The Real Gun Guys

Range Day!

Jeffersonian and I decided to spend Memorial Day at the range today. I shot mostly handguns as the weather up at the club was foggy and damp.

First off was my Ruger 22/45. I’ve been having infrequent, but maddening malfunctions with it lately, two of which cost me at least second place in the .22lr division at the steel plate match last Saturday. What happens is, the extracted case doesn’t get out of the action before the bolt tries to strip another round from the magazine. As a result, the fresh round gets partway into the chamber before all forward movement is stopped by the empty case. It’s extracting the case fine, it’s just not ejecting it from the action. This is commonly known as “Stovepiping” and it’s maddening as hell when it happens in competition with another shooter as it means I’ve just lost. Apparently this can be caused by “Limpwristing” the gun, but I assure you I’m not.

Hmmm… Well, acting on a tip by Jeffersonian, I shot 80 rounds of a recent vintage CCI Mini-Mag on the assumption the Federal Champion bulk pack ammo wasn’t pushing the bolt back hard enough. This functioned flawlessly and with the same POI as the Federal bulk pack ammo I’d shot before. However, not 10 rounds into an older pack of CCI Mini-Mags I got another stovepipe. Jeffersonian thinks maybe it was because the ammo was older, and that may be true, but I’m not sure yet what’s going on. According to some internet searches, inadequate extractor tension and ejector problems might be to blame. I’ll work some more on it and post here if I figure it out.

Next up on the firing line was my Kahr CW9, which is my carry gun. I shot enough rounds through it to reassure myself that I could still hit a man sized object (Torso - COM) at 15 yards. I’m not going to be taking any head-shots with this gun any time soon. I also somehow managed to pinch the pinky finger on my right hand while inserting a magazine, which hurt and stung for a while. So if you have this gun, or one with a similarly short grip, please be careful!

Other than that, it performed flawlessly as long as I did my part.

A while back I got, in a private sale, a full size standard model EAA Witness in .45 ACP, and have been practicing with it as I’ve had the time and money for ammo. Speaking of which, I’ve collected, traded and been gifted with close to 500 used cases which I need to processes once I get the dies next month, so that should help on the ammo front. Even with the cost of projectiles and powder, I’m positive I’ll be able to save money with reloading my own .45 ACP.

Anyway, I drug it out to the range with me and once again proved that it’s a lot more accurate than I am. Jeffersonian’s Witness is similarly accurate, although he has the advantage of an adjustable rear sight. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m cross dominant. Meaning, I’m right handed, but my left eye is dominant. I’ve been shooting pistols for a long time now right handed, sighting in with my left eye. This means that my sight picture is different than everyone else’s and I have to adjust the weapon’s sights to compensate. Today I tried shooting my Witness with my right eye, which felt like rubbing my stomach while patting my head, and put the first three shots through the same hole, with excellent windage. I’m going to rig up something I can attach to my shooting glasses which will block out the left eyepiece so I’ll be forced to use my right eye. Here I am giving a paper target Hell with my Witness.

This should induce some PSH in the anti-rights community. I brought a new shooter up with me today, my 6 year old daughter. She also accompanied me to the Steel Plate Match last Saturday and again begged for me to take her to the range with me today. Doesn’t she look like she’s having fun?

She even got to shoot my 22/45 after a few pointers and supervision. She paid attention to everything I told her too, notice her trigger finger. I’m so proud of her!

She’s already told me she wants her own gun… $$$

Oh, here’s a tip. Kids make GREAT brass scroungers. Not only do they think it’s fun, but they’re closer to the ground and have sharper eyes. It’s like an Easter Egg Hunt for them.

Whilst scrounging for brass, I found several .45 ACP casings of varying manufacture and made my own version of a brass flower with them. It was like a mini-United Nations on the bench, minus the infighting, graft, greed and corruption. No, unlike the real UN, these international castoffs are actually useful and won’t rape your women and children, or try to disarm you. They’ll be joining my stock of .45 ACP brass shortly.

After handgun practice, I got some more VZ-24 time in with Jeffersonian. Okay, rant mode on… I HATE any target printed in Orange. For me it disappears once I get down into the sights and I can’t see where the bullseye is anymore. Even more so at 100 yards through iron sights. Jeffersonian’s VZ-24 has great sights and a fantastic trigger, but with the Orange target today at 100 yards, I had to guess where the bullseye should be on the paper. Unlike Saturday, I only managed to get 4 out of 9 shots on the bullseye. Here’s the 100 yard target.

Sucky. The thing is, I know I can do it and I have confidence in the equipment, I just couldn’t see the target. Here’s my 200 yard target from this afternoon.

You’ll notice that my windage is good, and there are four shots in the black. Toward the end I was getting fatigued and was shooting worse, so we called it a day. Jeffersonian did also, having demonstrated to his satisfaction that he could hit what he was aiming at.

In competition I could throw out my five worst shots as sighters and keep the good ones. So not too bad. Jeffersonian tells me that his VZ-24 isn’t the most accurate rifle he has and I’d agree, his Garand being superbly accurate, but it’s still not bad. I’ll have to take some pictures of the targets I shot on Saturday and post them here tomorrow so you can compare.

Well, it’s 1AM on Tuesday now and I’d better go now. Take care everybody!

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