Range Day

Today we took some time out with Range Partner to sling some lead downrange. It was the first time M and Range Partner had met and the first time M has gone shooting with me (and as far as I know, only the second time she has ever shot handguns).

Along for the ride was Grand-Dad's High Standard, both the Glocks and the Sig. Range Partner brought a Glock of his own at my request, a Glock 21 with a .22 caliber conversion kit. Younger Son also came along, but he and Range Partner took turns with a .357 Taurus snubbie that Range Partner brought along.

After a review of the Four Rules (the first time M had ever heard them, so we went over them pretty extensively) and some basic instruction on grip, sights, stance and operation (I was ever grateful for the instruction I received at Tigerswan because all I did was review with her what I remembered from learning there) we loaded up and started putting rounds downrange.

First up was the 9mm Glock 19, followed by the Glock 21 with the .22 conversion kit installed. I wish I could say these were my targets...but no. Two fliers, one .22 and one 9mm, in the eight ring and the rest in the black, with two of the .22 and one 9mm solidly in the X.

Next up was the .45 Sig. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to shoot it, but she at least wanted to try it out. Four rounds went into the Sig, and when the smoke cleared two of them were in the eight ring and two in the ten. Next up she wanted to try the Glock 21 in Gods Own Caliber. So, off came the .22 conversion and on went the .45 slide and magazine, five rounds in the magazine...and as you can plainly see, two in the nine, two in the ten and one in the X.

Not bad shooting...for a guuuuurl.

Yeah. Not bad shooting for anyone, and when you consider this was her second time at the gun range to shoot handguns (and since the first time was a "here, point this that way and pull the trigger" you may as well say it was her first time) you could say that was pretty excellent shooting. Hell, she out-shot me, and I couldn't be prouder.

I really wish I could send her to one of Kathy Jackson's classes to learn how to shoot properly, but I will certainly find some instruction for her somewhere. I was OK with showing her the basics, but I'm not an instructor and everyone can do with some instruction. (Speaking of which Sean...isn't it about time for another Tigerswan class?)

There just might have to be a Glock 21 in her future as well.

Range Day AAR

I got the G-19 sighted in, barely. Of course I left the handy dandy Glock tool at home so I had to use a knife blade to adjust it. It will now shoot bullseye from a bench rest.

I, however, still suck at shooting it.

First things first, Youngest Son and I tried the Battleship targets at 50 yards with the Marlins first, but my old eyes wouldn't let me line up properly (I was using the 795 with iron sights, Youngest Boy was using the Model 60 with the scope) so we pulled them back to 25 yards. After going through a full box of .22LR (325 rounds) neither of us had won but I was closer.

Next I put a few rounds through the Arisaka and the Mossberg at 100 yards while Youngest Son peppered a zombie clown target with the Saiga. The Arisaka is still a handful, it groups in a 5" circle at 100 yards but I'm pretty certain that most of the problem is me since I'm not using a bipod with it.

The Mossberg shoots 1.5 MOA at 100 from the bipod and it likes 51 grains of IMR 4064 with its 165 grain Hornady SST's. I've heard that a Boyds wooden stock will bring the groups down to sub-MOA but 1.5 is still minute of Bambi so I'm satisfied with it.

After that Range Partner and I tried out the Battleship targets. RP won, finally, after we had gone through all the 9mm I brought (should have brought more since I was sighting the 9mm in, along with the tool...but I digress) and then switched to the G-36...and then went through all but 4 rounds of all the .45ACP that I brought.

It was pretty glaringly obvious that we both needed the practice, and I'm somewhat concerned that the G19 needed so much adjustment with its sights. Maybe a new barrel would set it right, irritating with a new gun but it puts holes where its pointed now so it's all good. Best of all was the stress reduction achieved through recoil therapy, I think that was probably needed more than the practice.

Mexican for lunch, inspection and tag renewal for the Pony and lawn mowing followed, and now I'm in skating ring hell as Boy shmoozes the chicks.

