That's Better

Somewhat.

I slept in late, then went to lunch with a bunch of morons, then went and put some holes in things with some goth chick.

Yes, I got to shoot The Mosin.

Tomorrow I get to go tell Pop what I know about his new friends, and then I imagine he won't want to talk to me for a while. Since I can't do anything else, my hope is that he will decide to act on the information I give him and get himself away from these people.

And then I get to make the long drive back home and get back to work.

WANT!!!

HT: The Smallest Minority

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.

A Day At The Range

The High Standard shot well, as you can see by the photo. The upper left target was shot at 20 yards and the lower right was shot at 5.

There were a handful of FTF malfunctions that were likely due to ammunition; it was just cheapie Remington ammo that I got with the Marlin. Inspection of the unfired rounds show that the firing pin seems to be working well, there was a clean indent on each of them.

I did much better with the High Standard than I did with the Glock later on. More proof that I need to get out to the range more often, it has been way too long. I didn't shoot the Glock at 5 yards, but at 20 yards I was all over the paper. I only shot 50 rounds through it, next time I'll start at 10 yards and I'll bring 100 rounds with me.

Youngest Son got an unexpected object lesson in where food comes from today as well. My range partner raises rabbits, and one of them turned a bit cannibal and started chewing on his hutch-mates. He came to the range with us and was dispatched with a .22 caliber  bullet to the back of the head.

This was a good opportunity not only to show him that meat doesn't magically appear in neat clean packages, but also that anyone who tells you a .22 can't hurt you is dead wrong. He was a bit quiet for a while, so I think the lesson sunk in pretty well.

We also shot the Mosin, the Arisaka and the Saiga. Later on when I got everything home and was cleaning rifles I dropped the Mosin (!!!!) and jarred the sights off, so next range session I will have to put them back in. Oh, darn, I guess that means I have to go shooting again sometime soon.

The day was finished off with steaks and shrimp on the barbie.

A Day At The Range

Any day spent making noise and smoke is, by definition, a good one.

The Saiga conversion works wonderfully, and the rifle has been sighted in again.  I really didn't notice much difference in the fun quotient, shooting it was always a blast but the trigger conversion seems to make mag swaps faster.  I was worried the bolt hold-back lever would interfere with the trigger finger, but I trimmed it off as per the instructions before I put it back in and I never even noticed it.

The Arisaka has been sighted in for azimuth and I think I have figured in the right amount of Tennessee elevation to at least get all the holes on the paper. I love this little rifle and I'm looking forward to shooting it - badly, most likely - in the Vintage Military Bolt Action Rifle events.  The down side is that it is so expensive to feed.

The Mosin shoots right in the middle where it should be.  The gel buttstock pad has tamed the kick down magnificently, and after 25 rounds fired I did not feel like stabbing Nazis. In fact, the shoulder does not hurt at all.  I highly recommend the Shooterpad gel filled recoil pads.  I ended up not having to adjust the sights at all, I was worried that I had moved the front sight but that wasn't the case. I'm going to be shooting this one in the VMBAR events as well. Likewise as badly, I'm sure.

And finally, I have figured out the issues I was having with shooting the Glock, and after putting almost a hundred rounds through it today I have a large sized hole in the middle of the target right where it should be. I'm really looking forward to this class next weekend, I'm thinking I'll learn a lot and my shooting will improve dramatically as a result of it.

The only two bad things that happened today is I left the Mosin's cleaning rod at the range and when cleaning the guns before putting them away I knocked an almost full bottle of Hoppes #9 on the floor.

The good news is the cleaning rods are readily available so if I can't retrieve the one I left at the range it won't take much to get another one, and now my kitchen revels in the perfume that is Hoppes #9.

UPDATE: My range partner picked up the cleaning rod for me so I don't have to order another one. Whew!

Hey, I got to go shooting today. Nothing bad can happen the rest of the day!

In The Mail

The clips for the Mosin.

It really is easier to load it with stripper clips rather than one at a time.

If the hardware for the Saiga/AK ever shows up I'll complete that, too.

Then it will be range time for all the rifles.

UPDATE: The Saiga hardware is on the way.

Upgrades

Most of my toys are here. The Mosin looks much better with a real rear barrel band in place of the tie strap that was holding the wood on, the Arisaka's front sight blade does not fit (it's from a T-99), and the gel pad looks like it will do admirably to tame the Mosin's recoil.

I could still use the T-99's front sight since the dimensions of the base are right, it's just too tall and so will not fit into the opening in the "ears" on each side of the sight. I was hoping it would since what I need is a taller sight, but it is not to be. I could still file it off flat and drill it for a threaded rod as I had planned, but now that I'm considering shooting it in VMR matches I can't modify the sights.

The stripes came in for the Mustang, too. It goes in on the 12th to get the dents knocked out of the hood.

Toys

I ordered the missing barrel band for the Mosin yesterday, as well as five stripper clips and a gel filled recoil pad. That should make the recoil less painful which should make shooting it much more pleasant.

I also ordered a front sight blade for the Arisaka. My hope is that I can drill a hole in it and tap it for a threaded rod, making a front sight that is adjustable for elevation as well as windage. I like this rifle and would really like it if it were sighted in.

Last but not least I ordered a two magazine holder for the class I am taking in October. I think I'm about as ready as I can be for that, I'm really looking forward to it.

Appropos of nothing, I suppose, I have decided that I want a Mosin M38 carbine if I can find one at a decent price.

Range Report

Yesterday I hauled myself out to the range for some badly needed practice with the Grok. I need to do this more often, as the location of my groups can attest.

