Comments On The Day

I am steadily improving in my pistol shooting. I shot 50 rounds of steel case Tula ammo through the Glock and was slightly left of centerline but it was mostly all in the 8 ring with a handful of fliers and the dozen or so I put in the head - on purpose, I might add. The High Standard is still a fun and accurate little gun as well, I put 100 rounds through it and had a nice little hole in the middle and a dozen or so zombie-killing holes in the head. All of this hole-making was done at around 10 yards or so. At this rate I can work my way up to Tam's definition of "mediocre" maybe by the time I am 80 or so; before I was looking at 120 at least. This makes me happy.

The G-36 will reliably feed steel-case Tula ammo, for varying degrees of "reliably". I had one FTE in a 50 round box, which is about the norm for this pistol. On a different, but related, note I find that the G-36 will NOT reliably feed light hand-loads. This seems to confirm my suspicion that the recoil spring is maybe a bit too tight. I will be getting a lighter recoil spring* to see if it makes a difference. I am sanguine at the prospects (the hopeful kind, not the bloody kind). This makes me happy.

The Marlin is still a tack driver. I was only shooting it at 25 yards but I had a large hole in the center of the target for my troubles. Incidentally the Marlin is almost exactly dimensionally identical to the Arisaka T30 carbine, the length is the same but the trigger group is about 1/2" farther forward on the Marlin. I had never put the two side by side so I hadn't noticed until now. This makes me happy.

.338 Lapua makes me laugh every time it goes off. By the time GB had blown through a C note worth of smoke and noise** I was giggling uncontrollably.  Yes, the bitch goes boom, and she does so with authority. She also kicks like a mule. A well-behaved mule, but a mule nonetheless. I was a puddle of giggle by the time I had touched her off for a second time. That is one hell of a rifle. That made me delirious.

By definition any day at the range is a good one, and this was one of the best even though I only brought my little poodle-shooter to play with. The difference in report was pretty funny as well...tap - tap - tap - BOOM! tap - tap - tap...after a while I just gave up. It almost didn't seem worth the effort.

The day was finished off with a haircut, ordering the right tool kit for the Scooby so that I have a jack handle*** and dinner out with the kids. Plus, convertible. 110 degrees F is almost too hot for top down. Almost. Now, it's nap time.

*I should probably get another barrel for the G-36 as well. By my calculations I have put between 800 and 1000 rounds through it and it was used when I got it. How can you tell when the barrel needs to be replaced?

** The cheapest my Graf & Sons catalog has .338 Lapua ammo for is $52.99/box of 20 10, which ends up being  $2.65 $5.30 a round. He was shooting handloads at around $4.50 a round. Kind of makes me feel better about paying $22.99/box of 20 for 6.5x50 Japanese ($1.15/round).

***The trucklet was missing both jack and tool kit when I bought it so I had to order them both; the jack was OK but the tool kit ended up being the wrong one. It has only a tire iron and a screwdriver; the right one has a jack handle and a two-piece tie down kit for the flat that screws into the bed of the trucklet. I found this out when a friend in Florida tried to use the jack on his car. Good thing I never had a flat.