Eh. Life could be worse.

Sights, PT 2

Installing Glock sights on a Glock is simplicity itself. Drive the old ones off, drive the new ones on, no muss no fuss.

In fact, the hardest part to installing the sights was finding a brass punch. I never did find one, but the local craft store had brass shapes that were suitable for cutting up to use as punches.

The guns are cased and ready to be put in the car tomorrow, I'll be sighting in the G-19 and trying my reloads out in the Mossy 30-06. I'm also taking along some of the toys I haven't played with in a while.

A day at the range is always a good day.

Sights

I just ordered a set of adjustable rear sights for the Glock 19, I'm hoping that I can get the POA and POI to intersect. They should be here next week, I should be able to get them installed pretty quickly and then it's off to the range on Friday to dial them in.

AAR will occur...after.

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...

Another Mouth To Feed

I've wanted a 9mm for a while now for a couple of reasons, primarily it's cheaper to feed. The bonus at work paid out and it was sufficient to remove an item from the Guns I Want list.

The 19 is the same basic size as the 36 with the magazine and Pearce +1 extension installed (note, these pictures were taken with an empty magazine in the pistol). Because of that I can use the same collection of holsters for both.

The grip on the 19 (on the right) is a smidge wider than the 36 but not so much so that it isn't a pretty good approximation. It should be a good practice pistol, and Daughter can use it to take her CC class.

And as a side note, anyone who says that "XXX is harder to buy than a gun" hasn't bought a gun lately (probably ever).

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.

She Don't Like, She Don't Like, She Don't Like...

Reloads.

My Glock, that is.

I attempted to put a few rounds through it at the Blogshoot but the darn thing wouldn't go back into battery, I had to smack the back of the slide every time. The round would eject, and then the next one wouldn't go into battery until I smacked the back of the slide again. The factory loads worked great.

Today I broke it down and tried fitting the rounds into the barrel. Both the earlier reloads and the latest ones with the moly bullets did this:

 but the factory loads were flush.

The reloads would seat all the way if I pushed them in, but then I had to pry them back out. The only thing I can think of is either the dies aren't set right or my Glock is being a picky bitch. Of course, there's nothing to say it can't be both.

I'm going to let Range Partner try the reloads, and maybe I'll invest in a Wolf barrel to see if that cures the pickiness, but until then I guess I'll stick with factory loads. I hope that it's something I'm doing wrong and can correct, with the present state of ammo factory loads are a pain to find.

In other news, my broken tooth is scheduled for a crowning. It's right across from the last one, so now I'll be balanced, at least in the bottom row of teeth department.

I also have a pair of foglamps coming in for the Scoobytruck, when I got it they were fine but within a couple of weeks they had been BB-gunned by a person or persons unknown (I have a feeling one or both of my boys were in the mix somewhere despite their denials). The left one came apart when I took it off the ramps after changing the oil on Wednesday, so it's time for new ones.

And last but not least, AGirl is hanging up her blogging spurs for a bit. I hope she can pop in once in a while now and again.

The remnants of TS Andrea are sliding through the Refuge for the next couple of hours and we expect to see scattered thunderstorms into next week.

That's it for now. I'll be ensconced in skating hell tonight for a few hours while Boy completely ignores me and chats up the girls, maybe I can get some homework done.

And maybe not.

UPDATE: A little adjustment on the seating die and all is, once more, good to go.

New Contest

Jennifer is having a contest for a book, Glock: The Rise of America's Gun (I will leave it as an exercise for the reader how an Austrian firearm becomes America's gun...but I digress).

Go on over there and see how to enter.

The Fugly Has Landed

A few months ago I ordered one of these from Dragon Leatherworks, and without warning or fanfare it arrived today. Of course I could not wait to tear into the box and see what was there.

First impressions: it is a handsomely made all-leather holster that fits the gun like a glove...as expected.  I ordered mine without fancy adornments since it is, after all, a concealed carry holster.