The groups were tight, but low and to the right. Experienced shooters will know right away what two things I was doing wrong.

After a while the groups came back to the left and up towards the center, but I'm still prone to recoil anticipation. I need to work on that.

The Arisaka stayed home since I haven't yet worked out it's sight adjustment issues, but I put about 20 rounds through the Mosin Nagant.
Sacred fishes, that damn thing has a kick!

It is dead accurate, though, it put the holes exactly where it was aimed. My range partner put a couple high and right and I put one low and left just so we could verify it was marking the paper, the rest of the holes were in the black part of the target and were kind of hard to see at a distance. Zombies beware!

Afterwards my shoulder was so sore I wanted to stab a Nazi with the bayonet to see if it would make me feel better, and I had a strange craving for cheap vodka and depressing poetry and wouldn't answer to any other name but Vlad.

After the range session I had an open carry luncheon across town, and then I headed home for a nap.

All in all it was a pretty good day.

Click on pic to find out where you can get a shirt of your very own

Range Report

A preliminary report can be found here, but it's scarce on details.

The first thing that was done was a sighting in at 25 yards, just to make sure everything was close enough to mark the paper. The Arisaka shot slightly high and right, about the same distance high as right, but close enough to get on the paper (or so we thought at the time).

The Saiga was also high, but slightly left. Once again, it was determined to be close enough to get on the paper.

We set the targets up at the 200 yard line and prepped the rifles. Five shots out of the Arisaka and ten out of the Saiga, and a peek through the spotting scope revealed that...

Actually it revealed that the spotting scope wasn't strong enough for 200 yards, so we had to hike the distance back to the targets. The Arisaka was high and right enough to be off the paper and on the cardboard, the Saiga was high and slightly left.

Back on the firing line the Saiga got it's sights adjusted, and we decided to fire one rifle at a time and check shot placement after each magazine (the ulterior motive was to make sure all the ammo would feed out of each of the Saiga magazines since I had some trouble with one or two of them before). Each round of firing required a 200 yard hike to the target and 200 yards back.

Since the Saiga had more capacity we started with it. By the time we were through the third magazine we had it sighted in fairly well, so the fourth magazine grouped right in the middle where it should have been. The group was in a pattern about eight inches or so across (32 rounds in each magazine) scattered evenly around the X, so not bad for iron sights.

Next we attempted to sight in the Arisaka. Attempted I say, because the tool we used on the Saiga did absolutely nothing for the Arisaka. We put 20 rounds through it total and it consistently shot about eight to ten inches high and eight to ten inches to the right, but the grouping was pretty good at about 4 to 5 inches for a 5 round magazine (once again, iron sights).

I don't know how the elevation problem is going to get resolved because there is absolutely no adjustment for elevation, but with the proper tool I should be able to get the azimuth dialed in. There didn't seem to be any performance differences between the 129 grain and the 140 grain bullets, the original Japanese rounds were 139 grains so I'll probably stick with the 140 grain rounds unless I get a good deal on something else.

We have also decided that 100 yards is a good enough distance, and since the spotting scope is good for 100 yards it would cut down on the hiking time.

Next we moved over to the pistol and shotgun range. I pulled the plug out of the Franchi and wanted to see how it did. With the plug out the magazine holds 4 rounds, two more than with the plug in. To load 5 rounds you have to first load the chamber and then load the magazine, which is kind of a pain in the nether regions due to the way the semi-auto feed system works. The grouping with a modified choke installed (the Franchi has screw in chokes, unlike the pump-action Mossberg) was pretty good at 25 yards, so it would be a good duck gun (with the plug in, of course).

I then shot about 75 rounds through the Glock and made a big hole in the middle of the paper at six yards, so I'm happy with that. I had absolutely no feed issues this time, not like during quals when I had one stovepipe on me. It may have been something to do with the ammo I purchased from the range, the ammo I had on hand did just fine.

After all was said and done and the toys were put away I said something about getting a Mosin Nagant to play with since it would be cheaper to feed than the Arisaka. As luck would have it my range buddy just so happened to have one, along with enough ammo that I should be able to pass it down to my grandkids. Russian surplus, so I'll have to get some good cleaner for the bore, but plenty of it.

So now my gun safe is multicultural; I have two Russian rifles, one Japanese rifle (the older Russian and the Japanese rifles might have either faced each other or served side by side, they are about the same age*), one American rifle and one American pump shotgun, one Italian semi-auto shotgun, and an Austrian pistol. I have rifle calibers in .22, .223, 6.5 x 50 and 7.62 x 54R so all my bases should pretty well be covered. Both shotguns are 12 gauge and the Glock is .45 so I'm pretty well equipped there, too. I'd like to get another .357 before I'm all done, maybe a 9mm and a .380, but by now I have the "needs" covered and so I'm down to "wants."

The next thing I need to do is find the proper sight adjusting tool for the Arisaka (and more ammo for it), then I will take it and the Mosin out to see how they do.

*EDIT: The Mosin and the Arisaka are not, in fact, about the same age; the Mosin is forty years younger. The Arisaka T-30 was produced in a four or five year span right around 1900 and the Mosin was made in 1943.

After Action (Preliminary) Report

The Arisaka shoots high and to the right, the Saiga has been pretty well sighted in, and I have a new (well, new to me) rifle that I have yet to put anything through. It's a Mosin Nagant purchased from the same friend that provides range time.

All told it was a pretty good day. I am presently in Roanoke VA and tomorrow we will be cruising the Blue Ridge for the day with the top down.

I hope your day was a good one as well.