The Seventh Annual Northeast Bloggershoot...Feast Your Eyes On The Guns

...and take a look too at some really happy campers shooters.

The bloggershoot - it was excellent. That regardless of the seven (7) hour drive to get there, a drive that should have taken about 3 hours and 45 minutes to maybe 4 1/2 hours at most (only about 5 hours to get home). Yes, the drive going there was pretty abysmal at least as to traffic. The company for the ride, my son Brendan and his girlfriend Haylie made it bearable. As I said though, the Bloggershoot was excellent and so too were the dinners (one the night before the shoot and one on the night of the shoot after it was over) but then they are all part of the annual NE Bolggershoots.

As usual (at least for the three bloggershoots I have attended) there were plenty of shooters and many more guns than shooters. The firearms ran the gamut from a derringer in 22WMR up to a Maschinengewehr 34 (MG-3) a full auto, WWII era, German machinegun. The guns we brought along were:

Hungarian Mosin Nagant M44 (7.62x54R)
Yugoslavian SKS (7.62x39mm)
Marlin 336 (.35 Remington)
Remington R1 1911 (.45 ACP)
Taurus PT145 Millennium Pro (.45 ACP)
Beretta 92SB (9mm)
Beretta 92FS (9mm)
Glock 26 (9mm)
Ortgies (.32 Auto)
Beretta 70S (.22 LR)
Ruger MKII (.22 LR)
S&W Model 22A-1 (.22 LR)

Those, with enough ammo to last the day made for a fun shoot. I shot a decent bit but most of my day was spent watching Brendan and Haylie shoot, helping to load magazines, getting reacquainted with shooters & bloggers I met at previous bloggershoots and meeting other folks whom I had not met before.

Enough jabbering about it, let me show it to you in videos and pictures:

Our fearless leader giving us some range rules
and safety pointers before the shooting started.

Jay talking about the firing line and the backstop.

Commence Firing. Actually not the first people firing but close
to it. The line could accommodate about 4 to 5 shooters at a time.
 

Is it my turn yet!

I am bad on names and don't remember his but I can tell
you that he was having lots of fun shooting lots of guns.

 I am going to have some serious fun with this.

See, what did I tell you!

Just another funster blasting away with a 22. The range was about
25-30 yards (my guesstimate), perfect for a 22 and okay for the rest.

I'll figure it out.
 

 

Got it! (And yes even folks with obstacles to
surmount showed up - its called dedication).

It wasn't all shooting fun, here are Brendan and Haylie hard at work.
When you shoot, shoot, shoot - it  means you have to load, load, load.

Beside the targets right at the backstop, I set
up my portable target stand at about 5 yards for
pistol shooters and as it wound up for 22 rifles
shot by newbies and shotguns shot by maniacs.



Lest anyone think, by my last caption that we had
less than responsible shooters in attendance, let me
point out that the stand made it through the day with
only two bullet holes in the PVC. Those were in the
cross member right under the cardboard. Actually we
had very responsible and safety minded shooters. Any
safety infractions were few and minor and caught quickly.

It was amazing that only two shots hit the PVC.
The targets on my target stand were pretty popular
throughout the whole day. As you can see it took
its shares of hits. The cardboard backer was a half of
a shipping box I had bought at Home Depot. About
$1.25 for the folded box, cut in half along the folds
and I had two backers for the price of one. Excellent.

There was a wide selection of toys, err firearms, available.
All one had to do was ask and the answer was almost always
"Sure you can shoot it" it meaning whatever you asked to shoot.



Wish I had realized there was table space left, I had my gun
cases on the ground along with my ammo and gear. Oh my
aching back. Anyway just a couple more of the guns at the shoot.

I am pretty sure that this gal was a brand new shooter in training.
"Training for what?" you may ask and I would answer - for a
lifetime of fun, ofliberty to exercise her rights, of being able to
defend herself, and of shooty goodness that puts smiles on faces.



After a quick lesson she goes right at it.

