..........After all the time I spend thinking and ranting about my passion for shooting, I have decided to build a little pet page built just for it. Here you'll see my collection of stuffs and whatever tidbit I feel belongs somewhere on this page more than others.
..........In the mean time, enjoy the pictures that will surely wind up here as we spend more and more time punching paper and throwing copper at aluminum cans. If you have any questions about shooting in any way shape or form, just contact me and I'll be happy to chat with you. Very happy. I just can't get enough gun talk in a day. I read about it, talk about it, subscribe to stuff and political organizations about it, sleep with them (share your bed with the ones you love), and all sorts of groovy fun loving stuff. Oh, and I know you're asking yourself so I'll let you know this right now... I do not name them. I've never been big on anthropomorphism. Even if I do baby them every once in a while when I'm in a really groovy mood.
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The Toys!
..........I've been a fan of Ruger rimfire products for a long long time. The apex of their achievement (imho) is the Ruger 10/22. Here you will see a picture of mine with all the work I have done on it to date. For several years I kept it stock and it served me quite well. Always a joy to shoot, and inexpensive to do so, it is no wonder why people love them so much. I think everyone should have one! They should be issued at birth. Of course, that's an optimistic view, as I know perfectly well how certain people abuse good things. Still, I have loved both 10/22 rifles I have had the pleasure of owning. The first was back when I was 19 years old and I honestly can not remember what happened to it (pre-accident). It had a cheap scope, a folding stock, and a 25 round clip. TONS of fun. This one was bought after the accident when I was 20 (I think) and was modified in the past weeks. You will notice the new sporter thumbhole stock (not featured well in this pic, I know) which floats a Green Mountain 20 inch 0.920 diameter heavy bull barrel. I love that barrel. I love it lots. Inside you will find a tuned hammer kit with competition sear and an adjustable travel trigger. I'm certain that the pull on the trigger is a bit heavier than the parts were said to reduce it, but a little bit of time and energy with a file and/or wire cutters for the spring solved that. I even threw in a recoil-dampening pin just for shits and giggles. The recoil of the rifle has never been worth mentioning, but seems to be imperceivable now. The scope is a Tasco 4-16x40 with an adjustable objective. I have never been too keen on adjustable objective scopes but I picked this one up for a really good price so how could I pass it up? When I first put it on the rifle and took it to the range, it was kind of novel. I would look through the scope and adjust it until things snapped into focus. When I checked the yardage indicated, it was set at the range I was shooting to. Neat! That could be a cheap way to determine yardage and adjust for bullet drop. After using it and other scopes for a while, I've started to really value the AO. For the longest time I had a non AO scope on my SL8 and whenever I would try to aim at anything beyond 50 yards, the cross hairs were so fuzzy it was anyone's guess if I was on target. Unfortunately, the scope is by no means a Swarovski for its durability. After the ride home and back to the range the next week the scope had somehow managed to get off zero. High and to the left. A LOT. 32 clicks to be exact. Also, when shooting at 50 yards, I have to adjust the objective to 75 before the sight picture looks sharp. Hmmm... There goes the range finding aspect of the scope. My other scope (reviewed below) was also off zero so I must have hit a bump a lot harder than I thought I did and not noticed. Either that or I may have to seriously consider the possibility of a new species. Zero Goblins. These little buggers would need to have keen infiltration skills to slip into our home. They would have to be smart enough to work a door knob and turret caps. After that, all they would need is a coin to screw with my settings. I will have more definitive answers this Wednesday when I go back to the range. All griping about the mysterious floating zero aside, the gun shoots exceptionally straight. Even if it is not shooting where the scope says I am. My groups at 50 yards when shooting from a steady position went from about five or six inches to just under the size of a quarter after all upgrades and tuning. When I first got everything put together and zeroed in I nearly creamed my pants after shooting bullseyes every time I squeezed the trigger.
..........Update ?/?/? - I just got back from Gun Day and the scope is still zeroed in. I was shooting dead on at 50 yards, but oddly when shooting at 75 yards the shots were about three inches to the right. This has to be a problem with a lense shifting in either the adjustable objective or the zoom since they both had to be changed to focus on the new target. Going back to the 50 yard target was still dead on target though. Bah! I also got naughty with a pair of wire cutters and the trigger return spring. I adjusted the trigger overpull just about a quarter of a turn too so that with the clipped spring it now has half the trigger pull weight than it did before. OH MY GOD IT'S NICE! It’s smoother than a KY wang now.
