Combat optics, iron sights and you

[Ender]

I would also like to add that Tom's point about skeet, trap etc... is solid. I dated a girl in Lejeune whose father hunted everything that moved. He turned me on to skeet and so many of my skills were honed in the months we shot together.

I can not think of a better exercise for instinctive shooting, overall barrell/sight alignment, target lead or sheer enjoyment. Hitting the pigeon with a pellet or two is nice but nothing says "fun" like literally turning 25 flying objects into flying dust from a variety of angles.

[goesh]

I always found sniping turtles on a pond, head shots, at long range with a .22 was a good workout. the turtles were pretty safe. Poor man's skeet using heavy washers is a good workout too using a .22

[Tom Odom]

I can not think of a better exercise for instinctive shooting, overall barrell/sight alignment, target lead or sheer enjoyment. Hitting the pigeon with a pellet or two is nice but nothing says "fun" like literally turning 25 flying objects into flying dust from a variety of angles.

I wish I did turn 25 to dust but at least the ones I miss break when they hit the ground. Shooting a 28 gauge, I feel content when I am in the "20s" and joyous when I break 23.

I always found sniping turtles on a pond, head shots, at long range with a .22 was a good workout. the turtles were pretty safe. Poor man's skeet using heavy washers is a good workout too using a .22

I have a pond at my house and the turtles would take over if I did not reduce the herd. I just built a custom 10/22 for the job, set up to take .22 Shorts, that does the job nicely. Basic ballistics mean that a .22 Short CB 29 grain round hits harder than a .177 cal 7 grain pellet. A pellet traveling at a muzzle velocity of 1000 FPS just won't penetrate a shell with a half inch of water over it at 25 to 30 yards; the 29 grain .22 bullet at a muzzle velocity of 710 FPS does so with a solid wallop.

The real bottom line in all of this is something everyone knows; the more you shoot, the better you get at it. I guess I am too much of a neanderthal to get into simulation; I like the smell of the gunpowder or the oily smell of a heated barrel. Smells like....victory!

Tom