SHOT

 

Shot of the Decade

President Trump was shot this evening at a massive rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Approximately nine bullets were fired, one of which grazed Trump's ear. The presidential candidate then fell to the ground before getting up, shielded by Secret Service, and raised his fist, urging his followers to "fight." Trump survived.

But the reported shooter, Thomas Crooks, did not. He apparently fired from a rooftop 200 yards from the rally and is now dead. According to ZeroHedge and social media, one of his shots killed a bystander on the bleachers. ZeroHedge reports that several people attempted to warn the Secret Service of this threat before the rally but were ignored.

Beast Mode

So what is this? A rando crazy commie, Democrat hit job gone badly awry or something else? Who knows. Taking an AR type rifle .22 rifle  to a 200 150 yard kill shot competition doesn't seem utterly professional to me. But that's up for debate, I don't know, but what I do I know is this.

The photo of El Senor pounding the air beneath the flag after a narrowly missed assassination attempt by a deranged, ahem, registered Republican has to be the photo of the decade (thx, GWB). Is 45 now unstoppably 47, and what does this mean?

Your call,

LSP

Well Shoot

 

"Dad, let's go for a shoot." I thought about this, "What kind of shoot?" The once and maybe future Cadet replied, "A pistol shoot, my pal's never shot one because Canada and needs to get on it." I reflected on this, "D'ye know what .45 ACP costs, son?" and long story short, loaded up some guns in the rig and headed for the range.

First up, a no name Italian O/U 12 and a CZ 20 SxS, would the skeet survive the flak barrage? At first they did but we warmed up, smoking those clays like orange Focke Wulf's going down over France. Nice, good work, if remedial for me.

Then we moved on to .45 and I was genuinely impressed by the kids, really good shooting. Well done boys, and especially Canadian pal, right on in there without any prior experience, a natural. Hey, shoot on, and so we did, finishing up with a Ruger American .22 against random clays, shotgun shells, and assorted steel at 50 and 100 yards. Big fun.

Mission accomplished, we headed back to base and ordered pizza, cleaned weapons and all was well. What a great afternoon in the field.

#2A,

LSP

Random Gun Ramble

 

Get A Better Bipod

Waved the young, ahem, gentlemen off to the range via Chevy Trailblazer this afternoon and off they went with various weapons. A ChiCom SKS, a CZ SxS 20, a no-name Italian O/U 12, a Ruger American .22 and an Aero Precision AR 10, all very 7.62.

Boom, and what could possibly go wrong with this scenario? Good question, and I asked one of the young men if he was a shooter. "Not really," came the reply, "Just some time with 9s and .22," so I fixed him with a steely eye, "Just make sure you don't shoot your buddy, alright? That's a no-no." He then rattled off the rules of marksmanship and I felt marginally reassured.

Random Hallway Weapons

Well, all you parents out there, perhaps you get the concern and in case you think me somehow "micro," "helicopter" or "nanny state," consider this.

The man who owns the range, it's part of his farming empire, loves to shoot and he took his only son out to the place for some plinking enjoyment. All good, until the kid shot himself in the groin with a .22 and bled out on the way to the nearest hospital. It's a larf, right, until it isn't.

Clean the dam pistol, LSP

That in mind, the boys did well, didn't shoot each other and returned back to HQ in good style following an unreformed diner burger at Campbell's(?). Looks like a shack, is pretty much a shack, but serves great diner burgers, rock on.

Message to market. Enjoy firearms, blast away and be free, but respect the weapon for what it is. Does that sound sententious or preachy? No, just solid common sense.

Shoot straight,

LSP

A Monday Shoot

 

It's a beautiful balmy morning in Texas, so what do you do? Retrieve a couple of rimfires from the bottom of the lake and go to the range. Would they work, for that matter would I still know how to shoot?

Two excellent questions, but first up, stop at McDonald's for two cheeseburgers, it's a range tradition, and I was astonished to see they'd gone down in price by 50 cents per psuedo-burger. Jubilate, perhaps this was an omen.

