I Don't Know About You...

 ...but I do know that I need to make a trip to the range. I have both a shotgun & revolver I bought at auction back in late April, probably received them in early May and  have not shot them yet. The shotgun is a Savage Stevens Model 94C Hammered 12 gauge; it is a single shot. The revolver is a Ruger New Model Single Six Convertible, 22 LR & 22 WMR, in stainless steel. Both are in very nice condition and I am very happy about that because I bid on them without being able to check on their condition before bidding. I usually check at least a couple to a few days before the auction but my timing was off so I tried the day before the auction. That was no good and no go because they were too busy to do it at the auction house. That's okay by me because it was my bad as they say. 

Regardless of not being able to check, I wound up with two very nice firearms. As for the shotgun, I certainly did not buy it for anything like needing another shotgun, I think I have four of them right now, two Remington 870s, a Remington Model 10 and a Remington model 31. Those are more than enough for me, in fact I recently sold my Remington model 29. I bought this one thinking it would be a nice project gun on which I'd maybe touch up the bluing and refinish the wood stock. Right now, that is still the plan but I have no clue when I, THE Great Procrastinator will get around to it. Anyway here it is in pics:

 

 

As you can see it is in pretty good shape. I have almost half a mind to leave it as is but I also have just a bit more than half a mind to strip that ghastly dark finish off of the wood and replace it with one using tung oil and lots of rubbing it in; I am a fan of more natural looking wood and there is oft times beautiful wood grain under those old time dark finishes. I know many folks prefer the original finish and a good number of them think it almost sacrilegious to refinish an older gun like this but I have no qualms about doing so. After all, this is not some rare super expensive gun, I got it for a whopping total of about $130.00 or so and that includes shipping and an FFL fee.

 

As for the revolver, it is staying as is except maybe for me touching up the finish on the grips or replacing them with a better looking pair. Now, they do not look bad but there appears to be finish wear when seen up close & personal. That may only need a bit of polishing though. Here are some pics of it:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I posted pics of these already but am just too lazy at 0545 hours of the morning to check. I got out of bed at 0350 or so and have not felt like jumping back under the covers, wide awake am I for some reason.

I bought these at auction, the same auction my son told me to bid on this for him, the this being a Glock 41 in 9mm. Here are some pics of it:

 

The Glock needs some repair, minor at that but repair nonetheless. Someone, an idiot I suppose, put an improperly sized pin into it as far as I can tell. It's the one above the trigger pin (its name eludes my little gray cells right now). It falls out when shot. No big deal if it is only the pin and not something internal. It will or should be an easy fix no matter what. I just hope Glock is again selling parts to the public. Apparently they had their own crisis during COVID and would not sell parts to the public for a while back then! If they are not selling parts, the pin may cost me about 10 times what it usually sells for from Glock.

 

As I said, I need a trip to the range. I was thinking only with the Savage Stevens & the Ruger but I guess with the Glock as well since my son gave it to me to fix being I used to be a Glock Armorer & Advanced Glock Armorer. I said used to be because I never recertified once my certification expired the last time which was the fourth certification or so for me over the years. I figured why waste the money to recertify with Glock @ of a few hundred dollars when they were not selling parts to the public. I guess when I get it fixed thought I should shoot it to make sure I got it right.

 

Anyway, as I said, I need a range trip. Maybe Friday, sounds good anyway.

 

All the best,

Glenn B

 

Not The Best Idea For Sure...

 ...would it be to enter a concealed carry class and try to steal a weapon, then go outside and attack the cops - with a screwdriver - when they show up. Guns - Screwdrivers - Hands. well the cop found out hands do not beat a screwdriver but the bad guy found out that a screwdriver just does not cut the steel of a gun barrel so to speak!

 

Just to be clear, this was not a recent incident. First time I saw it though so thought I should share for others who also had not yet seen it. Leave it to Bonjingo to post old news. There is another video about it from last year in March but because of the narrator on that one, I will only post this link. I cannot stand to watch or listen to the guy, he is a horse's arse in my opinion. Yeah I know many folks think he is a firearms tactics demigod but as I said - horse's arse befits him better in my opinion.

 

All the best, 

Glenn B

Range Report - Maybe Not Quite What You'd Expect (Or The Scary Things I See At The Range)

I dragged mine fatigued feeling fat arse out of my chair and to my car today and headed to a more or less local outdoor range over in AR today. I have not been to the range for some fun shooting in too long and brought along my Glock 30 pistols (two of them), my latest acquisition a Beretta 1934 for a test shoot and my Savage Axis XP in 308 to sight in its new Vortex Crossfire II scope.

I think I have mentioned, in a previous blogpost, that I now go to this range only on weekdays because of the arsehat factor often present there on weekends. I should have listened to my own advice. 

When I got there today, there were three other shooters there. They had been taking a break from shooting and the line appeared safe. They asked me if I needed to set up targets to which I replied no since I'd be shooting the Beretta first just to make sure it worked okay. Soon they called a hot line and the shooting commenced. The two guys at the other end of the range seemed to be doing things right. The other guy, one bench to my left was not shooting at the moment. I loaded up the Beretta mags (only have two mags 7 rounds each) and fired away for a function check. It worked just fine. I did that two times more and the third time I was shooting it I started having a problem in as much as pulling the trigger did not result in the hammer falling on intermittent attempts. Sometimes it went bang because the hammer fell, other times the hammer did not budge. "Oh no..." I thought "...the gun is screwed up".  

