What makes shooting relevant - to YOU?

View · by **Erud** on Sat Jul 13, 2013 4:51 am

At this point in my life, shooting is all about competition. Unless we are keeping score, I just don't enjoy it anymore.

View · by **bensdad** on Sat Jul 13, 2013 7:34 am

Erud wrote:At this point in my life, shooting is all about competition. Unless we are keeping score, I just don't enjoy it anymore.

If that's the case, I hope you're a young person. Father Time will not pass anyone by. Your eyes will lose their focus. Your shoulders will wilt like flowers. Your hands will become frail and weak, unable to wield that which they once did.

View · by **Erud** on Sat Jul 13, 2013 7:53 am

bensdad wrote:
Erud wrote:At this point in my life, shooting is all about competition. Unless we are keeping score, I just don't enjoy it anymore.

If that's the case, I hope you're a young person. Father Time will not pass anyone by. Your eyes will lose their focus. Your shoulders will wilt like flowers. Your hands will become frail and weak, unable to wield that which they once did.

Not super worried about that. Shooting the MN Long Range State championship this weekend and a lot of the best shooters are 65+ years old. There's always a discipline to compete in.

Sorry you don't like my answer, but thanks for the well-wishes!

View · by **bensdad** on Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:33 am

Erud wrote:
bensdad wrote:
Erud wrote:At this point in my life, shooting is all about competition. Unless we are keeping score, I just don't enjoy it anymore.

If that's the case, I hope you're a young person. Father Time will not pass anyone by. Your eyes will lose their focus. Your shoulders will wilt like flowers. Your hands will become frail and weak, unable to wield that which they once did.

Not super worried about that. Shooting the MN Long Range State championship this weekend and a lot of the best shooters are 65+ years old. There's always a discipline to compete in.

Sorry you don't like my answer, but thanks for the well-wishes!

It's not that i dont' like your answer. At 47, I'm fighting the need for "readers." My teenage daughter can outrun me. A couple weeks ago, I needed a four-foot pipe to switch the bucket for forks on my new Bobcat (granted the levers had never been worked before, but still). When you say the best shooters were over 65, all i can think about is, how many were over 85? Saying that beating someone else at a game is like declaring a sunset on your interest (albeit quite some time from now).

There are so many things I like about shooting that it would be hard to list them here. What the heck:

1. It's loud (manly, like using a chainsaw, which I also like)
2. Gets me away from stuff I don't want to deal with at the moment (wife, bills, kids, important work)
3. keeps me active (I'm NOT doin' that insanity workout from tv, so a trip to the range means at least a half-dozen trips up and down the stairs)
4. Social factors - The folks I shoot with are my best friends. We could be turnin' wrenches on a race car, but that would be more expensive.
5. feel like I'm in touch with a bit of history (Garand, Mosin, Mauser, AK, AR, lever-actions, 1911 - they all mean something to me)
6. Proficiency. God forbid I ever really NEED to know how to use a gun, I sure as heck better actually know.
7. Utility. 13-lined little spawn of the devil, rabbits, crows, yotes, etc. all fall to my bullet when they invade my garden (or just my personal bubble).
8. Play - everybody needs a little playtime. I'd rather play with a bad-ass AK than wax a bassboat (or sit on a bassboat telling my friends that the fish "were here last week".

View · by **Erud** on Sat Jul 13, 2013 10:35 am

Yeah, I get all of that. I like all of that stuff too, it's just that those reasons by themselves just aren't enough for me anymore. Not all of the best shooters are over 65, but some are. I am able to shoot pretty well right now, and I'm not interested in shooting poorly. When I can't shoot well anymore, I will probably stop shooting, at least for the most part. I don't really expect to be doing much shooting at all at 85, competitive or otherwise. It's a long ways off, so the ravages of old age are not among my concerns right now. Just out of curiosity, what type of shooting do you do that you will still be doing at the same level when you're 85?

View · by **Eric Marleau** on Sat Jul 13, 2013 12:41 pm

I see both of your points.
In my younger days I had to prove that I was the best shooter.
These days I'm busy with 17yr old twins, pistol leagues, and training.
I just mentioned to my Wife that I wanted to shoot at Camp Perry this year.
Went over like a pay toilet in a diarrhea ward.
Killed that idea right from the start.

Keep shooting Erud, enjoy it while you can.
But remember that shooting just for fun keeps the Prozac away.

