3.16.2021

Range Update!

"When guns are outlawed, only the Government will have guns. The Government ... and a few outlaws. If that happens, you can count me among the outlaws." 

 ― Edward Abbey
If you're a regular reader of my blog, I think it's pretty safe to assume that, like me, you're especially interested in and fond of all things Nature. And like me, at least for most of my life, you may have never owned a firearm. But perhaps some of you do.

Well, that changed for me when I transitioned to Vortex after Eagle Optics closed its doors for good at the end of 2017. Since then I've had numerous classes and training on a variety of shooting platforms from pistol to carbine to long-range. As regular readers, you likely know that I'm a bit of a gadget geek, especially when it comes to optical devices. The mechanical relationship from optic to firearm is a very fascinating one for me: Optics x Firearms x Ballistics x Ability. 

Appreciate, then, these recent .22LR 3-shot groups at 50 yards attained with my Vudoo rimfire rifle pictured above. True, the rig has a bipod, but every trigger press must be nearly identical in order to place groups like this.

 

To be sure it's part gear, but also part shooter skill. To be consistently accurate is a challenge I very much enjoy, and shooting paper and steel targets is all it will ever be. Although a few of my colleagues would like to see me get into goose or turkey hunting, I'm just not sure that's in the cards for me. I am not a vegetarian. I do believe there's a valid ethical argument for harvesting meat from the wild as opposed to buying it via industrial animal production and factory farming. Perhaps a topic for another day. Anyway, then there's my Tikka 6.5 Creedmoor. Yeah, there's some trepidation posting one's firearms on social media for any number of reasons, but these cats are both already out of the bag from earlier blog posts.
This Tikka rifle is my long-range rig, which I've used to ring steel targets up to 1,000 yards. You've probably also noticed that I also like to put my photography skills into practice when taking pictures of my gear at our indoor ranges. In fact, I used to do much of our product photography for Vortex, but that was long ago and we have full-time photographers for that today.
And a total tack driver at 100 yards:
All images © 2021 Mike McDowell