I spent New Year’s Day at the range, shooting several of my firearms. I shot rifles, handguns and shotguns, and I shot them a lot. I have purposely refrained from figuring out how many rounds I fired in total, because I don’t want to know how much money I sent down range. I don’t reload, so every round I fired had to be bought at the sporting goods store.
Granted, reloading isn’t free, either, and most of the guys I know who reload their own ammo don’t do it for the cost savings. They do it for the accuracy benefit, and the way they do it, it probably doesn’t save them much, if any, money. But they all shoot a lot better than I do, so maybe I ought to think about it.
Of course, if I did reload, not only would I have to clean all my guns when I get done shooting, I’d also have to spend a few hours at the reloading bench after a target shooting spree, and I just don’t have that kind of time.
My new year’s day evening was a long one, as it was. I stripped all those guns down and gave them a good, thorough cleaning. Then, since I had all my cleaning gear out, I pulled all the other guns out of the safe and cleaned them, as well. I didn’t think it would take too long, but it appeared a couple of those guns hadn’t been cleaned for decades. I try to be a good, responsible gun owner and take care of my guns, but sometimes, I have to admit, I just put them away when I’m done with them, thinking I’ll get around to cleaning them before too long.
That’s one of the reasons I try to get out to the shooting range on New Year’s Day every year. I get a chance to get some recoil therapy, and then I spend the evening cleaning all my guns, whether they need it or not. And while I’m at it, I change the batteries in the gun safe’s digital pad and the smoke detectors. Safety first, right?
Happy New Year to you. Here’s wishing you clean guns, plenty of trips to the range, and good luck in your hunting trips.
