Who Needs Targets If It's loud and Goes Bang?
Purist readers may blanch at this Bulletin item, but every once in a while we need a good laugh, right? Indulge your editor in this — I just couldn’t resist ruthlessly mocking the mentality found on some main-stream gun websites. I found this item on another popular web forum. In the post the owner was bragging about his new Kel-Tec PLR-16 .223 Pistol.
Mind you, he didn’t shoot at any targets, but he was overjoyed with the noise and flame his new toy produced: “Just got [my Kel-Tec] two days ago. I love it. The shock wave and sound coming out of such a short barrel is very impresive [sic]. I didn’t set up any targets, so I can’t tell you how accurate it is, but it is a blast to shoot!”
If you’re not shooting at any targets, one wonders why spend $500 in the first place. But maybe we should give Mr. Kel-tec Pistol some credit for his creativity….
Myriad Benefits of Shooting without Targets
When you think about it, maybe Mr. Kel-Tec could start a trend. Imagine the labor savings at highpower matches if we removed the targets–you’d no longer need a crew in the pits. And if “point-blank” benchresters no longer shot at targets, they could retire their forests of windflags. In the F-Class game, eliminating targets would promote the use of low-cost, low-recoiling calibers, such as the 22 Short, for 1000-yard shooting. If there’s no target, it doesn’t really matter if the bullet never gets there, right — you can still claim a perfect score every time! And if we didn’t shoot at targets, we wouldn’t have to keep ponying up more and more money for the latest and greatest $2000+ target scopes. Heck we wouldn’t need scopes at all….
Some of the guys at my club could do with one of those Kel-tec pistols, after all they pay the $2000 for the scope and $5000 for the rifle and still cant hit the target at 100 yards let alone 1000, with a kel-tec pistol they would at least have the odd chance of hitting something at 100 yards, even if it did mean they dug a trench with all that wasted ammo.
And the “gangsta’s and drug dealers will love them.
I don’t get it either, but sneering at another part of the shooting community isn’t going to help us. I doubt that the Brady campaigners see much difference between this guy and us. If anything we’re worse, because we hit what we shoot at from far far away. Is the equipment we use any less extreme? Please, no more elitism.