You can, however, order it in several different colors and you can order the body panel (the part that is plain leather) in a different color than the holster

body (the part that is black).

The holster is designed to go in the five o'clock position but I don't really like to carry there - I find it uncomfortable and burdensome to draw from that far around my overly ample belt-line. Fortunately I was able to reverse the belt in the loops and put it at my three o'clock where I normally wear it without any problems.

This holster carries a bit higher than my Galco Stow n' Go, which in turn carried a bit higher than the Galco Tuck n' Go, so once again there will be a bit

of a learning curve as I get used to it. 

I am also going to have to get used to the body panel, it is the first holster I have had that has one. I like it because it keeps the gun from digging into my side, but it makes it a bit difficult to get my thumb to the inside of the grip.

I will be using the Galco whenever I need to be able to take the holster off (for example, if I am driving somewhere that I can't have the gun such as a restaurant that serves alcohol) since I don't like handling the gun with the trigger guard uncovered but I am planning on using the Fugly as my everyday carry holster.

It will get its first test this afternoon at the range. I'll let you know how it goes.

Things That Go Bang

Today was the day I learned how to assemble some ammo. With materials in hand off I went to Range Partner's abode.

Two of the cases got ruined setting the resizing/depriming die, but they were the only casualties of the day. One of the bullets was also sacrificed to set the depth, but we did manage to finally extract it so that we could re-use the brass.

Forty eight cases deprimed, resized and ready for primers. This is when I found out my brand-new priming tool shellplate is too tight for the cases, they didn't want to seat all the way into the shellplate so we ended up not using it. In a fortuitous turn of fate .45ACP has the exact same case diameter as 6.5x50 Japanese, and since RP was using his progressive press for .45 we just took the turret off of it and used it to put the primers in. I'll have to work the shellplate over with a file to get the cases to fit right.

Anatomy of a primer. I had never seen the inside of one before and at first I thought they were just crimped over like shotgun shells. When we pressed the old primers out I saw that they actually have a three-point insert to hold the bangy bits (if you will excuse my use of the technical term) in place.

The first reload. 129 grain SST Hornady bullets atop 37.0 grains of Hogden 380 powder. In the background you can see RP at the scale measuring out the powder for the next go-round.  This step was kind of anticlimactic, a light pull and it was done. Depriming took a bit more force, but this step takes little to none.

Twenty to a box. The picture is fuzzy, apparently my camera didn't want to autofocus on this one.

Compared to a factory load. Again, sorry about the picture quality, the camera was apparently more fond of the background.

After this we took the rifle out to the range where I verified my inability to hit the broad side of a barn with it. I shot up eight of the reloads and then forty of my factory loads just to see if we could get the rifle zeroed in with varying degrees of success. The good news is, the reloads go bang.

We will have to haul out the bench rest on the next session so that we can accurately zero it in and see where the POI is between the factory loads and the reloads. The good news is the reloads cost half of the factory loads (so why didn't we shoot those? I want the SSTs for another purpose, the factory loads are FMJs) so shooting this rifle has dropped from ridiculous (as compared to ZOMG!) to merely annoying.

I also put a little more than 150 rounds through the Glock, and while I did have two minor FTFs (actually the slide failed to return all the way to battery) on the Tula ammo that were quickly cleared (a quick smack on the back of the slide with the heel of the hand put them both right in where they belonged) both RP's light reloads (70%) and the Winchester white box feeds and fires with nary a problem. I am pretty well convinced the 15 lb springs were just what was needed.

PSA for the day, while at the range wear your hat. One of my rounds went straight up and came down behind my glasses. Hot brass gets your attention!

After the range session we took my 48 newly emptied cases and made 48 more completed rounds, carefully separating out the eight twice-fired cases (good thing the primers were different colors). Those eight went back into the gun safe when I returned home in a box marked Reloaded x II, they will get put back into rotation when the rest of the reloads have been reloaded again.