Well, as I was reloading mags that last time, I noticed the guy next to me was having problems with what I think was a Mossberg shotgun with only a pistol grip. He was shooting or trying to shoot short mini-shells through it but they were not going bang and he complained he was getting only slight dimple or none at al from the firing pin on the primers. I suggested he try some normal length shells and he loaded up behind the firing line! He then walked to the line and started shooting but luckily did not cover anyone in the process. The first went bang but then most of the others had the same problem. He then uttered something about having taken the gun apart and maybe screwing up something when he put it back together.

DANGER WILL ROBINSON - DANGER! - is what I should have heard booming inside my head. Next thing I know, the guy turns around and covers the other two shooters with the muzzle  and walks away from the firing line - fully charged shotgun in hand - points the gun at the road behind the range on which the shooters' vehicles were parked and starts unloading it while pointing it that way. He put it down once unloaded and bagged it. He then went to the line to shoot a pistol but not before loading it well behind the line. That was it for me, I decided to leave but not until I also got a video of him with his pistol because he was loading it behind the firing line and I mean several feet behind it. While making the video of him loading like that and then shooting, he had a misfire. He immediately racked the slide and ejected the round that did not go off, picked it up, put it back into the chamber and tried firing it. had the same problem and did that three times in all. Normally I'd wait several seconds, probably do a ten count, before opening the action just in the event it was a hang fire (which is a delayed fire shot). 

You can take a look at the video below. While I will not comment on what I think of his range etiquette, you can leave all the comments you want to about him. He was scary in his absolute... - oh wait - I said I'd not comment.

It's a pity I had to leave because I felt it was not safe due to his apparent ineptness with firearms/range safety. (Whoops did I just comment about his range etiquette and such?) It was also very disappointing. I had at least another 100 rounds to go through the Beretta and since I seemed to be having a problem with it not firing some of the times I pulled the trigger (the hammer was not dropping on some trigger pulls) I definitely wanted to try to figure out the problem. (Probably not the gun but user/knucklehead (that would be me) error as later on I realized I had had the safety partially engaged, once I disengaged it completely the problem went away while dry firing at home.) I must have engaged it with my grip or  whatever and I did not realize it or even take the time to check why I was having the problem once I realized there seemingly was an unsafe arsehat shooting next to me. (Whoops there I go again commenting on that guy - sorry.) Another trip to the range, this time on a weekday when it is much more likely I will be the only one there, should allow me to determine if the safety being partially engaged was the problem as I am pretty sure that was exactly it. Besides not shooting the Beretta any more, I also did not shoot any of the other guns I had along with me.

Oh Well, at least I made it home alive and unventilated and can go to the range another day to try again.

All the best,
Glenn B

When It Comes To Fake News - ABC May have Just Won 1st Place

An ABC news report on the fighting in Syria between the Turkish military and Kurdish forces reportedly featured a spectacular video of the fighting. It also evidently depicted scores if not hundreds of spectators making videos of the shooting and explosions with their cell phones. Really? Just watch the video. The thing was though, according to published reports, the video actually showed a full auto shoot at the Knob Creek Gun Range in Kentucky and had nothing to do with the fighting in Syria. More at the source.


Folks, the news does not get much more fake than that! Anyway ABC supposedly has apologized for it. My guess is had they not been caught with their pants on fire, they never would have mentioned it. I have no doubt someone on the left will now use it, in their continued anti-gun crusade, to show just how terrible are gun owners in the US of A that their shooting at a range could be confused for warfare. Really though, I think all it shows is how low they can go to make fake news.

All the best,
Glenn B

Range Day Today With It's Ups & Downs

By Tuesday or Wednesday of this week it was turning out to be just another week pretty much full of drudgery & boredom for me here in the Texarkana area. Had it not been for me going to Sam's Club (once my membership expires they probably can kiss my arse goodbye), running a few other errands and going in to see a doc, I would have been pretty much apartment bound all week watching Star Trek Enterprise on Netflix.

Then, when Brendan got in touch with me to tell me he was going to buy a Remington Model 700, in 308 WIN, for hunting this year, I told him if he wanted it he cold have my still new in the box Savage 111 Long Range Hunter. He hemmed and hawed only a little and said that might not be too shabby.

So, I started to get things in order for a trip to see him over in Benton, AR and to bring along the Savage 111 LRH. I also started a thread on Texas Gun Talk, a local to TX gun forum, to see what others thought about the Savage 111 LRH in 300 Winchester Magnum. Some thought it a good idea, others thought it too much gun. With the thought of it maybe being too much gun, I decided to bring along a few others in 3 additional calibers: 30-30 WIN, 308 WIN, and 35 REM. I spent a good deal of Thursday night and Friday morning into the afternoon cleaning guns, mounting a scope, getting ammo ready and so on and that was much better than being bored to tears in Texarkana (not that it is necessarily a boring town, just I have not gotten to really know anyone or the town itself yet).

On Friday afternoon I headed over to his place in Benton, got there late around 645PM or so. I had planned to leave earlier to make it to him by 4 or 5 at the latest but had to make a run to the post office before it closed. On my way there I remembered that I had some Jarlsberg and Cheddar cheeses in my fridge for him and of course, in my frenzied rush to get to the post office before closing, and then to finally shove off to his place, with getting all my guns and ammo together (well almost all of my ammo as you will see), I had left them behind. Back to my apartment to get the cheeses and out the door by 445 or a bit later. Once I got to Benton, we went out to get some burgers at red Robin. They have surprisingly greasy and very tasty burgers - both things to my liking. They also have some very strong mixed drinks of which I only had one. They also have a very cute and oerky waitress that Brendan seems to like - who knows. After the eats, back to his place and more drinking was to be done of Laird's Applejack, Some Knappogue Castle 16 year old single malt Irish whiskey, some 12 year old  Redbreast Irish whiskey, a shot of some liquor that was somewhat like Yeagermeister, and a few Bitburger Pilsners. We woke up late on Saturday morning, had some strong coffee, ate a bit of breakfast, I went to Home Depot to get some packing boxes out of which to make targets and we finally got off to a pretty late start. What the heck though - we went to the range to have some shooty goodness kind of fun.

