Postal Match This Month

In light of January's events, I've just got to give this one an entry from Stephenville.

Also, keep an eye on SurplusRifleForum.com's postal match forum.

More Muzzle Flash

It's really nice to have a place where I can go shoot a bit after dark.  Since the closest neighbors are about 250 yards away on the other side of the ridge, I'm not sure how loud the shots are to them, but I set myself a 9PM cutoff on target shooting anyway.  Mom's house is about 600 yards away on the same side of the ridge, and she can hear them, but says that only the rifles are very noticeable from inside the house with the TV on.

First up is the relatively tame CorBon PowRBall factory load in the Blackhawk.
 
Then my handloads; 16gr of 2400 over a CCI Magnum primer driving a 125gr Berry's plated bullet.


And finally, the redneck flash-bang; the same handload in the Taurus 605.

My late Christmas present to myself

I put in some extra hours over the holidays, and had a bit extra on my paycheck, so I went looking for something in either a classic single action, or a good hunting handgun.  This one was both, and a fitting big brother for my carry gun, so I just had to grab it.

It almost seems odd that they both use the same ammo.  I've definitely gotten toughened up to the magnum loads from shooting the snub, though; the Blackhawk feels downright tame even with the hottest stuff I had on hand.

Shotguns and slings

Why is it so wrong to have a sling on a shotgun?  Granted, I haven't read through a Bible in a while, but I don't recall there being any prohibitions on it in there.

I can see not wanting sling swivels on some $10,000-plus Perazzi that will only be used for skeet, and carried to and from the line in its special fitted case, but for anything you're going to lug to the dove field or duck blind, why wouldn't you want to be able to sling it?

I got my wife a single-shot 20ga, and it came with sling swivels installed; they're great for carrying the gun, and reduce the chance of dropping it, (potentially plugging the barrel with mud or snow) or having an unintentional discharge due to a finger getting into the trigger guard while stumbling, etc.

My Mossberg 835 came with a magazine cap that has a post for swivel attachment, though no predrilled hole in the stock; that's fine, I can drill it easily, and someone else can have their stock unmarred by the hole.

My Norinco copy of the Ithaca 37 riot model came with Ithaca's annoying solution; predrilled holes, with an insert in the stock, both tapped in some fine, nonstandard thread.  Finding posts for these has been rather annoying, but at least they were thinking along the right lines.

I see a lot of shotguns, though, that have no built-in provision for mounting the front swivel.  To me, this is right up there with not providing a Weaver or Picatinny rail on a rifle that has no iron sights; why nickel and dime me to death to get the darn thing running right?  I'll pay an extra $10 on the cost of the gun gladly to get something necessary from the factory, but I get really annoyed at paying $150-$500, then having to buy a bunch of $10-$15 accessories just to get it properly usable.

Fun with recoil and flash

Full power .357 loads in my 2" Taurus 605.

She started it...

Emergencyemm posted a gun-related parody, so I'll throw my contribution in:

(With apologies to Frank Herbert)
I must not flinch.
Flinch is the group-killer.
Flinch is the little-jerk that brings total misses.
I will face my recoil.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will realign the front sight upon the target.
Where the recoil has gone there will be nothing.
Only x-ring hits will remain.

Maybe I should be passing this along as a challenge...hmmm...I bet Marko's busy with moving stuff...MattG's just sitting around sniffing stuff...Tam is probably still asleep...Don Gwinn (and yes, I was one of those people who didn't have to look up either of the references in his photo caption) doesn't look too busy...surely somebody out there must want to desecrate a literary work for the amusement of gun owners.