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

What A Beautiful Day

 

What a beautiful day, birds sing, dogs sleep, flags wave and the sun shines down from a clear blue sky as a drug dealing ice cream van rounds the corner. It's like Spring, and I've got the front door open to air out the Manse.

Blow out those cobwebs, LSP, and take full advantage of our ancient enemy, the Weather, being in some kind of armistice mode. Enjoy every second of this fresh, clean, country day before our old adversary the Climate decides to Change and go full superheated blast furnace eschaton on the tenacious citizens of North Central Texas.

You know what it's like, it gets so hot you think the air itself is going to ignite, one careless spark and all that dust goes thermobaric. Terrifying, but for now all is good, the sacrifice of the Mass was offered at the Missions, a pot of improv Thai curry's on the stove and all is well with this part of the world.

Who knows, maybe a shoot's in order for Monday, but let's see what tomorrow brings.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

Shoot!

Get a haircut, hippy

We'd been planning a shoot for some time but things kept getting in the way, broken femurs, a boy graduating Basic, climate change, a deadly Chinese plague, you name it, all conspired to keep us off the range. Until today.

RHT drove over from the DFW connurb and we headed off to J's place to try out some weaponry. All well and good, and then disaster! My rig sank into the sand of an ancient seabed on the way to our objective and had to be pulled out by a handy tractor. Obstacle overcome, we set up at 200 yards and shot.

J knows how to shoot

I went first with an Aero Precision AR10 firing 168 grain .308. Would it work and more to the point, would I remember how to shoot? 

Watch out kids, don't bet the monkey, but I did, just, and ended up with a decent group in the 10 ring, which should've been in the X. RHT followed up with a Hogue stocked .308 Howa and a Redfield scoped M1A. They shot well, very well.

Good Call

Now, all of the above were great to shoot and made considerably more accurate by RHT and J's hand loads. I don't reload or cast bullets, unlike these two very friendly competition shooters, and was struck by the difference. Wow. Speaking of which, RHT and J's Howas were X-Ring on the money for a ridiculously low price. I want one.

Do Not Scorn This

Then, after a quick remedial bout with .45s it was time for lunch at Los Verdes, which always serves excellent Mexican food. Did we discuss the satanic evil of Marxism, the wickedness of banksters and the importance of wine? Possibly. You be the judge.

Back at the range it was time for RHT to roll out an 1872 Remington .50-70 and an 1873 Trapdoor Springfield .45-70. For me, this was the high point of the shoot. There's something about firing these now exotic and antique firearms which appeals. Is it the history of the thing, their provenance, or the nature of the guns themselves? There they are, muskets turned into rifles.

Regardless, the Remington wasn't too keen to get on paper but the Springfield noisily got on a gong, in the appx. 10 ring in my hands and in J's it was hitting the bull. With iron sights. At 200 yards. All 1873 of it. We were amazed. This old rifle was outshooting... ahem. What a lot of fun.

RHT on his awesome M1A

We finished off with some AR action, J stealing the show with a series of X-Ring excellence. 3 shots, left to right touching on the X. A testament to Geissele, the barrel, Nightforce optics, the loads and the shooter himself. Seriously, a lot of people would've been pleased with that group at 50 yards with a .17 HMR. Good shooting.

Random LSP guns

And that was that. Huge enjoyment out in the clean air and big skies of Texas. And about time that this shooter actually got out and shot. Big thanks to RHT for getting the wheels rolling and thanks too to J for such warm hospitality, and a great range which goes out to 1000 yards.

Bullets

Hmmm, can I shoot that far? Good question, perhaps it's time to learn. We'll see about that and calling the shot as this mission progresses.

In the meanwhile, thanks guys for a great day out, what a perfect result.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Ride & Shoot

Downtown Brandon

I've made a new resolution to ride and shoot more, which means going out on Tuesday morning, through the bustling little town that probably never was Brandon, and saddling up at a farm just outside it - less fancy than the last place, but a lot more room to ride.

A place to ride

And to shoot, so I unleashed the AR on some targets from around 50 yards and successfully killed a tuna can and some of its Arizona Ice Tea brethren. The latter give a satisfying explosion when full...

Arab

There's plenty of room to hunt too, but I've yet to scout it out. All in good time.

Two flyers, two on

Now back in the day I would've scoffed at the AR, because of plastic components and the 5.56 of the thing. For me it had to be solid wood and steel or it wasn't real. That changed with the L1A1 and I'm perfectly happy blasting away with the carbine - still, when budget permits I think 7.62 in the same platform would make sense, you know, because of all the walls you have to shoot through...

Cheers,

LSP