We drove about 63 miles of so from his place to Pigeon Roost Range i he in his car and me in mine. I sat in his parking lot for 10 minutes waiting for him to come down to his car only to find out he had been right behind me as I went to my car and he had already left. Damn. I wound up turning off the highway, onto the dirt road to the range, maybe a couple of hundred feet behind him. Either he drove pretty slowly or I drove too fast but I am not telling. 

It was nice and sunny ad not too hot when we got there. not humid either. The best thing was that we had the range to ourselves. We got to business setting up targets, sorting ammo and getting otherwise ready to shoot.  I handed him the Savage 111 LRH and he liked the heft of it. Then I showed him the ammo next to a 308 WIN round and a 30-06 round. Both he and I were impressed - the 300 WIN MAG is huge compared even to a 30-06 round. I think maybe he was a little hesitant to take the first shot but he did and he then loaded up another and fired again, he liked it. In fact, he liked the Savage LRH in 300 WIN MAG very much. He only took a few shots with it, because there are no sights and no glass on it, just to check out the recoil. I did not bother mounting a scope to it because Savage said they are sending a replacement stock due to a problem of the bolt hitting the cheek-piece when trying to remove the bolt and necessitating removal of the adjustable cheek piece to get the bolt out. When I get that, I will probably pick up a Vortex crossfire scope for it or maybe something a little better from the same company.

He also tried out the Savage Axis XP. We fired several rounds through it and planned to fire a lot more since I had an abundance of 308 BUT then the glass went kerflooey. One of the internal pieces of glass near the eyepiece turned around sideways. So much for cheap scopes that come packaged on a rifle. Of course, bouncing around in a van moving from NY to AR and then in another moving it from AR to TX could have had something to do with it. A new scope needed, probably also Vortex something or other this next time around. Anyway, he liked the recoil of the 308 as well as that of the 300 WIN MAG. I think he was impressed that the much larger round had about the same kick as did the 308.

On Thursday evening, while getting ready for the trip, I had mounted a cheap BSA scope on my Remington 141, slide action rifle in 35 REM. It was set to be parallax free at 100 yards - not something I usually go for in a scope, I prefer one parralax free at 25 yards or less with an adjustable adjustable objective lens. I picked up that scope somewhere I cannot recall - maybe in a combined lot of items at one of the Hessney auctions I attended and had it on hand so made use of it. Luckily, I had the 141 sighted in at the range, at 25 yards, after only 6 shots after merely having slapped on the scope and having tightened the screws. He liked that rifle too; although, the scope was pure junk. I told him if he wanted it, he could get a better piece of glass for it and he could have the 141 since he needs a hunting rifle for this season. He was undecided. We wound up only firing only 12 rounds total through the Remington 141 and I had wanted both him and me to shoot more rounds out of it but we only had one box of 35 REM being I had mistakenly grabbed an extra box of 308 in my hurry to get going to head his way Friday afternoon and I left the second box of 35 REM on a table in my living room (remember I said I had taken almost all of my ammo). We used the other eight rounds in my Marlin 336.

When we shot the remaining 8 rounds of 35 REM ammo through my Marlin 336 we found it was off maybe 4 inches to the left; both for him and for me. I need to sight that one in again when I bring the right ammo. Seems it must have lost lost zero sometime during my move from NY to AR to TX. Oh well - next time I hit the range with it, I will make sure to have enough ammo to sight it in. Things were getting a bit frustrating what with a scope going bust and without enough 35 REM so I decided to steer things elsewhere because it was getting obvious Brendan wanted to head home.

It was a lot nicer of a day than the last time we got together there maybe a few weeks ago. Back then the temp was in the high 90s to maybe over 100 and it was humid as all hell and had us soaked from sweat - one of those days where if you are not wearing a cap, the sweat just keeps running into your eyes while firing. No we did not have caps. Today though, I am guessing it was around 87 at most and nowhere nearly as humid as the day of our last range trip. So, since we were not sweating buckets, he readily took me up on my offer of a box of 100 rounds of 9mm FMJ and got in some practice with his Glock 43. I too the time to shoot several rounds through my Beretta 950BS in 22 short. Disappointingly, I discovered that the Triple-K magazine I bought for it, at a gun show last week, was assembled incorrectly and that prevented it from being loaded with more than one round. There is an obvious manufacture flaw on one side that I had not noticed when taking it out of the package. I am hopeful Triple-K or the dealer will make good on it despite me having thrown out the clam-shell packaging and not getting a receipt. Time and an email or phone call will tell. Anyway, we also both fired several mags worth of ammo out of my Glock 30.

