Shooting at Andy Dalton Range

Saturday, my friend Brian and I took out of town about 10:30AM and headed a half hour NW of town to the Andy Dalton Shooting Range in Bois D'Arc, Missouri. As a side note, all French names in Missouri have been butchered beyond recognition and it's pronounced Bow-Dark. If you say it Bwa-duh-ark, all French-like, you're in for a stare or two.

As always, we took in a mom 'n' pop restaurant on the way to the range. A little place called Copper Grill in Ash Grove, Missouri. It was awesome! We both had the pork tenderloin sandwich and homemade fries.

Initially, we each blasted off a couple boxes of shells at the trap range. Brian with his Browning 12 gauge auto and me with my Remington 20 gauge pump. We switched up for a handful of shots. His gun kicks quite a bit more than mine and it felt more accurate. But I like the weight and pump action of mine.

Later in the day, with our shoulders sufficiently bruised, we moved over to the pistol/riffle range and shot our revolvers a while. Brian with his super-cool and oldschool Heritage Roughrider 22LR single action revolver and me with my more modern Ruger SP101 22LR. Normally, I can hit almost anything with my riffle, but I'm pretty weak with a pistol. Saturday seemed to be an exception to that rule and I was placing my shots within a decent grouping for the range. Not probably by some people's standards, but certainly by mine.

Had a great day out. It had been years since I'd shot at a moving target with a shotgun. I quit bird hunting when I was in my mid to late teens and I'll be 42 this month, you can do the math. Hoping to actually start hunting again this year. Not trophy, I don't believe in killing anything you're not going to eat. I'd like to incorporate hunting more into my camping and hiking plans, kind of like I am with fishing. Plus, after our run-in with feral hogs on the last trip, I'm thinking a gun might not be such an item of overkill to have with you anymore.