The Internet Likes Gun Pictures...

     Here's mine, from a trip to Eagle Creek Range with The Data Viking yesterday:

     My Hi-Standard nine-shooter and S&W "kit gun" ("Combat Masterpiece," IIRC), double-action .22 revolvers because there's still no better practice sidearm to build good habits.

[That preposterous moment when you realize that not only is the world so rough you're worried you may die standing in a big pile of brass, it's so petty that it's probably going to be a pile of .22 brass.  And you'll have gone broke buying it.]

     Target from one bout, at 7 yards: statistically, I'm an okay shot--

     Target I shot at the same distance with DV's remarkable Hi-Standard model G-E .22 target pistol:

     A few words about that particular iron: they were only made between 1946-50 and only 2,900 were made; $1500 is a pretty typical price if you find one.  His has the longer 6.75" barrel and one of the nicest sets of target grips I've held.  You're probably wondering, "Fifteen hundred dollars?  What's it got that a Colt or a Ruger .22 hasn't got?"  Take another look at that target.  I am a slightly above-average shot.  There are five holes in that paper, my first five shots with it, ever.  One is unmarked at about 5:30 at the edge of the gray at top left, followed by one just at the edge of the black on the same radial, then shots centered in the large target, centered in the top-center and not too far off at top right.  The only instruction from the Data Viking was that the sight picture was set to have the point of aim just above the sights and not covered by them as is now typical.  Most good .22s are more accurate than the person shooting them -- this Hi-Standard G-E hauls the shooter up to its level.  If that's typical of the breed, it goes a long way to explain why they sell for four or five times the price of a Ruger Mk. II or III.

     I also brought my one of my Colt .32-20s, which makes a fine loud noise and puts holes in the paper where I aim it -- with the teeny-tiny sights, so let's just say my Standard isn't quite as Hi with it. (See also the scatter of hits around twelve o'clock on the wide image of the target, above.)

     All in all, a fun way to pass the mid-day, especially on the covered firing line in on-and-off rain

Seven of the ten lanes in the East half of Eagle Creek Park Range -- it's a police range all week and a public range on the weekends.  These days, they even share a classroom and washrooms in the range office, a big improvement in facilities.