After we were done shooting the pistols, out of ammo for either of the rifles in 35 REM and unable to aim the Savage Axis in 308 because the scope went belly up, I brightened up Brendan when I told him I had the pièce de résistance yet to come - my Marlin 36 in 30-30 Winchester (and that I had three boxes of ammo for it). No glass on this old timer - just the original iron sights. We both shot it at 25 yards first. Each of us shot a bit to the left of center with group sizes I am conservatively estimating to have been at about 1.5 to 2 inches. Then I moved the target to 50 yards and we tried again. I am guesstimating the group sizes to have been about 3.5 to 4.5 inches across at most, which I am thinking equals minute of pie plate at 100 yards. It also shot a bit more to the left. I think drifting the front sight a bit to the left will help there, that is if it can be drifted. He was very impressed with that Marlin 36 not only because it was a nice shooter but because it still has a good deal of its original case color. I should mention that two rounds did not go bang, I was firing 150 grain Winchester Power Point ammo out of the second box of it and both rounds that did not fire came from that box. It looked like light hits or hard primers. None of the rounds in the other box of 150 grain ammo failed to fire nor did any from a box of 170 grain Winchester power point fail to fire. My guess is the primers but again, time (and other brands of ammo) will tell.

I would have tried the Marlin 36 at 100 yards but as we were firing it at 50 yards, two other guys showed up to shoot. There had been no one else there while we were shooting and the new arrivals helped us make the decision it was time to leave. We have been to that range before and all I can say is each time we shot there - me by myself once and me with him at least two other times - while others were using that range at the same time - we wound up seeing people loading standing well behind the firing line and wound up with guns pointing at us and on at least two of those occasions they were loaded. Going to a public range where there are no range officers can be a scary experience. Sometimes I point out safety violations to others, at other times we just pack our gear and leave the range because sometimes you can just feel that whatever you say will be taken with an attitude of who the heck are you to be telling me anything by the offending party. Today, even though the two guys who showed up looked nice and competent enough, we just did not want to take a chance and we called it a day. For all we knew, they (my guess is a father and son) could have been the safest shooters around besides us but we had shot enough and decided to head to Bubba Brews on route 70 near Bonnerdale for some eats.

We had a couple of appetizers and  a a couple of drinks and called it a day. I truly sucks eggs having to go our separate ways and to have to wait as Roy Rogers used to say "Until we meet again" but that's the way it is, at least for now. I am hoping we can get together in a couple oif weeks either for shooting or maybe for some fishing. Next weekend is out, Brendan already has something planned with his buddies - so maybe I'll get a TX hunting & fishing license and head out to wet a line by myself.

By the way, after a nice day shooting, when I asked him if he wanted one of the rifles for hunting season this year, he told me he might use his shotgun but really liked the Savage 111 LRH. If he wants it, he can have it but he will have to buy the glass for it. Same as for any of them that need a scope, I figure giving him a rifle is generous enough. If he does not want any of them, all the better for me.  
All the best,
Glenn B

PS: I will proof read this later. Sorry no pics today.

Shooting Skill = Not Bad At All

 

 

The boy (actually well into manhood but still "my boy") sent me a picture of one of his latest targets. He said it was either 3 or 5 yards with him shooting his Glock 43 as fast as he could pull the trigger. Note that is not a full sized silhouette target - it is only 12"x16". 

Looks like he paid attention somewhat when being taught how to shoot - wouldn't you say!  Could it do with a tiny bit of improvement - sure it could but it is not bad at all as I see it. (As for that one above the head, do not know if that was a hole from a round or a mark on the target.)

He told me he has been going to the range once a week lately and shooting 100 rounds through his two 9mm pistols. I like it - practice is good when doing it right. I suggested he ought to shoot at least 300 rounds per range trip and maybe only go every other week. Yet, he prefers going more often and shooting less ammo because he cannot afford much more of the ammo. So, what was a responsible loving pop to do but order him a case of 9mm to help him along.

I ordered him a case of Sellier & Bellot, 115 grain, FMJ ammo from TargetSportsUSA.com. I have shot it before and like it, one of the better things about it, as far as I am concerned, is that it runs hotter than most other practice ammo. TargetSportsUSA has a great price when you consider it includes shipping for a case. Now if he shoots the 300 rounds per range trip as I recommended, he will have 100 rounds left over after three trips. Damn, this could get expensive.

All the best,
Glenn B

 

Not Quite A Bad Day At The Range

I went to the range today even tough I only left my house late and wound up there at about 2:15PM. Maybe I should not have gone. Some knucklehead in a grey BMW SUV almost drove me off the road. I think he was drunk. I called the police; they never responded but that is another story. It was an omen too.

Of course that story blends into this one, because the police called me back, just before I was about to start shooting, to say the officer was in the range parking lot looking for me. I went up to look for him and he was nowhere to be seen - apparently he went to the wrong range - there are one or two others in the vicinity. Well I thought he went to thee wrong range, as you will see he probably never even showed up. When I started to go back down to the range, there was some guy moving my cased rifles over to a bench looking over his shoulder at me. I asked what business he had to move my rifles without asking me and he started to yell and scream that he was a range Nazi officer, and he had every right to do so, and how dare I leave my cased rifles in an open case on the ground. I explained, rather loudly myself, the another range officer had instructed me to leave them right there until a cease fire and he had better ask me to ever again touch my firearms. Well yet a third range officer, one I know as a senior or supervisory range officer, came over and he tried to butt in calm things down. I explained that the guy yelling at me had a knack for yelling at folks at the range and the butting in guy knew it because I had witnessed this same act before a few times with him yelling at other people. The rifle moving range guy started to more or less say I was a jerk who should be expelled from the range and we went back and forth a bit. It soon was over or so I thought but low and behold there came the first guy who told me to put the case where I had left it. The place from which the guy who moved it said it should not have been, and what does this first range officer ask me. "Sir, can I move or would you move the rifle case to over there?" Over there being exactly where I had it when the other guy picked it up and moved it saying it was a violation of range rules to have left it there. What is it they say about too many chefs spoiling the broth! It was going to prove to be a day - wouldn't you say.

