Shooting

Target Weighting

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.

Range Report 10/25/2009

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.

Range Report

hogjam.jpgWe 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.

Range Report

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.

Kicker

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.

Gun Blogger Rendezvous – Recap

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.

Range Report 09/20/2009

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.