Firearms

The only thing better than a .357 magnum revolver, is two. Click for bigger.

Yesterday, I took the little Warthog .45ACP pistol to the range. In all, we put about 100 rounds through her without any ammo feed malfunctions other than when Bob was shooting with the pinkie magazine and he got one round he had to tap and rack. The other 99 rounds went through without incident.

We were using 45 Auto 230 Grain Full Metal Jacket ammo. We have tried several different brands lately, and other than the junk Wolf Russian-made ammo we were using after the last gun show, most ammo acts more or less the same. That is, only an occasional feed problem.

The Wolf ammo was horrid – dirty, smoky and, more than occasionally, prone to stand at attention in the chamber or to hang on the ramp. No more of that for us.

After cleanup, I loaded up the magazines for next week and posed them with my purdy li’l pistol. Click for big.

When we went to the range today, we found all the lanes to be occupied. We were an hour later than our usual time of arrival and the later crowd had already showed up. We were both annoyed when we had to wait. Later, after thinking about it, it occurred to me that there were a lot of people interested in guns and shooting, which is probably not a bad thing. The more people who become avid shooters, the better it will be for all of us as the incoming White House Administration seems like it will try to limit our Second Amendment rights.

Image: The Smiths and the Glocks – click for bigger.

Shooting was pretty much the usual thing. Damsel and I put the usual number of rounds through the guns. She brought her Warthog (.45), S&W 686 (.357) and S&W 908s (9mm). I brought my Glock 30 (.45) and Glock 26 (9mm). We also brought the Remington 870 Security Shotgun (12ga.).

Weird things that happened today:

1. For the first time in over two years of ownership, the S&W 908s actually had a misfeed. Damsel popped the magazine out, cleared the round from the chamber, put the unfired round back in the magazine, loaded it and it fired fine. I suspect, since it was the last round in the 8-round magazine, that the springs may need replacing. We’ll watch it for a while.
2. The Estate 12 gauge rounds we bought for the shotgun were sometimes difficult to cycle and eject. Damsel had to lay the shotgun on the counter at one point and let me clear it out. It’s as though the cartridges are expanding in the chamber after discharge and getting wedged in there a bit. A little extra force pulling back the fore end cleared it every time.