Back to the police for a moment. As it turned out the police later called me again to say there would be a delay in an officer responding to my call and if I wanted to wait quite some time I could do so. This was about 20 minutes before the range closed and over 2 hours or so since I had made the call to the police. I told them to forget it. Allow me to get back to shooting which I somehow managed to squeeze in between this call and the range officer and me getting into a tiff. By the way we both apologized to one another for getting loud with one another and all turned out fine. I guess maybe the guy had a point - he did not know me and they get lots of assholes to deal with and I have to agree with him they do get a lot of assholes as you will see was the case today. No not me, don't go there because even the range officer agreed that I was not one once we got to talking and once he saw me shooting.

Before I got into the tiff with the range officer, I had gone to the range shop, bought about 8 targets, and paid my fee. The total was about $23.50. A lot for only about 2 hours shooting time - that was all the time left since they close at 4:15. Oh well, I figured it was then or wait another couple of weeks because next weekend I have other plans that do not allow for range time. I got to the range and somewhere in the whole mess mentioned above I actually had the time to set up on the range with a decent selection of rifles and get to shooting them. I had my new Mosin Nagant 91/30, my Mosin Nagant M44, my Yugoslavian SKS, and my Marlin 336.

I shot the Mosin Nagant 91/30 first. I used a Shoot-n-C target. It is one of the targets that shows the greenish ring around the bullet hole for great contrast. As it turned out the 91/30 is a shooter. From the bench with no support except for the bench (as in no sand bags) I did purdy near good at 50 yards. No competition grade shooting, but I certainly could have lit up a whitetail deer at that distance. Why 50 yards? Because it is easier to sight in a newly acquired rifle at 50 than it is at 100 yards. Maybe the next trip I will try to shoot it at 100 yards. Besides that I rarely get a shot at a deer over 50 yards, and i may just take this thing hunting with me. I'll have to remember to use the lollipop sight picture though. Aiming dead on at 50 yards and it shot high even with the rear sight set to its lowest position. It was pretty much right on for windage. In the pic there are three groups of 5 shots. The first group is slightly to the right and high. The second group is slightly to the left and high but not as high - using Kentuckty windage (and elevation) to adjust for having shot right and high the first time. The third group (yes that is five shots, look very closely) is the result of using the lollipop sight picture which made it near perfect for elevation although I again shot to the right a bit, but I did not compensate for windage this time. I need to adjust the front sight slightly for windage and it should be as good as it will get for me.

I then fired the M44 but was not impressed. It did not shot okay now that the bore is clean. My first group was not so good, the shots were pretty low. I needed only to adjust the rear sight up to notches to get the right elevation and I got a decent 3 shot group with the 2nd set of 3 rounds (see the pic two pics down, look at the shots fired on the buff colored paper to the right of the target. There are 6 shots, those were from the M44. I aimed at that area to not mistake those shots with my shots fired from the Marlin when I was sighting it in. The M44 also needs front sight adjustment a bit to to the right but not all that much. I was aiming in the center of the buff colored area and as you can see the shots were to the left somewhat (the right edge of the pic was pretty much the right edge of the buff colored paper).

I also fired the Yugo SKS which has never been all that great of a shooter. Still though it shoots consistently to the right, so again I need to do some adjustment for windage on its front sight. Yes a common factor among these three rifles is that the front sights are adjustable for windage. In all I fired to 10 round groups for a total of 20 shots out of the SKS. The first group was higher up, the second was lower and tighter in together. Not great shooting but not terrible either.

I also sighted in the Marlin 336. I took the scope off of it to clean it when I noticed a smidgen of rust at the edge of the scope mount the other night. Much to my dismay the area under the scope mount had a sizable rusty spot, like half of the area. I cleaned it and took off some of the finish doing so; shame on me for not removing the scope mount at the end of the hunting season last year. Live and learn.

In all I fired 15 shots out of the Marlin to sight in the scope. I fired 3 way to the left, then 3 closer to the center, then 3 even closer, then 3 way off to the right. I think what sent them way off to the right was that I probably adjusted the sights further right to get them from the 9 ring to the center, got distracted by a range officer BS'ing to me to tell me how I was shooting, then readjusted the sights before shooting again. So I essentially doubled the adjustment and look what it did, it put me right in the same area of the 9 ring on the opposite lateral side of the target (except for the one flier in that group). When I adjusted back to the left half of the last adjustment to the right - well, the shots were right where I wanted them. I fired 15 more shots, on a new target later on, with ammo from a few different manufacturers with pretty much the same results. I use a 200 grain bullet from Winchester, Federal and Remington ammo brands. The Marlin is ready for the hunting season for me. Now Brendan has to try it out because the scope usually needs some adjustment between where it has the rifle shooting fine for me and where it does likewise for him. Either way it is good enough for either of us to bag a deer.

Now when you looked at the second target for the Marlin, the one with all but one of the holes in the red, you may have noticed that there are 16 shots instead of 15 on the paper. That has a bit of explaining needed. I was firing on a 50 yard target. The guy immediately to my right was firing a pistol at about 7 yards (maybe 10). The range is set up with 2 rifle lanes next to the pistol lanes, followed by all rifle lanes to the right of that. I was pretty uncomfortable with the asshole next to me a few times that I noticed he had laid down his pistol on the bench pointed at my position. The bench for pistol shooters is a bit too far back in relation to the benches for the rifle shooters, so that if you fiddle with a pistol over the bench and it turns left or right it is pointing at the shooter next to you who is shooting rifle. The set up sucks, and his shooting safety skills sucked. So did those of the woman accompanying him. She pointed her pistol at me at least once while racking the slide and once again while trying to clear a jam -of course trying to clear the jam with finger on the trigger. I said something to the range officer and I suppose he spoke to them. But I digress - don't I and I certainly do not need my blood pressure to rise again today.

