While I was working, part time, over the past year and few months (up until mid-October) I had to put a lot of things I enjoyed doing on hold. I basically started a new working life and forgot about and abandoned too many of the joys of retired living. For instance, Long Island Firearms, a gun club to which I belong, holds a meet-up at a range pretty close to my home. The range nights are always Wednesdays and I worked most Wednesday nights over the past year. I did not work this Wednesday and was free to attend the meet-up. I have to say, I had a great time there. I got to reacquaint myself with several folks I met at the first range meet I attended and some whom I met while protesting the NY SAFE Act up in Albany. I also got to meet several new faces, at least new to me. I am guessing that about 20 of us showed up. We used two of the ranges, each range has five shooting points, so we had to take turns over the two ours of shooting time that we had available. I brought along my High Standard Duramatic M-101, Smith & Wesson Model 17K and my Remington R1-1911. As usual, when at the range, I had a blast.
Then, today, I went to an outdoor range that is quite a bit further from my home than the one above. I drove about 50 miles to Long
Island Shooting Range of Brookhaven. Sadly, I was son my own. I had expected Brendan to tag along, to get in some practice shots before opening day of deer season next weekend, but alas he refused to drag his behind out of the sack even though I waited until about 1230 in the afternoon to finally take off. I am hoping he will at least make it to the indoor range to shoot the Remington 870 and the Marlin 336 before the hunting season kicks off. I shot both of those today and did fair to good. With the 870, I had a 15 shot group the size of my hand from finger tips to heel of palm. Most of the shots were within a about a three inch group. That was at 50 yards from the bench and resting on sandbags. It was not great but certainly not too shabby. With the Marlin 336, I guess my grouping at 50 yards were all within 2.5 to 3". I need some practice with both but shooting like that will get me a deer if I can get the sights of either gun on one of them.
I also tried to bore sight my Marlin XS-7 in .308 but gave up after I realized that about 6 shots I had taken did not even hit the target backer. I am going to pick myself up a laser bore sight and sight it in with that. I would guess it will only three shots at most to have it zeroed in using a bore sight. I am thinking of picking up this one. Hopefully, I can find one locally. Nothing like procrastinating - I must have owned it for a year now without taking it to the range to sight it in until today. There is also nothing like waiting until the last minute to try to get it sighted in because there is no way I could get a laser bore sight shipped to me on time for sighting in before we leave on our hunting trip. Oh well, next year for this rifle and hunting but I again will try to sight it in soon.
Tomorrow, I am may be going to a beer expo at Belmont Park. My son won two tickets but he will be working. Lucky for me, I am retired and don't have a job, otherwise there could have been a good chance I would have had to work tomorrow too. On Sunday, I plan to go to yet another indoor range, this one about half way between my sister's place and my house, to meet up with her and my nephew. His birthday was in October and he wanted to learn how to shoot so shooting lessons and some shooting accessories will be my birthday present for him.
It's amazing what one can go out and have fun doing when not tied down by a job. Retirement is good - every day is another Saturday in Paradise!
All the best,
Glenn B
