Monday, April 9, 2012

And the prize for smallest no guns sign goes to...

I saw this at Pizza Hut during my most recent (possibly last) visit. They have the world's smallest no guns sign. Sadly here in Ohio these still carry the force of law. Come on Pizza Hut, throw me a bone here. If you don't allow guns, post a real sign.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Sure Site target hangers

Yesterday way a beautiful day.   To enjoy it, I took my new target system out for a test drive.


The key to this setup is the Sure Site clay target hangers.  They are little plastic clips designed to fit over a 3/8th inch dowel or rope on one end and a standard clay bird target on the other. 

Unlike some of the other target systems I've seen, they seem to have accepted the fact that anything in the target area will get destroyed.  So it is better to have something cheap and replaceable than something that attempts to withstand bullets.

That said, they do seem to be adequately durable.  They handled the stress of the clay breaking repeatedly quite well and were only destroyed when actually hit.  I only destroyed 2 of them in my 2 hour long shooting session. That's about $1 worth of them, which doesn't compare badly to the other expenses involved in shooting.

The rest of the setup consists of 2 small shepard's hooks and 2 3/8th inch dowels bought at Lowe's along with some nylon rope.  It has been a while since my camping instruction so I had to look up some good knots to use.   Bowline knots for the attachment to the shepard's hooks and Alpine Butterfly knots for wood dowels provided a good system of loops that wouldn't slip or collapse.



I do recommend having several spare wooden dowels handy.   One of them was destroyed and the other was not unscathed.  I did both some 22LR and 9mm pistol shooting.  My 22LR session had one impressive but accidental shot.   I managed to put hole clean through the 3/8th inch dowel without breaking the dowel.  I was able to keep using it without it dropping the clays.  At least until it suffered another direct hit.

I doubt I'll ever do that again.

It was a good day, and I do recommend this setup for hours of shooting fun.