And now I just need the dies for .45ACP and a reloading press kit and I'll be all set!

Palate Cleanser

And now I have that out of my system...

The last of my shooty toys got here today. I tried to install them all but they wouldn't fit right, the adapter ring would not seat all the way into the slide. I assembled the Wolff guide rod and springs and everything seemed to go together, but when I put the slide back on the gun and tried to cycle a round in I couldn't get it to go. With the adapter the guide rod was too long and the slide wouldn't cycle all the way back.

I disgustedly removed everything and put the stock guide rod back in, but later on out of curiosity I assembled and installed the Wolff guide rod without the adapter and everything went swimmingly. I must have a Gen 3, I thought it was a 4 but the guide rod is for a 3 and below and needs the adaptor for a Gen 4. A serial number check would tell me for sure, but it is together and functional so I'm happy.

EDIT: Range Partner has confirmed it is a Gen 3, not a Gen 4. Anyone need an adapter ring?

Tomorrow I am going to make some ammo, go shoot it up to compare it with the factory loads I have, then maybe load it up again. I'm also going to shoot at least 100 rounds of white box Winchester (and maybe some Tula and some of RP's reloads for good measure) through the Grok and see how the softer springs do.

Hopefully I get all of my toys back tomorrow.

More Toys

I've been having FTF/FTE problems with the Glock since I got it.

Unfortunately the Glock 36 is somewhat infamous for these things. My malfunctions are more a failure to completely eject the spent brass, the slide cycles forward and the brass gets caught lengthways in the ejector port. I've only had a handful of times where I have had to drop the magazine to clear the malfunction, but it has happened.

The first time was during my CCW qualifications but I thought it was the ammo. The next time was at Tigerswan where I got a lot of practice clearing malfunctions. During the latest range session I tried Range Partner's handloads and had the same issues. In fact, since the handloads were loaded a bit light the G36 would not cycle them at all without jamming them lengthwise in the slide, three shots fired and three identical FTEs.

This convinced me that a lighter spring might fix the issues, so today I sat down and ordered a 15 lb Wolff guide rod and spring set and a recoil conversion insert for it. When they get in I'll install them and try RP's handloads again to see if there is a difference. I'll also go through a Winchester white box of 100 to see if there are any FTEs in a large number of rounds.

I also discovered there is a voluntary recoil spring recall from Glock, so Monday I'll call them and get that going as well.

I sure would like to have this thing work reliably.

Oh Lord

Now I just gotta get that Glock 19 so I can get one of these for it.

Don't blame me. I got it from Tim Ellwood's comment at Tam's.

And on that note...Happy April Fool's Day!

Some Days

you eat the bear, and some days the bear eats you.

I went to the range today to sight the Mosin in, after the last range session I dropped it and the front sight just managed to catch the stool sitting at the bar and almost came all the way off.

I found some scribed marks on the front sight, so I moved it back to line the scribe marks up. To my delight it put the rifle right back at zero.

Ten test shots at 25 yards then three 5 round volleys at 100 yards and I was satisfied with the results (25 rounds total and no need for the assistance of dimensional lumber).  The first set of five was done with the blade sight all the way down, the next two were at the first click towards the 100 meter mark. As you can see I was pulling off to the left with the second and third sets; the first set was done with the bipod and the second two sets without. The rifle is much more accurate than her shooter is, so I'm pleased with the results.

According to what I've read here I'm supposed to give her a name. Range Partner asked if I had picked one out and I had to admit I have not.  Perhaps I will call her Ivana, meaning "God is gracious" because the first time I shot her I said "Good God - this thing has a kick!"

I did, by the way, manage to get the bayonet to slip on and off as it should. I haven't shot the rifle with the bayonet attached, but I have the option now if I want it. Plus, if I ever see a Nazi I can stab him with the bayonet instead of having to shoot him, which I'm sure would be much less punishing on my shoulder.

