Once again, I started cleaning the guns today - those I had shot up at the Sixth Annual Northeast Bloggershoot. I worked on them for a good 2 1/2 to 3 hours earlier today. I got a only two of them cleaned. If you knew what guns I had taken with me to shoot, I would bet you could guess which two I cleaned today based on how long it took me to clean them. Well, okay, I'll tell you exactly which ones I had along:
Now, can you guess which two I cleaned today that took me three hours to clean even though I did not do a complete detail strip on either one. Granted, I disassembled them most of the way but not completely and that took me most of three hours.
If you guessed the Mosin Nagant and the Mauser, good for you, you were right on target. I only took each down as far as removing the bolt and then disassembling each bolt for a good cleaning. I did not take the wood of either one nor did I remove the trigger group from either one. I figured those parts could wait until later. As it stands, I cleaned the bores, the chambers, the receivers, and the bolts. I also wiped down what exterior metal is exposed. Those bolts were dirty and needed a good cleaning and each of them got one.
My compliments, once again, to Gunzilla in that it cleaned the cosmoline out of the Mauser's bolt with minimal rubbing and swabbing effort on my part. One thing I found out about Gunzilla though, to be aware of, it may melt certain kinds of plastic. I do not mean polymers like that found on Glock pistol. What happened is: I had a bottle of Gunzilla in my range box and it leaked. It got all over the inside of the plastic range box but did not damage the range box itself. Instead, it apparently melted away part of the plastic case of a screwdriver set I had inside the range box. Whoops!
I arrived up close to the location of the Bloggershoot early enough on Friday evening to go to my hotel, check in, and then run right down to the next town south to go to dinner with some of the others who would be attending the shoot. There were 15 of us who enjoyed a nice dinner, and a couple of drinks, together. I know the number because they gave out checks by number and I got number 15 and was the last to arrive and to order. It was nice to reunite with some of the folks who I had met only one year earlier during the Fifth Annual NE Bloggershoot and nice to meet some new faces too. There was good food, good grog and a good time for all. Then back north to my hotel where I think I passed out at about 0100 on Saturday morning.
Saturday, after sunup, was sure a beautiful day at the Sooper SeKrit location for the Sixth Annual Northeast Bloggershoot. It may have started a little cloudy but it stayed cool to just warm and plenty of sunshine came out to keep most of the skeeters away. Starting time was slated for 1000 hours and even though I only arrived a few minutes before that, I was ahead of most of the other shooters who did show up, better late than never - for them anyway.
My guns minus the Glock 26 on my hip
and the Ortgies in my pocket.
As it turned out, I got there just in the nick of time and grabbed the last remaining open table on which to put my guns. Others who showed up later their used their own tables (many had SUVs and pick-up trucks and could fit things that I was not about to get into my Corolla), used their tailgates, or just put their stuff on the ground in cases or on tarps. I have no clue as to how many folks showed up to shoot, I would guess at least 25 to 30, but there were a lot of guns for sure!
The packets of 7.62x54R were tied
with a string, how quaintly Soviet.
After everyone had se up their guns, some of us had the foresight to make their ammo readily available and some even to load magazines (box mags not those that were internal to the gun, they had to be loaded on the line). I loaded away. I got a little surprise when I was getting my 7.62x54R ammo ready. I asked if anyone had pliers, I forgot my multi-tool and someone lent me his. so I could open the 1957 vintage ammo can of it that I had bought along. Actually I was two surprises. The first was that the can opened easily, much more easily than the spam type can that pretty much requires a special can opener. The second was that all the ammo in he can was gift wrapped. Now, I knew that the ammo would be wrapped in packets of 20 rounds per pack but what I did not expect was tat each little packet of it would appear to be giftwrapped as each one had a dainty little string wrapped around it like each like a little present.
Soon enough, Jay G called us all to attention and introduced our hosts and then did a safety, rules of the range, type lecture. I am going to say it lasted all of five minutes, maybe 10 minutes, and it was well received by everyone.
All eyes and ears were on Jay as be fired off the do's and don'ts of the range.
I don't think there was a shooter in the crowd who was not paying attention to what he had to say. He covered the basics of firearms and range safety and gave a rundown of the idiosyncrasies of the particular range we were using. Jack spoke up too, stressing us we wanted to shoot only toward the backstop. Safety was the number one priority and being safe would assure that we would all have fun.
As soon as Jay was finished, our host Jack fired the first shot and the shooting proceeded directly after that.
I made a beeline to my gun table, assured eyes and ears were in place, grabbed my Remington 870 and commenced firing once safely back on the firing line; or did I grab the 1911 first0. Who cares, I just started shooting and am pretty sure I got off the first shot after Jack had opened the festivities. I sure wasted no time stepping up to the line.
Festivities is a good word to describe what went on at the range. Everyone seemed to be in a good and festive fun seeking mood. If they were not in that mood before the shooting started, they sure were in such a frame of mind once they commenced firing. Most of the rest of this story can best be told in mostly pictures so here goes:
Brad's Guns, lots of em too.
