New Years Shoot

 

Let's go for a shoot, offered a young Sergeant, and I weighed up his rambunctious proposal. Is it sunny? Yes. Is it wet? Not very. Do you have guns? Obviously, and it's New Years Day to boot. So, "Yes, let's go," and off we went via Walmart and a purchased box of skeet to the range.

The range being about 15 minutes drive into the country, just past Brandon. And what a great little 100 yard range it is, with a small shooting house, a bench, and an all 'round berm. There you are, out in the field, under the Texan sky with plenty of room to swing a shotgun, which is what we did.

In this case, a CZ Drake O/U 20 gauge. It's light, at 6 pounds 9 ounces, swings well, has a generous white polymer front sight, and gets on target like a champ, and all for around 600 bucks. Field & Stream thinks it's great value for money and so do I. Hey, this light, attractive but nothing fancy field gun works. And work it did.

After a few moments of nostalgic reverie, we've been shooting here for 15 years, we opened up a box of White Flyer and got down to business. I went first, with Sergeant LSP as thrower, "Ready!" he'd shout by tradition, and I'd shout back, "Pull!" and up goes the orange adversary and boom goes the gun. Clays smoked. Result.

What a lot of fun, and we shot well, pretty much a 100% hit rate; if it'd been a dove hunt there would've been a tailgate full of birds. As it was, a field full of shattered skeet, and there's nothing wrong with that either. On the contrary, keeps your aim in and getting out in the field's a good in itself.

We finished off with a gentle Ruger American .22 plinkathon, targeting steel plates, the smaller the better, a Red Bull, yuck, can and a rusty old aerosol spray paint can. I tell you, those enemies met their match and then some. Shoot over, we headed back to the Compound, mission accomplished.

Happy New Year,

LSP

Just Cleaning Some Guns

 

Here's the thing, dear readers, guns are great but they're not going to clean themselves, and unless you get more and better servants you have to do the job yourself. Such is life, and whoever said it'd be easy? Rigors of this mortal coil in mind, I took Break Free, cleaning rods, some kind of gun oil and all of that to a CZ 20 Drake and a Ruger American .22.

The CZ's new, and some say a 20's a gauge for LOSERS and GIRLS, as opposed to the mighty 12. I say no, there's nothing wrong with a 20. 1. It's light, quick to presentation 2. Doesn't bust your shoulder up 3. Get's the job done with elegant sufficiency. Or, as a UK punter put it, "If shotguns were invented today they'd be 20s." He has a point. Going after something larger than dove? Load a more powerful round. Hey now, plenty of that around. Thanks, shotgun tech.

In other news, I've been thinking, please don't laugh, and came up with a really good idea. Here it is: Let's INVADE RUSSIA. 

Like it? Pretty clever, right?

Dzerzhinsky,

LSP

Shoot

 

A young churchman called, "We're shooting skeet this evening at the ranch to knock the rust off before Opening Day. Are you in?" Sure I was, and loaded a new CZ over and under 20 gauge into the rig and drove off to the countryside.

It's not far, and before you could say Dialectical Materialism is rubbish, there we were, five shooters and a couple of spectators in a ranch shop, checking out guns, shaking hands and all of that. Then we set up in the shade of an old oak and got down to it.

First up, two shooters on the firing line with Old LSP throwing the clays. Boom! Smoke that skeet! Good work boys, didn't take long at all to get in the zone. Then it was my turn, would the CZ work, would I work? Magnum mysterium. But lo and behold, I somehow remembered how to shoot and was up there with the young 'uns. What a lot of fun. But here's the thing.

The boys were shooting 12 gauge pumps, mostly newer Remington 870 Wingmasters, to be precise, and guess what, their weapons kept jamming. My CZ 20? Worked flawlessly, as well as being lighter and easier to shoot. I tell you, I'm a double barrel 20 convert after years of 12 gauge pumpery (Mossberg Ulti Mag and Wingmaster). For that matter and for the most part, I'd go for a double 12 over a pump, they're more reliable. 

Mind you, a smooth working pump does have that rate of fire advantage, so there is that. Double v. Pump, 12 v. 20 reverie over, my shoot was done and I left the guys striking steel with various deadly assault rifles and banned in England pistols. 

What a great evening and so good to get out in the clean air and big sky of Texas, with the added bonus of putting lead on clay to boot. Maybe we need to organize a church shoot, with BBQ, obviously, and prizes for taking out John Lennon CDs at 500 yards.

#2A,

LSP

It's All Go

It's all go here, I tell you. Monday meant a trip to the 'burbs to meet with lawyers and it went pretty well, in an all day kind of way. Before that I stopped at a Starbucks by the highway for coffee. 

Sinister

Lo and behold, there was an indigent POC crashed out on a sofa, perhaps he'd been done in by a deliciously lush Oleata, whatever that is.

Magicians? Let's See

So that was Monday, Tuesday was different again and involved driving to the corner of Greenville and Mockingbird from Dallas HQ to see Janey Tailor. Janey Tailor promises to work Korean magic on some old suits, let's see how that goes.

Look, a Drake

And today? A trip to Ray's gun shop, it's an institution, and a strangely cheap CZ Drake O/U 20. We'll see how it shoots. Back in the country now, where the air is clean.

Your Pal,

LSP