potatoe
Silver $$ Contributor
Today was a pretty good day, it was a typical range day but I was able to go out with some of my family. My pops (ARW) and my grandfather/his dad was able to get out. My grandfather (who is in his mid 80's) stepped out wearing an old twin 8pt. buck hunter sweatshirt that I have no doubt was pushing my own age (30ish) it made me stop and think back about a time earlier in my youth. Many of the garments and items he uses still has the smell of the older time, the time I remember from being young . It's the smell of your grandmother's house that will remain with you forever. Those older sweatshirts that you can tell are not from this age. I honestly stopped and thought a moment about some of the times that we have all been out hunting years ago just over an old sweatshirt, and I thought about all the good times we have had. I am fortunate, very fortunate I have had great experiences hunting and fishing. My parents are great people, my youth is filled of nothing but great memories and experiences of outdoors. From groundhog hunting to deer hunting and everything in between, back when my parents wore such clothes and its was good memories. I remember when I was so young I could barely pick up his heavy varmint groundhog gun but he would set it up so I get shoot it. My pops has always been a good shooter and great teacher, very patient and helpful but overall just a natural shooter - he has held state and regional records but to talk to him he will never impose his accomplishments or tell you about them - who is hard to beat at any discipline and a great instructor from bows to handguns to rifles he molded me into the decent shooter I am now, I've never heard him tell anyone what his achievements have been nothing but pure humility. More importantly he showed me how to respect how others shot and not be boastful/rude.
We were shooting some of our nicer customized varmint guns, trued 700's and other true custom actions with pretty decent setups. We were shooting away, doing quite well when another group came up to the benches.
This group had two husbands, two wives and two sons (sounds like a joke right? but its not really) The one father/son was a good pair seemed quite likable but the other one was an odd pair. The father was a quite a know-it-all, one hole groups is all he shoots, has a gun factory gun that can't miss kinda guy and the son was larger boy and not too slick but meant well all the same. After some more shooting and my father and I had a shoot off at 300 yards (we TIED!) My pops offered the one son with the "know-it-all dad" to shoot his gun at 300 yards. At first the son was reluctant but my pops was pushing him, not taking no for an answer. So the son did. His (my pop's) trigger is light (remember these guys are used to shooting 2oz triggers) So after some dry firing's he let the kid shoot one round at 300 yards. The shot was quick, very quick. I was watching through the scope the the kid missed clean, not on target at all but I didn't say anything. After the shot we were done and asked to walk down to get the targets.
While walking down my pops asked me if I had heard the 'know-it-all' dad talking to his son. I had not. He (the other father) was having a hard time getting on target at 300 yards and was being rough on the boy. He didn't like how he was spotting, was being very rough on him. He went so far as to banning him from spotting because he didn't like how he was doing. When we reached the 300yd target we confirmed that the boy missed clean, nothing on the paper. While walking back my pops took his pencil then poked a hole perfect dead center on the target. Once we returned my pops signed the target and wrote the distance/caliber on the paper and handed it to the boy.
The other group gathered around as if it was scripted, they all believed the boy shot that one perfect shot, the dad was patting the boy on the back in disbelief about the perfect 300yd shot thinking it was 100 yards but about fell over when it was a 300yd shot. The son was talking about framing the shot. I honestly found myself looking at it as a 3rd person, it seemed faked and staged but from being there from the beginning I knew it wasn't. I thought to myself how perfect this laid plan has hit that my pops was greater man, he made them more connected by a pencil hole on a Saturday on a piece of cardboard. It made me wonder how many pencil holes my pops made through out my life that I was blind to. My pops didn't sell that family phony shot, he sold that boy inspiration, inspiration that I'm sure he sold me in my youth. Thanks pops (ARW) for being a great teacher, instructor, parent. I'll never forget that pops along with a few others.
We were shooting some of our nicer customized varmint guns, trued 700's and other true custom actions with pretty decent setups. We were shooting away, doing quite well when another group came up to the benches.
This group had two husbands, two wives and two sons (sounds like a joke right? but its not really) The one father/son was a good pair seemed quite likable but the other one was an odd pair. The father was a quite a know-it-all, one hole groups is all he shoots, has a gun factory gun that can't miss kinda guy and the son was larger boy and not too slick but meant well all the same. After some more shooting and my father and I had a shoot off at 300 yards (we TIED!) My pops offered the one son with the "know-it-all dad" to shoot his gun at 300 yards. At first the son was reluctant but my pops was pushing him, not taking no for an answer. So the son did. His (my pop's) trigger is light (remember these guys are used to shooting 2oz triggers) So after some dry firing's he let the kid shoot one round at 300 yards. The shot was quick, very quick. I was watching through the scope the the kid missed clean, not on target at all but I didn't say anything. After the shot we were done and asked to walk down to get the targets.
While walking down my pops asked me if I had heard the 'know-it-all' dad talking to his son. I had not. He (the other father) was having a hard time getting on target at 300 yards and was being rough on the boy. He didn't like how he was spotting, was being very rough on him. He went so far as to banning him from spotting because he didn't like how he was doing. When we reached the 300yd target we confirmed that the boy missed clean, nothing on the paper. While walking back my pops took his pencil then poked a hole perfect dead center on the target. Once we returned my pops signed the target and wrote the distance/caliber on the paper and handed it to the boy.
The other group gathered around as if it was scripted, they all believed the boy shot that one perfect shot, the dad was patting the boy on the back in disbelief about the perfect 300yd shot thinking it was 100 yards but about fell over when it was a 300yd shot. The son was talking about framing the shot. I honestly found myself looking at it as a 3rd person, it seemed faked and staged but from being there from the beginning I knew it wasn't. I thought to myself how perfect this laid plan has hit that my pops was greater man, he made them more connected by a pencil hole on a Saturday on a piece of cardboard. It made me wonder how many pencil holes my pops made through out my life that I was blind to. My pops didn't sell that family phony shot, he sold that boy inspiration, inspiration that I'm sure he sold me in my youth. Thanks pops (ARW) for being a great teacher, instructor, parent. I'll never forget that pops along with a few others.
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