Well okay, so maybe they weren't all Brad's guns
and some were Dave's guns too.
Evil Black guns, and even a green pistol, atop storage bins.
Guns in cases on the ground.
More gun in cases on the ground.
Guns in wo
manly mauve cases on the ground.
Some people had tough guns and laid em out right
on the ground. Guns - guns - guns all around. There were
enough of em to make a Brady Campaigner's head implode.
Guns on ultra-macho green milsurp blankets.
Guns, and is that a machine gun, on soft pink blankies.
More guns on soft pink blankies. Someone
liked coddling their guns for sure.
Even evil black pistols in evil black cases on soft pink blankies.
Guns on tailgates. Imagine that in a baseball
stadium parking lot for the tailgate part.
With all those guns, and all their ammo, we needed a place to shoot.
This is the "range" looking from the line downrange to the backstop.
Downrange, not a zombie target in sight although their had been a
book by George Soros hanging where the hole was when I took
this pic. It was probably the most shot at target of the day.
A look at the backstop we used last year. This year's backstop
was a big increase in range safety with the hill behind it.
There were shooters of all types, shapes and sizes there to shoot hose guns too. We went through an awful lot of ammo. I am figuring I fired 50 rounds of 12 gauge slugs and buckshot from my Remington 870, 80 rounds of 7.62x54R, 50 rounds of .32 Auto from the Ortgies, 150 rounds of .45 Auto from my Remingtom R1 1911, and a shitload of .22LR from both pistols and rifles (probably on order of 400-500 rounds). I also shot about 20-40 rounds through the Yugo 24/47 Mauser; I lost count with the Mauser because there was a user error type problem and also a problem with the ammo. As for user error, I apparently never cleaned the bolt of the cosmoline after getting that rifle. I cleaned it up while at the bloggershoot, after asking Wally from York Arms, what h thought might be the problem. He took the bolt apart and I both cringed and felt like an idiot. Oh well, no time better to clean it than when it was at least partially disassembled. Put it back in and fired some rounds but kept getting failures to fire and was then told by both Wally and some others that the milsurp ammo I was shooting is notorious for failures to fire. Probably hard primers and some see to be seated very low in the case. Never had a problem, even with the cosmo in the bolt, with current commercial ammo. Oh well, before I blab on more, here are pics of the shooters:
This guy apparently took Joe Biden's advice
and went wit a side by side shotgun - nah,
not for one minute. This is Jay G who shot
just about everything imaginable.
There were Mosin Nagants, women in sunglasses with big nasty
shotguns and guys with evil bull pup style rifles also in black.
Hey babe, haven't you ever heard Joe Bien's advice about double barrel
shotguns? I thought it better not to ask her that - all things considered.
And then there was the guy who made me think of what Neuman
would have looked like had he ever decided to go postal on Seinfeld.
I can hear him now: "Jerry, I just couldn't take any more, I just opened
up with my AK on every mail bag in the facility. It felt soooo good."
Matt an his son shooting away. To think, this kid did not want
to come and I would swear he had more fun than everyone else
combined. He got to shoot his dad's suppressed rifle and his dad's
submachine gun(s). Mind you, with hands on coaching from his dad.
Then we had guys really ready for self defense. Shooting a snubby
as primary with a 1911 as back-up may seem a bit off
but who cares when he had a cannon at his side.
Suppressed hair and a suppressed rifle - excellent combination!
Your's truly just after firing this .30/06 pistol one handed and
catching it with my left hand as it was flying out of my right hand.
Earlier, I had to clean the bolt on my Mauser. I used Gunzilla and
still had a film of it on my hands. Amazingly, my reflexes were like
greased lightning and I actually caught it before I got completely out
of hand. This was supposed to be video but I set the camera wrong!
Erin: "So you think you're hot stuff with that big rifle don't you
big boy?" Dave just replied with a look that could kill.
The day was not all shooting. There was a lot of waiting in between your chances to shoot. The line could accommodate about 6 to 8 shooters at a time, so each of us shot some, took a break and reloaded mags or talked to other shooters and such. We also took a nice break for lunch that we ordered from a local eatery:
During a break in the shooting: more manly murmerings
about who had the better gun or who could shoot
a smaller group or something like that.
Some guys couldn't get enough of one another.
The hostess with the mostest taking lunch orders.
A group of happy campers picking out delectables from the menu.
Relaxed, after lunch, Dave is distracted by Erin, one of a two man team, as
the Les, the other team member, makes a nonchalant grab for a box of Dave's
ammo. Just look at how Les keeps his eyes on Dave as he makes the grab.
