Bringing out the big guns

For years now I've been a shooter, more years that I'd like to count I guess...but...yeah, fucken hell, it's almost thirty four years now since I first pulled the trigger on a real gun. I fired many water pistols in my youth but that doesn't really compare, no matter how much fun it is, to squeezing the trigger on a firearm and from the very first moment I knew it was something I'd want to do over and over. As it turns out, I had that chance and have since sent thousands and thousands of rounds downrange to land on and in things, targets of various types; I add to that tally weekly and haven't lost my enthusiasm for shooting.

People say, "you must really love guns," but nothing could be further from the truth.

I use a frying pan but don't love it. I use soap but don't love it, I use the garden hose but don't love it - they're all just tools that allow me to do a job just like a firearm is. So no, I don't love guns at all.

What I love is pouring effort into learning how to shoot at an expert level and honing those skills, keeping them sharp, learning the physics, mathematics, aerodynamics and chemistry that goes into shooting - especially long range shooting - and into making my own ammunition. I love teaching others and passing on thirty four years of skills, the camaraderie that being a shooter in various scenarios has given me, the travel, lasting friendships and achievements, and all of the peripheral elements, skills and understandings around shooting that I have gained *because of being a shooter.

No, I don't love guns, but throughout thirty four or so years of shooting I have come to love what being a shooter has given me...and still gives me.

I've shot some big guns for various reasons and I own some now that, to my great shame, I don't shoot much at all; things just get in the way and the rifles I'm talking about can't be used at a range meaning I have to go to private properties which takes time and effort...(time is what I lack, not effort.) With this in mind, I've scheduled in a week or so, five days, in which I'll be bringing out the big guns.

I shoot all sorts of guns, handguns, shotguns, rifles and others, but my passion remains long range shooting.

There's something satisfying about sending a round downrange with accuracy enough to strike its intended target. Watching that round through the scope arcing through the air knowing it'll land on its target is a good feeling. (It's not the bullet one sees folks, it's the bullet-trace - refracted light caused by the different air pressures in front of and behind a bullet travelling at supersonic speeds, one can only see it from directly behind the flight path.)

It's a nice moment, a light squeezing on the trigger and one or two seconds of flight as the projectile flies 1,000, 1,200, 1,500, 1,700 metres and more to its target...a nice moment that is brought together over years of effort, theory and practical learning, and the sharpening of one's skills. Nope, I don't love guns, but I love the culmination of all that effort, the drawing together of all those different elements to get that projectile to impact its intended target at the point of aim.

So, I'm taking two long range rifles, one is an Accuracy International AXMC in 300WM and the other I'll not say on here, it's a bigger calibre and made by a different manufacturer. Both are extremely capable to great distances and both deliver a projectile to the target with brutal effectiveness. The other two guys have similar rifle-systems but different brands and configurations and between us I think we'll have plenty to keep us occupied.

I'll have two good friends with me, guys who also shoot long range of course, and will be camping; we'll shoot during the day then evaluating, discussing, cleaning guns and planning for the next day's shooting at nighttime...along with talking shit around the campfire and eating seared flesh cooked on the same fire. I can hardly wait to get those big guns singing.