Why The Number of Guns I Own = Many

I recently bought a new gun for concealed carry.  I took it an my every day carry gun, a Kel-Tec P-11, over to Blucore Shooting Center for some new gun wringing out and recoil therapy.

I shot both the new gun and the P-11, going through drills as well as just doing the usual get to know your new gun routine.

About 7 magazines through the P-11 I started to get FTE's.  I tried to keep going, but it was clear that the P-11 was done for the day.  At that point I moved back over to the Taurus TCP 738.  It performed well, giving me a fair grouping at 5 yards that I am confident I can improve on with a slightly different grip.

Back at the house I started with cleaning the Taurus 738.  The slide bound up (recoil spring) and required persuasion from a rubber mallet.  Not terribly confidence inspiring.

Next was the P-11, after cleaning it and verifying the extractor was working fine I finally spotted the problem.

The ejector done broked in half.  I called Kel-Tec the next day and they are sending a new ejector gratis.  That means my EDC gun is out of commission.  With the problems with the slide on the Taurus and the fact that it's only got about 50 rounds through it, I'm very glad I've got other options.

For the last couple days I've been comfortably carrying the 1911.  Having many options is nice when want suddenly finds a way to turn into need.

Unexpected Christmas Gifts

I'd planned on going shooting with some of my family on Christmas Eve.  After an unsuccessful duck hunt I gathered up my son, my brother, and my soon to be cousin-in-law and headed to the shooting spot by the dump.  We shot the AR-15, the 15-22, and for the first time that I've owned it the Mosin Nagant.

In order to be accurate, the bayonet was affixed.  The fact that some previous shooters had left a rather large and only slightly shot SpongeBob was an unexpected early Christmas gift.  After poking several 7.62 mm holes in SB, my son was given the honor of finishing the poor sponge off.



One would think he'd been hanging out with Jay G

The Only Thing Better Than A Night At The Range

I've been out tromping around the woods all last week looking for elk.  Right before I headed to go hunting I got a package containing some 380 ammo.  This wasn't any 380 ammo however, this was free 380 ammo.  The fine folks at LuckyGunner.com were kind enough to send me a box of Magtech to run through my wife's Beretta.

Figuring asking for forgiveness is easier than asking for permission, I swiped the Beretta out of the safe and headed over to my new favorite range, BluCore Shooting Center.  While I was there I figured it was a 380 Auto type of night and rented a S&W Bodyguard 380.

I started the night with the Beretta and the free Magtech ammo.  I figured shooting a pistol I was comfortable with and using ammo someone else payed for was a great way to start off the night.

After a few mags through the Beretta it was time to switch over to the Bodyguard.  Unfortunately, I had to use range ammo through the rental gun.  Even more unfortunate was that the laser was not working on the Bodyguard, so no fun with lights.  I really didn't like the Bodyguard.  It didn't fit my hand well and was in need of a cleaning as it was having FTE's every 5th round or so.  The nice thing about BluCore's rental program is that one fee gets you as many guns as you want to shoot.  I traded the Bodyguard out for a Kahr P380.

The Kahr fit my hand much better and was much more accurate for me.  I improved from pie plate at 5 yards accuracy with the Bodyguard to silver dollar at 5 yards with the Kahr.  I've been looking at various pocket pistols and the Kahr 380 definitely moved up the list during this trip despite the higher than average price tag.

By this time my fingers and nose were getting cold due to the BluCore state of the art ventilation system bringing in outside air at a fairly rapid rate.  I decided to load up the rest of the sweet sweet free (did I mention free...thanks again LuckyGunner.com) ammo and see what my accuracy looked like at 7 yards.

Not too bad for frozen fingers.  As has always been my experience with Magtech 380, the entire box ran through the Beretta flawlessly and was far more accurate than I am.  It is a good choice at a reasonable price, with LuckyGunner.com offering it for $0.31 per round.

Policy Revision

Well that didn't take long.  The new range owners down the road got tired of hearing about their customers' dislike of their ammo policy and revised it.

Hurray for owners who listen to their customer base and respond accordingly.

How To Lose Customers Before You Open

I had been rather excited about the "new" shooting range opening literally a couple of blocks away from my house.  I had used the location rather frequently when the place was under previous ownership.  The place is now called BluCore Shooting Center and is run by some guys that had previously been offering training courses and decided to run a range instead of borrowing someone else's.

