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

Life On The Range

 

It was just like the old days. Get up around first light, say Morning Prayer, drink coffee, then load up the rig with guns and head for the range. But this was different, this is JF's range with steel targets and shooting stations at 200, 600 and 1000 yards, all on his family ranch. What a great setup.

The crew were sighting in new Windham Armory AR pistols at 25 yards when I pulled in, and what solid little beasts they were! Good shooters, too. Then an AR rifle topped off with Aimpoint (nice) and a magnifier. 

JF Zeroing Some AR Pistols at 25 yards

After a few test shots to see if the weapon was on, it pretty much was, R went out to 200 yards, the furthest he'd shot, and was amazed to get his final round right in the center of the bull of a steel silhouette. I spotted, "Well done!" 

Behold big rejoicing in R's world. And fair play, not only does the rifle I built work but I can actually shoot it, sort of thing.  Next up, I got on JF's M1A, built from original parts except for the receiver, which is comparatively new and forged by wizards in some mountain fastness. Hey, it shot like a champ with .308 handloads striking gongs with regular authority. Iron sights to boot. I tell you, I want one.

Behold 1940s Awesome

Then, for kicks, a rimfire assault on our steel adversaries. I started off with a Marlin .22 WMR, compensating for an appx 100 yard zero and a moderate right to left wind. You see, at 200 yards the wind's going to blow that pokey if little bullet about, so try and shoot accordingly. 

I did, and the gun did well, with convincing shots in or around the bull. But if the power .22 performed, what about its little brother, a .22LR? With a 100 yard zeroed scope, compensate for bullet drop of around 2', wind, and squeeze the trigger. Then be amazed as the tiny round reaches its intended destination. Thanks, Ruger American.

Not A Ruger American

JF's 1940s match Winchester 52 B(?) with a Unertl scope didn't disappoint either. There it was, Browning match .22 LR filling the orange bull on a 36" plate. What a lot of fun. Would my Ruger American .17 HMR work at the 200 yard range, given the tiny, tiny bullet is liable to be taken up and gusted off target by even moderately big Texan wind? Wow. It worked and I was taken aback. Far less compensation needed than the .22 WMR.  Fast and flat. Awesome little zipper of a round.

200 Yard Line , Zoom in to See Targets on The Berm

Of course it helped to have a good spotter, thanks JF, at every level. And the moral? Get out and shoot under the big sky of Texas, preferably on a friend's land and, note, rimfire at 200 yards is good training for reading the wind at an affordable price. And it's fun, which is what it's all about.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Weapon Of Choice

So what's your weapon of choice, 1911, Glock, SIG? Some kind of wheel gun, maybe a .357 Magnum Colt Python? Levers, ARs, SovCom,  shotguns in all their awesomeness, and on. Hey, the sky's the limit but this is how it's turned out for me. Scoff if you like, or not.

My weapon of choice is three weapons. A custom 5.56 AR carbine, a Glock 21 .45ACP (thx RHSM), and a 20 gauge SxS CZ. OK, fine, but why?

Just turned out that way, but probably because they cover all my bases at this moment in time and I can afford them. It'd be an expensive hassle, for example, to focus on No.4 Mk.1 Lee Enfields, much as I love them. 

But there's no rule, what's your real-world weapon of choice?

#2A,

LSP

YouTube Bans Gun Videos

YouTube's banning gun videos, so here's Hickok45 reviewing an Arsenal AK. And I don't know about you but I'm sold.

Gun rights,

LSP

Getting to The Range

There's not been a lot of shooting in LSPland lately because of our enemy, the Weather. Seriously, it's rained so much that the places I like to shoot at have been pretty much off-limits. But that's changed, at least for now, with a few days of heat and sun.

So I drove down to the range with GWB and a couple of wood stocked Ruger American .22s, a value pack of ammo and a mind set on a few hours of firearms fun. Make up for lost time, I thought to myself, and blaze away in the clean country air. Right on, get out and shoot.

Then disaster struck. Thanks to the Weather, part of a tree had fallen and was blocking the way into the range. It was a significant obstacle and there was no way it was going to move without a chainsaw and there wasn't one.

"We need a saw," said GWB, thoughtfully, and I agreed, "Yes, and there isn't one." I optimistically tried a bit of telekenesis on the fallen timber; maybe staring at the branches would shift them out of the way. No, it didn't, and then it came to me, GWB had had the foresight to bring a multitool. "What about your Leatherman?" I asked,  "That has a sawblade, a surprisingly good one."

Sure enough, the Leatherman Wave's handy saw made quick work of an offending branch and we were able to drive around the road block. Moral of the story?

Don't underestimate our enemy the Weather, it can throw some nasty punches. Also, be prepared, have the kit you need to reach your objective. Most importantly, when things go wrong you can sit there in your pajama onesie, whining into your coco as you wait for the Government to step in and save you, good luck with that. Or you can take matters into your own hands and find a solution.

That's what happened today. We cut through the wood and drove on through, to the other side.

Thanks, Leatherman Wave. You work.