Speaking of quick lessons, here we have one on
what is almost an ancient firearm - I think it
was a Brown Bess (heard that mentioned a few
times during the day) but I'll be darned if I know
for sure. Anyway, our hostess and her eager instructor.

A bit more of a lesson on what
wound up to be a flame thrower.

More armaments, look an extremely eeeeeevil bayonet
on an equally eeeeeevil black gun - oh Lordy please save me.

Closer look at the revolver in the above photo. I think it's
a Smith & Wesson Model 17.

Oh shit - somebody is serious about his guns! Those are
both full auto guns. FUAC, in a free state, unlike as in NY,
The People of These United States can shoot what they want.
By the way, the one on your right is a MG-34 of WWII vintage.

Just another look ay marvelous engineering.
Haylie shot the one on your left and it put
what I can only describe as a divine smile
on her face, she absolutely was radiant.

Yes, in the state the motto of which is Live Free or Die, there
were an abundant number of silenced firearms at the shoot. 

Just another two.
 

Speaking of just another two, here is Brendan

shooting two at once. Think he had fun? 

 



As I said, there was one heck of a variety.

Nice example of a Mosin Nagant.

Lest you suspect there were not other great shots of folks at the
shoot or other great shots taken by shooters who were there,
just take a look at this photo by Cher. Talk about flame throwers
and let me attest it was loud too thus dad holding onto his son's
ear muffs. The blast you felt on either side of that beast slayer was
hotly immense to say the least. By the way, the young lad was one
of the safest shooters at the bloggershoot. Dad taught him well.

When table room ran short, folks started
putting their guns anywhere

Pistols, did anyone say pistols.

Boomers to the left of us, boomers in front of us,
boomers behind us, boomer to the right of us.

Some purdy big revolvers but not the biggest there by a long shot.

 

 

Three of these rifles would be illegal to own in NY. Thank the
heavens for free states like New Hampshire - Live Free or Die!

A nice Nagant revolver and I have no clue as to the other one.

Couple of nice Combloc (by my guess) pistols.

Lonely little fellow.

 

That pistol just above may be lonely but

Brendan and Haylie shot as a pair.

 



I wish I could remember the designation for the Soviet rifle at
the bottom of the three. Semi auto, was made to replace the
Mosin Nagant but never went into widespread production. I want
one badly, it shoots 7.62x59R just like a Nagant, really nice boomer.

Big pistols, medium pistols, little tiny pistols - even
one with a bayonet attached to its front end.

There it is that little boomer with the blade attached and,
I am guessing, also with a laser sight sitting on top.



Then there were the weird guns, well at least one of them.
This is called a Zip 22.

 

Just another shooter having fun with one heck of a gun.

And of course, how can I leave out those from the astral plane.
Oh, wait a second, that's an Astra, that's from Spain, not outer or
 inner space. A nice older pistol, one of the many I wish I owned.

Another baby pistol, probably illegal here in NY - FUAC.

Another one that I would like to own, a Colt Police Positive.
I have bid on these before but never had the high bid.

 

Did I mention we were all having fun?
Can you tell that this little guy had fun
watching everyone blast away at a target
that he brought along for all to shoot. We
used just about anything as a target.

Another nice selection of boom sticks.

These two were exceptionally nice; I wish
I would have asked to shoot the lever gun.

An AR with all the bells and whistles.

Leave it to someone (not me) to bring a sword to a bloggershoot.
Have to admit though, it's a nice sword and a nicer SKS.

Jay having some fun with a Thompson Center Arms

pistol in the veritable 30-06 chambering.

 

 

Did I mention we were having fun, if you doubt

that she had lots of fun, look at the next pic.

 

Well, that's just about it for now. I will have a few more pics to post later if Brendan ever sends me those I took with his phone camera. I would have had more videos on my own camera had some of the videos not come out like others from last year, in super fast motion. I don't know why it happens but this year it effected at least a half dozen of my videos. Too bad traffic wasn't moving like that.