A short drive through the North Central Texas Exclusion Zone (NCTEZ) and there it was, the range, pretty much unchanged after all these years and full of memories of kids, friends, guns and big fun under Texan skies. Reverie over, I set up at the shooting house bench and tested a Ruger American .22 LR.

Mirabile dictu (enough Latin, Ed.), it worked, snapping shotgun shells off a swinging plate frame, knocking back mini steel plates and punching holes in paper like a veritable, ahem, blunderbuss. So that was all good and a vindication of very minor smithery on my part.

You see, my ancient Ruger magazines had reached the point where they no longer fed consistently, so I took the wretched beasts apart, tightened their springs and hoped for the best. Lo and behold, they worked, as did the rifle and its cheap 4 power scope. Result.

Next up, a Marlin .22 WMR with an annoyingly stiff, heavy, branchlike trigger. How did that perform? Not well at all, in fact hardly on paper, which was annoying because the miserable offender had been right in the X Ring last time I shot it, an aeon ago.

Maybe this rubbish ChiCom scope's busted, I thought grimly to myself as I calculated inches off target and 1/4 MOA clicks. You see, a bad workman blames his tools, but the tools ended up proving their worth and within a few clicks the Marlin was on and slamming mighty .22 Mag rounds into mini steels and all was well with the world.

I tell you, what a fun round, go .22 WMR. Is it better than .17 HMR? I don't know, but I'd hazard a dam sight less blowy. And Marlin, please sort out the ridiculously heavy trigger your otherwise excellent weapon comes equipped with. And perhaps they have, my rifle's a bit old.

Guns on, mission accomplished, it was time to head back to the Compound and cook up a rack of ribs in celebration. They're in the oven now.

Shoot straight,

LSP 

Time To Shoot Again

There it was, another beautiful, clear, already ovenlike morning in country Texas, another day to shoot. This time at Chandler's range just outside of Valley Mills where I RV'd with some church people. Of course I was on a mission to test out yesterday's malfeasant gas gun. Would it work today after yesterday's failure and remedial gas block surgery?

Good question. You'll recall, far-sighted readers, that the gun wouldn't cycle because of an incorrectly aligned gas block and wrong length gas tube, which I corrected. Or had I? First shot. Bang, right in the center of the green terrorist's head, nice, the weapon was on. But no cycle. Dam.

Out came the screw driver, off went the hand guard, and whaddya know, the gas block still wasn't right. Attention to detail, LSP, get it right the first time, enough of your shoddy, useless gunsmithery. That in mind, I nudged the block back over the handy indent in the barrel, tightened it up, fired a test shot, the rifle cycled, phew, and replaced the hand guard.

A few shots later on the head of the green terr proved the rifle was in working order. Mission accomplished. Result. The rest of the morning went on remedial .45 practice, I'm rusty, and plinking about with a .22. Great enjoyment and what a lot of fun to meet with with church friends for a shoot in the clean country air. 

We must build on this worthy endeavor.

Gun Rights,

LSP

Time To Shoot

 

So what kind of LSP are you, and by the way we doubt that's your real name, if you don't even shoot? Good question, punters. To set the record straight I headed for the range this morning.

There it was, hot as an oven under the Texan sky, and I was on a mission. Viz. Zero in a new and specially crafted AR15. But at what range? There's plenty of pros and cons to the 25, 36, 50 and 100 yard zero, and beyond, but I went for 36 because that's where the shooting bench had been moved respective to the nearest available target. 

 

After a quick bore sight, the weapon was on paper in the 9 ring and I dialed up twice to hit the X on the third shot. Awesome, rifle and optic worked, except that wasn't quite true. Sure, the gun was on but it wasn't cycling. Why? Because the cunning armorer who'd put the beast together hadn't installed its gas block correctly, it wasn't aligned with the barrel's gas port, turning the DAR (Deadly Assault Rifle) into a one shot wonder.

Huh. After a few shots on a steel turkey I moved over to .22 plinking with a Ruger American. A heavy metal bird took a beating along with a small spinner, and then it was time to head for home and a serious meeting with Block, Tube, Pin, Barrel & Co.