..........Update 4/14/7 - These past few weeks have seen an increase in my trips to the range. I've not been able to go to the range like this in 5 years. So nice. Anyway, the scope seems to have settled down. It's now as reliable as I can hope to ask for. The gun still shoots fantastic, but not -quite- as beautifully as when I first built her. Groups have gone just over a quarter. I've also decided that until now I was cleaning all my guns wrong so the barrels were still holding on to lead and copper. Hopefully that's all gone now. I've swapped to some aggressive solvents and new rod. After about 100 patches, I'm curious to see what happens next trip. Also, for a while I thought something was going wrong with my rifle as more than once it would double fire like it was full auto. At least once per magazine a bullet wouldn't fire but if I tried to shoot it again, I could usually get it to go. I thought my firing pin was wearing down or one of a dozen other reasons. After cleaning the hell out of it and paying special attention to the extractor and bolt face, it's now 100% reliable again. Lesson learned: Clean the fuck out of your guns.
..........Heckler and Koch (pronounced like Coke) has been producing stellar products for generations and they show no signs of stopping any time soon. They do one thing well and that's make kick-ass stuff. This is guaranteed through stringent quality control and brilliant engineering. The price for such high quality is just that. Price. They're a bit pricier than most civilians can justify spending. No problem for military and law enforcement agencies who demand the best when lives are at stake. I have been a fan of their firearms ever since I first saw a PSG-1 in that movie, Sniper. Actually, it was not a true PSG-1, but that's trivia I won't go into here. I mention it just so you will realize how much spare time I have spent watching that movie and studying HK. I used to have an HK91 (civilian version of the G3) with a PSG-1 trigger group and a Swarovski scope in a claw mount. Man, I -loved- that gun. Too bad it was stolen because Stormy left the damned kitchen window unlocked. Cunt. She wasn't even sorry that I lost a four thousand dollar rifle because of it. Anyway, that's a painful memory for me and one reason why I enjoy watching Tremors 2 so much. There is this one line in it where... Damn, I'm off subject again! Anyway, the SL8 is the civilian version of the G36 with a few modifications so that our congress won't get their thongs stuck in their ass too much. They could not keep the flash hider so they gave it a sunken crown barrel, S/F trigger group, and an upper/lower assembly that was made specifically so that there was no easy way to modify it to accept the high capacity G36 magazines. Instead, we are left with the standard 10 round magazine which is a pain in the ass to load. You never know how convenient a double stacked magazine is until you can't use them anymore. Grrr... They decided to make the stock grey so that it would look less like the bad-ass rifle it is and more like a lazer tag toy so that congress wouldn't feel quite so threatened by its presence on the US market. Gee, thanks Clinton... The abundant use of space aged polymers (read- plastics) keeps the weight down to a very cozy 6.5 pounds. This makes it very comfortable to carry around since it does not wear you out as quickly as other rifles I have owned. It may only be a measly .223 (5.56x45mm NATO) but it is great fun on the 200 yard range and the recoil is almost nil. I do not know how HK does it (actually I do) but their rifles have the best recoil control of any rifle I have ever owned of a similar caliber. I can shoot this rifle all day long and not get a sore shoulder. In fact, after all the time shooting the 10/22 and getting used to almost no recoil and then using the SL8 with its soft kick, I have gotten to the point where I do not tense up before firing and rarely even blink while firing anymore. The ambidextrous cocking mechanism is a purely brilliant design and it is really neat to play with. The disassembly of the rifle is not nearly as easy as the G3/HK91 is (two allen screws as opposed to one push pin) but what it lacks in convenience it MORE than makes up for in cleanliness. I love the 10/22 because I can put three hundred rounds through it, then cleaning it would only require a couple of cleaning patches and liberal use of bore cleaner. The HK91 would always require AT LEAST 10 patches to get it cleaned up. The SL8? I clean the barrel and that is it. I would clean the rest of the internals with the same patch and it would still be a good patch when I was done. After a while I stopped wasting patches. A quick inspection after a day at the range reveals internals still shiney. I am one of the few people it seems who like the way this gun looks. I can not help it. I think it is puuurdy. Good thing the TBI called back and said that I could have it. The scope is a Techview 3-9x50. Um... It is a pretty basic scope. (more on this later) I like it for what it is. It was knocked off zero just like the Tasco was but hopefully I will have more answers as to why and how this coming Gun Day (Wednesdays).
