Southern California to the upper Midwest. Today was my first visit to a local range not too far from me. The Wisconsin Firearms Training Center is a modern, well-kept facility with 15 lanes in two 25-yard bays. On busy days they will use one bay for pistols and the other for rifles. It was pretty slow when I visited early on a Friday afternoon.
Just inside is a full-blown pro shop with lots of firearms and accessories on display.
They seemed to be well-stocked with ammo for their rental guns. It's not cheap, I didn't even ask. The staff there that day were all young, uniformed, kitted up, friendly, and very indulgent to this old noob. Here's a view of the rifle bay. Since it was so slow at this time I was given lane #2. My RSO gave me the procedural low-down and followed me in after I paid my $18.
I was pleased to learn that rapid fire is allowed here. I immediately got out a few B-8 targets and my timer so I cold run a few 10-10-10 drills. It's been since April 23rd that I've done any practice and I can't remember the last time I ran "The Test".
The touch screen controls were easy enough for this bass player to figure out. They even provided tape to attach your targets to their cardboard backer.
Just after I arrived, one other pistol shooter joined us in the bay. I was able to time my targets between his so that my timer picked up just my shots. This was my first, cold, 10-10-10 drill. First shot was OK and I was under the par time.
Let's look at the holes in the paper. Drat. Seven shots in the black and three in the seven ring. I guess that's just OK since it's been over a month.
I shot a total of five drills on the B-8 targets. Here are the rest, in order.
For #3 they are all in the 8 ring. Yay!
Oops, I forgot to take a picture of #4 while at the range. It's good that I brought all five targets home.
It seems I manage to get seven or eight shots in the black. I'm gonna try hard to get my average up.
OK, that's enough B-8 practice for now. I ran a full size B-27 silhouette out to 20 yards to try some center mass and head shots.
The camera doesn't show the red silhouette so well but I could see it. I could not see any rings or numbers on it. I did my best to guess where the holes should go.
I shot most of a standard capacity magazine at this one, mostly at center mass with a few head shots. I need more long distance practice. I'm sorry I didn't note which holes were already in the cardboard backer. Not that it matters, but I managed to get most of the shots on center mass(-ish) and missed only one head shot.
Then I pasted on some 8" reactive targets. (Note the existing holes in red circles.) I used these two targets to practice strong hand only and weak hand only.
Well, it looks like I got most of the shots on or near the reactive targets, less accurate with my weak hand.
It's been a while since I shot the CW9. I had some new targets to try, the 12x18 reactive silhouette. From 10 yards I shot a 7rd magazine of SD ammo to make sure it still worked, then another 8rd magazine of practice ammo. I think they were all supposed to be center mass.
That's all I shot the CW9. I patched up the target and pulled out my P22. I shot four 10rd magazines at each bullseye on this target. I got close, I guess. Here's the first mag.
I patched up this target one more time. But you can see the other .22 shots in the head area and the dots on either side (from 10 yards). I also used this target to shoot 10 rounds from my XD9 at 25 yards, center mass. Two shots went below the target. Otherwise I guess I did some damage.
This facility is so nice that they even supply D-Wipes to help get the lead off your hands when you leave the range.
This was a pretty good session. I need to do this more often. I'm not sure if I want a membership here, $350 annually. There are a couple of other ranges in the area I'd like to try first. I'll let you know.
One little oddity I had during this practice session; I used mostly standard capacity magazines, which I'm not used to. (Training!) I brought four 16rd and two 10rd mags today. When shooting the 10-10-10 drills with standard magazines I found myself dropping the magazine to do a reload, even though there was still one in the chamber and five in the mag. Due to muscle memory, I did this twice. Doh! The third time I just set the pistol down on the bench and retrieved my target. Next time I do this drill I'll just load up the mag accordingly, or drop the mag and clear the chamber. The RSO did not seem concerned but it's probably best not to have a loaded and chambered weapon on the bench when messing with targets.
And there you have it, my first range report from the upper Midwest. Stay tuned. I'll be back next week with a brand new show! As always, thanks for putting up with me.
Hey, where has @TSiWRX been? Seems he hasn't been around to heckle me lately.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
