Range time is too valuable to waste

With the wisdom of hindsight, I realized really goofed tonight. I want to write about it so that others won't make the same mistake.

First, a little back story. Over the last 3 months I've added 3 new guns to my collection... a Ruger 10/22, a Ruger Redhawk .44 Magnum and a Sig P6. However, due to work and holidays I haven't made it to the range to fire any of them. I really hate having a gun sitting in my safe that I haven't shot, so having 3 like that was really bugging me. I knew my wife had to work tonight and I was off so I made up my mind to head to the range and get some trigger time with my newest guns.

I spent last night stuffing magazines and packing my range bag. When my wife left for work, I was all set and packed the car to head to the local range. I arrived a few minutes after 6pm. I noticed the hours on the door said they closed at 6pm on Saturdays, but since the parking lot was pretty full, I decided to try anyway and see if I could get them to sneak me in for at least a 30 minute session.

I got to the counter to learn that the crowded parking lot was due to a class they were teaching that night and they were indeed closed. I was pretty bummed. I explained to the range owner that I had several new guns that I really wanted to try out and could he just stick me down at the end of the line and let me shoot while the class was going on? He said if I was really quick, he'd give me a lane for 5 minutes while they finished briefing the class.

At that point, I should have just said "no thank you" and left. I should have just decided to come back another day. However, I had a range bag full of loaded magazines and I was itching to shoot. I took the offer and blazed through all the loaded mags I had for the Sig P6 (5 mags of 8 rounds each). Then, I pulled out the Redhawk and fired off the last 13 rounds of .44 Magnum I had. Then, I quickly pulled out my 10/22 and cranked through 1 10 round mag and 4 25 round mags. All the guns fired with zero malfunctions and I packed up, thanked him for squeezing me in and left.

I left fairly happy because I had gotten to try out all my new guns and they all had functioned 100%. However, after thinking about it, all I really accomplished was using up over 150 rounds of ammo and got ZERO real practice. For most of us, getting time at the range is rare and when we get the time we should really use that time for some real practice. We should be working on trigger control or sight alignment or double taps or any of a million other skills that we need to work on. Instead, I simply fired off rounds. I wasted a range trip and since I wasted the ammo I had set aside, I can't go back tomorrow when I wouldn't be so rushed. Learn from my mistake. If you can't devote the time to do it right, best to find a better time to head to the range and just save your ammo.

Stay safe out there... and watch your six.