I went to the range on Saturday morning; it's been several weeks and I've missed it but other more pressing commitments kept me away and despite the value I find there, the me time, I've had to prioritise. Yesterday I rectified that major malfunction and spent Saturday morning running and gunning shooting some three hundred and forty rounds...I make my own ammunition so it's half the cost of buying it but at $0.30/round it's not what I'd called cheap fun...but it's worth every cent and I had a good time...which I needed.
Shooting the shit...and people
I wasn't just there just shooting shit with my handgun, I was shooting the shit, (talking shit) with people (nope, not shooting people).
Some of the folks who I would usually see almost every week (because I usually shoot every week) I've not seen in three or four months and catching up with them again made me realise how much I missed doing so. Yeah, we shoot stuff but catching up with my bro's and brogirl's is so great.
I initially got a lot of comments like, "so you're not fucken dead after all," and, "about time you showed your face around here fucker," and deserved every bit of it - it was all good-natured of course - and once they'd gotten that out of their systems we got down to the serious business of catching up falling into the comfortable feeling the bond of friendship and shared experiences brings.
People
I've been shooting guns for a long time, almost thirty five years, and over that time have come to know a lot of people, some I like and some not; we've shared amazing experiences I'll not go into here as well, some not so nice, but one of the most enjoyable aspects of being a shooter has been the camaraderie and bonds of friendship shooting and being a firearms guy has brought me. Interestingly, some of those relationships revolve solely around firearms and activities around firearms, but so many run deeper and apart from guns with the firearm-aspect simply being what brought us together in the first place.
I'm very fortunate to have the relationships I do, guys and gals both, and value each of them individually as they're all individual people.
They're not "gun people", they're just people, and as I left the range on Saturday it was those people, shooting the shit with them, chatting, reminiscing, telling lies everyone knows are lies and laughing about it...the camaraderie...that's what brought me value, not so much the actual shooting...the shooting was fucken awesome too though.
Have you formed bonds of friendship with people, who would otherwise remain strangers, through a hobby or activity you've engaged in over the years, a shared experience? If so, feel free to tell me about it in the comments if you'd like to, or just comment generally if that's what you want to do...or don't comment at all I guess.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
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Hey man, you going ok? Need to go for a shoot sometime and burgers back at the ranch after huh?
Fer Sure Sir...
Alcohol after only tho. Drives me insane the rednecks up here mixing alcohol and gun powder. Making the ones like us, who have respect for the safety and danger, look bad. Fireworks, firearms, and alcohol should never be mixed.
Agreed. It happens here too at times although not in the circles in which I mix.
I learned a million years ago, at my dad's side.
At first, it was only at the range. AND, only under heavy supervision. Later, at 14, I took a firearms safety class. Then, a hunter's safety class. All while my dad still taught me more than the basics.
My first was a .22 over 20 gauge shotgun. Dad only ever let me shoot the .22. One week, I remember it well, he said, Sunday, we're going out, and her showed me a brand new box of 20 gauge shells. Slugs all. Not buckshot.
Later, I would learn other weapons. But I will always remember that .22 over 20. Its funny, those people are mostly gone. Dad, his friends, etc. But id look back and remember the camaraderie, around the firepit, late at night, at the camp. As you say, giving, taking, shooting the shit.
Clearly you get what I'm talking about and have had similar experiences. It happens around other activities also, not just firearms, and I've has such great experiences in many. I got the same feeling when I was playing American Football.
I think that .22 - o/20ga sounds like a decent firearm to start with and I can imagine how it would have been for you shooting slugs for the first time. I used to use a 12ga under and over for my back up when wild pig hunting and used it a few times...brutal but fun.
Imagine, as a kid, always shooting the .22?
Then, suddenly, the 20 ga.!!!
From that day forward, my shoulder completely understood when my dad was telling me, "seat the butt firmly"
One must teach one's shoulder a lesson with a shotgun at some point, earlier the better. Getting it wrong only happens once, usually.
So very true!