As we were finishing up another gentleman showed up on the range with a unique little rifle. It looked just like a Mosin carbine, but when he pulled the trigger back there was just a cute little pop instead of the massive shock wave of a 7.62x54R going down range.

It was a Polish WZ48 .22lr trainer, something that I had never heard of (not that that should come as a big shock, there are lots of things I have never heard of). It looked like he was having a great time shooting it, he said his next door neighbor wanted to learn how to shoot a rifle so he was checking it out to make sure it was ready to resume performing its intended purpose. Range Partner eyeballed me sideways and commented that I was probably going to be adding another entry to the "Guns I Want" list.  Maybe.

After the rifle shooting we moved over to the pistol range where I put about 50 rounds through the Grok. I did OK, I guess, no big holes right in the middle but lots of little ones spread all around.  While we were at the pistol range there was a guy that had a pretty big collection of Glocks, including a G-26.

I told him I was still on the fence deciding between the 26 and the 19, so he let me put a mag through the 26. I think it has pretty well convinced me that the 19 is the way to go.  Nothing wrong with the 26, it just doesn't fill the hand like the G-36 does, even with the extensions on the magazine. The G-19 fills the hand quite as nicely as the G-36 with it's mag extensions, and it uses the same holsters.

He also had a G-17L, which is a long-slide version of the G-17. He let me put a magazine through it as well, and it is a sweet gun.  I did a lot better with grouping my patterns with the G-17 and the G-26 than I did with my G-36, I'm hoping the addition of the grips (if they ever get here) will help with that. I'm pretty convinced that I need a europellet slinger though, just because.

At any rate, I had a pretty good day at the range. Again.

Eagle One

Last night I got a FB message from a guy I hadn't seen in a while. We were in the USN for a while together, I retired and he moved on to Maryland and then back to Raleigh where he was from.

Today we met for lunch and then went to make some smoke and noise at the indoor range at Eagle 1 Supply. It was a nice little range, pistol and shotgun only, max of 25 yards. I did pretty good today, I got to shoot a couple of Brian's guns and he popped a few off with mine as well.

He has a Ruger LCP that has a laser sight on it, I didn't care for the mile-long trigger pull but otherwise it was a nasty little gun to shoot, very light and so it had as much kick as my .45 and only made .380 size holes. But if you are looking for something that you can just slip into a pocket that is the one, and with the laser installed you don't even have to worry about aiming the damn thing, put the dot where you want a hole and start pulling back on the trigger. Sometime in the next hour or so it will eventually go off, by that time the bad guy will have either run screaming away from the laser dot or beat you to death, one or the other.

His other gun was a Beretta 92FS, what a sweeeeeeet gun! Loved it! A bit heavier than my Grok, but nice and balanced with a smooth and crisp trigger (but whadda I know from triggers, right? I think the Mosin shoots just fine), it put the holes right where I wanted them with a minimum of fuss. I did have to put the front sight over the top of the aim point rather than put the aim point on top of the front sight blade, but once I got that correction made it was an excellent shooter.

I also got to finally put my paws on the Glock 26, it even had the magazine extension so I could see what that felt like. I'm going to have to go fondle the G19 one more time, but I think I'm leaning toward the 19.  It just feels more like the G36 with +1 extensions, the G26, even with the extension, did not fill the palm quite so well. I might even be tempted to go for the Tigerswan G-19 if I have the coin for it.

I am also still waiting on the Falcon grips I ordered a couple of weeks ago, it was supposed to have shipped via UPS over a week ago and they are not here yet. The shipping number never did register with UPS, so it looks like I'm going to have to make a phone call, I think.

Right now I'm massaging my bayonet with a file to try to get it to go on the Mosin without the use of a punch and hammer. Getting it off is another exercise in fun. I've been reading Erin's experimentation with her mad black Russian Crazy Ivan, and I've just about decided to put the bayonet on and see if it has any impact on my shooting. I don't know that it will, the gun is still much more accurate than I am.  She certainly does like her Mosin!

All in all, a pretty darn good day.