The Ringing of Gongs
How many of you shoot at reactive targets for practice after the loads are developed?
We have been really enjoying steel gongs for a while now, buying or making them steadily as we could afford a few at a time. Lately, Sportsman's Guide has had them for very affordable prices with different sizes and shapes and hanger options and we've been buying more and improvising less. We had a private group of 20-somethings of varying skill levels trying them out for the first time last weekend with handguns and AR's. They had the time of their lives and very generously tipped the old fart line safety officer (no one's ever done that before, my jaw hit the floor). We had a 6" at 125yds and an 8" at 150 for them and even the newbys were hitting them with plain jane open sighted to tricked out optics on a selection of different AR's. They drove over 200 miles to come up and shoot in Maine because the Peoples Republiks of Massachusetts and Connecticut aren't a fit place for a free man who wants to own firearms and shoot them regularly to live. One of them has a family place south of me in NH where several of them store all of their "illegal" +10rd mags and NPC tactical rifles.
A 4" gong at 150yds offhand is a challenging shot when most anyone can hit a 12" at that range with a little practice.
A 6" at 100yds is good large game offhand practice.
12" at 25, 50, 75 and 100yds pushes your handgunning skills to the limit. You have to be careful of the ricochet angle at less than 100yds.
In the real world I figure it don't mean much once a gun's sighted in if you can't pick it up in your hands and hit something with it without a rest. The gong either tells everyone "BONG!!!!" when you hit it or it tells everyone "..........." when you miss. Humbles you on a bad day, makes a good day even better. Different sizes from 4" to 12" at different ranges and just switch them around for whatever you and your buddy's are up to on any given day. Big and closer to build confidence for newer shooters, smaller and more distant to the limits of your skill.
What do you think?
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