There is one last photo I'd like to show you. It was taken by Wally and I shamelessly lifted borrowed it from him via Facebook. I am certain he will not mind. Can you tell, at least some of us were having fun. Made me happier than you can imagine to see that she and Brendan were having lots of fun. That he was having a great time was evident in the video of him shooting the two Berettas at once, that Haylie was having a great time could be seen when she smiled through the full mag out of a full auto gun (sorry no video or pic of that) and in this photo of her as she finished shooting a 50 caliber revolver.

 

Someone referred to it as the 500 mile smile which was,
I think, a reference to the one way trip of one of the blogger's
to the bloggershoot. Funny thing is that the round trip drive
for Brendan, Haylie and myself was almost exactly 500 miles.
They could not have said it better calling it a 500 mile smile.
Her smile said it all if you were wondering were we having fun!

While that's it for now, this hopefully is a work in progress and will have at least a few more photos added in the next day or three.

 

All the best,

Glenn B

I've Been On Hiatus...

...and obviously have not been blogging since last week. Was away most of three days from Friday through Sunday and purposefully left the laptop at home because I didn't want to be bothered with this shit while I was trying to enjoy myself at the Seventh Annual NE Bloggershoot. Yeah, I know, that is a touch of irony - going to a bloggershoot and not wanting to blog about it or anything else while there. Can you blame me though, it was all about bonding with my son and his girlfriend,  meeting with both old and new acquaintances and shooting with all of them too.

Since I have been back home, Sunday night, I have had a lot of stuff to blog about but have not been able to get back into the groove. I have had some things on my mind and was just plain out being lazy and also was thinking screw this shit, it can wait - I am after all The Great Procrastinator.

So, as it winds up, here I am back at it again. Think I'll post some pic of the blogger shoot in another post.

All the best,
Glenn B

Ballseye's Portable PVC Target Stand

Last August, I got the plans to build a firearms target stand over at Bob's site: The Wandering Minstrel. I should note that Bob was not the originator of those plans, he got them at accurateshooter.com and according to that site, the plans were created by Utah shooter "Cheese". My thanks to all of them, especially to Bob though because if not for him, I would never likely have seen them.

I thought about building one back then but the truth was and is (that besides being The Great Procrastinator) I had little use for a portable target stand at the end of last summer. I rarely shoot anywhere other than my local ranges unless I am hunting. Of course, during the last couple of summer, I attended the Fifth & Sixth Annual Northeast Blogger Shoot and will be attending the seventh one this weekend. I thought - what better place to use a portable target stand and that was what got me motivated to get around to finally building one.

I went to Home Depot a day or two ago and picked up a two 10 foot lengths of 1.5" PVC tube, four 1.5" PVC elbows, two 1.5" PVC T's and two 8 foot long lengths of 1.5 x 1" pine furring strips. I had the guy at Homer's cut the PVC tubes in half for me so they would fit in the car. If you ever need anything cut, like a length of PVC or wood or whatever you are getting at Home Depot, may I recommend you cut it yourself it you want a nice even cut. I did not mind that when the HD guy cut the PVC, the ends were cut at uneven angles. I had plenty to spare in each 5 foot piece, so I cut the ends evenly once at home. Then I pulled up the plans (actually a detailed diagram) of what length pieces I would need. I got to measuring and cutting once I had found my tape measure and lugged the chop saw out of the shed where it has been pretty much forgotten for years. Amazingly it still worked okay.




Photo source was accurateshooter.com,
click on the link for the exact page.

As you can see in the above plans/photo, I only had to measure and cut 8 lengths of PVC (although I cut another 20" piece later for an improvement I made and added to T's), and cut two furring strips in half then whittle down one end on each of them a bit. It was a small and quick bit of work. In all, I am going to figure that from the total time expended, including bringing in the material in from the garage, getting the saw from the shed, setting up the saw, finding my tape measure and a marker and then going at it until finished was about 15 - 20 minutes for the original design. No sweat, I even got it right he first time round. I later added about another 10-15 minutes of work making some of my own design improvements. 

My new and improved version: Ballseye's Portable PVC
Target Stand. Note the additional materials.
Click on the photo to enlarge it.

