[bunkerhill7]

When I was 14, purchased an Army Store LR .22. I practised arcmanship at a quarter mile or more with a non-reticled 90X telescope mounted on the rifle to see how close I could get to a groundhog without hitting him. After a couple summers, I could predict the arc by locking in the vertical axis and doing a quick intutive elevation without using the sight. I could hit the ground hog mound within 2 or 3 inches of the hole or near the ground hog with 2 shots. The brain can calculate the arcs automatically. -

Then I taught my 8 -year old brother to do the same thing- He could hardly hold the rifle up.

My ``so called friends`` would say ``Hello`` by arcing their 30-30`s from 200 feet below me and 1/4 mile away or so in the valley below and pop apples off the trees over our heads while we were walking thru our orchard.

Another `friend`` would greet us as we walked thru the pass by blowing bark of the tree we were passing with his 30-30, splattering us with splinters.

Most of us here, even my sister, are marksmen since our youth. We could tell who was shooting by the sound of the gun usually.

Later on they would ask us how many apples they hit. We did this all for fun. No one ever was hit.

One of our ``apple`` friends got the Congressional Medal of Honor in Vietnam for saving his platoon by holding off VC`s and killing 40 of them from atop an APC firing a 50 cal from his hip. But he`s still a little crazy now from it all.

[Candor7]

Thank you for these shooting stories. I grew up in Cnada with similar friends. We also liked shooting long range targets floating in lakes, using iron sights.After a while you knew just where to hold.And then you got to be natural with it at long range anywhere.

[Sea Parrot]

Sounds like very stupid friends to me, JMMHO.