Years ago, I was considering buying a gun (or two). However, since such purchases must be part of a web of goals, I figured a proper side-effect would be hunting and partial food supply. However, getting good at hunting seemed to involve way too much effort of the kind I wasn't interested in. Finding/buying hunting grounds (fairly SOL in IL on public lands), traveling to them, mapping out trails, doing the actual hunting, etc. No joy.
Now, I'm considering sports as a side-effect instead. Owning a gun w/o shooting it seems like a waste. OTOH, shooting holes in a piece of paper at a target range for the sole purpose of getting closer to the center of the target would almost surely feel to me like I was burning money. I already did plinking as a kid and while fun for an hour, I think I'm too old to enjoy that kind of pure fun.
So I'm looking for competitions but not too expensive, eh? (Also realizing that I might have the same problem here as with hockey... all that stuff happens out in the sticks, too far away.)
From what I've found so far, 3 gun competition looks the most interesting. Is there also something similar like, say, 2 gun, or 1 gun? Or alternatives?
. The cheap .22 plinker rifle that was my introduction to firearms jammed up one day. I destroyed it investigating its entrails, later gave the barrel to a relative for free— let them suffer it.