After slapping the it together based on the original plans, I realized that a simple design change would add some strength and support to the stand. The addition of two T's and one more 20" cross member would make it stronger overall especially on windy days. I attached the two T's to the tops of the 24" uprights and placed a 20" cross member between them to bridge the gap between the uprights. About the only other thing that needed to be done was to cut the pine furring strips to size. I bought two 8' lengths. While the design calls for two 48" strips, since they are wood I wanted spares in case of bullet damage. I cut each of the 8' lengths in half. Then I whittled down the corners on one end of each of the now four strips. I started at 8" from the end and just took off the corners a bit down that 8" length. The strips then fit into the open top end of the T's on the upright PVC lengths with just about 36-37 " of the furring exposed.

I also did some drilling, something that was not in the original design. Bob had recommended holding down the whole thing with sand bags during windy weather. While Bob's idea was a good one, I did not like the idea of needing to lug around heavy sandbags that might leak sand in my trunk. At first, I though the solution to potentially messy sandbags might be stakes to hold the bottom of the target in place - either an inverted L or U shape but I could not find anything like that at Home Depot. Then I had another idea and I bought some galvanized 8" long spikes (they look like really big nails), six of them to be exact and six flat washers to fit. I drilled a hole into about the center of each of the lengths of PVC that rests on the ground, and can now use the spikes to hold them in place against the ground on windier days.

One of the 20" base pieces shown with the 8" anchor spike.

With my design though, you need to consider the possibility of ricochets if you shoot the spikes and although I think the risk of that is minimal I guess there is a small risk of hitting part of the spike and having fragments come back at you. Truth be told though, you would have to be near to being a terrible shot to have that happen since the spike head would be about 2" above ground surface if fully driven down to the top of the PVC.  

 

Be careful when drilling the holes for the anchor spikes, PVC will crack.

 

Another word of caution, when driving the spikes into the ground, through the holes in the PVC, make sure you do not hit them so hard as to drive the head into tubing with enough force to crack the PVC. PVC does crack as can be evidenced by the accompanying photo of a piece that cracked while I was drilling one of the spike holes (my only screw-up while making the stand).

The almost finished stand, I added the
drilled holes to each base piece later on.

 

There you have it, my version of a portable target stand.

All the best,
Glenn B










 

Holy Galloping Gatling Guns Batman...

...at long last, tonight, I finally finished cleaning the remainder of my guns. Now I can get a bunch of em all fouled up again at the bloggershoot this weekend.

later 4 U,
GB

Smith & Wesson Model 22A-1 - First Impressions

As I did, for the Taurus PT-145 Millennium Pro, in my post immediately prior to this one, I am about to give my first impressions of my as of yet unfired Smith & Wesson Model 22A-1. It is, in my opinion, an unmitigated piece of $#!+ (if you can decipher that code you must be a genius) and I think Smith and Wesson should have been unwilling to have released this particular pistol for sale (and if they are all like mine then likewise for the lot of them).

As I always do, I decided to field strip mine and clean it prior to firing it. So, I read the directions as to field stripping (in fact I first read the manual in its entirety). I read the field stripping instructions a second time because there is so much redundancy about assuring you are doing it safely that I had to reread it all to make sure I did not miss anything while I was getting annoyed at all that extra precautionary stuff - and I do mean extra. I can safely say (pun intended) it is akin to one of my own YouTube videos on firearms wherein I go overboard with safety (yes I am or have been guilty of it myself). I can also safely say - that will change regards to my future videos after reading this S&W manual as I can now see how annoying it can be when someone goes overboard on safety. 

Anyway, there seemingly are problems with my particular S&W model 22A-1 pistol, so much for quality control at S&W. First off, when trying to remove the magazine for the field stripping process, I pressed the magazine release button (located on the front strap - front of the grip) several times all to no avail. The button barely depressed and my finger started to hurt as I was pushing it in that hard. Finally, I took a brass punch and depressed the magazine release and there was a click and the magazine still did not come out. I had to gently pry it out while pushing in on the mag release with the brass punch. I put the other magazine into the mag well (it came with two mags) and depressed the mag release. That magazine fell free with a normal (fairly light) press on the mag release button. I tried a few more times, that second mag came right out each and every time. The first mag though, that remained a problem. So, I am guessing that the magazine is faulty.

