driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

I have to laugh when I read such silly phrases.While I have seen some people use such phrases,they don't really tell much about a gun.After all lights can be small,or they can be several feet in size.Tacks can be small,or have large heads.At close enough range, a person can hit either with almost any gun.I wonder just how many people that use these phrases have actually shot a light out,or who have ever intentionally driven tacks by shooting bullets at the.If you want to use a meaningful description,group size and range actually tell a person something about a gun.That is if you measure groups properly and count every shot.

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

HAHAHA

I actually use an old piece of tin that used to be a sidewall of a metal building to sight in my 22 on. You can see all the nailheads (a little smaller than a dime) and once I start shooting the heads off with my 22 I call it good.

And shooting lights out, well thats only happened a few times ;)

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

I have actually shot at thumb tacks before.

Paul

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

We shoot at the thumbtacks holding the targets up with our .22's when we get tired of shooting the target.

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

We like trying to light matches...have yet to do it :D

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

That would be lights on. Tom.

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

We have been trying to light matches too.I can shhot the head off of one .I haven't lit one yet.I guess Jed Clampet still rules.:D

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

That was just 1 shot, the 2 were off the paper completely..

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RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

It's a figure of speech, a locution, an idiom...they simply mean that the rifle in question shoots very well. Not the most descriptive language, but it does convey the point well enough for most people.

Does the phrase "raining cats and dogs" also get your knickers in a twist?;)[8D]

Mike

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

Not well enough for me since many people that I have heard using those terms, used them to describe a rifle that fluked off a single sub 1" group,but their average group with the gun was no better than 1-1/2" or 2" for a three shot group at 100 yards.I have also heard those terms used by people that fluked off a single very difficult shot,that they have never been able to duplicate since.

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

Like driftrider said, it's just a figure of speech. Don't get all worked up about it.



Man, that car hauls butt... Compare that 10 second camaro to a top fuel car and it is slower than a snale.

Man, she's smokin hot... Compare the hot girl next door to a centerfold and she is meerly "OK".

Man, that bucks a wall hanger for sure... Compare a South Florida"wall hanger"to a an Iowa "wall hanger" and those Iowa boys wouldn't even bat an eye.

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

hey you callin our florida deer small????:Dyep now that is a fact our deer are small unless you go up to north florida and i mean north, like were you shoot your gun and the bullets ends up across the border close.

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

Can't be any smaller than the coastal North Carolina deer. First time I say one (several actually) I was driving onto Camp Lejeune for the first time at night and saw about a dozen of them in the ditch. In the darkness I thought that they were a pack of feral dogs until I got within 50 yards of them. But then again, I'm a Iowa boy, and so my perception of what a big deer ought to look like is a bit skewed. They might have been large deer in NC.

Mike

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

Don't worry, I live just East of Pensacola and hunt Blackwater forest, Escambia WMA, and maybe Eglin AFB.

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

Going to college in Montana now, and I'm missing my cornfed Iowa whitetails.

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

My grandmother could do it.
She used a .22 single shot I don't recall the brand.
She was like the women that went out west in the covered wagens.

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

Myself and shooting buddie shoot at least one day aweek most of the year.At 100 yds we shoot mostly one inch dots or squares,if someone leaves a tack on the target butt we stick it in the center of the dot or square,if we accidently hit it we automaticely deem it a TACK DRIVER. rifle.:D

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

Well, I'm not sure if this counts or not, but this little Winchester 52B will do this if I do my part at 50 yards. Bench rested of course. Wolf Match ammo. Front globe and rear peep Vaver target sights. Sorry about the picture being so big. Not sure how to reduce it.

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

When it comes to shooting tacks, your gun has to have the ability to shoot "spot on", most targets with groups that I have seen posted do have nice groups but are usually not even close to the center of the bull. No offense to the group above but the X is still showing.
Below is a picture, the 100yd group was shot with a Cooper 6.5x284.I will admit I can not do this consistantly, because frankly it's very very hard to do with a hunting rifle. The inside white of the bull measures .375" (3/8") or about the size of a tack head.

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

Good shooting for a 22.But where are the lights or tacks?:D:D:D

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

Nice group, but I'd say that a dimes' width away from the bull isn't too bad. After all, we're talking about a rifle that was made in 1948, with open sights at an outdoor range at 50 yards. No offense, buta 6.5 x .284 at 100 yards isn't even stretching its legs good. That's a 1,000 yard competition round and should be expected to do this time after time. Again, no offense, but I think I'd rather have a .22 that could shoot my groups at 50 yardsthan a wildcat that could shoot those groupsat 100. Back off a little bit and see what it'll do.

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RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

Exactly.I try to see how inherently accurate my rifles are. Many times I'm shooting at a spot and not really worrying about where the bullets are hitting. Shooting a 5 shot group that can be covered with a large bug is more satisfying to me, personally, than shooting a perfect 100 with 5 of those shots being X's andthe rest of them being wide10's. There's just something about an insanely tight group that gets my blood flowing. Especially if it's being done with "outdated" equipment.

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

I'm the same way, I like my groups to be off my aiming point.

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

IF you have a rifle that shoots like that, with a quality scope on it, you can move the group to any spot you want. I always zero my hunting rifles to hit high at 100 yards (except for BP guns). How high depends on the maximum range at which I am willing to take a shot with that rifle. But never so high as to cause midrange misses!

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

This really doesn't have anything to do with the match story, but growing up on a Nebraska farm we used to save our empty shotgun shells up and when spring rolled around have massive "hunt the shell" safari's...we'd all take 30 or 40 and go hide them in the junk pile in the pasture tree rows, bale pilesetc, then go walking side by side picking them off with our little single shot .22s...fun fun fun...they'd arch up and away, the idea was to shoot them until you cound;t see them...just keep bouncing them along....

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

Persoally, when shooting groups, like others here have said, I don't want to hit the aiming point. I want the group to appear some distance off so I can still clearly see the aiming point. As was said before... If you can get a load that shoots to your satisfaction consistantly, then you can change the POI on the target to where you want.

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

This is my .220 swift target I used for load verifcation.I was going for consistincy (sp) not the X. Then I sighted my rifle in to match my round. There are 12 shots in those 4 targets.And I cant do that everyday either. But most of the time that old yote is not real happy.We practice with 20oz bottles filled with water out to 600 yards,man that is fun stuff.

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

Small groups are all well and good provided that you'll be shooting from a bench rest when hunting;)

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

Thats right but I like to make sure my rifles are sighted in the best they can be.I know its different out in the field,but there is no other real way to accurately sight in except from a bench that I know of.It shows me how good of load I made forMY rifle and just how good of rifle I have.

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

I'd sure rather have an MOA gun or sub-MOA that I'm confident with than a 2"-3" MOA gun anyday. That only comes from benchwork and lots of it. Granted, oftentimes you will have to shoot offhand or with an improvised rest of some sort when hunting. The more capable your gun is of hitting where you're looking the better your chances. Particularly if your shot is from a limb rest at 250+ yds. JMO.........

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

I never see groups posted on internet forum where guys shot from improvised positions at 250+ yards though, a MOA gun is only an indicator of how well the rifle shoots.[8D]

RE: driving tacks?shooting lights out?
 

......That's just my point, I guess........