..........Update ?/?/? - The scope is just fine. Not knocked off zero or anything. Maybe it is just crappy scope rings on the 10/22. I do not know. I have a hard time convincing myself to spend more on the scope rings than the scope itself, but who knows. I just might.
..........Update 4/14/7 - That scope sucked. The rings were the worst. Due to the full length accessory rail on the top, using a scope with a big bell meant using super high rings. At first, the only rings I could find for the Techview 50mm was some rings I found at Wal-Mart. A couple of weeks ago I was out at the range again trying once again to check zero. It was horribly off and no matter what I did, it kept getting worse until I noticed that the front ring had let go of the rail allowing the scope to flop around. Well, fuck. I ripped it off. I've just put on a BSA scope (8-32x44mm AO) that I like a loooot more. It, also, is by no means a Swarovski, but cost 1/10th the price and is easly worth every penny. To make sure she doesn't go anywhere, I put on TWO sets of Warne rings. Aluminum? Fuck that, these are steel! The scope is kind of long too so using four rings instead of just two makes more sense to me as well. I'm not the first to come to that conclusion. I see a lot of competition guys doing that too. I know why. As for the barrel, I noticed quite a bit of copper fouling in the barrel so I did a long job with the new rod and solvents. Unfortunately, the jig I bought was the wrong thread size so it stays in my bag. Somewhere. I think I've alredy managed to lose it. Hopefully the groupings are back to where I expect them to be and I can get a good zero on the new scope.
..........Ah, yes... The Heckler and Koch USP. This is my second one. Both photos are of the same pistol. My first was in 9mm with a hi-cap clip and a beamshot laser of some sort. I enjoyed that pistol quite a bit but probably only put 100 rounds through it all together. 200 tops. I just didn't have a lot of time and money to go to the range to work with it. I've been much more fortunate with this one. Even though the cost of .45 ammo is considerably higher, I believe that it is everyone's responsibility to get proficient with any pistol they carry. That reduces the danger involved in needing to use it in an emergency situation. The last thing you want to do is get sucked into a firefight and wound an innocent because you couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Studies have indicated that most firefights happen at an average range of three feet. If that were the case, then there would be almost no need for anyone to practice. With an extended arm, that would put a barrel just a few inches from your target. Almost impossible to do the wrong thing in that situation. Instead, I spend a good deal of time practicing at the range with Phil shooting at ten yards and beyond.
..........Phil is a Glock 17 user but I forgive him since he likes my USP too. That means he can't be -all- bad. He's better with my USP than I am with it. You wanna hear something really sad? I'm better with his 17 than I am with my USP. Perhaps it is just that I have gotten used to the recoil of a .45 so using a (now seemingly tiny) 9mm cartridge is much easier to control. Perhaps it has something to do with all the work that Phil has had done to his 17 to get it to feel and handle better. It sure as hell isn't trigger pull. The Glock trigger pulls ship at a 3.5 pound trigger pull and after I've cocked my USP it has something like 2.0 - 2.5 pound pull. That makes it pretty easy for me to snap off shots. Too easy if I'm not stiff enough in my grip. Once I was not been firm enough in my follow-up and fired an immediate secondary shot as a result. I've not made that same mistake twice. Even Phil has done it once but we know what he is used to firing, don't we? (grin)
..........I love this pistol because it feels really good in my hand, and that is saying a lot considering the insane length of my fingers. Just about all guns are too small to be held comfortably in my hands and I have never found one that has a trigger that sits where it should for me. Good trigger technique comes from being able to pull a trigger straight back and not pull or push it to the side while squeezing. This is a lot harder than you think. The best way to do this is to pull the trigger with the first bone in your trigger finger. Unfortunately, my fingers are so long that I have to pull with my second joint and as such I almost always shoot low and to the left unless I concentrate -really- hard on my pull. I could remedy this with some material being added to the trigger and rear grip, but that's not something I want to resort to just to improve my shooting ability. In any event, I love this gun when I shoot like I'm supposed to.