I continued on with the takedown process. Again, the instructions were somewhat annoying but I read each one completely as I went along. The manual says the takedown button may be difficult to depress, they were not kidding. I could not do it by hand and had to use a nylon hammer head against it, with the palm of my hand depressing the opposite side of the hammer head to get it to depress. I must admit, it seems to have broken free from whatever was causing that initial freeze up and I can do it with my thumb now. The barrel assembly came off fairly easily once I got the take down button freed.

I kept following the directions exactly as they wrote them and moved onto the slide removal. At this point there was another problem. I allowed the slide to move forward until it stopped just as they show and carefully lifted the rear of the slide while moving the slide forward and the recoil spring suddenly popped out some near its forward end and had a definite bend it. An examination of the recoil guide assembly showed that the white nylon (or plastic or whatever material) piece at its rear end was stressed as if under too much pressure (which would explain the spring popping out like that). The stress marks within the plastic were clearly visible. Mind you, I will say it again, this is a new gun, in the box and unfired - and it is obviously so (in other words, this stuff should not be happening).

Trying to figure what went wrong, I looked at the photo of the recoil spring assembly in the manual and counted the coils of the recoil spring that extended beyond the front end of the recoil spring guide when the rod is out of the pistol and the spring is relaxed. From what I could see, there were 13 coils showing in that photo but there are 15 coils on my spring that extend beyond the end of the guide rod. Not sure if that would cause too much tension but maybe that is the case. I know of another particular type of pistol that comes with different sized recoil springs and the difference is only about two or three coils and that little difference in length makes a difference in performance.

One other thing, while I was examining the recoil spring guide rod, that white plastic piece I mentioned fell right off with just the slightest nudge as I turned it in my fingers to look it over. Why S&W used plastic (or nylon or whatever) instead of a tightly fitted metal piece is beyond me except I think maybe that it saved them 1/10 of a penny on each pistol. Funny, on my pistol it is white plastic (nylon or whatever) but in the manual it is dark, like maybe it is made from metal. I also noted some of the parts of the frame appear to be plastic (maybe polymer) insets. I like my Glock with its polymer frame and some polymer and or plastic pieces but am none too sure of those types of parts on the S&W because the plastic (nylon or whatever) piece on the recoil rod already seems damaged and the gun is unfired and new from the factory.

I suppose it is needless to say but I will say it anyway, I am not too satisfactorily impressed with this pistol, in fact I am somewhat disappointed. Anyway, it has been cleaned and reassembled and is ready for the range. So, I will bring it along this weekend to the Seventh Annual Northeast Bloggershoot, hopefully for some shooty goodness this coming weekend. (I hope it actually fires and functions alright.) Maybe after some use, that magazine that was not dropping free will come out as it should when the mag release is depressed. I will do a review of how it shoots sometime after that. I will also probably contact S&W about what seem to be the existing problems and will clue you in, at a later date, as to how they respond. Hopefully mine is just a fluke.

All the best,
Glenn B

Political Humor Mirroring The Feelings Of Our Time

Yesterday In History - July 28th 100 Years Ago

It was on July 28, 1914 that the first hostilities of World War One commenced. That means that yesterday (pretty much still today for me since I am still up and about) was the 100th anniversary of its first hostilities. The first artillery salvo of the war was fired on Serbia by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in preparation for an invasion of Serbia to avenge the death of Franz Ferdinand, the heir presumptive to that empire, and his wife Sophie who was assassinated in Sarajevo by a Yugoslav national, Gavrilo Princip, exactly one month before on June 28th.

The irony of WWI was that when it commenced it was thought by the most of involved world leaders that it would be over quickly, within months at most, with minimal losses. The war lasted until November 11, 1918 and was one of the bloodiest conflicts ever. There were 38,880,500 military casualties consisting almost 10,000,000 dead, 7,750,000 missing in action and almost 21,220,000 wounded in action. Those were only the military casualties (source).