Getting back to the shooting, I should mention that while most of the folks who attended the bloggershoot were well experienced, some were novices. There was a red headed young lady there with her family. Diana was her name, I think. I hope I have remembered her name right. (I forgot it right after she told me and had to be reminded several times, my inability to sometimes remember names can be quite embarrassing.) She was shooting only for her second time. It seemed an awful lot of folks were trying to help her out. She was having a somewhat awkward time getting advice from two or three guys at once at one point and also because some of the guns (rifles) were just too big for her as a new shooter. After watching for 5 or 10 minutes, I butted in and asked if she wanted to try a rifle that would fit her better. She said yes and I handed her Brendan's Armscor 14Y; it is a youth model and was much better suited to her size. I am guessing she shot at least 28 to 35 shots out of it (7 round mag), first shooting fast but then on my advice taking her time. I gave her some quick pointers on safety, on how to get a good sight picture and how to achieve proper sight alignment and how to focus on the front sight and the next thing you knew she was almost right up there with Annie Oakley in shooting prowess. Well, maybe not quite that good but she was repeatedly hitting a small orange cube that was hung at the 25 yard line and she was firing from a standing position, unsupported with open iron sights. She did not hit it every time but hit it enough to have made me think she will become one heck of a marksman should she keep with it.
The red headed gal getting some lessons in revolver shooting.
Charlie Brown, eat your heart out, the "little" red headed gal blazing away.
Diana was a quick learner and rapidly progressed to
evil black guns, then tried the Armscor 14Y. Most of the
rifles were too much for her to handle; I think not so
much due to size but to inexperience. The smaller rifle
was easier to hold and just made things that much easier
for her. Note the color coordinated ear plugs and shoelaces.
Darn it, out of ammo already! I knew I should have
brought more magazines than one with me.
Somebody came prepared, Gary (?) doing a reload on the line.
Les shooting his .45 and shooting
up his, or somebody's, ammo.
Long pistols, short pistols, what does it matter - they both send
the lead downrange. The pistol packing mama was our hostess.
The helmet took a lot of rounds.
Speaking of sending lead downrange, we had a few really fun targets to shoot at. One, I already mentioned was the book by George Soros. It was a book representing his policies. We begged to differ with them and shot the hell out of that book (no threat express or implied toward Mr. Soros). That one probably got the most shots. Then there were the detergent bottles, the small figurine (I think a bank) of another anti-gun personage but who shall remain anonymous and who was shot in effigy to scoff at him in fun (no threat intended at all to the real person), the blue UN like helmet and Elmo. Yes, sadly, we bunch of Neanderthal shootists who attended probably shot at Elmo if not as much as at the Soros book, then close to it.
The post shooting but pre-bayonet charge Elmo.
Funny how he showed up last year too and was shot full of holes then as well. He also wound up being on the receiving end of the bayonet charge - both years. No, it wasn't just restricted to shooting fun so, those of us with bayonets held a charge for our rights and for freedom from those with minds on the ultra libturd side who would disarm us instead of allowing us to defend ourselves against red furry bug-eyed monsters. It was symbolic and noting more, well for us anyway. It was all too real for the stuffed Elmo. If Elmo was not shot up as much as the Soros book, the bayonet charge made up for it.
Yes, there was that other target I mentioned. The one shot at in effigy, not as any sort of a threat to the person (not real, expressed, implied or even hinted at) but to merely make a statement against the policies of the likes of him and for shits and giggles. Not one of us there would even think of ever shooting the guy who the figurine represented - why commit a crime or waste a bullet when soon enough he will fade into obscurity. Yet, shooting the figurine, knowing that is all it was - just shooting a figurine - was a lot of fun.
As for shooting it, once I saw it being set downrange, and once downrange was clear and the whistle blown to start a new hot line, I was already heading to the line with the Remington 870 loaded with buckshot. There were at least three people on the line, already loaded and ready to go by the time I got there. I had to load on the line so it was another couple of seconds before I could shoot. Then somehow, I got of the first round at that little figurine/bank and I sent it flying and in a number of pieces at that.
I felt obliged to apologize to Jay for shooting the target he had just set -up but I could not resist, it was that tempting. I would have posted a pic of that target here, or at least of a piece of what was left of it, had I not been strongly advised against doing so. We shot at in in good natured jest, while at the same time making a statement, to ourselves, about our camaraderie over our 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms, again meaning no harm to anyone. Shooting it, or what remained of it after the first couple of shots, sure got a lot of laughs when it flew this way and that each time what was left of it was hit. Funny though, all throughout - that little figure sure clung to the change it had in its hand much the same way others might cling to bibles and guns.
St. Barbara medallion on the cannon.
The cannon was shot off again at the end of our shooting festivities. Just a few words about the cannon before I close. The cannon was hand made, by our host Jack. It is a 1/2 scaled version of an 1857 Napoleon Cannon. The blogshoot, this year, was dedicated to the lady who gave our hosts the medallion that was attached to it. So, all the while that we were shooting, we were watched over by, not only the NSA, CIA, FBI, DHS and ATF but also by the patron saint of artillerists - Saint Barbara. The cannon to which the medallion was attached was fired both to begin and end our day at the Sixth Annual Northeast Bloggershoot which ended as safely as it had begun. Saint Barbara watched over us well.
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