Destroying Paper One Small Hole at a Time

My friend and I had some time yesterday so we went to the gun range to sight in my M4. It was a darned near perfect day. Mid-70’s, sunny, very mild breeze. Beautiful. So we grabbed the gun, a few hundred rounds of ammo, and a spotting scope.

Not many people were at the range, and those of us who were there were not in a particular hurry to do anything. We took our time setting up and waited until we could go down-range to put up a target.

It took us a while to get the gun sighted in. I had sighted it at about 75 feet, but due to the way a bullet rises and falls it was significantly off by the time we started shooting at 100 yards.

We finally got it, though, and ended up putting about 300 rounds through it before the day was up. Surprisingly enough, I am a tad sore in the shoulder today even though a .223 doesn’t have any kick. I guess it’s like a lot of things. Shoot it a few times and you don’t notice it. Shoot it a couple-hundred times and it’s noticeable.

Oh, and if you ever go to sight a gun in take a spotting scope. Not a pair of binoculars, but a scope. I had both and it made a huge difference when were trying to find out the gross impact area (binoculars) and the specific impact (scope).

When we got done, I was surprisingly relaxed and at peace. Hard to believe that firing a gun over and over again could do that. I think, though, that it wasn't the fact we were firing a gun so much as the repetition of the exercise. You have to be focused both mentally and physically to hit a target with a gun. You must be relaxed so that your body movement allows you to stabilize the gun to hit your target. You must breathe properly and you have to allow your mind to become clear and focused on the one thing you are trying to do – hit the target. Do that a few hundred times and it becomes a very peaceful experience.

BTW – if anyone is curious, or a gun nut, we were sighting in A2 style iron sights at 100 yards with groups at about 5” I don’t know if that is good or not, but my vision is not such that I can group much better than that.