Gun Owning Smokers

[Mangyrat]

Spent the day at the range and had a blast.

The side by side worked out great but i have to do some work on the stock that is cracking.
The new 22 started hitting after 100 rounds of break-in out to 50 yards i was pinging a 8 inch steel target.
re sighted in the wife's 9mm AR build also.
But mostly me and a friend just burnt up a bunch of 45 and 9mm ammo playing with pistols.

[CptnBlues63]

Spent the day at the range and had a blast.

The side by side worked out great but i have to do some work on the stock that is cracking.
The new 22 started hitting after 100 rounds of break-in out to 50 yards i was pinging a 8 inch steel target.
re sighted in the wife's 9mm AR build also.
But mostly me and a friend just burnt up a bunch of 45 and 9mm ammo playing with pistols.

I'm a little jealous. Ok, I lied! I'm a lot jealous! LOL

I could go to the local range but it's outdoors and it is winter. Also, with the snow we have, I'd need a snow mobile to get down there........it's down in a river valley with quite a steep hill. I'm guessing your range isn't covered in snow and subzero temps..........so I'd love to come join you! Some winter days I just take my guns out and look at them and sigh. There is an indoor range I could go to but it's a 2 hour drive away and by the time I do the round trip, eat one meal and pay the cost for a non-member to shoot for the day....well, I'll save my $$$ and put it towards more ammo instead.

On the plus side, I do have to do some work on one rifle! During hunting season I bought some anti-fog lens cleaner and cleaned both lenses on my expensive Swarovski scope. I grabbed my spare rifle and went to clean both lenses on the cheap-ass Bushnell Banner scope I have on it and when I went to clean the Ocular lens the lens came loose and started moving around. Banner replaced it without any hassles so I have to remount it on my rifle. Also, I have another cheap-ass BSA (yep, same guys that manufacture BSA motorcycles) rifle scope I want to put on my Ruger 10/22 It's a ballistic turret scope and if it works properly, I should be able to cap gophers out to 200+ yards with it.............LOL We'll see. After ordering it, I went to mount it on my spare hunting rifle but after looking through it didn't bother. It's a POS that I wouldn't put on anything other than a .22

[Mangyrat]

I have no problem with cheap scope,s.
My eyes are not what they used to be so i tend to go with the cheap ones with thicker cross hairs.

[CptnBlues63]

I have no problem with cheap scope,s.
My eyes are not what they used to be so i tend to go with the cheap ones with thicker cross hairs.

Prior to purchasing the Swarovski about 3 years back, all my scopes were in the $100 range. In fact, I've gotten quite a few deer, elk and one bull moose, with a $100 scope.

I blame my brother for me buy the expensive scope. His sniper rifle (he's a cop and on the tactical squad and has a real nice custom sniper rifle) has a $2500 Nightforce scope on it. After looking through some high-end glass, looking through a $100 scope is kind of disappointing. If you've never used a high-end scope, you never know. But once I did, I couldn't help wanting one.

Like you, my eyes are getting worse with age. 15 or so years back, my eyes were 20/20 Now I wear glasses all day long. My distance vision is still pretty good but everything up close is fuzzy. As more time goes by, I notice my distance vision gets worse too and last year, for the first time ever, I wore my glasses all the time out hunting. Used to be I didn't have to bother. But in 2014 I noticed my eyes were getting sore and I was working harder to focus at distance so last fall I wore them all the time. I will eventually have to get a different pair of glasses for shooting because the lenses in the ones I have are so tiny I can't hold my rifle and aim as I normally do, and look through them. I end up looking over the lens........lol Fortunately, that's not a problem yet. My Swarovski has an excellent optical focus and also it has an objective focus too. But being able to look through my lenses while aiming, especially if I'm going to be looking through the scope for any length of time, would be helpful.

[Mangyrat]

I have used a few nice scope's and they are clearer especially at the higher magnifications. Kind of like comparing a KIA to a Porsche.

Most if not all my shooting is now at 100 yards or less, if it was not for bifocals i would be using iron sights.
Wait till you need bifocals, i use higher scope rings now so i can see in the scope with glasses on.

[CptnBlues63]

I have used a few nice scope's and they are clearer especially at the higher magnifications. Kind of like comparing a KIA to a Porsche.

Most if not all my shooting is now at 100 yards or less, if it was not for bifocals i would be using iron sights.
Wait till you need bifocals, i use higher scope rings now so i can see in the scope with glasses on.

"Wait till I need bifocals" What is this "Wait" you speak of??

I got bifocals about 10 years back. I've been wearing progressive lenses for about 4 or 5 years now. They're actually part of the problem with the whole wearing glasses while shooting thing. I have reasonable benefits at work and a 'health spending account' that I used to buy some prescription sun glasses last spring. They're a much larger lens than my regular glasses so I tried them out at the range. I still tend to look over the top of the lens. It's just how I aim I guess.

I'm more of a distance shooter. We have a lot of open country where I grew up and even where I'm living now. That's even though I'm in the 'northern boreal forest' region. My average shot while hunting is in excess of 200 yards and my longest to date is 495 yards (with the Swarovski which has a ballistic turret). That's one of the biggest reasons I site my rifles in to be "dead on" at 250 yards.

I did have one rifle with the raised scope rings but truth be told, I got rid of them within two years of buying that rifle. Again, they made me change how I aim and that's not a good thing for consistency. They're a great idea if you're hunting heavy bush....but with my knees (just had surgery on the left one for the second time on Jan 27/16) my days of hiking the bush while hunting are over. I mostly cruise fields where I know I'll find game and do a lot of sitting and waiting. What we call "posting".

[Mangyrat]

I got tired of guns laying all over the place due to my gun cabinet so full and picked up a cheap stack on 16 gun safe. "the non fire proof one so i can move it my self".
It will be bolted in the double closet sideways in the left side resesed area so you have to enter the closet to open it.
Great idea now i have to gut the closet it will go in This gun stuff is never ending now i am thinking i need a stack on cabinet for ammo to go on the other side.

[CoventryCat86]

[QUOTE=CptnBlues63;200715.......and a 'health spending account' ........[/QUOTE]

LMAO!