Eric

PS--I turn 62 next Friday, see great, and shoot lights out at 50 yards, and I still talk as much smack as I ever have.

Your post on older guys shooting great is spot on.

View · by **Erud** on Sat Jul 13, 2013 2:36 pm

Eric Marleau wrote:But remember that shooting just for fun keeps the Prozac away.

I think that's the whole point here; this is a subjective topic. Competitive shooting IS the fun part for me. The "just for fun" parts that you guys are talking about aren't really that much fun for me anymore. I want to compete with the best shooters around, and measure my performance against theirs. That's fun for me.

My kids are in college and I can do what I want on weekends, so I shoot matches. My wife knows that this is what I do from April through September and is fine with it - that's how it's been since we met. She flew out to Camp Perry a few years ago to see me get the Distinguished Rifleman badge on stage, and she's coming along for the whole week this year.

Anyways, this is just my answer to the OP's question, it doesn't need to apply to everybody...

View · by **GunClasses.Net** on Mon Jul 15, 2013 12:20 pm

bensdad wrote:
Erud wrote:At this point in my life, shooting is all about competition. Unless we are keeping score, I just don't enjoy it anymore.

If that's the case, I hope you're a young person. Father Time will not pass anyone by. Your eyes will lose their focus. Your shoulders will wilt like flowers. Your hands will become frail and weak, unable to wield that which they once did.

The Father Time issue is a reality; when I look out another few decades to when that hits me, I feel that the beauty of the variety of shooting sports is that when you peak and lose interest in one, there's a wide variety of others to try - to learn and find your personal best at. 3Gun or Cowboy action shooting may not become my thing in my 90s, but hope I never run out of new games to be interested in, that is until my body is so worn out that I'm not going to be interested in anything physical!

View · by **OldmanFCSA** on Mon Jul 15, 2013 1:26 pm

Every gun I have, has been used in one type of action whether hunting, IHMSA, plinking, safety of livestock, its just cleaned and stored when I find a new toy.
I think back on the ones I have sold and usually end up kicking my butt for selling it.

My most recent play activity has been shooting the 50BMG in a target rifle and competing in FCSA Sanctioned events. My old reloading activities are being honed to perfection in a different manner. 50BMG is a new beast to reload and shoot accurately. Shooting at 1000 yards adds all kinds of variables to the game.

Try it sometime. BigDog58 did and loved it.

View · by **Eric Marleau** on Mon Jul 15, 2013 6:23 pm

I'd give my right arm to shoot that monster Oldman.
I envy you on that one.
Congrats.

Eric

View · by **Tronster** on Mon Jul 15, 2013 7:26 pm

Shooting is a way to escape the hyped up interconnected technology of the modern world. Put in some ear plugs, mute the phone, and just focus on manipulating an elegant but relatively simple mechanical device that makes noise and funny smells.

But I worry that my ever worsening tendonitis and carpal tunnel (auto mechanic) will severly limit or stop my shooting, and I'm only 34.

View · by **OldmanFCSA** on Mon Jul 15, 2013 10:27 pm

Eric Marleau wrote:I'd give my right arm to shoot that monster Oldman.
I envy you on that one.
Congrats.

Eric

You provide the place to shoot, I will provide the rifles, ammo, benchrest setups, etc.

And you will need to pay for ammo beyond a normal plinking quantity. $2 a shot after first 10 of surplus, $4 a shot for 808 grain solid brass match ammo out of my bench gun.

View · by **Eric Marleau** on Mon Jul 15, 2013 10:38 pm

Our rules at the FLSC doesn't allow the shooting of that gun, but if I beg good enough, maybe I can get the OK.
I sure will let you know, and thanks.

Eric

View · by **grousemaster** on Mon Jul 15, 2013 11:20 pm

XDM45 wrote:Guns are a tool I own for the sole purpose of self defense of my own life and those of my immediate family. For me, it's strictly functional and purpose driven. Probably pretty dry and not sexy at all, but that's how I view them. Same thing with computers, just another tool.

and the reason he hangs out on firearms forums daily

View · by **leprechaun50** on Thu Jul 18, 2013 10:01 pm

I always enjoyed shooting as kid. As I grew older, I enjoyed teaching my kids to shoot just as my father taught me. Now that the kids are on their own, the wife and I enjoy shooting together at the range in our front yard. The day I tire of shooting........................................dead.