Sunday at the range

So, after a lot of fun on Saturday at the Mecklenburg Wildlife Defensive Shooters IDPA match, I decided to go to the range and shoot my rifle. For those that haven't read past posts, I purchased a CMMG M4LE 5.56 carbine. Love shooting it, but the closest range where I can shoot 5.56 is about 40 miles away. So, I went in search of the CMMG .22lr conversion kit and found it on sale at CDNNinvestments.com. Not only was the price better than what I could find locally, but it also came with a free 25 round magazine. Sweet! It was also only $6 shipping. If I could have found it at or close to that price, I would have bought it locally, but alas, it was not to be.

So, I loaded up the gun, conversion kit, and my oldest son who likes shooting rifles more than pistols which my youngest son likes. We went to Elite Training Academy which is just a few miles from the house with a brand new  Winchester Whitebox .22lr value box. $22 for 550 rounds isn't too bad a deal. We loaded up the magazines (I have two with the free one) and proceeded to have some fun. One thing we noted was one magazine was much more difficult to eject than the other. Well, eject isn't really the right word. I had to hold the rifle and the mag release button while my son pulled it out with both hands. After doing that twice, we just decided to use the one mag until I could figure out what was wrong.

As we were shooting, another father came in with his teenage daughter and son who was around 9 years old. The son noticed that we were shooting an "ar-15" and was very intersted. I'd see him out of the corner of my eye when he wasn't shooting with his father. Eventually he came up and asked if we were shooting an ar-15 and I said yes we were and if it was ok with his father, he was more than welcome to shoot it. Zoom! Off he goes, "Dad, I need your help!, Dad, I need your help!". I could only smile seeing the enthusiasm. He spoke to his father who came down and introduced himself. I let him know that his son and daughter were welcome to shoot the rifle as well as the father. The son came down first and we let him shoot off 20 rounds. The smile on his face couldn't have gotten much bigger. He was afraid there'd be some recoil, but I put him at ease. Soon after, the daughter came down who was also concerned about recoil, but I let her know that with the rounds we were shooting, it would be negligible. After shooting, she was very happy with a big smile and a thank-you.

What turned out to start was just some quality father-son time turned into a great day for us and some young shooters which made me feel even better. Seeing the huge smile on his face was a great reward for me.

Well, that's it for me. Remember, shoot safe, shoot straight!

**Oh, and the magazine that was sticking? Fixed that by removing two tabs on it. Smoothly ejects our normally now. I didn't figure the CMMG magazine would have issues ejecting out of a CMMG rifle, but the tabs were installed for other manufacturers. Go figure.