That shot - number 16 - all by its lonesome self out of the red and into the white - was not fired by me. In fact, I was looking through binoculars, to get an idea of where I had been shooting, when I suddenly saw a new hole appear in my target. That was right after one of those two assholes next to me fired off a pistol. I almost could not believe it, there is no way he could have been aiming at his target and actually hit mine, or her either for that matter, no matter how bad a shot could be either one of them. I figure it had to be either on purpose, or maybe one of them was again trying to clear a jam with finger on trigger and the gun pointed awry - but at least downrange this time if that was indeed the case. I figure it was on purpose because I think it was pretty obvious I had complained about their lack of range safety to the range officer. Luckily they finished up right after that and left before me so I had some safer time to shoot during the last round of shooting. Man oh man, public ranges can be frightening. I wonder where the range officers were when these two were pulling there goofball stunts with their pistols! Did I mention above somewhere I should have known this was going to be a day!

Oh well, it was a decent day at the range regardless of all the shenanigans that went on. How could I think it was even a decent day. Well I did not get shot or otherwise injured. I fired all 4 rifles I had brought with me. I did fair to middling with two of them and purdy darned good with the other two. Finally, a mediocre day at the range is better than a good day at work (unless you are at work shooting at the range) - so it was a decent way to spend a couple of hours on my day off. Note I did not say a bad day at the range is better than a good day at work as you would say a bad day fishing better than a good day at work. Why not? Because a bad day at the range means your gun blew up, or you got shot by some jerk who had no concept of firearms safety. Be careful out there - please shoot and handle firearms safely.

All the best,

Glenn B

Range Day Today - Quarterly Qualifications

I went up to the NYPD Firearms' Range at Rodman's Neck today to qualify for my agency. I only got to shoot my issued Sig and my personal Glock 26 due to the fact that my issued Remington 870 was sent in for repairs not too long ago. it had already been returned to the PFI but he did not get a chance to turn it back over to me and it is sitting in a vault in our office. That could be a good thing as my shoulder has been feeling a bit out of sorts for the past few days; I must have pulled when I should have pushed.

I did pretty good with the pistols. I shot a 249 with the Sig, then shot a 250 with the Glock. The 250 is the top attainable score. I was going to say perfect score but my grouping was certainly not perfect, yet good enough to have em all in the 5 ring.

It was a nice day for shooting and we had a good crew at the range. The instructors are top notch, but sure were short handed today in that there was only two of them there. It went well anyway and I had a blast - no pun intended.

The pistols have both been cleaned. I did that right after getting home because happiness is a clean, lubed and functioning gun. I mean I would sure be happy if they worked as planned if I ever needed to pick em up at 0400 to shoot an intruder bent on harming me or my family. So they had best be cleaned, lubed, functioning and therefore ready when and if ever needed.

All the best,
Glenn B

Range Trip

It's always nice to go to the range for some shooting fun and is especially nicer when Brendan comes along. Today I enjoyed one of those especially nicer trips to the range. We went to the Nassau County indoor range in Uniondale right near the Nassau Coliseum. As per new policy we had to show our Leisure passes. Used to be all you had to do was show proof of residence but some arse hat bureaucrat figured out that the county could make some shekels off of we who use any county park facilities and voila the Leisure Pass. After showing the pass we payed $7.00 a head to shoot, and $2.00 for 12 small targets.

Once on the range Brendan started to shoot his Bulgarian AK and I my government issued Glock 19. I tried to adjust the font sight on Brendan's rifle for windage with hammer and punch but it did not work like the gun store cljerk who sold it to Brendan claimed it would work. I suppose we need some sort of adjustment tool. I told him to shoot using Kentucky windage and he asked "what's that". Once I explained it to him he was shooting center of target in no time. Nothing to brag about, but he was having fun and doing pretty well even if only at 15 and 25 yards (small range).

As we were well into shooting, there was a high pitched repeated tone over the PA system. The range office was making an announcement that the guys on two other points had only 5 minutes left of their allotted time and had to leave! That was foul indeed. I have never heard anything like this before at this range. While they charge residents $7.00 per hour, you always could shoot for much longer than an hour without anyone telling you your time was up. The dems are in power in Nassau County and things have changed, and ares till changing for the worse at this range. Just like with the Leisure Pass, they are trying to suck more money out of folks. Even if they insist on being hard asses about your time on the range, they do not need to embarrass or bother anyone by making such an announcement. All they need do is tell the guy as he leaves that he owes them for another hour.

I had 250 rounds of 9mm for myself to play with and shot it all up within less than an hour. Now I did not hurry up because of the above announcement. Had they made that announcement to me I would have given them a piece of my mind and thrown my next $7 at them for another hour if need be. I just shot up what I had because I had other things to do, and Brendan and I had planned for only an hour at the range.

I did most of my firing inside 7 yards but also a some further out. I am not the greatest shot out there by a long shot, that is for sure. Yet, I can hold my own and usually do pretty good. For instance the one target tat accompanies this blog was shot slow fire at 7 yards. I will not say how many rounds I fired at it, that will be part of my monthly contest to be posted later this week. The other pic is of a target at which I fired my last 38 rounds. I shot then rapid fire, just about as fast as I could pull the trigger once I got ther gun back on target after recoil. As you can see, there is a big difference between the slow fire and the rapid fire targets. When I can get both of them close to the same as the slow fire target, then I'll be a really good shot. As for now though, I would get the job done in a self defense situation even though the spread was considerable on the rapid fire target. Then again, if you consider chest cavity size, it is not all that spread out.