It is often referred to as the first modern war and many of the weapons we use in warfare today were first used in battle in WWI. Those weapons included large scale gas warfare, the tank, the submarine fired torpedo, the depth charge and so on. Read about it here or at any of the many available websites covering it or in many more books published about the War to End All Wars.

All the best,
Glenn B

Taurus PT-145 Millennium Pro - First Impressions

The Great Procrastinator (who would be me) has finally gotten around to taking a decent look at my Taurus PT-145 Millennium Pro pistol in .45ACP. I guess it is about time, but not too bad for me since I picked it up in mid June earlier this year and this look omes sooner than for some of my other guns. I took a little more than a look at it today, I gave it a good cleaning too. Even though sold to me as new and unfired it needed to be cleaned prior to me firing it and no I have not fired it yet.

The asking price, on the label on the box, was $483.00. I got it at auction for $225.00. I seriously doubt that this pistol would have ever sold for the $483 asking price but who knows. As I write, there is currently a used one up for auction on Gunbroker that has a bid of $255 so far. Other used ones, without any bids yet, have required starting bids of anywhere from $175 to $425. I saw two listed as new in box with asking prices of $375 and the other at $495.99 with a buy it now price of $499.99. Go figure, it looks to me as if I got a pretty good price on mine but considering I had to leave it at the auction house, then get the necessary paperwork from my county PD and return to the auction house to pick it up that added a considerable mount to its cost. Still a good deal I suppose on the pistol itself.

The pistol comes in a black molded plastic box of the type without hinges, the plastic on back, where the hinge would be, acts as a hinge until bent enough times then usually breaks on this type of case. Same for the locking tabs on the front, no hinges just bendable plastic. The things included in the box were the pistol's papers consisting of a manual, a warranty registration card, an instruction sheet for the magazine loader. Accessories included in the box were a spare magazine, a magazine loader and two pistol lock keys for the built in pistol lock. Of course, the box also contained the pistol and an inserted magazine (total of 2 mags, both steel with polymer bottom, and both 10 rounders).

The pistol itself is a combination steel slide and polymer frame. The grip, to me seems to be on the smaller side as compared to other pistols I have shot with double-stack magazines. It is not so much that it is small overall but feels very narrow from its front of the grip to the portion of the backstrap where the webbing between your thumb and hand connects with the grip. Gives it kind of a funny feel at least to me but seems like it will be manageable. Time, a trip to the range, and shooting at least 250 rounds of ammo at the Seventh Annual Northeast Bloggershoot this weekend, should tell.

Taking the pistol down for cleaning was pretty straightforward and easy. It is also necessary to take it down for cleaning before shooting it if new. Take my word on that one because Taurus apparently filled it to the gills, so to speak, with a white and very thick protective grease; there was a good amount of it in there though relative to size not quite much as there would be Cosomoline in a Mosin Nagant rifle but maybe half that much relative to the sizes of each of those guns. I would imagine that if you took one of these right out of the box new and fired a couple to a few hundred rounds through it that you would wind up disappointed, because with all that goop in there it would, in my estimation, wind up failing to function sooner than later. Do yourself a favor and clean it before shooting it.

Disassembly consisted of taking out the magazine, assuring it was unloaded, locking the slide to the rear with the slide catch lever (their terminology), turning the disassembly catch clockwise, removing that latch, releasing the slide catch, pulling the slide forward while pulling on the trigger to remove the slide, removing slide spring and guide (again their terminology), and removing the barrel. Reassembly is basically done in reverse order. It was easier than a 1911 or a Ruger MKII, that's for sure.

The action is double action for the first shot, then single action for the ensuing shots. The trigger reset after each sot seems minimal and to me it felt surprisingly by feel but when I watched it function it seemed about average. If you let the trigger go fully forward after you pull it the first time in double action mode, you will find that there is very little resistance in pulling the trigger a second time once the gun recocks. If you are checking this without ammo in the gun, you need to action the slide after pulling the trigger in double action mode to get the effect so that the gun is now cocked in SA mode. The trigger pull necessary to fire in DA is on the lighter side as compared to other DA/SA pistols I have fired and the SA trigger pull also seems light to me. I am guessing around 5 pounds of tension required to get it to fire in SA mode but that is just my guess.

