We are not much of a gun family. Despite that, we have gradually acquired more guns than family members. My son was on his high school trap team and used my old Remington 870 Express that I use for goose and pheasant hunting. He likes to shoot sporting clays, so naturally I had to buy a second shotgun, a Mossberg 500, so I could shoot with him. Sporting clays is like golf, but way better as you are basically shooting the ball.
My father had two rifles. One was a Marlin 39A dating to the 1950s. The second is an Arisaka Type 99, a Japanese rifle from World War II. We assume my grandfather brought it home from the war. My son has long been fascinated by the second rifle. Over the summer, I had it checked out by a local gunsmith, who pronounced it safe to shoot. We purchased two boxes of cartridges from Graf & Sons, but never found the time to shoot before he went off to college.
This weekend, with Henry home for Christmas break and with temperatures in the 40s and 50s, we found some time. We initially went to the Richland County rifle range, but there were three men there who looked very serious about sighting in their rifles. So, we returned to the property and set up some targets in the pasture. There is a depression in the middle of the pasture, and we set up such that we were shooting into the depression and towards some woods.
The Arisaka, which uses a 7.7x58 mm cartridge, was as loud as one might expect from a 70-year old gun from a war. But it was fun to shoot. The Marlin was my favorite, as it reminded me of shooting at Boy Scout summer camp. Plus, a box of 100 rounds of 0.22 rimfire cartridges was only about $10, and readily available at Wal-Mart.
Nothing says father-son bonding like a day of shooting.
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