University of Tennessee
Computational Materials Research Group


Keffer & Colleagues at the Shooting Range Norris, TN, December 18, 2015


David Keffer and research collaborator, Dr. Orlando Rios, from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Valerie Garcia-Negron, Masters student in Materials Science & Engineering at UT spent an afternoon at the rifle range in Norris, Tennessee. (The previous visit of Keffer and Rios and several PhD students to the range had occured in July of 2013, before Valerie joined the group.)


The range is located out in the woods in Norris State Park, accessible only by a narrow gravel road. Despite the chilly December afternoon, there were a half dozen or so folks out enjoying the range. We found an empty pistol range.


Valerie started with a Ruger .22 semi-automatic pistol, a gun exactly meant for target shooting at the range.


Orlando started with a Ruger .22 revolver.


Here, Valerie shot the .38 Smith & Wesson revolver. I also brought a 9mm Glock. In the end, we spent a couple hours with the hand-guns and everybody tried all of them several times. We also took periodic breaks in the car to warm our hands.


As the afternoon drew on, the hunters who had been calibrating their deer rifles left and we hauled our gear over to the rifle range.


It started snowing while we were at the range, a light dusting of flurries. It was quite pleasant.


Orlando sits at the spotter's scope helping Valerie identify where she hit the target with the .22 rifle.


Later, roles were reversed.


This was Valerie's first ever shooting with a rifle. She did great at 50 yards.


Orlando also did quite well.


It looks like I didn't do as well, on my first volley, as Orlando! How can that be? Anyway, by the time we had to leave because the sun was setting, all three of us were knocking down old shotgun shells at fifty yards!