..........The .45 has never been known as a super-accurate bullet. When you see what actually flies out of the barrel, it's like trying to throw a sand bucket (you know, the little red plastic ones we took to the beach when we were kids to make sand castles?) and make it go where you want it to without tumbling and going off course. The USP has found a hexagonal groove pattern that just eats that ammo up and spit it out where you tell it to. I'm sure you'd like it too. When teaching people who are inexperienced with firearms, this is the LAST thing I let them play with. Because pistols are inherently more difficult to control, and once again I'd like to mention that .45 ammo is not the cheapest thing in the world. In order to buy enough ammo for me to have fun for an entire weekend, I would have to take out a mortgage on the house and find some poor sucker to load the clips for me after mine have started bleeding from all the wear and tear.
..........Ok, I know that it is a bad picture. Never you fear though because I promise there will be more pictures of them soon because they are still in the process of being restored. Once they get some more work done to them you can bet that I'll put the info and pics up here to show off.
..........As you can see, the left is an 8mm Mauser. On the action you can still see the stamp of CESKOSLOVENSKA ZBROJOVKA,A.S.,BRNO VZ.24 and the year 1937. The stock has been through hell, but it was given to me by Spam who does not care for guns in the slightest. For a while he kept it in his closet hidden from sight in a golf bag. I think he still has the bayonette somewhere too. I'll have to ask him about that. I've never fired this rifle. In fact neither Spam or I have ever tried to load it. He gave it to me because he doubts that it works. Something about headspacing is all he could tell me. That's all that he could remember about what he was told about it. That's easy enough to check but the last time I priced a box of 8mm ammo I nearly passed out from shock. I've never been really big into old guns so this has been pretty low on my priority list. Still, it has a nice solid feel and weight. The action is pretty darned smooth (after some time with a rag and Rem Oil) but the trigger pull is atrocious. If I did shell out the money to have a gunsmith give it the seal of approval, then that would mean I would want to shoot it. I don't think my shoulder would like me very much after that. Bolt action rifles lack any mechanical form of recoil reduction and the 8mm Mauser produces over 2000 foot pounds of recoil. (shudder)
..........Moving on, the M1 Carbine is a different story alltogether. The trigger is pretty nice feeling, it is a semi (always a plus in my book), it is -very- light and fun to carry around the house. Rhys gave me this one and says all the scarring on the rifle was caused by spilt battery acid. You can't tell from the photo but it is ugly as sin. It was missing several vital bits when it came to me but with the help of Wulf, we've been able to locate a fair priced bolt assembly, some 15 round clips, and there is a replacement stock I have my eye on. They barrel also has scarring but it appears to be in fair condition besides that. Considering a replacement barrel is $300 I am hesitant to replace it unless absolutely necessary. I'm amazed at how much these rifles are selling for online. Over a grand for examples in excellent condition. This one isn't so it takes the price down to almost nil. I've gone so far as to check on the markings and it appears that the rifle is a refit from other rifle parts and spares. It seems to have been through two refurbishing armories. Heh, it's fine by me. I don't really care about collectability. Especially for a rifle that I am itching to put hundreds of bullets though. I've never fired a .30 calibre before so this should be fun. It's basically an over glorified pistol round. If it is anywhere near as much fun as the .32-20 lever action rifle of my fathers, this should be a blast! No, that was not meant as a pun either. Anyway, I am sure I can find a plethora of military surplus .30 calibre ammo in any number of catalogs. I've seen dozens of adds for it but the Carbine was not close enough to completion that I never paid much attention to the prices. If it turns out to be rather pricey (yeah, right...) I might just have to consider adding that calibre to the my reloading tool shopping list. Oh well, I'm sure everything will come together easily enough. Did I mention how nice the trigger is on this little thing? It is certainly a lot better than the 10/22 was when I first got it. A bit stiffer perhaps, but very crisp. It embarasses me a bit that there is one small important piece that keeps the trigger assembly pinned (it is a pin after all) to the upper receiver that I managed to lose somewhere in our living room while I was cleaning it in front of my computer. If you have seen our place then you know just as well as I do that the piece is as good as lost forever. I need to order a replacement for it, but in the mean time I have resorted to jury rigging it. I took an allen-screw that I spent two hours filing to the right dimensions and then wrapped with a bit of tape to give it additional width where it needed it. It will work in the mean time until I can justify spending eight dollars for shipping and handling to order a one dollar part.
