One of my brothers called to let me know that one of my other brothers asked their daughters what they wanted to do when they went to Utah. Their answer – shooting. Our nieces had never shot a gun before and that is what they wanted to do.
As a side story, my three brothers and I went on vacation to Utah as children. One of our highlights is when out grandfather took us shooting. I remember visiting the Elsinore dump on several occasions, which was a target rich environment. There were cans, bottles, old appliances and a whole host of things to be lined up and filled with holes.
On one occasion, grandpa was watching us shoot. Then all of a sudden he dropped his paints and started dancing. unbeknownst to us he had unknowingly stood on a red ant hill and got ants in his paints. We thought it was funny watching him jump around slapping at his legs.
As for today, we had planned to meet at 8:00 and go go to the Richfield rifle range. When I woke up, there was a light drizzle. Rain should not keep a new shooter from experiencing the sport. I met two of my brothers at their hotel and we drove out to the range. We set up targets in the light drizzle and gave instructions. I asked what rule one was. One of my brothers proclaimed, “Keep your booger hook off the bang switch.” Our young nieces looked at us like, what is a booger hook? We then started off with the standard safety rules and explained that it was important for them to follow them.
Haley shooting in the rain on the other side of Preston and Wayne
There was a lot of 22 shot out of single shot bolt action guns by Ruby and Lucy. Haley used a Ruger 10/22 for her time at the range. Preston won a .308 rifle at a NRA dinner and he wanted to try that out. It is a lot of gun for a young kid, but he shot it several times. Also shot was a pump action rifle in .357, an AR style in .223.
So the question is, how many rounds did Haley, Ruby and Lucy throw downrange? As many as it took for them to be soaked and start shivering. They then retreated to the car where the heater was running. As for me, I brought my rain shell and could have stayed longer. However, there was a lot of maintenance that needed to be done on the firearms.
Wayne and I went back to grandpas house and disassembled all the firearms, dried them off, used an aerosol gun scrubber to blast any water out of actions and trigger groups. Then an aerosol lubricant and rust prevented was sprayed into the actions and trigger groups. any other parts had an oily patch run through them or over the outside. We spent more time oiling and protecting the firearms from moisture than shooting. On the other hand, it was more important to introduce youngsters to shooting, even if it meant shooting in the rain.
