Firearms

I don’t think I’ve ever had both of our Remington 870 shotguns apart at the same time. Something made me field strip all of the guns after Sunday’s trip the the range.

Damsel’s 20 gauge ‘youth model’ is on the left and my full-sized magnum express 12 gauge is on the right. The barrels are more or less centered between the two.

Scattered along the table, you can see the stock, receiver and magazine assemblies, magazine springs, spring caps, spring stops, magazine caps, trigger assemblies and retention pins for the trigger assembly. The only further field breakdown is to remove the choke tubes from the barrels – which Damsel did when she cleaned the barrels.

If you saw yesterday’s post about the range report and watched the video, then you saw how much we enjoy using the shotguns at the range. Maintenance, cleaning and inspection are all part of the fun of shotguns.

Another Good Day at the Range

We were a little late getting to the range today, what with staying up a little late Saturday night to watch some DVDs. Sleeping in felt pretty good, and the breakfast omelet that Damsel fixed (fake eggs – OK?) was pretty good too.

For the last few weeks, we have been down selecting from the usual menagerie of firearms, mostly due to the increased cost and shortage of some of our ammunition. Today, all we took was the Glock 26 and the S&W 908S 9mm pistols and our two Remington 870 shotguns; one 12 gauge and one 20.

We did the usual pistol and bullseye target practice with about 100 rounds of 9mm spent, and then moved on to the shotguns and silhouette targets. We like to play a game with the shotguns by trying to shoot across the target to cut it in half. Today, the game went well – I started out with five rounds of 12 gauge target loads and cut the right half of the target away from the top. Damsel finished the job with five rounds of 20 gauge, sending the bottom half of the silhouette to the range floor.

I think she likes the game – especially when she wins. Click on the > to play the little video above.

These are three of Damsel’s handguns, which she calls ‘the girls’ – the fourth ‘girl gun,’ which was on her hip at the time she took this photo, is her S&W 442 .38 special. On the left is the S&W 908s 9mm, above is the Warthog .45ACP and below is the S&W 686 .357 revolver. All of them are about to be cleaned up, so some of the ‘range residue’ is still visible. You better believe she makes ’em sparkle when she’s done, though.

We had an excellent day today at the range. It’s late, so I won’t post all of the details, but it was fun. At the end of the shooting, however, there is always the teardown, inspection and cleanup. This is my end of the workbench showing my Glocks and the Remington 870 12 gauge all disassembled and ready for the cleanup drill. The muzzle end of Damsel’s 20 gauge 870 is also visible along with tools, cleaner and wipers. Click image for a closer look.

Cobbled together from some of the range videos over the past weekend . . .

We always get midweek shooting withdrawals, and this helps.

We had another good outing today. The range opens at 11AM on Sunday, and we were there a few minutes after 11. Inside the range, there were several booths occupied, but nobody had started fining yet. Just as we got our target sent out on the trolley, it seemed like everyone simultaneously started shooting as though the range master had called out “commence firing!” The range erupted with shots fired loud and not so much, ‘booms,’ ‘bangs,’ and ‘pops.’ It was kinda neat.

Looking around at the crowd in the range, we saw the usual regulars who we see every week. We make eye contact with them and nod ‘hello.’

Image: Damsel draws a bead on the target with her Para Warthog (Clickee Bigee)..

We saw a Dad giving his son a first lesson. I winced when I saw ‘sonny’ gripped his Dad’s Glock with his thumb on the rear of the slide. Dad quickly corrected sonny before he could dislocate his thumb.

There were several parties with women participants. There was a bunch who rented a shotgun and were amusing themselves with the recoil and large holes that the 12 gauge rounds left in the target – new people I guess.

On the way out, I bought ammo for next week. They were still out of 9mm reloads, but I still have some on hand in the safe at home. The guys at the range seem to think that the shortage of guns and ammo is going to relax soon.

The range is alive and well. I am comforted by the resurgent interest in the shooting hobby – no doubt as a result of the threats to the sport by the politicians that manipulated their way into power in this country. The more of us that understand guns and the second amendment, the better our chances to prevent the gun grabbers from their quest.