My friend Tom invited me to a small informal shoot with some of his friends. Dave and Dan were there. You may recall Dave and his WWII Zundapp motorcycle that Dan took gorgeous photos of. There were a few other people there. Mike Sirianni, his son Mike and his grandson who is also named Mike. And there was Sonny. All of them are friends. Mike’s son asked Sonny to bring out some of his firearms so that his dad could get to shoot them one more time. Sonny brought out an M1 Garand, M1 Carbine and a Colt Govt 1911.

Mike Sirianni served in the U.S. Army 1st Cav when he was sent to Korea. He has fond memories training with an M1 Garand.

They set up a large Shoot ‘N C target out at the 50 yard line. Sure enough Mike was drilling it.

Below is probably one of the greatest pictures I have ever taken, and it was totally sheer luck. I was using burst mode on my Nikon D3300 and it never even dawned on me to capture the clip fly out. I just happen to have my finger on the shutter when the gun went “ping”. I immediately checked my camera to see if it captured that moment. Hallelujah.

Everyone had a great time and we all thanked Mike for his service.