Wild Gunmen Go Shooting

Posted in Survivalist by Osborne, July 8, 2010 at 10:55 am | 1,048 views, 1 comment

We live in a big province. In fact, we live in a big country. That gives us a lot of natural space to explore. Some people like to hike, birdwatch, fish or hunt. In summer time, I can’t resist the urge to shoot shit out in the forest.

So last week our editor, and my knife wielding high-school buddy drove with me out into the wilderness with me for some Wild Gunmen style target shooting. There’s nothing like climbing over hills and through forests to find a quiet spot to rest. Then to engulf that quiet spot with gunfire and lead. A day spent shooting is a day well spent, and we thought it was worth sharing with you lot.

Location: Now you don’t want to just pull off the road and start unloading rounds every which way. First, that’s dangerous; and second, that’s illegal. The trick to outdoor target shooting is to find a good space for it. National and Provincial parks are out, you have to either be on private land or in a recreation area. Generally anywhere you could hunt you can also target shoot.

Gear: With an hour’s drive under our belt we wanted to spend as much time as possible outdoors shooting. The problem of course is that after a full magazine of slug shells through the shotgun you feel like you’re the one getting shot instead of the one shooting. My solution is to have lots of options available for the crew so you can rotate and spare your shoulder. The Czech made Slavia air-rifle is actually a great way to take a break. Everyone can take out their ear plugs and eat lunch while continuing to pop off rounds. Same is true for the airsoft pistol, although its bbs are less likely to put holes on paper sadly.

Targets: Now at a shooting range you will find you either shoot clay pigeons (for shotguns) or paper targets (for rifles) but when you’re out on your own you can pick whatever you’d like. That means you can try things like coke bottles, watermelons, or our personal favorite: the zombie targets. Zombie Targets come in a variety of origins and genders, all of them undead and ravenous. I paid ten dollars for six at the gun show this year and it was a fantastic purchase. It adds a little variation and excitement into an already excellent afternoon. Just make sure you have a staple gun to affix everything in place.

Zombie!

On the Firing Line: Anytime you are firing a gun, its important to have someone as a range officer. Someone paying attention to safety and ammo counts and that sort of thing. As the only person with a Possession and Aquisition License in the group that role naturally fell to yours truly. That means making sure there is only one person firing at a time, that everyone is off the “range” and that guns are empty and safe when being handed between each other.

It also means setting up courses, like five small targets with a single zombie target deep in the bush that you must advance towards while reloading. That sort of thing doesn’t happen much at the sporting clays club.

At the end of the day, its good to go home with the smell of gunpowder in your nose and a bunch of empty hulls. It feels good to take advantage of the green space and the outdoors, and beats the hell out of shooting imaginary guns in Call of Duty.

Fabarm in the rain