LSP

Rimfire Roustabout

You've got a brand new Ruger American Rimfire sitting at home and it looks good, no doubt about it, but does it shoot? I took mine to the range with two other rifles and a Blue Heeler, to find out.

I Love The Range!

Blue Plinker thought this was a pretty neat game and jumped for joy, literally, when he saw me laying out the rifles on the bench. He had to be relegated to the shooting house after that; he will try and catch bullets with his teeth.

Big Rectangle = 3 Rounds

I started out with iron sights at an easy 30 or so yards, prone, and the new Ruger went first. It was fun to shoot and performed flawlessly, producing one of the the best groups of the day, 3 rounds in pretty much the same hole.

The Higgins did well too, and is certainly capable of good accuracy, though its trigger's heavier than the Ruger, and the old gun doesn't always feed too smoothly from its 17 round tube magazine. It was fun to move up to the more powerful, and more expensive, .17 HMR, a hot little round. 

After proving to myself that I could still shoot with iron sights, I scoped up the new Ruger with a cheap fixed 4 power optic, which came off the .17 HMR, and dialed it in from 50 yards. I used my coat as a rest, being a ballistic scientist. When paper got boring, it was time to shift fire onto a different enemy, old Gatorade tops.

They didn't stand a chance! Breathe, squeeze, off flies the florescent plastic top. Big fun. A tin can got itself in trouble, too. Take that, can, and Gatorade tops.

Good Work, Gun

All this proved that the wood stocked Ruger American Rimfire .22 LR works just fine. I think I'll adjust the trigger pull downwards a bit to 3 1/2 pounds or so, and take it out again with a Lead Sled for a more scientific dial-in at 100 yards. I'll also have to get a new scope for the .17 HMR, but that's a different story.

And so is open carry. The more CHL holders I talk to, the more the song remains the same. I don't want anyone to know I'm carrying, that's what they say.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Monday Shoot

Monday being Martin Luther King and General Lee Day, I figured it was a good idea to shoot some guns. So I went to the range with GWB, who wanted to practice with his new Sig and check out a Christmas gift of a spotting scope.

So we blasted away, which was a lot of fun, then went for an armed excursion in some nearby woods. That was good too, although hoped for squirrels didn't materialize, despite the great stealth and calling expertise of the hunters.

Then, right at dusk, the air was filled with wild howling. It was an eerie, untamed sound and it taught me something, Viz. If you want to call coyotes, set up near the woods by the range. 

Shoot straight,

LSP

Alright There, Ye Guns

In a big effort to cheat the stereotype, I went for a shoot; nothing fancy, just an AR, a sporter Lee and a .45. I was curious to see if I was still able to use a gun and hit anything smaller than a barn door, like the silhouette of a green terrorist.

Typical Texas Range

Sure enough, the green "terr" took a beating, mostly with the AR, and I was pleased to see decent off-hand groups at 30, 50 and 75 yards. Not so good at 100, annoyingly, and I had to compensate a bit for an ironic tendency to shoot left. Some sort of trigger issue, probably -- don't pull left, LSP! The Lee shot well for an ancient rifle that I'd porch project 'smithed; it was especially good to note that the $50 2nd hand Burris Fullfield scope hadn't drifted. Well done Burris, well done Lee.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Rabbit Hunt

Emboldened by success against the Aoudads, GWB came by for a rabbit hunt and sure enough, before you can say the Episcopal Divinity School is a conventicle of Satan, we were on the trail of cotton tails.

Clanking Spear & Some Clays

The plan was simple. Scout through VS's 10 acre back pasture and flush the bunnies from piles of brush. I got the first shot, as a rabbit streaked like a furry Exocet across my front. I missed, annoyingly; still, excitement was up and before long GWB was able to use his 20 gauge Franchi to good effect. One rabbit down.

Turkeys, Don't Vote For Christmas

I fired at a leaping shadow as dusk was falling, perhaps it was a ghost. My Wittgensteinian ally connected with a final bunny, well done. 

Rabbit For The Pot

As VS's husband said, looking at the two rabbits on the tailgate, "LSP, he smoked ya!"

I won't argue with that. 

A Good night was had by all.

LSP

Monday Shoot

Empowered by a box of rare-as-you-like .22LR I drove to the range for some iron sights, off-hand plinking. First things first, shoot the miniature Dr. Pepper cans off the butts. It's fun when they explode, obviously, and I had their measure at around 50-70 yards. Then the Old Adversary, a steel plate turkey, which got a right telling off at 100 yards. Take that, turkey, and I like being able to hear the round connect. Plink. 

The Range

Then it was time for some AR fun and I practiced three round groups at 30, 50, 75 and 100 yards. Shot well at 30, unsurprisingly, and not badly at 50 -- pretty much 9/10 ring with a couple of Xs. Things spread out a bit at 75 and more so at 100 yards, obviously have to work at that. But what's the point, apart from getting out in the country, enjoying firearms and improving marksmanship skills?

Spurious Random Weber Shot

Imagine you're scouting along a trail, maybe through brush or mesquite, perhaps along a creek or a treeline, and there, all of a sudden, is your target. Maybe it's a coyote, or a hog, or a rabbit, and you have to take the shot. There's no time to rest on a truck, or on some kind of bench, or get prone, or whatever, so you have to shoot, standing up, fast and accurate (enough).

