Filthy Little Beast

Filthy

It's all very well to swing by the range on the way back home from visiting the flock and it's a lot of fun to unleash the power of the deadly black "assault rifle." No doubt about it, a great way to unwind, but the gas operated bullet burner gets real dirty, real fast.

Dirty

That's bad, because a dirty weapon can quickly become a jamming, malfunctioning, failure to eject shell casings nightmare and that's no good.

Unclean

I've noticed it can make all the difference, especially with cheap ammo; a dirty AR tends to stick on nasty, cheap, steel cased Russian ammo. At least mine does, but hey, give it a scrub, oil it up and everything works just fine.

Nasty

With that in mind, I gave the filthy thing a good cleaning on the tailgate this afternoon. 

Loser

Good to see that the fast declining Episcopal Church (TEC) has lost another lawsuit, this time they're losers in the Diocese of Quincy. More on that later.

Shoot straight,

LSP

I Love Shooting

Fake Shooter

I love shooting and if there was some way I could get out every day with the guns, well, I would. I enjoy the clean air country aspect of it, I like the skill of it, I like the explosive power shock and awe of it; I like the smell of the weapons and their mechanics, I like focusing on the front sight and the breathing, squeeze the trigger don't pull, bit of it. I like it all.

Real Shooter

Saying that, I'm not a desperately good shooter; just a decent average in the great scheme of things. And there's nothing wrong with that, at all.

Keep squeezing the trigger and God bless,

LSP

Ancient & Modern

New Skool, Old Skool

I bit the not so proverbial bullet and went out for a well needed shoot; just a bit of ranging about with one of the Lees and an AR. I say "just" as though it wasn't any great deal. Not so fast; with the cost of ammo being Homeland Security IRS pricey, you've got to make every shot count, before you go broke. Like the economy.

Bore Sight!

And the question in my shooter's mind was, "Is the cheap 2nd hand Burris Fullfield, 50 buck wonder, scope broken?" Would it dial in? Last time I tried I wasn't so sure.

Getting there

It did OK. I bore-sighted the old-skool way by peering  at the target with the bolt out, then gazing like a Chaldee through the scope. Were both sight pictures the same? Adjust accordingly. After things were appx. sorted out at 25 yards I moved out to 50 and called EndEx when the rounds were impacting 1" above the X Ring.

Rule Britannia, DIY

Good result. A $150 rifle, with 1917 history, that I'd refinished and restocked myself coming in as a contender in the "kill the evil hog at 100 yards" stakes. Or whatever. To be honest, I think I'll lose the scope and get a 'smith to fit iron (express) sights. 2 folding leaf would be neat and not too expensive. Authentic(ish) too.

.303 Brit

Shot off a couple of mags of 5.56 afterwards to clear the head. Did best off-hand, oddly. Pathetically inaccurate kneeling and prone. Must have lost concentration in the later evolutions.

Go home and eat ribs

A good and well needed days shooting over, I headed for home and BBQ Country Style Ribs. Result. 

Shoot straight and remember, there'll always be an England, until, of course, that there's not.

God bless,

LSP

Filthy Beasts!

Lent, for me, involves a certain amount of fasting, self-denial, almsgiving and extra worship. It also means weapons cleaning.

The deadly assault rifle was pretty filthy. It got a good cleaning.

So did the .45.

A clean gun is a happy gun, I always think.

God bless,

LSP

Deadly Assault Weapon

There's a lot of talk about "deadly assault rifles" right now. Perhaps the above chart will help clarify the narrative.

Keep pulling (squeezing) the trigger of your AR/AK and remember, you can't win the firefight if you're not armed. 

LSP

Obama Says Ban Assault Rifles?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think I just heard Obama tell the world, and a person asking a question about AK47s on tonight's "debate", that he wanted to "ban assault rifles".

For Obama and his friends, an assault rifle is a semi-automatic version of its military counterpart. Why are they more dangerous than any other semi-auto rifle? Because they look more deadly? For that matter, why are they any more deadly than a well aimed bolt? Cooper argues, convincingly, that they aren't.

I have both, not that I'm allowed to shoot people. And for those of you who think that a heavily armed society is bound to be more violent, well, have a look at Switzerland.

England, where you're put in gaol for owning a pocketknife, is far more violent. Some would say more interesting too, but that's another story.

More guns, please.

LSP

Used Scopes

I like iron sights and, for the most part, that's what I use when I shoot. Still, I'm always on the look out for affordable optics, so I was pleased when a local gun shop gave me a couple of used scopes to try out. A Burris Fullfield II 3x9x40 and an old Universal 4x32; if I liked them and they worked -- $50. If not, return them and no harm done.

Burris

I mounted the glassware up on the AR to dial in and test, getting on paper from 25 yards. At first the Universal did well, grouping nice and tight but a few inches to the left of point of aim. No problem, adjust windage right by the relevant amount, get nicely on target then pull back to zero in at 50 yards. Easy, isn't it? Think again.

60 frustrated rounds and a significant amount of tape and Sharpie later, I discovered that this piece of Japanese rubbish wasn't going to work. Off with the "scope", flip up the Magpul back-up and unload a couple magazines at a steel plate turkey. Turkey down, I headed for home.

wrath of God

The next day it was time to test out Reverend Burris. The Fullfield did just fine; on paper quickly and zeroed at 100 yards. Why at 100? Because that's pretty much the maximum length of the range and I was just messing about to see if it worked. I won't trouble you with the ballistics of 5.56 ammo and don't intend to use the scope for that anyway, it'll probably go on one of the Lees to be sighted in again for the venerable .303. The Burris Fullfield's a decent bit of kit, clear and powerful enough for me and it's inexpensive new, even more so second hand.

Moral of the story? Don't scorn used optics but test them first to see if they work, you can save a lot of money. Also, steel plate turkeys are fun to blast down at 75 yards with semi-auto carbines.

stormchaser

Drove home along the edge of a tornado. The wrath of God was waxing strong against the fleshpots of Dallas, but the country just got a well needed drenching of lightning, gale force winds and rain.

God bless,

LSP

Huge Hat Small Gun

some fool with a hat

Sometimes extremely large hats seem to go together with smallish guns... but I just got back from a preaching engagement in Dallas. The theme? The two thieves who were crucified alongside Our Lord. They serve as types of sinful humanity and were bad outlaws, which is why they were crucified. One repents, so there's hope for us all.

When I was invited to speak at this Lenten series and told that the theme was on various aspects of the Stations, I said, "Sure, I'll talk on the thieves." The Senior Warden looked at me and said, "I thought you would."

I find that vaguely unsettling.

God bless,

LSP

Just Get Out And Shoot Something

Seeing as 2012 is the Year of the Gun, I thought I'd better go out to a parishioner's range and shoot after Mass on Sunday. I like it there -- just you, the guns and, in this case, my linguistic philosopher friend GWB and his dog Jeb. he's training Jeb for a bird dog.

Jeb

I was pleased with the new Lee and shot moderately well with it, far easier to handle than my friend's Winchester Featherweight. Beautiful gun with a crisp and clear Burris scope but full of sound and fury, which took a little getting used to.

The AR performed like a right little heater; neat to see the muzzle flash in the twilight, though my "walk and shoot" performance against metal plates and a silhouette was fairly dismal. Practice, LSP! Practice.

Then it was back to HQ for curry.

Result.

Shoot straight,

LSP