I don’t know where the time went, but it had been over three years since we had done any target shooting, and that’s way too long. So yesterday we drove out to the cinder pit on Porter Mountain Road in Lakeside, Arizona and did some plinking.
For those of you who are not shooters, plinking is informal target shooting at things like tin cans and such. We never shoot glass, and we always clean up after ourselves, but unfortunately, there are always lots of others who leave places like the cinder pit a mess.
When we lived here in the White Mountains, I usually came out here and burned through a couple of hundred rounds of ammunition once or twice a month. But finding a place to shoot while traveling as fulltime RVers can be difficult.
I had a couple of guns I wanted to try out because I had not had a chance to shoot them since they came into my possession; a Colt AR-15 rifle and a Kimber Pro CDP II .45 semi-automatic pistol. Both are quality weapons, but I never trust a gun until I have shot it myself. I was pleased that even after such a long hiatus from the range, I was still able to hit my targets with both the rifle and pistol.
People always ask what the secret is to having a successful marriage like Terry and I have. It takes a lot of things; love, mutual respect, trust, honesty, communication, and true friendship between us. But the fact that Miss Terry can outshoot me any day of the week plays a role too.
A lot of women I have known are intimidated by big, heavy recoiling handguns like a .45, but not Terry. She took to that Kimber like a fish to water, and had those tin cans dancing all over the cinder pit.
Terry has shot a number of handguns, but she isn’t as familiar with long guns, and really didn’t have much interest in the AR-15. But I urged her to just pop off a round or two, and once she got the hang of the sights, she was really tearing things up out there. If I ever get into a gunfight, I know who I want covering my back!
I know that guns are not politically correct to a lot of people, and that’s certainly your right if that’s how you feel. But we enjoy shooting and I make no apologies for that. Besides, I’ll bet you my guns appreciated in value more than your 401K did in the last few years. 🙂
After we were done playing, we drove into Pinetop and spent the afternoon visiting with our friends Jim and Shar Lewis in their lovely log chalet. I don’t ever want to own a house again, but if I did, I could live quite happily in a place like that!
Jim and Shar know that we enjoy Chinese food, so they took us to a great restaurant called Lotus Garden for dinner. The servings were huge and everything was beyond delicious. We stuffed ourselves, and still had enough leftovers to bring home for lunch today. We’ve only got a few days left here before we hit the road again, but we may try to get back to Lotus Garden one more time before we leave. It was that good!
Thought For The Day – Immature: A word boring people use to describe fun people.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
A handgun is bad enough but why does anybody need an AR15 assault rifle, let alone an RVer?
Sharon, the only thing my rifle ever “assaulted” were a few tin cans.
A woman that shoots a .45. COOL!!
First: Nick, did you save your brass? How do you expect me to reload for you if you don’t?
Second: Sharon C., By definition, an assault rifle is selective fire, otherwise known as a machine gun, an AR15 is semi auto only.
So far as needs,we all have many more possessions that are wants, than are truly needs.
As to wanting an AR15, if you haven’t fired one, you couldn’t understand.
Butch
I got a kick out of your marriage explanation–when we were cowboy action shooting, I placed third in my class in a national competition–Mike caught a lot of grief about minding his P’s & Q’s around me. :))
Next year after the Yuma rally is over, or even before, if you can make time for it i will take you out to the range down there. It is a pretty nice setup.
Nick, It’s great to to see an obese person like yourself doing activities outside. Good for you.
One question though, what do you do with the AR-15 when you enter California. With their funny gun laws, an AR-15 like yours would be illegal I do believe.
When your AZ Rally comes to town, that might be a good seminar speaker to have, something on the RV’er and staying legal with your firearms in the different states.
A woman wearing a sun bonnett and blasting a 45…
You scored Nick!
Colt 45 is my choice. If you’re going to bother owning something make it something that’ll do the job…
I am not a gun owner and do not want one, but I respect everyone’s right to bear arms, in my case I would probably shoot myself in the foot. I liked the picture of Terry shooting, reminds me not to sneak up on either of you. you are so right about minding your peas and Q around miss Terry, be safe.
Damn Kevin, are you that rude to people in real life too? If you see black people in a campgrond do you tell them its nice to see them out of the inner city? Do you tell people in a wheelchair its nice to see that they can still get arond?
Butch – I always pick up my brass. Even throwaway .22 brass.
Ed – We’ll try to make that happen.
Kevin – Some RVers don’t take prohibited guns to places like California and leave them with someone they can trust. Others pack them away and don’t worry too much about it because the chances of an old fart in an RV getting stopped and searched are pretty slim. We have had seminars on guns and gun laws at some of our rallies and they are always popular.
Sandi – I have a beautiful custom Colt Terry gave me our first year together. The Kimber is on a par with it.
Elaine – Don’t worry, you’ve got two feet. If you shoot one you can still hobble around 🙂
Kevin it nice to see that a person who makes rude comments about other people’s weight is still able to express themselves freely in America.
Ok Miss Terry you shamed me into it. Ray has been trying to get me to go shooting for years now. I guess I have to after reading today’s blog.
Heh, when we were first married, long years ago, hubby took me target shooting with a couple guys. Just once. Told me later it was because I hit the target much better than they did…but then I was under no pressure, was not competing with anyone…just having fun. And quite frankly, I think gun owners in general are much more responsible than dog owners these days!! I am way more worried about those huge, dangerous dogs running loose!! I can no longer walk out to the front of our almost acre lot here to get our mail…been menaced before I ever left the garage!! There outta be a law….
Nick you do know that if you ever die you won’t have to worry about Miss Terry? There will be a line of guys stretching from Arizona to New Jersey waiting and hopng. What a woman! Is there anything she can’t do???
PS…told me later the reason we were not invited to go again with those guys…forgot to add that part….
We, too, had guns for pheasant hunting and waterfowl hunting. It was fun to go when we had a hunting dog, but life does move on. So we finally left our .410 in South Dakota with Larry’s nephew.