Firearms

Avoiding “To Whom It May Concern” Rounds

head shotsOne of the drills we like to practice when we go to the range is to fire at silhouette targets while trying to avoid letting any rounds fall outside of the body mass. We do pretty well when firing at the center of mass of a target. This assumes that you have a shot at the center of mass.

What if the target is partly shielded by an object, like a fence or an automobile? It’s a little more difficult if all you can see is the head and shoulders. So, I like to practice shooting at the nose of the target and try to keep the rounds close while firing about one round per second. I’m getting better at it, but I always seem to have a couple of outliers. One of these pierced an ear and could probably be considered a “to whom it may concern” round.

Resemblance

Damsel takes photos of our arsenal before, during and after the weekly cleaning and maintenance session. She took a photo of the Remington 870 trigger plate assembly; when I looked at the photo, it reminded me of something completely unrelated.

Is it just me, or does the assembly resemble the profile of an airborne Canadian honker?

trigger plate assembly and Canadian goose in flight

Stripping the Remington 870

After today’s target practice, we did the usual strip and clean routine for all the guns. I took this photo of the Remington 870 broken down into pieces. After looking at it later, it occurred to me that this is the way they would have you store your long guns in Washington, D.C. According to the regulations there, you may own a shotgun but it must be stored disassembled while in your home.

“‘Scuse me, Mr. intruder, while I go and put my shotgun together so I can defend my home.”

parts is parts

Hopefully, the Supreme Court will rectify the D.C. gun insanity in the near future. I also am hopeful that some of that goodness will rub off on some similar gun insanity in other places, especially California.

Wheel Gun Art

Revolvers make good still-life subjects for some of the gun art photos I like to compose. I liked the way the rounds in the cylinder cast a reflection in the polished frame – very nice, if I do say so myself. Click the image below for the larger version.

purdy-gun.jpg

More Muzzle Flash

I usually take a couple of videos when we go to the range, and Sunday was no exception. Damsel loaded seven .357 magnum rounds into the S&W 686 and emptied the revolver in bursts averaging one per second. The unique thing about this video is that all seven rounds produced prominent muzzle flashes.

When I want to capture a muzzle flash, I usually have to single-step through the video to a frame with the nice flash. I generally get a nice bright plume every few rounds and can make a still picture out of a selected frame. The thing missing from a still, however, is the nice, dynamic nature of the real thing.

Click  >  to see this visually pleasing pyrotechnic display.