The EBS Project: Revisited

Remember when I said it was done?

Well...I may have been a bit hasty...

It would require a re-barrel since I have the 8 shot magazine and the 20" barrel, but it would be totally worth it. Of course I would have more into the gun in accessories at that point than I had in the actual purchase price, but if I start adding things up I may have already passed that point anyway.

Drum magazine fed evil black shotgun? I can hear Nanny Nancy screaming from here...

Tam Gets Her Gun

Evil Black Shotgun, that is.

Yeah, I'm late. Shut it.

Range Day

The new Grok shoots well but both Daughter and I need to work with it. I started with the 36 and was putting them pretty close to center but too far left and slightly down. Daughter started with the 19 and was shooting down and right. When I shot the 19 I was shooting down and left. Pretty safe to say that was me and not the guns. Range Partner tried it out and was shooting dead center but high. I only brought 100 rounds, I should have brought at least twice and maybe three times that much, so we really didn't get to shoot it as much as we wanted to.

We did pick up more brass than we shot, so now I need to get the 9mm dies and projectiles. On the way home we stopped by the Mart of Walls and got a 9mm boresnake for cleaning and also scored another 200 rounds of 9mm, one 100 round box and two 50 rounders. So not only did we bring home more 9mm brass than we left with, we also brought more 9mm ammo home than we left with.

The EBS shot way low to begin and we had a bit of a dilemma when I went to adjust the sight, it takes an allen wrench and I didn't bring any. Fortunately I had a Torx tip that worked and I was able to get the gun to pattern pretty much right where the sight said it should be. Once again I am done with the modifications on this gun, and I really mean it this time!

Smoke and noise and a chance to meet up with Range Partner always makes for a good day.

Catching Up

I replaced the scraped-up fascia on the Mustang yesterday, now it is restored to like-new appearance once more. I have one wheel that is slightly scuffed (one day I'll quit doing that) so that is next on the list to be fixed, and one day I need to put a windshield in the Scoobytruck as well.

I mowed the lawn today and managed not to knock off the corner of the house again.  I also got up early enough to score 3 boxes of 9mm at the Mart of Walls up the road from me. They also had some boxes of God's Own Caliber, but I'm pretty good on that for the time being and since I could only get 3 boxes total I went for the ones I didn't have rather than for the ones I did have.

Tomorrow Daughter and I will take the new Glock out for it's inaugural run. I'm also going to take the EBS out for another pattern check following its latest modifications. I've also been contacted via email regarding one of the items on the Guns I Want list, but since I just made some new purchases...grrr...

Other than that, it just doesn't get any better than this...

EBS Revisited (UPDATED: Now with pictures!)

When last we visited the EBS Project, I said that I was done (with the caveat "for now").

As usual, when dealing with projects (be they guns or cars or houses or whatnot) they are never "done" in the purest sense.

So with that in mind I found one of these while wandering around the local Mart of Walls.

I have not been completely satisfied with the need to add drop spacers to bring the stock down so I could use the sights. I had to put two of them on and when all was said and done the angle was so off that I might as well have just left the pistol grip stock that I started with on instead, but that kind of defeats the whole "EBS" purpose (namely, to give Nanny Nancy fits). Not to mention there was no way I could use the tacticool Mall Ninja Team 5 (I'm not good enough for Team 6 but I'm working on it) Stock Accessory Kit.

So of course I am now the proud owner of said rail, and it went on in minutes following the provided instructions. And now since there is a rail, and since I already had one of these (different brand name but same sight) from the Mosin (when I got it there was a rail installed in place of the rear sights and this contraption was on top of it, the first thing I did was put the iron sights back on it), of course it has a new home atop the Maverick. And since the sights sit up higher I was able to take the drop spacers out and put the cheek piece back on.

And now all of that is done, it will have to be patterned again. Oh darn, I need to go to the range, woe is me.

There are worse problems to have I guess.

EBS Project: The Finale

I finally got the last pieces I needed for the EBS project.

I needed a sling, and since the buttstock cheek adapter with shell holder was such a bust on all points I decided the best thing would be a sling with shell loops. Imagine my surprise when I discovered, at the local mart of walls, a Blackhawk sling that has 15 loops for an assortment of shotgun shells.

I put a forward sling swivel on the tac rail and bought a set of sling swivels, using only one, for the stock so that the sling would have a place to attach. The sling has been installed and the initial impression is that it should fill the bill quite nicely.

