A Nicer day At The Range...

...would have been hard to find. Brendan and I left the house at about 0815 this morning, and we arrived at the Long Island Shooting Range of Brookhaven at about 0910. A drive of almost an hour's duration and about 46 miles just to get to a decent outdoor range. Oh well not much traffic at that hour of a Sunday morning once we were on the highway.

When we entered the range area we saw the parking lot at the rifle range about 1/2 full, and that would mean a lot of shooters. We went to the office and paid our $36 for two shooters. Yes folks, you read it right, $18 each for nonresidents of the town of Brookhaven, for which you can shoot from opening at 9 until they close at 4. We also bought 4 targets for .50 each. We had other targets too, and I only wanted these 4 because they approximated the size of a deer if placed sideways on the backer. Then down to the range which apparently had not started up yet so we were lucky enough to get in on the first round of shooting. It wound up being a good thing we got there when we did. With the shortage of ranges on Long Island or near NYC, shooting space is in high demand just about one month before the firearms big game season opens in NYS. As it turned out we had taken the advice of the guy at the range counter yesterday when we had stopped there to shoot, then decided it was too expensive to kill just the short hour we had; he told us if we come back tomorrow to come early. When we wound up leaving there were at least 15, maybe 20 shooters waiting to get in to shoot.

We shot the Marlin 336 in .35 Remington, and the Remington 870 in 12 gauge over the next few hours, that is up until noon when we called it quits. The Marlin required some tweaking of the scope, yes we have sinned and put a scope on a lever action rifle - but with my eyes that is good. As for the shotgun, nothing but factory original iron sights on it. We only fired out to 50 yards, where we hunt it is very unlikely to get a shot even at that distance. After a few rounds each, I made adjustments to the scope on the Marlin, and it was shooting dead on center for the most part; that is if Brendan did it right, then so too did the Marlin. The shotgun also needed some adjusting of the sights. That seemed strange, but it was shooting quite high at 50 yards. I'll have to give it a check at the indoor range at 25 yards. We did okay with it, but I expect we would do better a little closer in than at 50 yards which would be, as I said before, a long shot where we hunt.

No pics from today. I had the camera, just forgot to make use of it; I guess because I was having fun shooting. of course I would have loved to have had it on video when Brendan beaned himself in his nose with his thumb when shooting the 870. I felt his pain - his nose was that red. He wound up hurting his shoulder too. I guess I'll need to work on how he mounts the shotgun a little bit more. I may also pick up a new recoil pad this year. Remington is making one, called the SuperCell, and they claim: "...our Model 870 pump shotgun now produces 54% less recoil than competing auto loaders with their factory pads." Sound almost too good to be true since auto loaders are known to kick much less than pumps; yet at about $20 each, I'll have to at least try one when I can find it. The kid young man will learn sooner or later, but I figure I'll make it easier on both of us, especially with not wanting his young joints to be achy like my older ones, with that new recoil pad.

Overall it was a nice day, albeit an expensive one, out with Brendan. Ammo expended in .35 Remington and 12 Gauge: $150 (at today's prices), Gas For The Car: $20.00, Admission To The Range: $36.00, Targets: $2.08, Seeing Brendan Keep Shooting Well After Whacking His Nose and Shoulder: Priceless (as were the chauffeured rides to the range and back to home since he drove).

All the best,
Glenn B