The rear sight on mine is the Heinie Straight Eight sight which apparently is a rear combat style, single dot sight, maybe adjustable for windage by way of drifting it. The front sight, also a Heinie, is a single dot sight that appears as if it may be adjustable by drifting it. Note I am not to sure on either sight being adjustable by drifting them so make sure to check with Taurus before trying to adjust them in any manner.

The barrel is blued at the front portion but unblued at the chamber. It is 3.35" long with a 1:12" rate of twist with 6 grooves. It is chambered for .45 ACP. With a fully loaded standard magazine and one round loaded in the chamber, this pistol holds 11 rounds (10/1). Note the this pistol has a built in locking device that when activated, with a key, makes it inoperable (not a feature I like at all in a self defense pistol). Overall length of the pistol is 6.125", height is 5.125", width is 1.25" and the weight is 22.2 ounces (I am guessing unloaded). Overall, the fit and finish appear to me to be at least very good. There were some sticking points when I tried to take of the slide during disassembly but I am hoping that is just because it is brand new (old stock); if that is a problem not due to the newness of the pistol but due to fitting or finishing of parts, that would drop my estimation of the pistol to a much lower level. As I said though, my guess is probably because it is brand new. The source of these specifications and more information about the Taurus PT145 Pro can be found at the following link: http://www.taurususa.com/product-details.cfm?id=39&category=Pistol

Note that this pistol is no longer in production. According to a check by serial number, on the Taurus website, mine was produced in 2011 and is the Taurus model PT145BP with no mention of Millennium Pro in there; however, the pistol is clearly marked that it is the PT-145 Pro on the left side of the slide and also clearly marked Millennium on the right side of the slide.

My first overall impressions, while not yet having fired it, is that this is a mid level to maybe somewhat high quality pistol in a mid budget price range that has a less than desirable addition of a built in locking device. Once I have fired it this weekend, I'll write up what I thought about its performance.

All the best,
Glenn B

Ruger MKII - After All These Years - Still A Pain In The Arse

I've had a Ruger MKII for many years now. Not sure how long, I'd guess since the mid eighties; no not the 1880s but sometimes it seems like it's been that long. It's a really fun gun to shoot. My version is a MKII with 5 1/2 inch blued steel target barrel, alloy frame and adjustable sights. I've had a lot of fun with it and my son Brendan has gotten to shoot it a few times in free states outside of the communist republiKa of NY. The thing is, as many of you know, the Ruger MKII can be a pain in the arse to disassemble and reassemble for cleaning and maintenance.

Now, I have been taking care of mine for many years but I probably only take it apart for cleaning about 4 to 6 times per year. You would think that in the past (I'm getting up to find the receipt to see when I bought it) 30 years (yes I found the receipt) I would have gotten pretty adept at taking it down and reassembling it. But no, I have not been able to burn the takedown steps into my little gray cells in all that time and often need help remembering the required steps. The takedown is really pretty easy, just remembering the steps required is not. Anyway, a quick look in the manual or a quick look at my online Ruger MKII disassembly video and I can get it done in a Jiffy. If I don't have access to them, I can usually figure it out, just takes a bit longer. of course, if mine was a new Ruger MKII, it would be a pain in the arse regardless of having the manual or not because the housing latch would be nearly impossible to operate. Mine though is well broken in as far as that goes and the latch comes out pretty easily.

