July 2009

Here is the muzzle of the .357 Magnum S&W 686 before and after cleaning. I guess you could reverse the photos and say before and after shooting. I showed a “During” picture yesterday of Damsel firing this gun at the range. From that picture, you can appreciate how all the residue generated during target practice can foul up the gun, inside and out.

Not to worry – Damsel takes some Strike Hold CLP and transforms the dirty to the clean in just a few minutes. She took the before and after cleaning photos and I scaled and merged them into this composite image. Click for the close-up.

This video frame of Damsel firing her S&W 686 .357 magnum revolver captured what I believe is the overpressure wave punching a hole in the primary muzzle flash.

Whatever it is, it reminds me of the good old Johnny Cash tune.

Our weekly outing to the indoor range always includes taking a couple of the shotguns. Usually, Damsel takes her 20 gauge Remington 870 “Junior” shotgun.

She bought the junior model since it is lighter, shorter and a perfect size for people with smaller frames. She loves it, but every time I take my full sized Remington 870 12 gauge gun, she makes sure to fire a few rounds with it, too. The big Remington is heavier and has more recoil, but, as she puts it, “You never know when I might have to use this in a personal defense emergency, so I better know how to use it.”

I think she handles it OK.

For quite some time now, we have been using this fishing tackle box to hold our gun cleaning supplies. We bought the tackle box at a local merchandise liquidation store for under 20 bucks, as I recall, with the intention to use it as a gun cleaning toolbox.

The lid of the box functions as a caddy for patches of various sizes, Q-tips and band-aids. I make most of the patches myself, by cutting up retired T-shirts and other surplus cloth.

Inside, there is a removable tray. That’s where we keep the bore brushes, small cleaning rods, various bits for the rods, cleaning brushes and several small hand tools. We also keep a small bottle of solvent and some gun oil (Hoppes number nine, in this case). Other special tools, like the choke wrench for the shotguns, lives in this shelf.

The inside of the box is used for longer cleaning rods, towels and cleaning rags, cleaner/lube/protectant spray (Strike Hold is what we use), and other goodies like oil wipe packets for the wooden stocks and fore-ends. When we set up to clean the guns, we put the tray on the workbench for access to both the box and the tray.

After our trip to the range today, we took the kit into the patio under the canopy and cleaned up the guns we took with us today. It was a beautiful day for shooting and an outdoor cleanup. Later, we’re going to barbecue a Porterhouse steak.

We hope everyone’ having a great Independence Holiday weekend. We sure are.