Another day on the glorious range

Here are three more which had their turn at the shooting bench on Saturday. At the top is a Colt 1911 Government Model in (as always for me) .45 caliber. Like all my 1911s, this one has been tuned internally to ensure reliability and accuracy, and is wearing Hogue grips in Kingwood. Below it is a Smith & Wesson Model 60 revolver in .38 Special caliber. It also has Hogue grips, these in Tulipwood. Resting at the bottom is my Colt Mustang in .380 / 9 mm Kurtz caliber. It, too, has been internally tuned, and the original grips have been replaced by rubber Pachmayr grips to better fit my hand.

How did you guess? Did the photo give it away?

Range time, trigger time, good time on Saturday. There is more to it than just the feel of recoil and the scent of cordite and the sight of the hit. Probably no one who does not share the "up close and personal" affection for shooting sports ever considers some of the extra benefits. Allow me to back step for a moment.

As I have mentioned before, my physical fitness habits are sporadic, but always lurking in my mind. I will go into a routine that might last three months or might last a year. Then I will break from it for another routine, such as moving from exercise drills to running (I seldom do both), or break from doing any routine at all. I might stay away from any form of exercise for three months or maybe a year. This is to say I manage to keep in reasonably decent shape without being a fanatic about it.

Years ago, someone told me that if a person ever had been in really great physical condition, it is not hard to return to good shape even after a lapse of several months. That pretty much is true, and probably is the mental seed which originally got me going into an on-again / off-again system.

Now, back to the firearms' element. I think there is more to getting into shape again than a few pushups or a bit of jogging. My return includes shooting. But, I get bored quickly simply punching holes in paper, so I take off from there:

Try running 30 yards as fast as you can, then stopping to fire ten rounds. Think about walking away from a target, turning 180 degrees while drawing, and emptying the magazine while raising the pistol from waist to eye level. Think about running forward, drawing and diving forward, and getting off as many rounds as possible before hitting the ground. Great exercise, great for developing hand and eye coordination, great fun. Entertaining to watch, too.

Some people enjoy standing in the yoga master's stork pose; I think similar drills are fun if you are popping off a few rounds with a handgun while doing them. Go into a pushup position; hold yourself up with one arm while firing a handgun with the other hand and hitting the target. Good balance is one of the fundamental keys to good pistol work.

The proverbial bottom line to this is that anyone who has access to a location to safely practice with a handgun can turn the experience into one that not only provides fun and sharpens shooting skills, but also improves physical condition and associated attributes such as balance and hand and eye coordination. This is just a small sample of my habit.

It is near certain that someone reading this will mumble something about unsafe use of firearms. Sure, it is possible an accident might happen. There is a degree of risk involved whenever firearms are being used. But, these activities should not be done anywhere except on a private range, and should only be done by people who have years of experience handling handguns and firing them under all sorts of conditions.

Overall, I think these drills are safer than walking some big city streets or driving the highway in morning rush hour with freezing rain coming down. To each, his or her own.

Music Note: Listening to St. Paul's Vixen ....
Specifically, "Vixen"
Some out of sequence lines from "Cruisin':"

And you got that feeling again that tonight could be so much more
You walked in looking for someone, for something to share
When you walked in, I was already there

Can't you go any faster? -- That's better

I think it's time, yeah it's time we broke the ice
You know that this sort of thing, it did already happen twice
I wanna rock, I wanna roll, I wanna eat into your soul
Just push into the litter, whenever you lose control

Let's go cruisin' (cruisin'), I wanna go cruisin' into wild times
Let's go cruisin' (cruisin'), gonna ride it out to the red light