Reassembly is another story. The reassembly steps are pretty easy to remember because it pretty much goes in reverse with just a couple of things that you need to remember as to parts placement to get it to go back together right. Still, even though I did both a disassembly video and a reassembly video on YouTube and I usually sit down to watch my own very informative step by step reassembly video when doing it, I can still have problems getting it back together. I just cleaned the darned thing and it took me at least 10 to 12 attempts to seat the bolt stop pin correctly so it did not pop right back out as soon as I started to seat the main spring housing. I paid particular attention to making sure the hammer and hammer strut were in the proper position each time - well at least each time but one. When I finally got the bolt stop to stay put, when I swung the main spring housing into the backstrap, the gun looked assembled correctly. Nope, not a chance - a quick test showed that it would not function because I did not pay attention to the hammer strut that one time and it was seated in the wrong position. So, I took it apart again, slapped it back together figuring it would not take yet once again and holy horse doody everything fell into place perfectly, truly easier than pie. This happens way too often; not everything just falling and snapping into place but the doing it over and over and over again before I get it right. That holds even when I follow my own advice in the Ruger MKII reassembly video that I made and that other folks have said was the trick to help them getting it done (even though it is very detailed and overly long at almost 13 minutes).

I am not the only one who thinks that Ruger MKI and MKII pistols are a pain in the posterior. (I cannot speak to the MKIII, never even held one let alone took one down or put one back together.) There are plenty of us in the world who all think likewise. Yet, we keep them and love them because they are fun to shoot and at least used to be fairly inexpensive. (I have no idea what they go for today but I got mine for about $180.) Maybe too, we love them because they are a bit of a challenge to we who love such a thing or whom some consider to be we the easily challenged ;>). Anyway, I still have mine and its been one heck of a long love hate relationship. Wow, I just realized how ancient I must sound, I have owned this gun for over 30 years and it's not the one that I have owned for the longest either. Jeesh - it probably should be about time for my daughter or son to think of making some grandkids so I am still alive and kicking when they are old enough to learn to shoot - don't ya think! I'll have to start dropping hints, at least to my daughter who is married. Maybe I should hold off with my son since he isn't married yet.

As for gun cleaning, I'm still not done. A few more pistols to go for tomorrow. Then that will be it except for the one long gun I forgot about - my Remington 870; it's around here someplace.

All the best,
Glenn B

More Gun Cleaning Today,...

...isn't it ever over! I've been cleaning my pistols, this evening, in anticipation of the Seventh Annual Northeast Bloggershoot this coming weekend. Been taking my time at it and so far, I have cleaned only four of them so I still have several handfuls to go.

Exactly as I just left it to do this blog-post. Before anyone asks,
yes that is a bottle of vodka, right next to the water and no I am not imbibing
while cleaning guns. I know a lot better than that. I do have it to look forward to
once I am done with all of my gun cleaning chores. Later for a vodka/fruit smoothie!

I am happy I decided to clean them now and did not wait even one day longer. One had some very light rust a forming (or maybe it was dirty oil) but it wiped right off with a solvent soaked cloth. Another, a Beretta 92FS, was dirty as all hell because I shot it a lot recently and was lazy and did not clean it right after shooting. I rediscovered a hard to see spot, on the inside of the frame, that had three grooves that were filled with caked carbon fouling and I do mean filled. I must have forgotten to get those grooves last couple to few times I cleaned that gun. That fouling would probably
explain a few failures to cycle properly last time I shot it. Man oh man was it dirty in general but especially in those spots. The two other guns were pretty much spotlessly clean but I still gave them the once over for good maintenance.
I almost cannot believe it is only 6 days and a wake-up before we leave to head up to the sooperseKrit location for the Seventh Annual Northeast Bloggershoot, then one more day until the actual shoot. I am looking forward to it and so is my son, as I think is his girlfriend. I am looking forward to seeing both of them shoot more than me shooting although I am sure to have lots of fun blasting away at whatever targets we set up.

A couple to a few full auto guns are promised to be there and I have ammo for at least two of them. That should be some fun shooting. I am bringing along a decent supply of binary bang stuff that we will mix once there for some really fun targets. Not too much in one container though, the folks sharing their range with us have neighbors. Then again, I guess our bangs can be at least as loud as the cannon blasts that start and end the shooty goodness of the day.

Enough keyboard jabbering, I've got to get back to pistol cleaning. I have those on the table and more to go.

All the best,
GB