The truth is that in my own choral group I often don't really know who is the person singing next to me. I have many friends there, but we are a hundred singers, impossible to know everyone's life in depth, but we are united by the musical activity... When I read the title I came to read what it was about hahaha, you are a genius for titles bro. I knew you liked to shoot, but I didn't think it was so many years already of that passion, I'm happy for you ✌️
Yep, I've been shooting for a long time and over those years have had so many positive and valued experiences; bad ones as well of course, but that's how life is.
I don't think it matters what the activity is, if it brings people together and builds bonds then that's a good thing; I think music is one of those things that does it quite easily.
The title, just me messing around. I guess some may read the title and see the image and think they know what the post is about then comment incorrectly; I'll call them out if it happens.
Well my community that I do not hang out with enough is my local Ham Radio club. I joined in 2019 and got licensed in December of 2019. I do participate some, but could go more often. I will take part again in this years field day where we setup tents and operate off grid for 24 hours. 14:00 Saturday until 14:00 Sunday. An awesome exercise in which we invite to community to come and see some of the activities that we can perform during normal time and emergency services that some of our group participate in.
It's good to have some activities that bring you together with like-minded people. It's an opportunity to exchange ideas and information and generally just engage with people who value the same things. I have long-term friends through firearms and it's always good to see them. Events like the field day you mention are a good way to get engaged.
I'm doing some Math in my brain and thinking, 'This an expensive hobby', but then nothing should get in the way of the satisfaction we get, engaging in any activity we love, the cost don't matter, the value does. So fire on!
I can see you are having a swell weekend! 😊
Yep, it's very costly indeed, buying the firearms, associated equipment and tools, the individual elements to make ammunition (primers, cases, projectiles and gun powder) and the tools to make the rounds...it's not at all cheap. Clearly I see value in it though, and have done for 35 years.
And I respect that!
Hi Galen, I'm going to tell you a secret that I'm sure you can't imagine, some of my best friends I know from sharing concerts, visits to record stores, sharing parties with music as the protagonist, buying records, and I guess some activity with the word disco or music missing. Through music I have met very different people, with different ways of seeing life, of different ages, from different countries, but with one thing in common: the passion for music and digital formats. A hug
Music is something that quite easily brings people together and creates soils bonds of friendship and I think it has been the case right throughout human history so I'm not at all surprised to hear of your experiences. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks to you for creating this space; see you tomorrow.
When I was a child I used to pass by some booths that had a slogan that said: To prepare for the defense of the country is an obligation of every citizen....something like that, there they had some 22 caliber shotguns (I think) and I liked to practice for a while, but they did not last many years, I guess the army picked them up so they would not be stolen, no idea, here you can not carry guns..... I remember that the boys did not like to see the girls compete with them...😐....
And yes, I have met many strange people doing activities in common..mostly in University courses and various events here on the Internet , ...it has been very enriching for me, because without leaving my country I have managed to understand how the world works behind my walls.
But I would be very interested in understanding this:
...They are not "people with guns", they are simply people....
I mean, they are people who like to use weapons for ....¿?
Learning from other people is a good way of picking up knowledge and understanding a one may not otherwise gain and engaging with people with similar hobbies can deepen enjoyment.
When I was younger, I did interior design. I did painting jobs and made furniture from sheet material.
A friend of mine, who was working in a dental office at the time, knew that. He recommended me to the then young doctor Alex, for whom I made a file cabinet, but I didn't want to charge, but asked her to whiten my teeth. our knowledge of trades, that of dentistry, and that of various maintenance, has kept us in a friendly relationship to this day. she never paid for painting, making and repairing furniture, maintaining electrical installations, and I never paid for dental services. occasionally, she or I pay for lunch or a bottle of wine... 🙂
As for shooting, I tried that too😁
Only the bullet is much more expensive than yours.
Target at 30m. Caliber 7.62...
Lol...30 metres?
I have a couple 7.62 (.308) rifles and enjoy the calibre although I have rifles that shoot much better (flatter trajectories) like 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm and 300 winmag all of which go out far farther than the .308 although I use the .308 for hunting a lot at close range like 150-400 metres. The ammunition is around $4 each here ($75-85/box of 20), much more for Federal Match Grade but I make my own which work out to be a little cheaper. I was only shooting 9mm on Saturday so it's quite cheap really. Still, over $100 of ammo went down range that morning. Fun though.
