rant

[emmagee1917]

We practice with semi-auto pistols a lot . We do a lot of steel 6X6 inch plates @ 15 yds , man on man . We do IPSC targets from one pace to 25 yards . We bounce plastic bottles from 15 yds to past 50 yards . It takes a lot of practice to do this on demand , accurately , quickly , and safely . If one was to see us doing 3 shot drills at a couple of paces , they'd prob'ly think we were just blasting and wasting ammo . Would not be true .
My eyes have been getting older too . Also the time may come when I'm not wearing my glasses nor in good light . I've gone to Trijicon HD ( High Definition ) night sights on all my guns they're available in , standard where I have to , and a Burris Fastfire III on one ( VERY nice out to 50+ yds , but bulky , good house / truck option ) .
I'm an old dog who has not paid attention to the advances made in the last 30 years , but now I'm playing catch up on this new ( to me ) stuff , and I am learning new tricks .
Chris

[free1954]

I think that's the whole point . . . they weren't practicing at all. Learning to do anything well takes time and effort. The sort of young people you describe have no interest in setting a goal and then working hard to achieve it. Possibly they don't even have the capacity to do so. For some folks, life is all about "instant gratification". Sad.

i'm afraid sir you may be right.

[free1954]

We practice with semi-auto pistols a lot . We do a lot of steel 6X6 inch plates @ 15 yds , man on man . We do IPSC targets from one pace to 25 yards . We bounce plastic bottles from 15 yds to past 50 yards . It takes a lot of practice to do this on demand , accurately , quickly , and safely . If one was to see us doing 3 shot drills at a couple of paces , they'd prob'ly think we were just blasting and wasting ammo . Would not be true .
My eyes have been getting older too . Also the time may come when I'm not wearing my glasses nor in good light . I've gone to Trijicon HD ( High Definition ) night sights on all my guns they're available in , standard where I have to , and a Burris Fastfire III on one ( VERY nice out to 50+ yds , but bulky , good house / truck option ) .
I'm an old dog who has not paid attention to the advances made in the last 30 years , but now I'm playing catch up on this new ( to me ) stuff , and I am learning new tricks .
Chris

there were no kind of drills that I could see, they were just blasting away as fast as they could.

[joem]

I like trying to hit steel at 150 yards with pistols. I'm getting better and with new distance glasses it's better yet.

[free1954]

it is a lot of fun. I got into the silhouette shooting years ago with an iron sight contender. those turkeys and rams never stood a chance. every once in a while now I try to hit the 300 yard gong with a 9mm or a 30 tokarev.

[emmagee1917]

there were no kind of drills that I could see, they were just blasting away as fast as they could.

Well , even with all the above practice , I've been known to do a 50 or 100 round Thompson dump as well as a midnight 250 rd belt of pure tracer 30-06 FN long burn in one trigger pull ( which started 17 little brush fires on our range .....a club record that will prob'ly stand forever ) .
It was tension releaving , for sure .
Chris

[free1954]

Well , even with all the above practice , I've been known to do a 50 or 100 round Thompson dump as well as a midnight 250 rd belt of pure tracer 30-06 FN long burn in one trigger pull ( which started 17 little brush fires on our range .....a club record that will prob'ly stand forever ) .
It was tension releaving , for sure .
Chris

not my kind of fun, it bothers me to just piss away all that ammo. but glad you enjoyed it.

[bruce]

Re: OP. Understand. Nevertheless, the world has changed. Lots of folks go to the range who have no interest in more formal type target shooting. They are more tactical and action oriented. Fine. Years ago servicemen fired at bullseye targets. Nowadays their training is not shooting targets in another time zone but hitting reactionary targets at the ranges they will more likely engage with the enemy. Good. Such training is more practical. It has more utility.

The range of which I am a member has provision for shooting paper targets at 7, 15 and 25 yds. This is a improvement over simply having 25 yd. target frames. Membership has grown from about 125 to over 400; most of the new members much prefer the less formal shooting. Steel plates have been installed at 25yds. On the rifle range a plate has been installed at 200 yds. This is a good thing. Better will be when these plates are installed at shorter ranges as appropriate. It is no different than when the Army went from shooting at odd looking silhouettes of the post indian-war era to the more common bullseye targets. JMHO.

There is good reason to hope that the shooting sports will show a increase in participation. Young people in school or just married with small children do not typically have piles of disposable income. Guns and ammunition are expensive. Places to shoot are not easily found. Many local govt.'s are not sympathetic to the idea of building ranges due to the issues of land usage, objections of adjoining land owners, zoning, etc. It is a very good forward thinking idea for clubs/ranges to offer more than just traditional target shooting. Reactive targets, combat/tactical type shooting has a much wider appeal. Sincerely. bruce.

[John Sukey]

You are missing the point. The fact that more young people are getting into shooting.

[blackhawknj]

When people get all their instruction in firearms from movies and tv......