Once we were done shooting, we washed up, and grabbed a soda each and then made a stop by the bulletin board. There folks can list guns they have for sale. One lady had up a posting about a good number of rifles she is selling that her deceased husband had owned. While money is tight because times are hard I'll have to call her to see what she is asking on some of them. Good investments for the future. I took the list down and asked the range officer to make me a copy which he was happy to do for me. As I was waiting for the copies, a young gal and guy with whom I assume to be their dad came in to shoot. When asked what they were shooting they said .223. The range guy then asked what kind of 223 since they do not allow FMJ ammo at this range (although HP is okay). The dad then pulled out the ammo to show to the range guy. The range guy told him he could not shoot it, and that he had to hand over the ammo to the range guy who would keep it until they left! The range Nanny State at its best is all I can say. There is no way I would hand over any ammo to a range officer. Instead I would politely tell him it is my ammo and either I will keep it in my range bag or put it into my car, but he would not be holding it for me. In case I would forget it, I don't need to be dependent upon a range officer's realizing that I am leaving, then actually remembering that he has my ammo that he needs to return to me. Besides that, the policy sucks because it only goes to show that the government (and yes these are government employees working at a county government range) is telling us it does not respect us enough to trust us to follow the range regulations. That is despicable behavior on the part of the range personnel as far as I am concerned because it shows great disrespect to the shooters. That policy should be changed. As it was though, the shooter in question just handed it over like a sheep. Oh well - his ammo - his call.

All in all we had a very enjoyable day, and an eye opening one far as as enforcement of range policies goes.

All the best,

Glenn B

A Nicer day At The Range...

...would have been hard to find. Brendan and I left the house at about 0815 this morning, and we arrived at the Long Island Shooting Range of Brookhaven at about 0910. A drive of almost an hour's duration and about 46 miles just to get to a decent outdoor range. Oh well not much traffic at that hour of a Sunday morning once we were on the highway.

When we entered the range area we saw the parking lot at the rifle range about 1/2 full, and that would mean a lot of shooters. We went to the office and paid our $36 for two shooters. Yes folks, you read it right, $18 each for nonresidents of the town of Brookhaven, for which you can shoot from opening at 9 until they close at 4. We also bought 4 targets for .50 each. We had other targets too, and I only wanted these 4 because they approximated the size of a deer if placed sideways on the backer. Then down to the range which apparently had not started up yet so we were lucky enough to get in on the first round of shooting. It wound up being a good thing we got there when we did. With the shortage of ranges on Long Island or near NYC, shooting space is in high demand just about one month before the firearms big game season opens in NYS. As it turned out we had taken the advice of the guy at the range counter yesterday when we had stopped there to shoot, then decided it was too expensive to kill just the short hour we had; he told us if we come back tomorrow to come early. When we wound up leaving there were at least 15, maybe 20 shooters waiting to get in to shoot.

We shot the Marlin 336 in .35 Remington, and the Remington 870 in 12 gauge over the next few hours, that is up until noon when we called it quits. The Marlin required some tweaking of the scope, yes we have sinned and put a scope on a lever action rifle - but with my eyes that is good. As for the shotgun, nothing but factory original iron sights on it. We only fired out to 50 yards, where we hunt it is very unlikely to get a shot even at that distance. After a few rounds each, I made adjustments to the scope on the Marlin, and it was shooting dead on center for the most part; that is if Brendan did it right, then so too did the Marlin. The shotgun also needed some adjusting of the sights. That seemed strange, but it was shooting quite high at 50 yards. I'll have to give it a check at the indoor range at 25 yards. We did okay with it, but I expect we would do better a little closer in than at 50 yards which would be, as I said before, a long shot where we hunt.

No pics from today. I had the camera, just forgot to make use of it; I guess because I was having fun shooting. of course I would have loved to have had it on video when Brendan beaned himself in his nose with his thumb when shooting the 870. I felt his pain - his nose was that red. He wound up hurting his shoulder too. I guess I'll need to work on how he mounts the shotgun a little bit more. I may also pick up a new recoil pad this year. Remington is making one, called the SuperCell, and they claim: "...our Model 870 pump shotgun now produces 54% less recoil than competing auto loaders with their factory pads." Sound almost too good to be true since auto loaders are known to kick much less than pumps; yet at about $20 each, I'll have to at least try one when I can find it. The kid young man will learn sooner or later, but I figure I'll make it easier on both of us, especially with not wanting his young joints to be achy like my older ones, with that new recoil pad.

Overall it was a nice day, albeit an expensive one, out with Brendan. Ammo expended in .35 Remington and 12 Gauge: $150 (at today's prices), Gas For The Car: $20.00, Admission To The Range: $36.00, Targets: $2.08, Seeing Brendan Keep Shooting Well After Whacking His Nose and Shoulder: Priceless (as were the chauffeured rides to the range and back to home since he drove).

All the best,
Glenn B

Out Of The Box, Examined, A Few Pics Taken...

...examined some more, cleaned, reassembled and put back into the box ready for the range. My brand spanking new Glock 26 is ready to be test fired and then broken in. I have it and 500 rounds of Speer 115 gr. Gold Dot ammunition ready for a quick trip to the range tomorrow. I had been thinking of going to the outdoor range, but since tomorrow promises to be one of those sultry summer days near 90 with lots of oppressive hum-a-didity, I figure a trip to the indoor range will be in order. I seem to remember they have A/C, but that could be my muddled middle aged memory and wishful thinking playing tricks on me. Anyhow, the indoor range is better for test firing a pistol, I can shoot when I please not needing to wait for a firing session and not needing to stop for intermittent ceasefires as at the outdoor range.

