Plinkapalooza! - The Shooting Wire

I’m in the process of getting rid of the various accumulations of the last half-century of my career, finally tossing old TV audition tapes, show reels, newspaper clippings and all the assorted mementos of a life in the media.

It’s not easy.

Despite a memory that can forget half of a four-item grocery list, I still remember pull quotes of interviews from decades ago. Mine’s the type of memory that attaches emotionally to otherwise unremarkable “stuff.” That makes purging problematic.

My “purge” includes my gun safe(s). Not moving guns around; actually sending most of them to new homes. I’m struggling, despite realizing that we never really “own” guns; we’re only caretakers. Properly cared for, they’ll be around long after I’m not. Many of mine have had several prior owners.

My recent trip to Range Ready in Louisiana helped me refocus on guns I really like, not those I “might shoot one day.”

The Louisiana event was “Plinkapalooza” - a celebration of rimfire designed to remind invited media types that rimfire is where the love of shooting originates.

Plinkapalooza delivered.

Thousands of rounds of .22 LR, .22 Magnum and .17HMR were fired at targets reminiscent of the long-gone shooting galleries of my youth.

Ringing steel, popping powder filled balloons, shooting PEZ candies, and exploding targets reminded me of why I started shooting: it was fun. Rimfire was, and still is, affordable.

Dave Nash, a/k/a “22 Plinkster” joined the fun of Plinkapalooza, splitting a playing card and shooting a PEZ candy off the top of a balloon. That’s why he has a massive social media following.

Plinkapalooza was a reminder that gun writers focus too-much on “latest and greatest stuff.”

We don’t pay nearly enough attention to the guns that helped introduce most of us to shooting: rimfires.

Plinkapalooza re-focused me on the fun of shooting. The pure joy of ringing steel or popping balloons or hitting candies with guns that didn’t punish me with recoil, stun me with concussion or impoverish me with the cost of ammunition.

A reminder shooting wasn’t just serious business and I was neither a stealthy ninja killer nor a sheepdog protecting the flock. I was just an older guy reconnecting with the childlike fun of shooting.

Rimfires aren’t as cheap as they were when I was a kid, but gasoline isn’t twenty-three cents per gallon either.

Times have changed.So have the guns, the ammunition and the accessories. But the fun’s still there.

You can see the variety of targets on the 100-yard range. Hitting some of them ignited some pretty impressive pyrotechnics.

The majority of the guns were fitted with Banish suppressors from Silencer Central. Everyone agrees suppression is terrific for heavy calibers.

With rimfires it’s magical.

Shooting a suppressed Smith & Wesson FPC carbine </https://www.smith-wesson.com/product/m-p-fpc-22lr> the loudest sound I heard wasn’t the crack of the round; it was the trigger reset.

Throughout the Plinkapalooza, suppression was so good that unsuppressed S&W .22LR revolvers sounded like heavy calibers.

The ability to actually hear steel react added to the fun of challenge targets like Caldwell’s KYL (Know Your Limits), “flashers” ( Caldwell’s Flash Bang AR500 Steel Target Hit Indicators) added visual stimulus to ringing their steel targets. Seeing a flasher illuminate after a 100-yard it on their 33% deer target - with a handgun I can’t yet talk about yet - wasn’t just gratifying, it was great fun. Fun in shooting is not a bad thing-we sometimes forget that.

The Kinetic Group’s Remington brand has specially-packaged 22 Yellow Jacket ammo commemorating our 250th birthday (top). Thousands of their other varieties (bottom) weren’t spared as souvenirs.

In classroom sessions, The Kinetic Group’s J.J. Reich reminded us that the vast selection of .22 rimfire rounds today don’t mean the diminutive cartridge is only for “plinking.” Like any firearm, it has the ability to do serious damage, despite being fun to shoot.

Seeing what “plinking” round did in ballistic gel brought that fact home. While thousands of rounds reminded me of the joy of shooting, seeing the impact of Federal Premium’s .22 Punch, a 29-grain, nickel plated, flat nosed .22 LR bullet zipping along at 1080fps, reminded me it’s still a weapon.

But it wouldn’t have been a “true” media event if we didn’t get to see -and shoot- guns that either are custom or not-yet-available to the general public. The rifles and pistols from Volquartsen are true hand-fitted, highly smithed guns that are actually affordable -at least when compared to heavier calibers. S&W’s Victory .22s with carbon fiber barrels and high-end accessories are also serious competition contenders.

But a brand normally thought of for affordability also held its own. Rifles from Savage Arms weren’t just affordable; they were dead nuts accurate. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about their newest entries into the .22 rimfire category, but shooters will find them attractive-in more ways than one (we’ll keep you posted).

Everyone had the opportunity to try and copy 22 Plinkster’s card-splitting trick shot. I got lucky - with iron sights (top) We topped off two days of fun with a pyrotechnic finish (bottom).

Plinkapalooza wasn’t just an opportunity to see new products, visit with friends and, more importantly, reconnect with the fun of shooting. It was a reminder for all of us that “plinking” can preserve and improve all-too-perishable shooting skills.

None of those are bad things.

As always, we’ll keep you posted.

— Jim Shepherd