Post by HRFunk on Sept 27, 2017 7:54:47 GMT -5
This should be a fun thread. The object is to think back over all the shooting you've done and select the one shot that stands out in your mind as your "best". It's not necessarily the longest range, or the one that won you a match, but it's the one that you think back to time and again to "re-live". I'll go first.
The year is 1988, and I'm a 21 year old Marine. Me and about 2000 of my closest friends are living on the back side of a South Korean air base in a collection of tents and plywood buildings (think of the TV show MASH and you have a pretty good mental picture). Not surprisingly, there is precious little to occupy my fellow Marines and I during our off-duty hours so we're always looking for something to stave off the specter of boredom. One day, a few of us find ourselves at the air base rifle range. This particular range bears little resemblance to the large multi-hundred yard ranges we were accustomed to on our own installations. In fact, it is a 10-meter airgun range. As it turns out, the Koreans honed their marksmanship skills with airguns (at least the ones stationed on the Yechon air base, that is).
I must point out the fact that the air-rifles used by the Koreans were very high quality, and they proved to be quite accurate. My friends and I spent a half hour or so shooting small paper targets on the range with a collection of Korean airmen looking on. Not surprisingly the shooting soon turned into an impromptu competition between us and some of the Koreans. Before long, the paper targets were deemed "too easy" and we began looking for something more challenging. Our search culminated with a cigarette butt being placed on one of the target holders at 10 meters, and I was selected as the Marine who would try to hit it at that distance with one of the air rifles.
From 10 meters, the cigarette butt was difficult to even see on the target stand. It was placed vertically on the stand so it was about an inch high, but only a quarter inch or so in diameter. In other words, it was about the same diameter as the 22 caliber pellet I was going to fire at it. So, shooting for the honor of Corps and country, I lined up the shot and squeezed the trigger. To the utter astonishment of everyone (me most of all), I zapped that thing with the very first shot!
In the aftermath of my feat, several things happened in rather rapid succession. First, I handed the air rifle to the closest Korean on-looker. I then announced to there entire assembly that all US Marines are trained to shoot just like me, and any of us might have done the exact same thing. I probably also added something to the affect that we could stand there and shoot cigarette butts at 10 meters all day long. Then, with a high degree of alacrity, I got the Hell out of there before anybody asked me to do it again!
In the nearly three decades that have passed since that time, I have re-lived to that shot over and over; and with the tens of thousands of rounds I've fired through all manner pistols, rifles, and shotguns since that day, it remains my best shot!
So that's mine. Now tell us about yours.
Howard
The year is 1988, and I'm a 21 year old Marine. Me and about 2000 of my closest friends are living on the back side of a South Korean air base in a collection of tents and plywood buildings (think of the TV show MASH and you have a pretty good mental picture). Not surprisingly, there is precious little to occupy my fellow Marines and I during our off-duty hours so we're always looking for something to stave off the specter of boredom. One day, a few of us find ourselves at the air base rifle range. This particular range bears little resemblance to the large multi-hundred yard ranges we were accustomed to on our own installations. In fact, it is a 10-meter airgun range. As it turns out, the Koreans honed their marksmanship skills with airguns (at least the ones stationed on the Yechon air base, that is).
I must point out the fact that the air-rifles used by the Koreans were very high quality, and they proved to be quite accurate. My friends and I spent a half hour or so shooting small paper targets on the range with a collection of Korean airmen looking on. Not surprisingly the shooting soon turned into an impromptu competition between us and some of the Koreans. Before long, the paper targets were deemed "too easy" and we began looking for something more challenging. Our search culminated with a cigarette butt being placed on one of the target holders at 10 meters, and I was selected as the Marine who would try to hit it at that distance with one of the air rifles.
From 10 meters, the cigarette butt was difficult to even see on the target stand. It was placed vertically on the stand so it was about an inch high, but only a quarter inch or so in diameter. In other words, it was about the same diameter as the 22 caliber pellet I was going to fire at it. So, shooting for the honor of Corps and country, I lined up the shot and squeezed the trigger. To the utter astonishment of everyone (me most of all), I zapped that thing with the very first shot!
In the aftermath of my feat, several things happened in rather rapid succession. First, I handed the air rifle to the closest Korean on-looker. I then announced to there entire assembly that all US Marines are trained to shoot just like me, and any of us might have done the exact same thing. I probably also added something to the affect that we could stand there and shoot cigarette butts at 10 meters all day long. Then, with a high degree of alacrity, I got the Hell out of there before anybody asked me to do it again!
In the nearly three decades that have passed since that time, I have re-lived to that shot over and over; and with the tens of thousands of rounds I've fired through all manner pistols, rifles, and shotguns since that day, it remains my best shot!
So that's mine. Now tell us about yours.
Howard
