Buried somewhere in this house, amongst the effluvia of memories and keepsakes, is a box containing a number of doo-dads from my youth. Some seemed incredibly important at the time, but their glory has faded with the years; others, conversely, seemed to have grown in stature over time as my understanding of their significance has increased. An example of the latter is a pair of small, blue first place ribbons, their attached badges proclaiming “Junior Rifle Class of ’70 – Prone Position – Highest Score – Boy” and “Total Highest Score – Boy”.

That “Junior Rifle Class of ‘70” was held in the ROTC range building on the UT campus in Austin. I’d love to be proven wrong, but somehow I doubt that that range still exists or that the idea of live-fire training dovetails very well with “THE” University’s current erudite social consciousness. I wish it did. Still, that was fifty-plus years ago, and to quote L.P. Hartley, “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there”.

What we “did differently” in 1970 was to learn to shoot with a sling and without a bench rest. Prone, sitting, kneeling and offhand…and all with aperture sights. The big Remington 540-X I shot back then wasn’t much shorter than I was and, while I outweighed it, I suspect that it wasn’t by much! We learned (sometimes almost at the point of tears) to work WITH the weight and size of those pieces and to use that sling and our own bone structure to create a more stable shooting platform. From there, we learned to control our breathing, to manage our triggers, and to “trust our wobble”. Part of the learning was fun, part was grim…but we learned nonetheless.

Some of those memories got yanked back into the present this morning while I was down at the range prepping for a hunt next week (the Red Gods permitting, a buddy and I are going down south to do rude things to a couple of nilgai bulls). I’ll drag along my old .375 as well as a .338-’06 Ackley Improved; the brass is prepped and only wants loading to be ready to go…which leaves ME. Am I ready? There’s been no shortage of shooting over the past months, what with one project or another, I’ve been at the bench a good bit…and that’s always part of the problem for me. If ever there was a love/hate, “frenemy” relationship, it’s between a bench rest and me! Oh, they’re wonderful for testing rifles and ammunition where we NEED to remove all the human error from the equation that we can…but what they give with one hand, they take with the other. That steadiness that they offer is addictive…and I find that I do well to go “cold turkey” before heading for the field, where I’ll likely be shooting off my hind legs.

My old pistol backstop sits 68 yards from the bench of my rifle range. There’s a .22 spinner in front of it as well as a target frame for paper, and every day between now and when I leave, I’ll burn 50 rounds of .22 at paper and steel, OFF the bench and ON my shooting sticks. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? And it could be, but the past two days have brought gusty, fretful winds…the kind that will swing your crosshairs through a full foot at that range. Hitting consistently means riding with your sight picture, breaking the shot when things look best, and trusting your wobble! And getting that shot off sooner rather than later often makes all the difference in the hunting world…

By the time I (hopefully) have a nilgai under the crosshairs, I’ll have weaned myself off the bench once again!

Great post, sir, and good luck on the hunt! Let us know how it goes.

Bee-autiful rifle! Good luck and have fun with your friend.

Love Cooper rifles, beauty and functionality combined. Good luck with the hunt Mark, I think a bull will be relocating to your freezer and perhaps wall.

Brought back memories of learning position shooting for my marksmanship merit badge about 1966 or 67. We shot in an old indoor range right on the Tacoma waterfront, and our instructor, Sgt. Ryan, was a member of the marksmanship team at Fort Lewis. He provided loaner Army Remington 540 rifles and Winchester ammunition, although I ended up qualifying with my brand-new Browning T-bolt. When the sergeant saw what I was doing with it he said "Let me shoot that rifle son." He was impressed.
I would need medical assistance to shoot three of those four positions today.
That's wonderful practice you got there Mark. I think most of us forget just how useful training with a .22 rifle can be.

Great read, sir. Went at UT in 2000 and never heard of a gun range being on campus. I have just been recently stricken by a similar illness, F-class. It is a very addicting hobby and i've just barely started scratching the surface.