Firearms

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.

We had today off and decided to head over to the range for some target practice. I took my little Warthog .45ACP pistol and put about 50 rounds through her without incident. The .38 special seen in this shot did not go with us this time – we don’t have any .38 special ammunition and have not been able to find any lately.

Bob took the Glock 30 and we each took our shotguns – my 20 gauge Remington 870 junior and Bob’s 12 gauge Remington 870 magnum. Shotgun practice is always fun and today was no exception.

Today’s trip to the range was relaxing and served to take some of the edge off the tensions of the last several days. I’m sure my Dad would approve.

We missed target practice last weekend, so we were ready to hit the range when they first opened on Father’s day. There were a number of fathers and sons there shooting. It’s good to see the kids involved.

We practiced with the 9mm guns and one of the .357 magnum revolvers. It was good fun and we were hitting close to the target center most of the time. As always, however, there is always that wayward round (or 10) 😉

When it was time for the shotguns, we put up a silhouette target with cardboard backing. Damsel’s first five 20 gauge rounds were on target producing five big holes. The weight and thickness of the cardboard kept the paper target from fluttering backward, allowing for better visual location of the shots on target.

I’d say she delivered five goblin-stopping rounds.

The gunography for today’s shoot was fairly simple. Damsel’s Warthog and her 20 gauge “Junior” Remington 870 plus my Glock 30 and full-sized 12 gauge 870. Since we were at the gun show yesterday, we figured that this could be a short session at the range and we would have satisfied our gun stuff urges for the weekend.

We started with the .45 caliber guns. We only brought 50 rounds per gun, so that went pretty fast. Damsel put up a bullseye target for the first forty out of 100 rounds. When it got to the point that the middle of that target was shot away, we put up the first silhouette target. I had first shots on it and tried to practice the Mozambique – two to the heart and one to the head – while two rounds landed in the heart area and one to the left upper temple. I figured this wasn’t a record so no photos taken. Instead, we finished the .45 rounds and broke out the shotguns.

In the video above, I took shots on the silhouette trying to shoot off the right side. Voila! It went down, hanging only by threads. Then Damsel gave it the coup dé grâs after which she proceeded to give the target dimples.

Not much shooting today, but a lot of fun.

Update: Thanks to Robb Allen for the link!