Yesterday I served as Safety Officer for a private shooting party at Trail Glades Range. We had shooters of all kinds but mostly they were Gun Owners with very litle trigger time on their private gun and zero experience on any other.

Shooters had many choices of firearms to shoot from as can be seen in the next pictures:

On rifles alone, the examples present ranged from a 1903 Springfield to the latest M4 going through M1, M1 Carbine, M14 and M-16. All in all we had 112 years worth of US Military Service rifles present. Quite a bit of impressive history in my humble opinion.

But the most fun I had was seeing shooter’s skill growing exponentially after the proper amount of  instruction was given. I took over the pistol side of things and went from station to station checking on shooters and adjusting a grip here or advising on concentrating on the front sight for a reliable hit on the steel targets.

My shooters ranged in age from a boy 8 years to a lady in her 60s. Both extremes were the more satisfying. Both were first time shooters, both started on .22 caliber weapons and both left after shooting a Springfield 1911 in .45 ACP and getting solid hits on the steels. In fact the lady was so proud, she commanded her husband to take a video of her shooting the big boomer.

My biggest joy was seeing a shooter get hits after a few seconds of corrective instruction and the huge smile in their faces when they hit the gongs regularly after that. They left the range sweaty, dirty and happy, I cannot ask for anything else.

And for that I am thankful.