Gun Golf

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Artofgolf

Artofgolf

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Below is a suggestion from Jason Hansen [Spy Escape & Evasion] to add a new twist to practice & friendly competition.

I hate golfing. To me, it’s a terribly boring sport that I have no interest in. One time, friends talked me into playing a round of golf and I was ready to smash my club into a thousands pieces after just a few holes.

However, there’s a new “sport” I love and I’m calling it Gun Golfing. Let me explain…

The other day I’m sitting in my office and my wife walks in. She’s carrying a two by four that’s about two and a half feet long. Sticking out of the two by four are several golf tees.

She explains to me that she’s just come up with a brilliant idea where you can either put golf balls or ping pong balls on the tees and have a competition shooting them off.

I immediately thought this was the greatest idea ever and asked her if she got this from Pinterest, where she gets everything else. (For the record, she told me she did not get this from Pinterest… this was all her.) So, I grabbed the two by four full of golf tees and the family and I headed out to the shooting range to give this idea a test. Below are a few of the pictures…

BallsOnTee.jpeg

ShootingBalls.jpeg

ShotBalls.jpeg

The rules are very similar to golf: you’re trying to fire the least number of rounds required for you to hit all of the balls off the tees. The person at the end of the course with the lowest number of points wins. If you’re playing alone, just try to decrease your score every time you play.

I started “Gun Golfing” from 7 yards and ended up hitting one of the tees the first time around but also knocking all of the balls off the tee, so for my first game, I unfortunately did not have a perfect score (a perfect score would have been a 5 in this case, if I hadn’t hit any tees).

To make it a little more challenging, I played again and I moved back to 10 yards. Using a slow and smooth trigger pull, I had no problem knocking the balls off, and didn’t hit any tees this time. (I was using ping-pong balls because I had more of those at my home, but on windy days will use golf balls as they are heavier.)

The beauty of Gun Golfing is that it goes with the “aim small, miss small” theory. Since you’re practicing at such a small object, if you become proficient in shooting the balls off of the tees, you’ll be well prepared for a man-sized target.

So, if you have access to an outdoor range I encourage you to try a little gun golfing. It’s fun and challenging and breaks up the monotony of simply shooting paper.
 
Here in the South gun golf has been around for a while, but our version involve shooting the ball around a course with the least number of shots.
 
hso said:
Here in the South gun golf has been around for a while, but our version involve shooting the ball around a course with the least number of shots.
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Your southern version sounds like it's more of a challenge. Jack Nicklaus would approve!
Unfortunately, in the Concrete Jungle, open land is limited :confused:
 
Awesome, I love it! Talk to Ranger Roberts, I think he and his neighbor play a version also. I'll shoot him a PM to see if he has anything to add.
 
Artofgolf said:
if you have access to an outdoor range I encourage you to try a little gun golfing.
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Sounds like fun, but it'd be a no-go at my range, the owner being concerned about ricochets off the ground, as well as shooters leaving their trash behind after they've shot it to pieces.

I think the ricochet potential would be real if the 2x4 is placed near the ground. Sadly, expecting most shooters to hit anywhere near a golf ball at 7 yards, even occasionally, is asking a lot. :rolleyes:
 
I used to do a varient on this, starting with the ball on the ground at about 10 feet. The object was to see who could move the ball the greatest distance with 10 rounds of .22lr from a pistol.

I also play at 100 yards, shooting balls off tees. I'm thinking of trying 200 one of these days.
 
I have done this with a .22 before. You can really make that ball jump with a well placed shot.
 
This is great! Potatohead just gave me a heads up about this thread. We play a version of this at my house and it is a ton of fun! It has become so competitive between my wife, my neighbor, another friend and myself that we actually have a trophy, scorecards and a full rule book!

So I'll give you an overview of our basic setup and rules of play. We took a deck board and screwed it down to a set of wooden saw horses. We drilled four sets of holes consisting of nine holes in each set. The holes are big enough to put golf tees in. **warning - if you are doing this at a range, bring a drill and extra tees. You will shoot tees and sometimes they are a pain in the butt to get out.** A string hangs down from the deck board in the middle of each set of balls. At the end of the string we attached a golf ball with a screw. So basically each golfer has 9 balls that they are shooting at, plus a swinger ball. Each golfer gets 3 shots per turn. If you shoot a ball out of sequence, you lose your turn and the ball you hit doesn't count. If you hit another golfers ball, lose your turn. A golfer has to hit all nine balls in the correct sequence, then they have to hit their swinger ball. The golfer with the fewest shots wins.

We have added a few twists to our game as well. If a "gun swap game" is called, this is what happens. Everyone brings a few .22 handguns with them. Each gun is numbered and the numbers are thrown in a hat. At the beginning of each turn you reach in and pull out a number and that is the gun that you have to shoot your three shots with. It gets pretty challenging constantly changing platforms. Heck, we have had a F/A Mac 11 with a Lage .22 upper used during our "gun swap games!" It sounds easy with that, but remember you only get three shots per turn!

Also, once a game a golfer is allowed to call a specialty stance. Once it is called every golfer has to shoot their turn (3 shots) in that particular stance. For example, I call "ghetto stance," everyone shoots with the gun cocked to the side. My wife invented the "sexy stance" which is basically a one handed forward stance with your non-shooting hand behind your head (think Marilyn Monroe pose). It's a riot watching the three guys do this stance!

Anyway, sorry for the novel! I've attached a picture of our trophy, it's currently sitting on top of my grandfather clock. I just like reminding my friends and wife who the champ is!! Have fun guys!
 

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A trophy-that's what I'm talkin about!

Ranger, how far out are you talkin? Or did I miss that?
 
Potatohead said:
Ranger, how far out are you talkin? Or did I miss that?
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Oh yeah, my bad, in all my ramblings I left out the distances! Our regular distance is 25 feet with .22's. My neighbor and I go as far back as 25 yards with 22's and centerfires. With blackpowder .44's we vary distances but I'd say 15 yards is average.

Funny thing. We originally had a women's tee which was a little closer because my wife was hesitant with the distance. Turns out my wife regularly beats the crap out of my buddy. She now shoots with my neighbor and I and we punish my buddy by making him shoot from the ladies tee! After a few rounds if he redeems himself we let him shoot with everyone else.
 
Ranger Roberts, your GUN GOLF sounds more interesting than the OP. Potatohead mentioned that you had a similar game - gotta try it myself :D

Thanks for all the details!
 
alexander45 said:
Looks cool but not allowed at Ben Avery I really need to find a better place to shoot that isn't on the other side of the county
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I used to live about five mins from Ben Avery and shot there quite a bit lol.

Check out Table Mesa. Lots of shooters go there, and it's supposed to be pretty nice. A few guys from my church used to shoot there but it seemed like I always had stuff going on when they went.
 
The closest thing to golf I have done is sporting clays. Drive from stage to stage and they are all different.

In my younger days I did shoot golf balls around. The further out they go the harder they are to hit, good practice.
 
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