You see, the builder of this gun somehow forgot, perhaps he was distracted, that he was working with a 16" barrel. He thought he was assembling an 18" setup and labored accordingly. This meant the gas tube was too long and when fitted to its block didn't align with the barrel's gas port. No hot gas working that famous impingement system, you see, and thus no BCG cycle. What to do?

Utterly Wrong

Stare in slack-jawed, NRA consternation at the offending article and the sheer, brazen, literal incompetence of it all? Take it to a shop and ask them to fix it? Or do it yourself. I chose the latter route. It's not hard. Remove the hand guard, tap out the gas tube's retaining pin with a cleverly small hammer and roll pin punch, then loosen the gas block, slide it forward to the awesome Surefire SOCOM muzzle brake, which demands a suppressor, and remove the gas tube.

Right? Let's See

Well done, you're nearly there. Next step, produce a gas tube for a 16" barrel, clean it, mine was dirty, and press the tube into the gas block. Make sure the retaining pin holes on tube and block align, then tap the retaining pin back in. Replace hand guard. Done.

At least that's the hope. It looks right, but I'll test the offending article out tomorrow on another range at a church shoot. It'd better work or there'll be trouble, and then some.

#2A,

LSP

This And That

 

What's it like in Texas, apart from being like a preheating oven. Answer? It's good. Big sky, trucks, guns and all of that. Also, you get to free-range and shoot with friends on their land. It's just better than the other thing, especially when it's as well set up as JF's range.

That in mind, I drove down the road to the 200 yard line, a bit late to the party, and found young T shooting .17 HMR at a swinging gong in moderately gusting wind. The kid did well, typically scoring at 3 o'clock right at the edge of the bull. "Hold a bit further to your left at 9 '0 clock, young 'un." And he did. Boom. Dead on.

Typical Texan Truck Scene

So that was fun. I mostly spent the time spotting or going for head shots on "Jihad," a large steel silhouette, and blasting away at 25 yards with a Ruger .22 match pistol, complete with red dot. I tell you, watch that dot weave, duck and dive like a drunken man. Hmmmm. Maybe some remedial pistol practice is in order.

In other news, you'll note that America has two main enemies. Viz. The Weather, obviously, and White Supremacy. Such heinous threats, and you know what it's like. There you are, walking down the aisle of your local Walmart when Klansmen surround you. That's right, the Klan itself, and you gasp in dismay at the news of your beachfront home in Martha's Vineyard sinking beneath the waves of glacial meltdown.

Just a Couple of Millionaire Socialist Frauds

Such a threat. That's why the Klan set US cities alight last summer.  Remember Lafayette Square, Baltimore, Portland, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Chicago, New York and on. All that looting, burning and mayhem? Sure you do, and all of it caused by The Weather and extremely dangerous white supremacists.

A Typical Chimp-Out

Said no one ever, apart from our Millionaire Socialist overlords and their willing dupe-shill, NYT reading, Berkley educated, snerk, puppets. What will these clowns do when the revolution turns around and there they are, living on tofu, old New Yorker covers, wearing  a mask and not allowed to leave the country?

Oh, we're already there.

Your Pal,

LSP

A Miracle

 

Found at Walmart this morning, normal price. I'm celebrating this miracle with a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. No fooling.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Criminality And Vice Pt. 2

 

Tucker Carlson was going to air documents detailing the Biden family's egregious criminality and vice this evening. But the documents vanished in transit between New York and Los Angeles.

Here's Tucker:

"The company security team interviewed every one of its employees who touched the envelope we sent. They searched the plane, and the trucks that carried it, they went through the office in New York where our producer dropped that package off, they combed the entire cavernous sorting facility, they used pictures of what we had sent, so that searchers would know what to look for. 

"They went far and beyond, but they found nothing. Those documents have vanished. As of tonight, the company has no idea and no working theory either about what happened to this trove of materials, documents that are directly relevant to the presidential campaign just six days from now."

