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Spring is coming. The weather is warming up and it’s the perfect time to get off the couch and get outside. What better way to spend time outside than to grab some buddies and your firearms and head out to the woods or the range?

If you’re in an area of the country where there’s ample land, it shouldn’t be hard to find a place to hunt. There should be public areas that allow for hunting. If not, you can probably find private land that will allow you to hunt or shoot. It’s usually not difficult to get permission, especially in the spring where the land owners don’t have to worry about losing their bigger game to over hunting.

If you’re in the city or just can’t find a good place to hunt, the shooting range is still a great way to get outdoors and spend some time with your friends.

Hunting

Spring is the time for small game hunting. It’s perfect for just having some fun. You don’t have to worry about getting out there early in the morning and waiting hours to see something; if you’re lucky enough to see anything at all. All you need is some land and your firearms.

What you can actually hunt will depend on your state, but most states have either spring seasons or year-round seasons for crow, groundhogs, rabbits and squirrel. All of these are the type of game that you just go out in the field and look for. You don’t sit and wait for them to come to you.

Hunting squirrels is probably the easiest. As the weather warms, their activity increases as they try to find the nuts they buried before winter. They’re fairly easy to hit and there are enough of them to let everyone get in on the action.

Spring turkey is an option in some states as well. It requires a bit more skill and patience, but still easily doable even for inexperienced hunters. If you’ve got a buddy in your group with some hunting chops, they can help find a good location and draw the birds in.

Target Range

Even easier than hunting is going to a target range. There are indoor and outdoor ranges, but it’s Spring and the whole point is to be outside, right? Outdoor ranges also tend to offer more options. There are fewer restrictions on the types of firearms that you can bring and they have longer ranges and more activities than an indoor range.

One of the most fun things to do with your buddies is skeet shooting. There are plenty of tips for better skeet shooting, but if you just go out and carefully practice shooting, you’ll probably hit something. It’s also pretty easy to come by a shotgun. They’re one of the most common and affordable firearms.

While there are lots of different brands to choose from, but Mossberg shotguns are some of the most common. They’re a low to mid-range firearm that are easily accessible, even for someone who’s inexperienced. Because they are so common, it’s easy to find Mossberg shotgun accessories for the firearms you already have such as sights, shell holders, and alternate stocks, which helps customize the shotgun to your physical specifications and needs. A fiber optic sight will make it easier to hit the clay targets, shell holders make reloading easier and alternate stocks make the gun easier to handle and shoot.

Outside of skeet shooting, most ranges offer other kinds of target practice. It can be as simple as a range with targets at the end or as fancy as an interactive experience with moving targets and a scoring system. Either way, you’ll still have a great time with your buddies and your firearms in the great outdoors.

Get Out of the Man Cave

Even if you’re not an outdoorsy kind of guy, get out of the man cave and get outside. The Vitamin D from the sun is good for you. Far more than that though, you’ll have a great time doing many things with your friends.