Firearms

NRA Convention Report

Sadly, we didn’t get to attend the Second Amendment Blog Bash activities at all this trip. We brought our eleven year old dog with us because a) she likes to travel, and b) she is a large breed and may not be with us that much longer. We missed meeting our blogging comrades, but being convention ‘virgins’ this is a learning experience for us. We plan to tune it up next time.

First, we took the dog to ‘day care’ recommended by our RV park director. Then we headed into town. Traffic, traffic, traffic, then finally got into a parking spot. Gracious thanks to Bitter and the organizers of the Blog Bash, the rest was all downhill. We checked into the media room and picked up our passes and kits and headed into the exhibits.

Toys, as far as the eye could see! So many guns, so little time!

One stop we had to make was at the Para booth. We wanted to personally meet Todd Jarett and Kerby Smith, both of whom helped get Damsel on the right track shooting her Warthog. It was Michael Bane who introduced us to the Para team in the first place and they took it from there. Damsel spoke briefly to Todd, who virtually gave her instruction on short barrel large caliber firearms training for women via a video that Kerby sent her. We wanted to thank them both for the training and for the extraordinary Para customer service.

gunny-lineup.jpgWhen we walked through the Glock exhibit, none other than R. Lee Ermey – the Gunny from Full Metal Jacket – was signing autographs for Team Glock. We didn’t get in line to get his autograph and would have liked to have done so, a lot, but it was starting to get late – we needed to get back to pick up our dog. Besides, look at the lineup this guy gets for autographs! Must have been thirty minutes wait or more. The Gunny was posing for pictures, giving hearty handshakes and personally talking to the folks at length. This guy is the real article – a person who, despite some celebrity status, is a down-to-Earth guy with conservative and second amendment values. Click on the image to enlarge.

It was a lot of fun to see this today. I guarantee the next time we attend one of these, we will be able to show up at all the events and meet our comrades in arms. We’re already looking forward to our next NRA Convention. We can hardly wait.

But Wait! There’s More!

Two out of our three shotguns have a magazine capacity of four rounds with a fifth in the chamber. It’s only natural that we usually load up our six plus one capacity 12 gauge with only four rounds in the magazine. Every once in a while, however, we put all seven rounds in the gun.

As you will see when you play the video, it can be easy to lose track of how many are loaded. Damsel discovers her seventh round has yet to be discharged.

Range report

With the current ammunition shortage, many ranges, including the one we use, have taken to the practice of rationing ammunition. Our local proprietor has established a rule that you can buy a limited amount of ammunition only if you pay the range fees, whether you shoot or not.

We showed up there yesterday and bought 100 rounds of .45 before going into the range with our pistols (her Warthog and my G-30). We only shot 50 rounds each. We were in and out of the range in under an hour.

Hope the ammo logjam breaks. We’re going to shop for some over in Arizona this week as we head for the NRA Convention and the BASH.

California Ammo Craziness on Hold – For Now

ammoThis same issue seems to come back year after year – introduced by the same people and hopefully receiving the same disposition – to die in committee.

Last year, State Assembly Member Kevin De Leon (D-45), introduced Assembly Bill 2062 which put ammunition sales in the crosshairs. AB2062 would have required that law-abiding gun owners obtain a permit to buy handgun ammunition and would have imposed severe restrictions on the private transfers of handgun ammunition. Thankfully, it died in committee.

De Leon’s latest craziness again hit a speed bump in committee – from NRA-ILA:

Today, Assembly Bill 962 was placed in the suspense file by the Assembly Committee on Appropriations.

Sponsored by Assembly Member Kevin De Leon (D-45), AB962 would make it a crime to privately transfer more than 50 rounds of ammunition per month, even between family and friends, unless you are registered as a “handgun ammunition vendor” in the Department of Justice’s database. Ammunition retailers would have to be licensed and store ammunition in such a manner that it would be inaccessible to purchasers. The bill would also require purchasers submit to fingerprinting, which would be submitted to the Department of Justice. Lastly, mail order ammunition sales would be prohibited.

While this development is a solid step towards defeating AB962, the bill still poses a threat.

Not that we have any hope of ever getting rid of De Leon, or the Democrats that propose these insane ideas, but a trend may be in the works toward more sensible politics when it comes to firearms issues.

Shootdown

Week after week, we put up our silhouette targets and try to shoot them down with our Remingtons.

Before this video starts, Damsel has already put some 20 gauge rounds through the center of the target. My turn came up and I used the 12 gauge to cut the right side of the target away from the top. I reloaded and Damsel stepped to my left side to capture the next two shots which finalized the separation.

Sometimes it takes more shots to get the job done, although we both have cut these targets in half with only five rounds. I think you have to get lucky for that to happen, but it does once in a while.

We didn’t shoot last weekend, mainly because ammunition is in short supply and we’re hoarding ours – like everyone else – until the supply side starts catching up with the demand again. So, we rely on our video therapy for now.

Midweek Range Review

This is a reprise to the shooting session at our range last Sunday. Midweek seems like a good time to pick out a video (I take several each session) and post it here.

The videos come in handy for a couple of reasons. One purpose is to critique our form and style, another is to document anomalies and a third is to post here on our blog for our mutual amusement.

This is one of Damsel’s several runs on the bullseye target with her Warthog. We scored some ‘bargain’ .45 ammunition last weekend, so we took the big caliber pistols to the range.

She loves this little Warthog. It’s been performing quite well as of late, and so is her shooting.

Cylinder Appeal

Our S&W 686 guns clean up real purdy. I took this photo after cleaning up the revolver that we shot at Sunday’s practice. Clickie Biggie.

cylinder.jpg

Range Report

Today’s HandgunsToday’s trip to the range went very well. Although the range was fairly busy, we got right in and had our lane within minutes of arrival. We set up the first target at seven yards – a bullseye pistol target. We initially took out the S&W 686 revolver and shot about 50 rounds of .38 special to warm up.

After the target became fairly perforated with our warm up shots, we reeled it back in and patched it up with several adhesive spots and resumed with our .45 pistols – Damsel’s Warthog and my Glock 30. We fired some more rounds at the patched-up target and retired it in favor of a silhouette target.

Image – Gunography: Glock 30, Warthog and S&W 686

We brought the .45s today because we scored two hundred rounds of Remington UMC .45ACP yesterday at the sporting goods store at a bargain price. Interestingly, they had NO 9mm Luger ammo. We still have 9mm on hand in the safe, but decided to take the bigger guns this week because of the availability of the .45 ammo.

The range gun shop was also out of ANY reloaded ammo. They did have a palette with 500 round cases of .40 and 9mm for a nominal price. We would have purchased a couple cases of the 9mm, but we’re saving up for our visit to Phoenix and the 2A Blog Bash in a few weeks. We can wait for the ammo until we get back.

The session concluded with shooting the shotguns. I don’t have video to verify, but we each had a satisfying time by blowing a silhouette target in half. We shot 25 rounds each of 12 and 20 gauge.

There was one event to report in connection with today’s session. We saw several parents with their old-enough-to shoot children in the range today. We like to see the kids shooting with their parents. However, there was one youngster – about 14 or 15, who was in the range WITHOUT PROTECTIVE EYE WEAR. I spoke with the young man and asked him where his goggles were. I got a sort of a blank look from him when his parent took over with the line of questioning. The group he was with quickly rustled up a pair for him. I got hit with a fragment in my shoulder today and I shudder to think what would have happened if it had hit the kid instead. Even ejected brass can be very dangerous.

Folks, take your kids to the range – but make sure that they – and you – are using the maximum safety practices.