What?

A lot of people can't do that, especially with with iron sights (what if your scope breaks, eh?) and I think that's a mistake; surely it's part of basic skill-at-arms, and let's not forget, very satisfying to see the quarry go down. Not that I'm a particularly great shot or hunter, but still.

Shoot on,

LSP

Coyote Hunt

Scouting done, it was time to move in on the coyotes. My philisophical friend and all-round sportsman, GWB, drove down from Dallas to join in and off we went. The moon was high and so was the adrenaline as we got to my parishioner's farm; you could hear multiple packs howling in the distance. An eerie sound but exciting, maybe we'd get a dog. So we made our way to the first setup, got downwind, waited for 10 minutes and listened, senses alive.

GWB

Then GWB called, using a cell phone and a remote Bluetooth speaker, while I scanned with a red light. We were definitely in the presence of coyotes and GWB's certain one padded around our position to check out the interesting Jackrabbit distress call. Could be, something was was out there in the sage with us but we didn't see it, so no shot.

Obviously

The next setup was a better position; slightly higher ground in a small copse, with a good field of vision and the calling began again, but the coyotes had moved on and so did we after about 30 minutes. Then it was back to the truck through swarms of rabbits, you could've caught them with a net, and dinner at the Compound. GWB had bought several varieties of duck he'd shot and that made for fine scoff.

No kills but a good night was had by all.

LSP

A Truck Full of Guns

Headed off to the range on Monday with a truck full of guns; an AR, a bolt .22 and the newly fixed up Lee Enfield. GWB brought some Ruger action to the party with a 10/22 and a Mini.

It was mostly about the AR and the Mini, starting off at 30 and 50 yards to get the hang of things then moving out to 100. Two very different rifles. I like the wood and steel of the Mini, which makes it more of a "ranch gun" but I also like the Milspec patriotism of the AR. It's argued that the AR is is the more accurate carbine and I think the best group of the day came from it, but in our hands the difference was pretty negligible. I'd say the Mini's  front sight post is better than the AR's because it's thinner but on the other hand, it's easier to fix optics to the AR. Maybe Santa will task his elves to sort me out for an Eotech or the mighty Trijicon...

At 100 yards we took it in turns to go for head shots/center mass. Ten rounds to each in our own time, several times. GWB claims that his nickname in the Service was "Head Shot." I find that unlikely for several reasons.

A tale of two empires

The Lee shot well but the scope had wandered off zero, so we spent some time getting it back in the X Ring and it still wasn't quite right by the end of the day. This might be the Holy Spirit telling me to purchase a Leupold Rifleman; maybe, I'll give the used Burris Fullfield another chance when time and ammo permit. Still, the gun was "hog accurate."

Moral of the story?

Don't be a slacker, get out and shoot.

LSP

Dialing in the Lee Enfield Sporter

It's all very well restoring a rifle but the question is, will it shoot? With that in mind I took the newly minted sporter to the range, only to find a tree blocked the path. I moved that and set up at 25 yards to dial in the scope, bore-sighting the old fashioned way, because I've been too parsimonious to buy a laser, and using the tailgate as a rest. Must get some kind of sled to put the guns on in future.

warrior on the edge of the tailgate - note cloak of invisibility

I was nervous as I took the first couple of shots. Would the gun blow up? Would the lovingly shaped and polished forestock splinter into a deadly hail of wooden shrapnel on bearing the shock of the mighty .303 Brit? For that matter, would the thing shoot straight at all after my expert gunsmithing...

getting there...

I needn't have worried. The rifle got on paper quicly, which is a good testimony to peering down the bore with the bolt removed and shot some reasonablegroups from 50 and 75 yards. Performed well offhand at a steel ram at 100.

Due to time and ammo constraint I cut the exercise a little short but I'll return with a few boxes of the right stuff and finish the job. But not a bad result at all.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Shoot the .22

I love guns and I love to shoot, it's as simple as that. So here's a quote from Bob Owens via pajamasmedia; he's in favor of new shooters entering the fray with a .22. 

"I’m suggesting you’ll learn faster, and often without imparting many bad habits you have to overcome later, if you learn your fundamentals with a .22 handgun. It’s all about the fundamentals. Even advanced courses boil down to learning to use the fundamentals more efficiently to promote accurate shooting. As former Delta Force operator and noted weapons trainer Larry Vickers has noted: “Speed is fine. Accuracy is final.”

If your goal is to learn to use a long-arm for anything other than wingshooting, I’m going to make a similar, and unsurprising, recommendation. Semi-automatic or bolt-action (your preference) .22 LR rifles are a ridiculously inexpensive entry into firearms ownership, with decent quality new rifles retailing for $200 or less, and used rifles for even less than that. Unlike most other rifles, rifles chambered in .22 LR are also welcome on many “pistol only” ranges that don’t have the ability to safely contain centerfire rifles. Again, practice is key. So where do you get the training you need in order to learn the fundamentals?"

I couldn't agree more. The .22 is great value at every level.

Get out there and shoot!

LSP