Personal Agenda

This weekend, I am taking my wife to an Appleseed shoot. Naturally, she is nervous and excited about learning to shoot accurately with a rifle. I will be attending as well.

For Mrs. Usagi, we selected the Ruger 10/22 rifle, which comes in the ever-popular .22 LR caliber. Mrs. Usagi is very uncomfortable with her shooting ability with a rifle, so I put a large powerful scope on it and sighted it in personally so that she would have every advantage.

It kinda looks funny - a $150 rifle with a $1000 scope on top.

Since she will be using the .22 rifle for her practice, I am "forced" to use my AR15 - the quintessential "Evil Black Rifle" (EBR). Mine is made by the wonderful people of Bushmaster Firearms in Windham, ME. It is a really fun rifle to shoot. The only drawback is cost of shooting - the ammo I'm using this weekend was $0.25 per round. Compared to the $0.04 per round of the .22 that Mrs. Usagi will be using.

My Bushmaster AR15 is topped with iron sights, and I have added a red-dot optic from Vortex. The Vortex Strikefire optic generates a red dot inside the optic - not a laser dot that actually touches the target. It is basically an optical illusion of a laser dot. The sight is not magnified like a scope. This allows for quick target acquisition and the ability to shoot with both eyes open.

Though this is not my rifle, the rifle in this photo is a setup very similar to what I am using:

Except I will not be using the forward grip on my rifle this weekend.

I am really looking forward to learning to use a sling to improve my shooting. This is an old method that has been abandoned by the US Military due to "improvements" in ergonomics and aftermarket additions to rifles.

I am also really looking forward to learning how to shoot from the three major field positions: standing, sitting, and prone (on the belly). I feel comfortable sitting. I think I can do standing. I have never shot much from prone. It is the prone I hope to improve the most, then standing.

It is my understanding that the sling can be used to help steady the rifle. On the AR Platform, it is possible to bend the barrel ever so slightly, causing shots to fly off target. However, I'm sure the instructors at Appleseed have encountered this, and will know how to teach around it. As proof, I see many folks online that shoot Rifleman scores with AR15's. My goal is to become competent with the sling; and this weekend is my chance to learn how to do that.