I also put another spacer on the stock, and now I can get a cheek weld immediately without having to adjust my position on it, so it seems that was exactly what I needed to fix that issue. I'm thinking the next pattern session, whenever that ends up being, will go swimmingly.

And with these components, the Evil Black Shotgun project is now complete...for now...

Gun Post

I really need to get back into my dry-firing routine.

In other news, I'm slightly considering joining a range that has opened up somewhat close-ish to me. $400 initiation fees and $250 a year. Seems a bit steep to me, and it's about as far to the east of me as Range Partner's range is to the west of me, hence the "slightly considering" aspect of the whole deal.

On a positive note, I've figured out the trick to shooting the Arisaka. If you line the sights up in the traditional manner it shoots all manners of high. However, if you level the ears on each side of the front sight on the rear sight you still have the point of the front sight visible in the V of the rear sight, and that puts the bullets right on target.

I only shot it at a 25 yard range, adjusting the windage and my technique until all the shots consistently went into the black, but given that it's the first range session I've been able to accomplish even that I'm overjoyed. I'm also overjoyed that on a bench rest rather than in my shaky hands it groups excellently.

Next time I'll bring more ammo and shoot out to a 100 yard range, then maybe try it out to 200 yards as well. If I can get it to target and group as well at 100 and 200 yards as it did at 25 I'll take it Bambi-missing and maybe to one of the Vintage Military Bolt Action Rifle matches I've been meaning to attend.

The range also had a new steel target, and Boy and I had a great time with the Saiga making it ring.

I also patterned the EBS Project following an addition of a spacer to the stock. Without the spacer I wasn't able to get a good cheek weld. With the spacer it's better, but maybe just one more spacer would do the trick. Also, the Glock continues to eat factory loads without any troubles after the spring change, if you have an early G-36 with FTF/FTE issues I highly recommend the spring change to cure it of that particular evil.

Afterwards we helped Range Partner with some building materials relocation. Another great day making smoke and noise, and an outstanding way to celebrate on this Independence Day weekend.

Recently

I've been keeping the deliveryman busy this week.

The company I work for had a pretty good quarter, so I got a quarterly bonus. It's obviously gone now, between necessary Subaru repairs and...toys!

The first thing that arrived was the forward tri-rail. I don't have a sling swivel for it yet, but it's on the list. I suppose I should get a sling for it, too, while I'm at it. I was planning on mounting it between the barrel and magazine, but it's not the right size for that. It was designed for a flashlight, so I put my old work flashlight on it. It will do, I guess.

The second thing that arrived (with the tri-rail, in fact) was the cheek piece and ammo holder. Putting that on had to wait until the stock arrived. That came in the next day.

The stock went on easily and works great, but I'm sad to say the same can't be said of the cheek piece. I really didn't like the tall one, it raised my point of sight so far up the front bead might has well not even existed. It took a pair of flatblade screwdrivers to take it back off once it was installed. So, I took the tall piece off and tried just the short piece. Better, but still a bit tall. I had to have it for the shell holder though, so it stayed on.

When I tried to put the shells in the shell holder they wouldn't fit. I understand that you want the fit tight enough so the shells won't fall out, but a twelve gauge shell should be able to fit in a twelve gauge shell holder without pulling the damn thing off the stock...the same setup that required two flatblade screwdrivers to take off when I wanted to take it off pops right off when you try to push the shells up ito the shell holder. So, it's staying off.

Next project is getting the sling swivels for it, and then a sling. I'm looking at one of these since the cheek piece/shell holder was such a loser.

In the final analysis my Tacticool Mall-Ninja Evil Black Shotgun project is going pretty well. I'm thinking about a forward pistol grip, I've been warned that it can bend up the action bars but I'd have to change the action tube assembly to even contemplate it. The stock came with a foregrip, but unfortunately there are two different lengths of action tube and nothing in the package tells me which length the foregrip takes.

But that's a project for another day.
The last thing to come in this week was the package of materials to begin obtaining my Associates in Applied Science degree in Electronics Engineering Technology. Yeah, I'm finally getting it done. It's something I should have done years and years ago, but I suppose better late than never. Thanks to previous course work I'm already over half-done, so hopefully it won't take all that long.

The next thing I'm expecting is "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil". I've been wanting to see it for a while, it looks pretty good. According to the tracking data it should be here Monday...when I'm at work...

I guess that gives me something to do next week!