Every year, my wife and I celebrate our anniversary by splitting a day and immersing ourselves in what the other enjoys. This year I decided on spending some time at the range to re-familiarize her with the different firearms I shoot, her own modest collection, and a “new” handgun that she’d seen in magazines but not had a chance to try.
We had originally planned on hitting Winamac but after spending more time than planned at the quilt shop in the morning; our lunch at Red Lobster ran a little later as well so we did some begging and pleading and got permission to shoot at Camp Tecumseh.
Camp Tecumseh is a YMCA facility between Brookston and Delphi. It’s a large operation – 500+ acres, enough cabins and other areas to house about 600 people, plus staff housing – they operate year-round, primarily with a summer camp focus from June thru August and then retreats and things the rest of the year. They’ve been in operation since 1924.
We chose to do our shooting at the Ralston Marksmanship Range, in the “Lake Village”. First, we parked and grabbed our gear..
Then we started walking down the stairs to the range. (and PS – no, I didn’t make her carry everything!)
Here’s a shot of us approaching the range..
And this is what the target area looks like from the shooting platform.
The length is 25 yards, and as you’ll see in the next picture this range is set up for inexperienced shooters to learn how to shoot. For the summer camp program and the retreat groups, they lock their rifles down to limit the angles of where the rifles can shoot. I didn’t have access to them, but camp teaches riflery using some sort of bolt-action Mossberg 22LR and they train the instructors in all the aspects of basic riflery skills.
Oooh, and as you saw in the previous picture, I brought a few different firearms to shoot – my 10/22, 590a1, and I brought my self-assembled AR15 out for its second test run..
My wife brought her HiPoint C9 (yeah, yeah, I know) and I brought an LC9 that I borrowed from a buddy. See, my wife is getting more and more interested in shooting and is at the point where she wants to train and learn, and she wants to get her own carry permit – we’d been to a couple of shops and she liked the looks of the LC9. She’s had her HiPoint for years and it’s her go-to handgun, like it or not – we’d tried Glocks, XD and XDms, 1911s, P-Series Rugers, all sorts of stuff – she’ll rarely turn down an opportunity to shoot, but she’s kinda picky – how that translated to a HiPoint being her favorite handgun is still beyond me, but that’s okay. She does recognize that the HiPoint is a less-than-optimal handgun for carry for a bajillion reasons, but the typical “small” handguns like the j-frame, LCP/Kel-Tec and subcompact Glocks don’t float her boat either – being familiar with the 9mm round, she was REALLY looking forward to taking the LC9 for a spin. She even loaded magazines..
She started with the HiPoint, just to have a comparison point (this shot is aiming only, no worries on the eye protection)
We then moved to the LC9..
Then we ran downrange and took a look at the targets.
Here’s a quick second shot of the hot side of the range area..
At 25 yards, she didn’t hit much of anything. So then we tried a little closer..
And STILL didn’t do well, even with her ol’ HiPoint.
We tried the LC9 as well, up close and personal
She thought maybe the lack of a “proper” target was throwing her off, so we tried eggs next..
Aaaaand, didn’t hit anything. I stopped taking pics at this point, because she was pretty ticked. Where had her accuracy gone? I grabbed the Glock 19 with the 22LR kit that I got from Phylodog and just had her shoot that a couple times, and she was spot on. NOW she was confused – we talked some over mindset and she decided maybe she was just afraid of the kick of the smaller handguns, and we did a couple snap-cap drills to confirm – she was just unsure enough of herself to draw herself off-target, missing each shot. Once she figured that out, she was happy to have something to work on, even starting to smile about it again..
You can’t tell from the pic, but it was starting to get late. I asked her to just take a couple of shots with my Glock 23, just as a comparison. She took aim at the egg, slowly squeezed the trigger, and the next thing I knew I was wiping egg yolk off my glasses. Moving to a handgun that fully fit her hand and that she could anticipate the recoil of made her shoot dead on. I pointed at the eggs and pop, pop, pop – the remaining three eggs exploded. I put up a milk jug filled with water and she blew that up too, then continued to shoot it, rolling it around the range..
8 holes in that, plus 4 eggs – not bad!
It was so dark by this point that the rest of my shots didn’t come out. You missed 15 rounds through the 10/22, 6 rounds of birdshot and 6 rounds of 00 buck through the shotgun, and about 15 through the AR15. I need to make another range trip soon to further check things out – I had some FTEs and don’t know if it was ammo or magazine. Luckily I have several other types of both to try. We cleaned up and walked BACK up those stairs and made our way home.
The best part of my day wasn’t the shooting I got to do myself – it was taking my wife out and sharing something I enjoy with her. Watching her shoot and improve as she went was awesome. That’s one of the things I love about Camp Tecumseh – there aren’t many places where a kid can experience so many great things in one location. Many kids these days don’t get a chance to experience the things we did growing up – learning to shoot, catching a fish, having fun without Facebook or iPads or video games. Sure, there are some neat things that we (well, the older “we” folks anyhow) didn’t do much growing up too – climbing walls and ziplines and learning Brazilian dance moves – but at the very heart of things, camp is a lot like the camps we attended when we were kids – it’s still sleeping bags and bunks, hiking in the woods, canoeing and swimming – that stuff hasn’t changed in decades. I’m looking forward to spending time at camp with my daughter when she’s old enough to understand and enjoy the place.