 

Wow. Pause for a moment to reflect on what this means and what it took to achieve it. Are we at the silenced .22 LR stage of the crime syndicate coup against an elected president? Maybe not quite but still, Mr. Carlson, hope you've got excellent security.

And maybe those documents were copied, multiple times. No one would ever think of sharing them, surely.

Any resemblance to an action thriller spy novel's entirely coincidental. Come back, Tom Clancy, all's forgiven.

Your Pal,

LSP

Presidents Day!

Here's a helpful infographic for Presidents Day, see if you can spot the odd men out.  While you reflect on that, ponder another mystery. Turkey's Mad Sultan, Erdogan, is shelling Syian army and Kurdish positions near Aleppo as Saudi Arabia flies planes into Incirlik for raids against Assad forces.

Some think that the Mad Sultan and his friends will invade Syria to protect their ISIS proxy army and lift the siege of Aleppo. Russia, presumably, will run away like a scolded cat.  Or, on the other hand, it will destroy the crazed Sultan's invading phalanx and shoot down Saudi Arabia's airforce. Which course of action do you think Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is most likely to take?

As this drama plays out in the hot sands of the Levant, Blue Eschaton guards the Compound against the impending apocalypse and I'm off to the range for some small arms practice.

Never trust a hippy,

LSP

A New Year, A New Gun

One of the ways I like to ring in the New Year is by getting a new gun, so I went to Gebo's and bought a wood stocked Ruger American, chambered for . 22LR. Why?

Why, LSP?

Because I wanted a bolt action, wood and steel replacement for my ancient JC Higgins .22, and Ruger's offering seemed right. Excellent fit and finish for the money and, if it's anything like my Ruger American .17 HMR, far more accurate than I am.

Nice Bit of Tang, Note The Buck

The rifle features a tang safety, a flush 10 round rotary magazine, compatible with the ubiquitous 10/22, and iron sights. The folding-leaf rear sight is the same as the 10/22, but the front sight's an improvement, a green Williams fiber optic.

Go Green

The stock's checkered and shaped per its synthetic twin, and you either like it or you don't. I think it looks sharp, and the rifle certainly feels right in the shoulder.

Check

At $359, I don't think you can get a better new, off-the-shelf deal, and you can see its specs here. But how does it shoot? I'll find out tomorrow.

Gun rights,

LSP

Rimfire Warrior

Some people use the Tracking Point aiming system, which unerringly guides your shot onto the target via technology that's well nigh indistinguishable from magic. Others use iron sights and a fixed 4 power scope. I went down the latter route today.

Note Mossberg Truck Gun

It rained this morning as I was walking the dog after Mattins. That's right, it rained, for a whole minute, maybe a few seconds more. Uplifted and refreshed, I loaded up the truck with a couple of rimfires, an old JC Higgins, 22 LR, and a Ruger American, 17 HMR. Blue Ballistics got to come along too.

No Libs On The Bench

I faced off against enemy plastic water containers and some old Marlboro Light boxes, opening up off-hand at 30, 50, 75 and 100 yards with the .22. Once I got the hold sorted out the opposition went down swiftly enough, and I won't pretend that I didn't enjoy watching the water targets exploding. Take that, water enemy.

The Ruger American .17 HMR Works

The .17 was more fun, but a greater challenge. Because of the optic, you're looking for greater accuracy and not happy unless you get it. Well maybe not. It's still awesome to see a gallon water jug sail into the air after being hit by the superfast, if supertiny, .17 HMR, regardless of shot placement.

Get In The Truck, You Savage.

But what about the dog? He loved the shooting, and barked, jumped, leaped and romped in midfield, then he found his way to the source of the joy, the shooting bench. He was relegated to the truck after that.

The Water Enemy

So what was learned? Shooting rimfire is a lot of fun, no doubt about it, and it's comparatively cheap, too. The Ruger American is also a great rifle for the price, accurate as you like and then some; I'll be getting their .22 LR wood stocked variant as soon as I've saved up the vast sum of $350.

And as always,  the song remains the same, get out and shoot.

LSP