As details about their membership pricing and new lane configurations started showing up on their website, I was pretty excited about the possibilities.  Then they posted their ammo policy.  It requires purchase of range ammo for the most common rifle and pistol calibers.  I quickly became significantly less excited, as did many others.  When the owners started to spin this as anything other than a way to stay profitable, I became even further ambivalent about exchanging cash for goods and services.

I'll probably still use the place from time to time, but for now I'll still be looking around for a better local spot to shoot at.

Need One of Them There Money Trees

The indoor range a stone's throw from my house has been closed for a while now.  It has also been for sale for a while now.  I drive past this range every weekday morning and see the for sale sign.  This has not been good for my long term planning.  Every time I drive past, I see the sign and think that I ought to buy the place and run it right for a change.

The thing about this facility is that, while it is likely the nicest facility in town it has never been the best run place.  Seriously, read the reviews.  My favorite has to be this one from Yelp:

I came with a group of friends, of which, several were not caucasians.

The owner and his staff referred to my friends as "terrorists". I said I did not appreciate that and let it go. We continued small talk and then I asked how much it was going to be. He (the owner) said; "For you, It's double." 

It typically isn't great business strategy to arbitrarily harass your potential customers and then kick them out.  I never had any truly terrible experiences there, but I was never made to feel welcome.  The staff always acted like they were doing you a favor by letting you pay to shoot there.

They did refuse to allow a group of folks shoot (seven of us) because they overheard one of the group mention that it was for our NRA handgun class.  Their stance was that since they taught classes there, no one else could.  I could understand that viewpoint if they were teaching classes weekly or more often, but since they only held classes at most once a month and charged $50 more than the average going rate I didn't get how that could make business sense.

Many new shooters end up shooting again and again at the range they learned to shoot at.  Why turn away seven new, potentially repeat customers?  Most of our group of seven never went back to that range and instead still shoot at the place we ended up doing our shooting for the class at.  After that experience, I stopped taking new shooters there.  We went to the outdoor range with the similar name halfway across town.  You need a State Parks Pass to even get to it, and the RO's are huge sticklers for their numerous rules, but they actually try and make folks feel welcome.  In addition, they try to help out any way they can, especially new shooters.  I've seen the RO's help to site in a rifle, give an AR-15 lesson, and help a father and son both learn to shoot safely.

I think I could run a range like that.  The problem is that I can't figure out where I planted that dang money tree.  Well, that and I don't really know anything about running a range.

Reasons Colorado Is Cool

At my favorite sporting clay spot, they recently had their annual ATF shoot (drink Alcohol, smoke Tobacco, & shoot Firearms).  Unfortunately I was unable to attend.  But per this biased review, it looks like the fine folks from the Independence Institute put on a good party.

Barring a zombie outbreak, there's always next year.

Dominance Check

Turkey hunting this year ended without a turkey in the bag.  With the move back from New Mexico hunting time and energy were greatly reduced.  That does not mean that turkey hunting was unsuccessful.  I found a matched pair of mule deer sheds.  I also found a new sharpshooter.

After watching my son shoot the M&P 15/22 with iron sights, I decided that an upgrade to a red dot was in order.  He seemed to have difficulty maintaining alignment so I threw on a bipod as well to reduce muscle fatigue.

I mounted the red dot fairly close to the charging handle and had my son check to make sure he could see the dot easily.  At this point he mounted the gun right handed, just like his dad, and proceeded to close his right eye and lean way over the stock in order to use his left eye.  After a brief discussion and some simple tests, we discovered that he is left eye dominant.  He also happens to be ambidextrous (left handed if you ask his grandma).

We switched to a left handed grip and the impressive results are below.

Loading right handed

Shooting left handed

...but the Vanna White pose takes both hands.  In his words, he "destroyed it."

I guess now I need to start shopping for left handed rifles.

New Shooters' Smile

I mentioned in the last post that I had two new shooters at the range on Saturday.  One was my six year old son.  He has shot before, but always with me right behind him.  This time he was on his own and did a great job.  He can recite the 4 rules and understands why each is important.  Here he is behind the 15-22.

He did a great job and more importantly had a lot of fun.

The other new shooter was my friend's daughter.  She was fearless and shot everything put in front of her.  She started with the 15-22.

She then moved up to the 30-06 and shot it like a pro.  Once again, she had a lot of fun.

When we moved to the pistol range she was a little more cautious, but with a little encouragement, she picked up the 1911 and knocked down more than a few steel plates.