Well, that was a little longwinded - it was a great afternoon and I can't wait to do it again!
We had originally planned on hitting Winamac but after spending more time than planned at the quilt shop in the morning; our lunch at Red Lobster ran a little later as well so we did some begging and pleading and got permission to shoot at Camp Tecumseh.
Camp Tecumseh is a YMCA facility between Brookston and Delphi. It’s a large operation – 500+ acres, enough cabins and other areas to house about 600 people, plus staff housing – they operate year-round, primarily with a summer camp focus from June thru August and then retreats and things the rest of the year. They’ve been in operation since 1924.
We chose to do our shooting at the Ralston Marksmanship Range, in the “Lake Village”. First, we parked and grabbed our gear..
Then we started walking down the stairs to the range. (and PS – no, I didn’t make her carry everything!)
Here’s a shot of us approaching the range..
And this is what the target area looks like from the shooting platform.
The length is 25 yards, and as you’ll see in the next picture this range is set up for inexperienced shooters to learn how to shoot. For the summer camp program and the retreat groups, they lock their rifles down to limit the angles of where the rifles can shoot. I didn’t have access to them, but camp teaches riflery using some sort of bolt-action Mossberg 22LR and they train the instructors in all the aspects of basic riflery skills.
Oooh, and as you saw in the previous picture, I brought a few different firearms to shoot – my 10/22, 590a1, and I brought my self-assembled AR15 out for its second test run..
My wife brought her HiPoint C9 (yeah, yeah, I know) and I brought an LC9 that I borrowed from a buddy. See, my wife is getting more and more interested in shooting and is at the point where she wants to train and learn, and she wants to get her own carry permit – we’d been to a couple of shops and she liked the looks of the LC9. She’s had her HiPoint for years and it’s her go-to handgun, like it or not – we’d tried Glocks, XD and XDms, 1911s, P-Series Rugers, all sorts of stuff – she’ll rarely turn down an opportunity to shoot, but she’s kinda picky – how that translated to a HiPoint being her favorite handgun is still beyond me, but that’s okay. She does recognize that the HiPoint is a less-than-optimal handgun for carry for a bajillion reasons, but the typical “small” handguns like the j-frame, LCP/Kel-Tec and subcompact Glocks don’t float her boat either – being familiar with the 9mm round, she was REALLY looking forward to taking the LC9 for a spin. She even loaded magazines..
She started with the HiPoint, just to have a comparison point (this shot is aiming only, no worries on the eye protection)
We then moved to the LC9..
Then we ran downrange and took a look at the targets.
Here’s a quick second shot of the hot side of the range area..
At 25 yards, she didn’t hit much of anything. So then we tried a little closer..
And STILL didn’t do well, even with her ol’ HiPoint.
We tried the LC9 as well, up close and personal
She thought maybe the lack of a “proper” target was throwing her off, so we tried eggs next..
Aaaaand, didn’t hit anything. I stopped taking pics at this point, because she was pretty ticked. Where had her accuracy gone? I grabbed the Glock 19 with the 22LR kit that I got from Phylodog and just had her shoot that a couple times, and she was spot on. NOW she was confused – we talked some over mindset and she decided maybe she was just afraid of the kick of the smaller handguns, and we did a couple snap-cap drills to confirm – she was just unsure enough of herself to draw herself off-target, missing each shot. Once she figured that out, she was happy to have something to work on, even starting to smile about it again..
You can’t tell from the pic, but it was starting to get late. I asked her to just take a couple of shots with my Glock 23, just as a comparison. She took aim at the egg, slowly squeezed the trigger, and the next thing I knew I was wiping egg yolk off my glasses. Moving to a handgun that fully fit her hand and that she could anticipate the recoil of made her shoot dead on. I pointed at the eggs and pop, pop, pop – the remaining three eggs exploded. I put up a milk jug filled with water and she blew that up too, then continued to shoot it, rolling it around the range..
8 holes in that, plus 4 eggs – not bad!
It was so dark by this point that the rest of my shots didn’t come out. You missed 15 rounds through the 10/22, 6 rounds of birdshot and 6 rounds of 00 buck through the shotgun, and about 15 through the AR15. I need to make another range trip soon to further check things out – I had some FTEs and don’t know if it was ammo or magazine. Luckily I have several other types of both to try. We cleaned up and walked BACK up those stairs and made our way home.
The best part of my day wasn’t the shooting I got to do myself – it was taking my wife out and sharing something I enjoy with her. Watching her shoot and improve as she went was awesome. That’s one of the things I love about Camp Tecumseh – there aren’t many places where a kid can experience so many great things in one location. Many kids these days don’t get a chance to experience the things we did growing up – learning to shoot, catching a fish, having fun without Facebook or iPads or video games. Sure, there are some neat things that we (well, the older “we” folks anyhow) didn’t do much growing up too – climbing walls and ziplines and learning Brazilian dance moves – but at the very heart of things, camp is a lot like the camps we attended when we were kids – it’s still sleeping bags and bunks, hiking in the woods, canoeing and swimming – that stuff hasn’t changed in decades. I’m looking forward to spending time at camp with my daughter when she’s old enough to understand and enjoy the place.
Well, that was a little longwinded - it was a great afternoon and I can't wait to do it again!
