Christmas in Arizona: Heading to the rifle range with Dad

A southwestern Christmas – Vacation in Arizona

Sunday, 22-Dec-13 through Saturday, 28-Dec-13

Thursday, 26-Dec-13

We actually get ourselves moving this morning, in a quite quick and efficient manner… as scary and impossible as that sounds.
Look into shooting ranges over breakfast; a nice and simple affair of coffee and muffins. We find a range nearby at the Pima County fair grounds, and after fighting with their website for half an hour, find the hours of operation. Finally.
Guns and rifles, pistols and Ammo! All of it gets packed up, secured, and stowed into the truck. A case for everything, and everything in its case.
Head to the range, and go shooting!
- Firearms are something that I like to keep in practice with. In my opinion, the chance that I’ll ever truly need to use one, for hunting or anything else, is almost negligable. But, the penalty for failure in that situation is extreme – and keeping in practice isn’t a difficult proposition… so why not? And anyways, shooting holes in paper is a fun way to pass the time and hang out with my dad!
- SKS, .22, 30-06, fun times. 100 yards and 200 yards. A quick note about the SKS – it’s a Vietnam-era rifle, used by the Chinese army. My dad got it years ago, and it’s honestly one of my favorite rifles; it’s wood, it’s simple, and it just seems to have a good personality (for a tool designed to kill). Not the most accurate though, so we spend a bit of time with the elk hunting rifle as well.
- Pistol time! After a bit of a break, of course. Snacks and water and relaxation, watching some of the other folks shoot. I see one girl there with bullet plugs in here ears – literally .45 shells cleaned up, and popped into the gauged holes. Interesting… I am definitely in Arizona. I debated asking her if I could take a picture… but decided that her brothers and father may object. And since they had many firearms nearby… I took the wiser approach and stayed clear.
- Ohh, and it’s cold, by the way. Not freezing, but windy and chilly. In the sun it’s tee-shirt weather, but once I’m in the shade? Yeah, I am quite glad that I have a nice jacket on.
- Pistol time! .22 revolver, then the .44 revolvers, and Denises .45 Kimber semi-automatic. I have to say, I do enjoy the Kimber nearly as much as the SKS – it’s a simple gun; easy to strip and clean, and easy to load and fire. It works, and it’s well engineered. I love simplicity, and this is a perfect example of it.
After a while, head out and roll back to the house.
Home, dinner, and relaxation