I've been informed by the lovely lady's father that Saturday was the highlight of her spring break.  To those of you worried about taking your daughter shooting, I would hold up my friend's daughter as shining example, and say to you, What are you waiting for?

As a side note, the adults had a good time too.  Below is visual proof.

New Toy

I had two new shooters to take to the rifle range yesterday (more on that later), but my wife forgot to bring the .22 down from Colorado.  That was the last push I needed to head to the Outdoorsman yesterday and pick up an Evil Black .22.

I picked the Smith & Wesson M&P 15-22.  The chief reasons were the size, accessory rail, and collapsible stock.  These three features make it very easy to set up for my 6 year old son to learn on, while still allowing me to configure it easily and quickly into something I can use and enjoy.

The good:  We went through over half a box of bulk Remington (which some people have had issues with in this rifle) without a hitch.  We put a ton of holes through paper.  The sights make sighting in the rifle a snap.  It was very easy to train new shooters with.  Most importantly though, everyone shot it and loved it.

The bad:  Towards the end of the day I changed ammo from bulk Remington to some CCI ammo I bought with the M&P 15-22.  I got failure to feeds and slam fires almost immediately.  I pulled the mag and unloaded the CCI ammo.  Went back to shooting the Remington stuff and everything was fine.

The ugly: The box of .22 I bought with the gun was .22 Long, not .22LR.  This is ugly for two reasons.  I didn't so much pick out the CCI ammo as said, "Throw in a box of 100 of that CCI stuff you have back there."  The folks at the gun store should have caught my mistake.  This is why I hate when they keep ammo behind the counter.  I tend to not double check what they got me like I do when I pick it out myself.  The second reason is that I didn't check.  I always check my ammo.  I check the box and the cartridge before loading up just to make sure that the ammo gremlins haven't been playing tricks again.  I didn't check and just got lucky.  That mistake could have easily led to the rifle going kaboom.

Final verdict:  The M&P 15-22 is a great little gun.  It will provide hours of entertainment and it costs very little to keep it fed.  Just make sure to feed it only .22LR and never feed it after midnight.

Gottahavitis

Last week when I went to the range I took one of my work buddies along.  My main goals for the range trip were to pattern out my shotgun (turkey season is just around the corner) and reacquaint myself with my rifle.  Both of those missions were accomplished.  What I didn't expect was to pick up a strong case of  I Want.

You see my buddy has a Model 1917 rifle with ghost ring sights.  He was kind enough to let me touch off a few rounds.  I do believe that there is very little that is more satisfying than picking up an unfamiliar rifle with open sights, bringing it to your shoulder, and hearing the ringing of steel at 100 and 200 yards.  Now I just have to figure a way to fit another new rifle into the budget.

The other unexpected was the conversation my buddy and I had while we were packing up.  He has never owned a handgun before and was asking me what the process to buy one involved.  It continues to amaze me how many people that have a passing interest in guns have no knowledge of the laws surrounding them.  Yes, you really can walk into a gun store, pick out a new handgun and in less than 30 minutes walk out the door.  Him being a Colorado resident however, he will have to drive at least 3 hours north in order to have the transaction take place.  Now I just have to plan an outing where he can shoot every handgun I own and maybe a few more to help him figure out what might suit him.  All in all, not a bad day at the range.

The Makings of a Good Evening

From bottom to top:

• Propel bullets towards steel targets at ranges of 100 and 200 yards at high velocity.  Listen for characteristic "ping" sound.
• Light up good cigar and enjoy
• Pour glass of Colorado made whiskey and sip slowly

Don't Call It a Comeback

For the first time since I've been down in New Mexico working, I made it out to the range.  After an hour of orientation and a very reasonable fee, I went down to the pistol pits and made some steel ring.

This was my first time shooting steel with anything bigger than a 22.  Below are a few observations:

•  A big, slow 45 cares less where it hits the steel.  There was only one time where I hit the steel plate and it failed to go down with the 45.
• With a smaller faster 9mm, hitting the top of the plate became essential
• Hitting steel with a Para GI Expert (full size 1911) is a lot easier than with a Kel-Tek P-11 (9mm with a 3.1" barrel)
• Hitting steel with a P-11 is a lot easier when one remembers that it has a DA trigger and adjusts accordingly
• When wearing gloves the trigger finger has to travel further forward in order for the trigger to reset

I also discovered a hidden bonus to shooting in Los Alamos.  The scenery is amazing.