Sunday, March 29, 2015

New Blog On The Blog Roll...

...under Bloggers Whom I Have Met: http://www.weerdworld.com/

All the best,
GB

We Had A Great Time In NH

Brendan and I go home about 4 this afternoon from our NH trip. We had a great time but I forgot to take pics for the most part. We got a few, on his phone, at the range and at the Budweiser Brewery, and if he emails them to me I will post them.

On Friday night, Brendan hit the hay almost as soon as we got to the hotel. I went out for a short walk and discovered the Tilted Kilt Pub. They had scantily clad barmaids (click to see their photo gallery) and a good sized selection of beers and ales, I was in heaven until closing but only had a couple IPA pints and a large dollop of whiskey, and  do mean that the barmaid was quite generous in the pouring of the 12 year old Jameson's that I ordered.

On Saturday we made it to the Manchester Firing Line Range.We signed in and were advised we'd have to wait about an hour for a point to share between us. A single point was okay with me, I had not planned on shooting much, I wanted Brendan to shoot to his heart's content. After about a half hour of admiring the wide variety of guns they had hung on the walls, we were called to go shoot. We only shot for an hour and Brendan mostly shot the two 45s - the Remington R1 1911 and the Taurus PT145 Millennium Pro. He also shot a Beretta FS and Glock 26 both 9mms, the Ortgies 32, and I think that was it. He didn't want to shoot any of the 22s I had along, I guess not manly enough for a young buck like him. I was also quite surprised he did not want to rent any of the full auto guns they had available, like a Thompson's Sub-gun. I think he may have thought it cost prohibitive and while I paid for the range time, I told him he'd have to pay for any rentals and ammo (you had to use the range's ammo in their rental guns). He opted not to and had enough fun with my pistols.

I have to comment on the range, the rate was $16 per hour for each shooter and active law enforcement could shoot for $13 per hour (no price break for retirees). Memberships are available but I don't know the rate. The personnel were all very courteous and attentive even if one or two were not as knowledgeable about firearms as one might think they should be if so employed. One such example was one guy behind the counter not having a clue as to what "select-fire" meant when my son asked him about renting a select-fire HK UMP in .45 (a gun they sort of advertised on their website as available, as seen in the price list, but did not have "because they fall apart to easily").

Oh well, the guy was nice enough anyway and was very professional too, as was everyone we talked to therein. The range had about 8-10 shooting points on the enclosed non-members' side and about the same on the enclosed members' side. They had a lot of guns apparently for sale and a good number of full auto long arms and pistols for rent. Again the thing about renting anything was that it was an additional expense up to $75 per hour for a historic submachine gun and $150 for a belt fed machine gun and rentals meant you had to buy ammo from the range for them I did not bother to ask how much they charged for ammo). Since we did not rent anything, we were free to use whatever pistol ammo we brought along; although, ours was all factory fresh so I am not sure if they allow you to shoot reloads.They allow pistol and rifle shooting but no shotguns because for some reason the wads screw up their backstop / bullet trap cleaning system. Let me reiterate, we had an excellent time there, the place was great. If we attend this summer's bloggershoot up in NH at the super-zeKrit location (and it sounds like there will be one), I am going to shoot one of those Thompsons at that range.

As for me, while at the range, I shot all those guns that Brendan shot and added my High Standard Duramatic M101 and the S&W 22a-1 both in 22LR. In all, am guessing we shot up about 250 rounds of 45 and about 200-250 of 9mm and me a few mags full of 22LR and a mag each of 32 Auto. We each spent a good deal of our hour loading magazines for one another. I brought along nine or ten 45 mags for the Remington, had two for the Taurus, 10 for the Beretta and four for the Glock and had multiple mags for almost every other magazine fed pistol we had along. The only of my semi-auto pistols, for which I have merely a single magazine, is my High Standard Duramatic. (That needs to be remedied - anyone have an original for sale or trade?)

Later, that same day, we headed over to the Budwiper Budweiser Brewery in Merrimack. That was pretty interesting and enjoyable. Brendan had five free 6 ounce samples of different beers, one at the start of the tour and four more at the end. They only gave each person two each at the end but I gave Brendan mine since I was driving and was still a bit hung-over from Friday night at the Tilted Kilt. Tour over, we stopped by the stables to admire the Clydesdales; they certainly are some magnificent beasts. After that it was back to the hotel in Nashua to clean up before heading out to the dinner with the NE Bloggershoot clan (coined as a clan by Jack DoubleTrouble). Dinner was at the Outback Steakhouse in Bedford and we all had a good time there what with good eats and better company. Sadly Jay G was with us only in spirit since his move to VA makes it pretty difficult for him to travel that far for weekend festivities.

This morning, after breakfast at the hotel (I usually do not turn down free breakfasts and did not do it today nor yesterday), we headed back up to Manchester to the New England Reptile Show. We didn't buy any animals but I did pick up a few things for my herps an for our latest addition - a hedgehog, that someone gave my wife over the weekend. I saw some rally nice Kaiser's Newts but declined because I know of a source with a much better price.

Then we hit the road and headed home with a quick stop for lunch and a gas fill-up along he way. Traffic was better coming home than when we headed north on Friday night and we were home in about 4 hours and a few minutes or so from Nashua, which was where we stopped for lunch and gas. That was excellent time.

I'll post some of the few pics we took, that is if Brendan sends em to me.

All the best,
GB