It's a slippery slope, those shooting sports. Before you know it, you've spent over a thousand on "little things".

I love shooting, but when my friends got into IPSC, well, let's just say I couldn't afford to keep up.

My shooting friends and I did invent the best shooting sport ever, though. It's challenging enough for experienced shooters, but at the same time there's a handicaping aspect that gives people new to the sport an even shot (no pun intended) at winning. In fact, that's what this game is best for, getting non-shooters into shooting (as far as I'm concerned, the best way to protect the 2nd ammendment is to get more people into shooting). It's best with a large group of people, the more the better.

The game requires a simple target that you can photocopy on regular paper after you draw it. Design it with two rings, the center ring about 3" in diameter,and an outer ring of about 6". The score for the center ring is 0 (Zero), the next ring is 2, and outside of that (including off the paper) is 4. You also need a shot timer.

For the first round, Everyone takes a turn with three rounds in the gun and the target at 10 yards or so. You start with the gun sitting on the table in front of you and your hands in the air. The RO stands behind you with the shot timer and says "go". Pick up the gun and, as fast as you can, put three rounds into the target. Your score is your time plus the target score, the lower the better. We used to handicap the SA shooters by subtracting a point from their score. Write the score on the target and after everyone shoots, the real game begins. The highest score gets teamed up with the lowest, the second highest with the second lowest, and so-on. Now, everyone puts a dollar into a pot (the betting aspect stops people from sand-bagging). Everyone shoots again (the order doesn't matter) and the teams add their scores. The team with the lowest score wins the pot, plus bragging rights untill the next round. Again, new teams are created with the last rounds scores. Again, the highest with the lowest. This way, the teams change every round.

I have great memories from those shooting sessions. we used to have so much fun, shooting, talking $]-[1t, and just goofing around (while observing all safety rules, seriously). I only quit going because I was going through a divorce and then changing jobs. I miss those days. I would seriously encourage anyone with a few fellow gun-nut friends to start a regular range night that you can invite non-shooters to. It's a great way to promote the sport, and the 2nd ammendment, too.

My friends and I used to go to the range every other week. Pretty soon, we had about twenty people going regularly, many who had never shot before. It was great fun. The betting kept it very interesting, though I don't think it ever really cost me. The way that the handicaping worked, the winner was pretty random, so that most nights, everyone seemed to break even.