In the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird" the Atticus Finch character (played by Gregory Peck) is called upon to pick up a rifle and take down a rabid dog that is endangering the residential neighborhood.
His kids didn't know that he had ever fired a gun, or knew how to use one.
But apparently he was well-known to have been an expert with a rifle in his younger days, and it came back to him as a middle-aged man, and he made that killing shot.
Head shot on a wobbling, trotting dog from what looks to be about 50 yards, standing up, either unsupported or maybe leaning his hip against his parked car.
Using an old 1890's era mil-surp rifle, in the movie version it was .30-40 Krag.
THE QUESTION IS:
Can YOU pick up a gun that you're not intimately familiar with and make a first-shot hit, from a cold bore, no warm up, no practicing ahead of time?
I tried that today, and the answer was NO.
I used my AR-15 with its standard M16A2 sights on a fixed carry handle to engage a 12" round steel gong at 200 yards.
So, I only needed 6 MOA accuracy to make the hits.
On other range sessions in years past, this same gun with the same ammo hit the same target about 50% of the time, after a warm-up at 25 and 100 yards.
But today, starting right at 200 yards, it was miss, miss, miss..... I missed 15 shots and then gave up.
My friend, who is also and experienced shooter who owns 3 different AR pattern rifles, then missed 15 more times!
This is what happens when you only shoot a particular rifle once or twice a year, only using up one magazine per range session (doing most of that day's shooting with other guns, not that iron-sighted AR).
His kids didn't know that he had ever fired a gun, or knew how to use one.
But apparently he was well-known to have been an expert with a rifle in his younger days, and it came back to him as a middle-aged man, and he made that killing shot.
Head shot on a wobbling, trotting dog from what looks to be about 50 yards, standing up, either unsupported or maybe leaning his hip against his parked car.
Using an old 1890's era mil-surp rifle, in the movie version it was .30-40 Krag.
THE QUESTION IS:
Can YOU pick up a gun that you're not intimately familiar with and make a first-shot hit, from a cold bore, no warm up, no practicing ahead of time?
I tried that today, and the answer was NO.
I used my AR-15 with its standard M16A2 sights on a fixed carry handle to engage a 12" round steel gong at 200 yards.
So, I only needed 6 MOA accuracy to make the hits.
On other range sessions in years past, this same gun with the same ammo hit the same target about 50% of the time, after a warm-up at 25 and 100 yards.
But today, starting right at 200 yards, it was miss, miss, miss..... I missed 15 shots and then gave up.
My friend, who is also and experienced shooter who owns 3 different AR pattern rifles, then missed 15 more times!
This is what happens when you only shoot a particular rifle once or twice a year, only using up one magazine per range session (doing most of that day's shooting with other guns, not that iron-sighted AR).
