Jewish Marksman Celebrates the 4th with His .45!

What better way to celebrate Independence Day than spending time at the gun range, exercising the constitutional right that guarantees all others?

Earlier this weekend I shot a High Power match, and had a bad day. Nu, at least for me a bad day is a Master score. I am really hoping my lower back gets healthy soon and I can make a serious run at High Master before year's end. Right now sitting position is a little painful...my back either needs to get better or I need to move to a more upright sitting position. I'm only 36, oy veh!

But on this 4th of July, I could have gotten in some much needed smallbore practice, but I just HAD to shoot my .45ACP revolver! Before I committed to NRA High Power Rifle, I shot Bullseye Pistol. In a nutshell, a portion of the match is shot with a .45 caliber pistol, one handed, 50 yards slow fire and 25 yards timed and rapid. I migrated from a 1911 semi-auto to a revolver, and was working my way up the classifications when my club sort of dropped the match. I was shooting Expert and flirting with Master. But the club recently started up the match again, and I've been considering attending a few matches. So last week, I loaded up 50 rounds of a 50 yard load, and 50 rounds of a 25 yard load, popped them into moonclips and figured I'd see how my pistol shooting skills are after a couple years of barely touching a pistol.

My loving wife encouraged me to hit the range this morning before our 4th festivities got underway, as she and the baby were sleeping in anyway. So I shot the .45, a S&W 625 5" revolver, and was really surprised that I still have it on a 50 yard target one-handed! The 7 and 8 were my first two shots, and after I adjusted windage, I was effortlessly hammering home 10s and 9s. Even with the 7 and 8, I scored a 93, which is an Expert score. My 25 yard shooting was pretty good, 10's and 9's shooting timed fire single-action and rapids double action. I let loose only one or two eights out of 50 shots, easily Master caliber scores (95%+). I was also happy at how my revolver performed, it always makes me chuckle how guys pay thousands for an accurized 1911, when my $600 used revolver easily holds <3" at 50 yards. If you want a challenging pistol sport, try Bullseye. One handed, 50 yards, 3.5" 10 ring!

Precision aside, as the president of the club, Chuck Wachsmuth, wisely opines about .45ACP cartridge, "Sometimes it just feels good to shoot the Big Gun!"

Indeed. Happy 4th!