I figure 400-500 rounds through it tomorrow should pretty much let me know if there are going to be any problems. I don't anticipate any, but I think it pays for me to be on the safe side with something I may later use to protect my life. I would rather find out it is going to fail at the range, than when I need it in the clutch. Of course, putting a few hundred rounds through it at the range is no absolute guarantee that the pistol will not fail when I need it, but if those 400 rounds go through it without a problem, then chances are the pistol was made right and will be dependable. That many rounds through a new pistol is usually enough to cause any potential bugs to crawl out of the woodwork and show themselves. It is a prudent expenditure of ammunition when you consider the alternative of bringing into the field not sufficiently broken in and then having it fail when you need it. Since I get the ammo for free it is not much of an expenditure for me at all - some free ammo - but little cash - just the local range fee.

Now I just need to make sure I make the time for me to get to the range. That should be on the easier side on a Sunday, but heavens know sometimes things don't turn out as we hope. I am hoping though that all will go well, and that I'll be able to come back here to post a great range report with a smile on my face.

All the best,
Glenn B

Quarterly Qualifications...

...went well for me today, and this old man is proud of himself. I shot a 244/250 on the first qualification round with the Glock 19. On the second round I shot 250/250 with the same pistol. I then shot a perfect score on the shotgun qualification 5/5 of 12 gauge slug. I also shot a perfect score 250/250 with the HK MP-5. Since this may have been my last chance to shoot the MP-5 in qualifications I am pretty happy with that score. I am also quite happy that m scores improved back to normal, up from what I have scored the last 2 or 3 qualifications at the range. Those scores were not terrible, just not up to my regular ability, and I thought my last couple or few qualification scores had been effected by my no longer so great eyesight. My vision seems to come and go from better to worse back to better, to worse. Today I was seeing things a little clearer than I have been lately, but I was also concentrating hard on doing things right as I shot, taking my own advice and mentally talking myself through each shot, even on rapid fire. Funny that I also started an exercise program lately and my vision seemed to improve right after that. Of course, I do not think exercise has anything to do with improving vision, so maybe it was just coincidence, but I do need to ask my doc about that. Whatever the reason, I shot better today than at least my last 2 qualifications and that was a good thing.

As usual we also shot a good number of rounds in tactical shooting exercises. We did man down, seated shooting (simulating shooting from a car), malfunction drills, and one handed loading of the semi-auto pistol. It was one heck of a nice day, the weather was great, blue skies, a light breeze, and great temps. Only 5 shooters showed up, I think about that many cancelled for one reason or another. Well actually we had 6, but one agent had to leave being called away on something for one of his cases.

One of the best things about the day was I got a good amount of practice ammo to use at my local range or at the range I belong to in NYC. The government is full of bureaucracy, but I can say without a doubt, time qualifying at the range is something I will truly miss once I retire.

All the best,
Glenn B

Time At The Range...

...is always good time for me. So today when I left the office, i headed to the West Side Pistol Range in the heart of Manhattan. Yep I renewed my membership and have until next April to keep having fun there.

I had my issue Glock 19 and 125 rounds to shoot, along with my Henry Survival Rifle with about 100 rounds for it. Not a lot of ammo, but I figured what the heck it was better than nothing. As opposed to my shortage of ammo, the range had no shortsage of shooters. There were about 10 people shooting when I got there. Surprisingly enough all of them were probably in their young to mid twenties. Can you imagine that - young hipsters, young yuppies, young Manhattanites, young New York City kids - at a firearms range late on a friday afternoon! Are we finally getting our message across that the shooting sports, self defense, hunting, collecting, and everything else legal to do with firearms is a good thing, an American thing. I sure hope so.

Enough for the youngsters though, let me talk about my shooting. It was okay but not great. I was tired, grumpy, and just a bit out of it when I arrived. After 125 rounds of 9mm through the Glock I was feeling a lot better. I was shooting at a distance of only about 50 feet, maybe a bit more; the range is pretty small but big enough for big fun. I put all my shots into a spread hand sized group which was okay by me, and my hand is average sized for a man. Put your hand over the center of your chest, and you will see why that was okay by me. Then I had some fun with the Henry rifle. I had a pretty good group, albeit all to the low left of the bullseye while shooting CCI Mini-Mags, then all high to the left with Remington Golden Bullets. Then with a slight sight adjustment, all of my shots went into the bullseye. That is one thing I like and dislike about the Henry, the front sight, that is, being easy to adjust with just a hard push of the fingers. While easily adjusted, it is also fairly easily knocked out of alignment. Still though I like shooting this little survival rifle, I figure it is good practice just in case I actually ever have to depend on it for its stated purpose.

While shooting the Glock, one of the owners came over to say hi to me. He is a cousin or uncle of an agent from my job, and he makes it a point to stop by to say hi to me when I visit. We chatted a bit, and seeing him reminded me that I have not seen M-------, the agent in quite awhile. I miss her, she is one of the better people on my job but is now working in another office than me. We used to work together at JFK Airport back in the day when things were better (at least for me because I was younger) and the job was somewhat more exciting. Oh well, seeing her relative would have to do for now, and he is always very pleasant.

All in all it was agood 45 minutes to hour that I spent shooting. Next time I'll have to rememebr to bring more ammo (I had thought I had some at the office but must have used it all last time).

All the best,
Glenn B