..........Update - Today Wulf came through with another small miracle and I am now the proud owner of several 15 round clips and a 30 round clip for the Carbine. They came fully loaded with some 10 year old surplus but they fired just fine. Hell, that is a drastic understatement. It fired beautifully! No wonder the war department chose this rifle for the officers to carry in the field to replace the aging 1911 pistols. We had a great time shooting it. I was able to get a very small group of about three inches in diameter from a standing position at 25 yards with the iron sights. Not bad for having just picked up the rifle, no? I was just happy that it didn't blow up on me.
..........This is my newest project. It's my unborn baby! I talked about it a little while ago in my journal. Specifically about the aquisition adventure. My plans are to build it up with an Accuracy International AICS series II stock, and a bipod. I am leaning against Harris in favor of Parker-Hale style at the moment. The Harris bi-pods I have owned in the past were really good on smaller and lighter rifles but this will end up being a pretty heavy duty rifle in more ways than one. It sports a custom Accuracy International 30 inch long fluted bull barrel that weighs more than some computers. The action is a Remington 700 with tons of custom work done by the guys at Accuracy International. The bolt has been polished so it is super smooth and locks in nice and tight. The trigger has 0 take-up and 0 over-travel. If I had to guess, I would say that the pull is somewhere around one to two pounds. Unfortunately, I do not have a trigger scale to tell for sure. If I did I would probably never stop tinkering with my 10/22 trigger return spring.
..........The AICS series II stock folds just aft of the trigger so it shaves eight or nine inches off of the overall length. This will hopefully make it short enough to actually fit in my trunk. It also has an adjustable cheek rest. This is handy as hell when dealing with scopes that have really large objective lenses that require raised scope rings. Either that or really high cheek bones like mine so you need a rest that sits really tall. The stock also has accessory rails, hand stops, enough sling clips to hang your whole wardrobe from, and most importantly it has a detachable box magazine for your ammo. If you want to see what the finished project will look like you may click here. There will be a few differences, but none that an untrained eye can distinguish since it will have to do with the receiver itself. Other differences will be that the stock will be black and folding. I want to put on a muzzle break as well, but I have not decided on a style just yet. On the subject of scopes, I have not quite settled on one just yet. I am rather intrigued by the scopes offered by Shepherd but was told by experienced long range shooters that for 1000 yard shooting like I want to do, I would really want to have a scope with tall adjustable turrets. I was advised to check out the scopes of various manufacturers and most notably by Night Force. My main requirement is the ability to take a lot of hits and not get knocked off of zero. The second requirement I have and is also a major concern for me is maximum zoom power. When shooting at obscene ranges, I need to be able to zoom in as far as possible so I can focus on smaller targets for better accuracy. There are a couple of scopes offered by them that go to 42x so that pleases me. It isn't the highest zoom I have seen but is probably the most reliable. More info as I do stuff to it.
..........Today I got the stock as you can see in the pictures. It's purdy! The Series I stock is the only one they have in production right now for the long-action rifles so that's what I got. Probably for the best too since they're so expensive. (grin) The Series II would probably be well over a grand but I got away with paying just under $750. Because I'm all the time in there hanging out with the guys I was even given a free hat, t-shirt, and a box of really nice 190GN HPBT ammo. I hope to get a scope for it soon that is worthy of perching upon such expensive greatness but first I have to pay Uncle Sam before I can be naughty with my credit cards again. (grin grin)
..........It's been a few months since I got the stock and built her up to what you see there (minus the scope since it's just for show in that pic) and I still hang out with the wonderful guys over at A.I. whenever I'm awake during the day. I mentioned that I still couldn't afford to put on a scope that would do her justice and that led to my talking about having not had a chance to shoot it yet. Actually, Zak said it but it still led to the next part where Tobias and Julian couldn't contain their expressions of "shock and awe". Probably disgust too. Julian thought that I was deprived and offered not only to let me use his very own scope and mount, but also to let me into the ORSA range (since I haven't renewed my membership yet) and give me some more of his custom loaded target rounds. JOY!!! I love those guys. After putting several rounds down to the 200 yard mark (including a dead-center head shot!) I was amazed to realize that my shoulder didn't hurt AT ALL! The last time any of us played with a .300 WM, we all started crying after only one or two shots. I went through half a box and only had a slightly scuffed elbow from where I was perching on the concrete bench. Gotta remember to wear more than a t-shirt next time. Or maybe an elbow pad. Or a bandaid.