The two of us fired over 300 pieces of ammunition this day.
How much it cost, I don't even want to remember 😁
I think the closest target was at 10m, and the far one at 30m.
Although I'm not 100% sure now, it's definitely over 20-25m. I don't know if you can judge from the video...
That hand gun is not 7.62mm. 7.62mm is a rifle round.
Surely it is that caliber.
This pistol (better known as TT in Serbia) uses 7.62x25mm ammunition, while the Zastava M70 automatic rifle (or the more popular Soviet AK47) uses 7.62x39mm ammunition.
I carried the M70 AB2 in the army, this M57 is my father-in-law's.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zastava_M57
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zastava_M70_assault_rifle
Ah ok, not a popular hand gun in the circles I've mixed in over the last 35 years, I guess due to there being far better options.
You don't know how glad I am that you had that time with those friends and that you got back to one of the things you love to do and enjoyed it so much, especially because of the beautiful people you met again.
If I have formed links with people for some reason, taste, type of outings, some specific topic in common and just that, people with whom I have maintained that link, sometimes closer, sometimes more sporadic.
For example a friend with whom I share the theme of strange constructions and weird formations in nature. I know it's a weird topic but you know I'm crazy hahaha.
Have you ever drifted away from someone that you were formerly close to? I have.
Definitely yes, I found out things that I didn't like... they were or said they were friends... a sad story.
Yeah, it often is a sad story.
It was, but now it's another day, so.... good morning!
Morning? Bloody hell, don't make me re-live my day again! Lol. (Evening here).
Seriously though, good morning.
Good morning! Going out to do some paperwork!
We have a couple of really nice gun clubs in the area where I live. My friend used to be on the board of one of them. Another one I spent a lot of time at was honestly pretty dangerous looking back now. It's probably still running but I have distanced myself from it due to other reasons.
Clubs can be great but gathering people together always opens the opportunity for disagreement, power plays, ego and selfishness, and the elements that those things bring. I've had some unpleasant experience with some such cases but mostly they've been agreeable places to spend time.
Yeah, most the people had known each other forever so they got along well, but they didn't always make the best decisions. The mixing of guns and alcohol was probably the biggest bad decision.
That's not a good combination.
It's true that doing things we like to do, even if it costs more, we do because we're more happy after doing them than I am to shoot a gun the same way. A lot of passion but it has not yet been fulfilled in my lifetime because there is no such special forest in our country anymore.
I hope you manage to fulfill your life by engaging with the things your passionate about.
Hope so.
When I started learning to play volleyball, it brought me closer to a lot of guys and gals who ordinarily I wouldn't cross paths with. Most notably was when my team began to seek greater improvement and we engaged the services of a volleyball coach.
This coach invited a lot of players who were far better than us and among these players, there were soldiers or "gun people", lol. They are actually the best volleyball players I have witnessed, and I got to make friends with one of them. So yeah, that's my standout experience.
Volley ball is a good sport and I played a bit of it for my high school. I wasn't great at it but enjoyed the game.
It's good to see you folks got yourselves a coach and sought to improve. Well done.
I don't think you are a Military personnel, you just have fascination for guns and shooting! I have never handled a gun but I wanted to attend a military academy way back, but Mom wouldn't let me. I'm just fascinated with the Military.
I don't have a fascination with guns, they are a tool, no different to a hammer or a screw driver. They perform a job, that's all.
Haha, Surely many people are afraid to see you paying attention to your waist.
No one is afraid of me.
Hahaha, maybe the look on your face is very soft and not scary.
Yeah.. I thought only us would joke like that. "You're still alive hah!" Thank you for sharing.😊
Why would I not be alive?
It's a common joke for friends. If you missed one get together and suddenly appear next the next time without notice.😁
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Yes! It has happened to me with sports mainly. (Frontenis, Badminton and now with my bike)
I'm glad you were able to dedicate time to something you love and reconnect with people (sharing or listening to all kinds of stories)
😅
I tried archery when I was younger. I would go almost every weekend and my fingers would go numb because I was spending almost an hour drawing the string. I befriended a few people that also go, competed in the tournament hosted by the place, and even had some food and celebration afterwards.
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