We went shooting today. Since we have been arranging for our new Arizona home, we have been remiss in going to the range. When we came home, it was time to get out the gun cleaning toolbox and scrub off all the crud.

I took this picture of my Warthog after I got her all cleaned up. The .38 special rounds are for my other gun. Click on the image to enlarge.

We shot our .38 special S&W 442, our .357 magnum S&W 686, our .45 ACP Glock 30, this gun and our Remington 870 12 gauge security shotgun. We were a little out of practice but we both felt better about shooting.

We had a lot of fun but today was our last trip to Sharpshooter.

I took this shot at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous last September. Mike is familiarizing Damsel with the competition pistol he uses. We recently saw him in a sequence on Downrange TV using this gun. To the left you can see Kevin and Chuck enjoying the outing. We’re expecting to attend again this year and join bloggers like Kevin, Mike and Chuck in an excursion to the shooting range. Click on the image to enlarge.

For some GBR nostalgia, go here.

We decided to take the 9mm pistols to the range today. We brought a hundred rounds of 9×19 ammo. I brought my Glock 26 subcompact and Damsel brought her S&W 908s. The latter being a little workhorse with a single-stack 8 round magazine. This nice little gun has been one of our most reliable guns but seldom sees much praise when we post about shooting.

Image: Damsels 908s after clean-up. Click to enlarge.

We actually have two of these, a ‘his’ (in black) and ‘hers’ - this one - the ’s’ after 908 indicates ’silver’ finish. As I said before, these guns have been pretty reliable. We have had them for several years, shoot them regularly, and have only replaced the slide springs and spring guides in them after one of the two was showing some wear.

We also took two shotguns today - the 12 gauge Remington 870 Security Shotgun and Damsel’s 20 gauge shotgun. As usual we took 25 rounds for each gun. You can read more about shooting them here.

We took our .38 and .357 shooters to the range today. We scored some .38 special “wad cutters” reloaded ammo last week and wanted to send a box of those downrange. The wad cutters, also known by the rather descriptive term “The Devil’s Suppository,” make a nice distinct hole in paper targets. A while back, Damsel posted an image in “I shot Mickey Mouse,” where you can see the clean holes in the target.

Image: wad cutters - click to enlarge.

We were able to see the holes appear in the target quite well, even though we had taped it to some scrap cardboard an eighth of an inch thick, or so. I would have bought another fifty rounds of wad cutters at the range today, but, unfortunately, they were all sold out. We still have 150 rounds of wad cutters which we will use with discretion.

Speaking of scoring ammo, we found some UMC .357 magnum at our Big 5 store for $31/box of 50. I got a couple of boxes. Expensive, but you never know when the well is going to dry up - again.

When the shooting range where we have a membership refurbished the range, they replaced the conventional heavy target holders with a flimsy coat-hanger and Boston clip kluge. Last Sunday, our regular day to shoot, I forgot to bring the lightweight cardboard backing for the silhouette targets. As a result, I got a heavier duty cardboard target backing at the range.

When Damsel was shooting with her 20 gauge, I noticed that the target was ‘dancing’ less as a result. In the video, compare a lightweight target backing with the heavier one from this time. It makes me think that we need a heavier backing still to help stabilize the target.

It’s too bad that we have to compensate for the cheapness in the target holders, but we have little choice since this range is both convenient and (relatively) inexpensive. We plan to continue experimenting with this.

We traveled light today for target practice. We had another activity scheduled, so we chose not to bring a lot of stuff to the range. We brought only one handgun, the S&W 686 .357 magnum revolver. We also brought two shotguns, Damsel’s 20 gauge and our security 12 gauge - both Remington 870s.

We shot 100 rounds of .38 specials through the 686. At one point, it failed to fire one of the rounds. When Damsel put the failed round back in the cylinder, it detonated properly. The other 99 rounds fired without incident, however, so we’re not quite ready to replace the firing pins just yet. We did replace the pins in both 686s about two years ago.

In the video, that’s me enlarging the already gaping hole in the silhouette target taped to a cardboard backing. We found that the cardboard helps to stabilize the target when mounted on the flimsy coat hanger/Boston clip target-hanging kluge they have at our range.

On the ammo front, we were pleased to find that one of the re-load bins was chock full of .38 special wadcutter rounds. I bought 200 rounds for future target shooting.