Oh, here's some proof of what it is capable of;
Here's the bench and that's the target there in the center, 200 yards away
That's what the target looked like through the scope
That's the group and my smug mug. What an arrogant prick, no?
..........Pigeons are a menace to society. Especially around our house since we are plagued by their chronic presence. Waking to find our vehicles covered in pigeon poop became an almost daily occurance. Lucas and I soon grew tired of having to wash our cars so often and took a little trip to Wal-Mart in the middle of the night to buy a solution. The rifle on the right was what we walked away with that night. It is a Crossman Pumpmaster 760 or some such. It pumps up to something like four or five hundred FPS. That is enough to penetrate trash cans so it seemed like plenty to hunt sky rats with. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case because some big dumb monkey managed to lose a critical part of the iron sights before we even got home. This made it impossible to really do any effective shooting since we could not adjust for range or elevation. Ever. All my attempts to jurry rig a solution failed horribly so I put on a red-dot scope that was on one of my airsoft guns. While trying to sight the scope in, I became aware of how grossly inaccurate the rifle was. Either it was the ammunition we were using or the gun itself. In any case, I soon gave up trying to adjust a $250 dollar scope for use on a $40 gun. Still, the pigeon problem persisted (say that 10 times fast) and I broke down and bought the rifle shown on the left. It is a Gamo single pump 1000 fps hunting rifle for use with pellets. After trying a couple different types of pellets available at the local Wal-Mart, I found some pointed hunting pellets that were far superior to the purpose at hand than the flat headed target class pellets we had been using. The target pellets were nice and somewhat accurate and everything but they tumbled horribly by the time they got to 50 yards. Since we frequently do our sniping from well beyond that, I needed something different and that is where the pointed pellets just pleased the hell out of me. Penetration is astounding and the accuracy seems better than the match grade flat head pellets we had first. The only problem I have is that the .177 calibre weapon we are using does not have enough stopping power to immediately kill the pigeons many of the time so a follow-up shot while it is on the ground is frequently necessary to stop their pain. As such, I have recently been thinking I should have opted for the larger .22 calibre pellet gun. If the local constabulatory gives us the green light, I would gladly use my 10/22 to do the job. Vastly more accurate than the $170 pellet gun and with more than enough stopping power, it would seem the perfect choice. The only concern is that even a 10/22 is loud enough to get annoying if fired enough. I have experiemented with two types of subsonic ammunition and come to determine that the SSS (Sniper Sub Sonic) ammunition is neither sniper grade, nor sub-sonic. The sharp KRAK of the shot is almost no quieter than traditional .22LR ammo from what I can tell with a naked ear. Keep in mind that this is the same ear that demanded I spend six thousand dollars on my car stereo before I was happy with the quality of sound reproduction. The accuracy was just horrible. At 50 yards the SSS ammo was shooting a group of about six inches. I switched to normal ammunition and the group shrank to less than one inch. Bah! What a waste of $5. At least the pellet gun is really nice and quiet. The ease in which I could build a silencer for it is laughable, but that would be illegal and the legality of shooting pigeons is already dubious as it is. I suppose I should look into that some time. I know that a couple of places I have lived in has been a bird sanctuary but I doubt if a small town like Oz here has any such legal opinion on the matter. The only times any of us have ever had to talk to them were when I was walking to the store and got pulled over for having green hair, and when patrick was pulled over for walking across the street to look at a toilet while intoxicated. Oh yeah, and when Lucas ran a stop sign, but you know how that goes.
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