The range makes things better.

With all that has happened this month- a house fire and loss of all of my data to a hacker- I bought a new gun. I decided to make it to the range.

Since this is a new gun, I needed ammo. Everything is in short supply, and what is there is quite expensive. I saw 9mm FMJ selling at $20 a box. I wound up buying a 50 round box of .38 SPL FMJ that cost $35. There is a one box limit per customer per day at the LGS. I had brought a 50 round box with me. I had gotten it on sale back in January for $8.

There are two pistol ranges there, and there was a person who had rented a full auto was in the first one, so they put me into the second. I was the only shooter, so I took advantage of that and broke out the shot timer. I started by putting a pair of 15 round magazines of 9mm into a 7 yard target as quickly as I could line up the Holosun sight on my M&P9c. 30 rounds with a reload in 16.42 seconds. 29 of the shots were inside the 9 ring on a B-29 target. The seventh was low and left in the 7 ring. I slapped the trigger a bit and I knew it was a bad shot as soon as it broke.

I don't consider myself to be a great shot, I just think that the Holosun has made a HUGE improvement in my accuracy and speed. That doesn't change what happened next. The RSO came up behind me and said, "I was going to come over to tell you that you will do better by slowing down to aim, and not trying to be a cowboy, but I can't argue with that target, that is great shooting."

I replied that it wasn't me, it was the sight. It really has done wonders for me.

He said, "It isn't just that. You have to have great trigger control to be that consistent when shooting that fast. You are one of the best shooters I have seen shoot here in quite a while."

When I switched to the revolver, I admitted to him that I rarely shot them. He told me the story about how he was a retired cop, and the 629 was the pistol he started his career with. He then gave me some pointers to help my shooting with it. One was: "Speedloaders are cheating. Learn to load them by hand before you worry about mastering speedloaders."

Just two gun guys alone at a shooting range, sharing stories and talking about guns.

Despite all that has happened, I walked out out of the range smiling.

I bet going to gun control protests don't make people feel like that.