We took our weekly trip to the shooting range for target practice. This week we took Damsel’s .357 S&W 686, her .45 Warthog and my Glock 30, also .45 caliber. Additionally we took Damsel’s Remington 870 20 gauge shotgun and our 12 gauge Remington 870 security shotgun. We had 100 rounds of .45 reloads for the semi-autos and a fifty round box of .38 special for the revolver. We also brought two 25 round boxes of shotgun shells, one 12 and one 20 gauge.

Image: Photo of Damsel’s Warthog misfeed - click on the image to enlarge.

Most everything went smoothly. There is one anecdotal misfeed event that Damsel had with her Warthog. She said that she flinched before squeezing the trigger and the case failed to eject. The next round in the magazine was holding the case in the barrel against the pressure of the slide spring.

Damsel went to clear the jam, but forgot to lock the slide back before ejecting the magazine. She was safely pointing the muzzle downrange when the slide snapped forward as she ejected the magazine. Coincidentally, when the slide snapped into place, the shooter in an adjacent booth discharged a round, which startled Damsel - she thought the discharge came from the Warthog. As it turned out, she had a bigger flinch than the original flinch that caused the jam.

Of course we quickly put the incident behind us in the category of lessons learned as we continued to enjoy shooting for the rest of the session.

Today was 9mm day at the range. We scored a couple of fifty round boxes of Remington UMC 115 grain 9×19 at Big 5 yesterday for about $16 a box. We figured that we have enough on hand to let us take the S&W 908 and the Glock 26 out for a shoot. We also took one of the two S&W 686 revolvers and some .38 special for that.

We shot fifty rounds of .38 and 100 rounds of 9mm - basically fifty rounds through each of the three handguns we brought. And, of course, we brought the shotguns - my full-sized Remington 870 12 gauge and Damsel’s Junior sized Remington 870 20 gauge. We shot 25 rounds through each of those.

In the video, Damsel demonstrates that she can handle her 20 gauge and the 12 gauge with equal ease. She says the 12 gauge is a bit heavier for her to lift and has a little more recoil, but as you can see, she deals with it.

I took this really short video on Friday 9/11 at the shooting range where the Gun Bloggers Rendezvous gathered to have some fun and check out the guns and stuff. We had just as much fun watching the activity as we did shooting. We spent a lot of time wandering up and down the range to see what everyone was doing.

At one point, Damsel and I stopped to watch this interesting pistol raise itself off of the table. I’ll let Dave, who blogs at Random Nuclear Strikes, explain the exotic pointing system and tell you about the pistol that shoots .308 rounds.

I can tell you that the recoil from every single shot brought the muzzle six to ten inches above the rest he was using.

This is a slideshow recapping our great time at the GBR-IV in Reno. We met so many nice folks and made new friends. It was truly a great experience for us, and we have already been in touch with some of our new buddies. Thanks to Mr. C and Kee Wee for throwing one of the best events we’ve been fortunate enough to attend.

Major Chuck Ziegenfuss did a presentation for Project Valor-IT, so we included a tribute to that in the slideshow. If you want to learn more please visit About Project Valour-IT on-line.

Blogs and others represented at GBR-IV:

Thanks also to the event sponsors: Para USA, Hi-Point Firearms, GLOCK, Dillon Precision, Lucky Gunner Ammo, The Silver Legacy, Brownell’s, Natchez Shooters Supply, Midway USA, Remington, Crimson Trace, Bison Armory, Cheaper than Dirt, National Rifle Association and the National Sports Shooting Foundation (thanks Bill!)

If I missed anyone, please tell me, so I can make it right.

Photo credits (most of ‘em) - Damsel.

Today, we took our .45 caliber pistols - Damsel’s Warthog and my Glock 30. We shot both guns last weekend at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, but didn’t clean them afterward. We also only shot just a few rounds then since we were having fun going from place to place checking out the other interesting guns.

So, today, we brought our allotment of rounds we didn’t shoot last week and another 50 rounds of .45. We also brought Damsel’s S&W686 revolver and put 50 rounds of .38 special through that.

As usual, we brought shotguns and 25 rounds (each) of 12 and 20 gauge shells. The video shows some teamwork in chopping a silhouette target in half. Prior to the video, we teamed up to slice it down the middle and then Damsel took off the right side of the target. I then took off the left side. I’m sure this drill has no practical value, but it is fun and makes us laugh.

For Damsel, last week’s outdoor range time was a first for her. DirtCrashr called us over and offered to let us shoot his rifle, also a first for Damsel. Click image to enlarge.

We just got back from our road trip today and not back to the routine just yet. We’ll blog more about GBR-IV in the days to come.