What kind of shooting do you do with your AR?

[rob_s]

Sister thread to the "what drives your build". Pretty straightforward.

I currently shoot an AR about once a month in a local match. It's a match I founded almost 10 years ago but haven't run for a long time. It's kind of "IDPA with rifles" but with some changes to the scoring to make it more rifle-centric and it's also based on the IDPA rules of 10 years ago so it's a little less administrative and restrictive. At any rate, I hadn't even shot with the club in probably almost 2 years before I shot all of last "season". The season runs from July to June IIRC and I came in second for the season using iron sights. Not bad. But the scoring rewards attendance as much as placement in an individual match, so it really just means I showed up at every match.

You can see the scores here

Other than that, I don't really shoot my ARs at all anymore. I used to attend multiple training classes each year, often shooting in the neighborhood of 6-10k rounds per year between matches and classes. I also used to run a "drills night" with the same club, helping teach anywhere from 10-25 shooters a night, once a month, in the basics of running the carbine. But that rarely involved me shooting much myself. I'm looking to start getting involved in the drills again.

I've hunted hogs... somewhere around 3-5 times with my AR. Canned hunts, on fenced property, from a swamp buggy.

I'm not much for precision shooting. I lack the patience, and the area I live in lacks the facilities to make it truly interesting. And it seems like a pretty big money pit, if you're not careful.

Speaking of money pits, something else I can't get into is 3-gun. Too much traveling, too much gear, guns I don't own already (semi-auto shotgun), and one more set of rules I don't want to be bothered learning. Or, dozens of sets of rules since nobody uses thee same ones. The local match I shoot in now is 2-gun, and I think that's the way to go since most people already have a carbine and a pistol along with minimal support gear.

so what kind of shooting do you do with your AR?

[GOST]

Mostly recreational for me on the family farm, no competitions. I probably shoot my handguns more than my ARs. Only about 2-3K rounds per year for me.

[BC98]

Primarily recreational shooting with some competition (2-gun or interoffice type stuff with coworkers) and long-range mixed in. I'll take a carbine course when budget and schedule allow because I have fun and always like learning something new.

[rob_s]

How do you guys define "recreational shooting". That's what I consider my match shooting. Are you talking about plinking? Something else? What do you plink... at?

[voodoo_man]

People shooting.

[Pyzik]

None...

Okay, seriously just the boring kind at the moment. Static range, shooting at paper.
Just took my carbine class and soon it will all change. Looking to become a member of a club so I can do the fun stuff.

[rob_s]

None...

Okay, seriously just the boring kind at the moment. Static range, shooting at paper.
Just took my carbine class and soon it will all change. Looking to become a member of a club so I can do the fun stuff.

For awhile classes and matches, and now just matches, are the only thing that keep my interest up relative to guns. It's probably been that way for me for 10+ years since I shot my first match. I absolutely dread the idea of the public range, sitting at the bench... hell, I don't even like the idea of "plinking" with friends. From time to time I get visitors from out of town that want to "go shooting", and the very thought sets my teeth on edge.

Not that one is any better than the other, I just couldn't go back to that kind of shooting once I was exposed to action shooting comps and classes.

[GOST]

How do you guys define "recreational shooting". That's what I consider my match shooting. Are you talking about plinking? Something else? What do you plink... at?

Plinking, various paper targets. I like using the high visibility reactive targets. I also like jugs filled with water and aluminum cans. I have some barricades made out of pallets in field. Would like to get some steel targets made once I have more funds. About the only hunting I do anymore is varmint, like ground hogs and skunks. At the farm 300 yards is about the farthest we can safely shoot, most is done under that though. There is a nice local range not to far from the farm that my buddies use that has both 600 and 1000 yard bench rest, but I don't have the patience to join them.

[Pyzik]

For awhile classes and matches, and now just matches, are the only thing that keep my interest up relative to guns. It's probably been that way for me for 10+ years since I shot my first match. I absolutely dread the idea of the public range, sitting at the bench... hell, I don't even like the idea of "plinking" with friends. From time to time I get visitors from out of town that want to "go shooting", and the very thought sets my teeth on edge.

Not that one is any better than the other, I just couldn't go back to that kind of shooting once I was exposed to action shooting comps and classes.

Yup. This is my future. Haha

[MoxyDave]

I had my first intro to precision shooting with my latest build. It was entertaining seeing how accurately I can punch paper at long distance, but it got boring fast. Lately I've been going with some friends to some private land where we have a home-grown 3-gun setup going, and that's a lot more fun. We have an Action Target dueling tree for .22lr, then some steel at various distances for handgun and AR. We don't shoot shotguns much, not sure why. I'd like to try skeet shooting one of these days.

I've been a member of a private indoor range for years and I recently let my membership go; shooting at a static range is just so stinkin' boring! It's fine for learning fundamentals, but I'd rather be able to knock down 5 steel targets while on the move than shoot 5 perfect bullseyes on paper.

[gatordev]

I've been a member of a private indoor range for years and I recently let my membership go; shooting at a static range is just so stinkin' boring! It's fine for learning fundamentals, but I'd rather be able to knock down 5 steel targets while on the move than shoot 5 perfect bullseyes on paper.

I hate shooting for groups, be it at 100m or 600m. But shooting long distance at steel can make it more interesting if you have the initial patience. Honestly, I think taking a class or two gave me more patience because it gave me the tools to understand what I'm doing. Generally people don't like to shoot when there's wind because then they miss. Personally, I find that's when long distance shooting can get more interesting because you have to actually practice an art rather than just putting the reticule on the target and making sure you squeeze correctly.

All that said, running and gunning with a carbine is still plenty 'o fun in my book.

[UWone77]

Lately, all my shooting has been zero'ing of the massive amount of uppers I have.

[Pyzik]

Lately, all my shooting has been zero'ing of the massive amount of uppers I have.

First world problems.

[browcs]

Training at work mostly these days...on my own time, which is scarce these days, to mostly function check and confirm zeroes.

[Naytwan]

Mostly recreational. I have done some training. Need to do more. I've also wanted to do 3 gun but I need Mossberg 930 JM.