Cheap Steel

TacStrike recently had an inventory reduction sale (actually it's still going!) and part of that includes some of their Flat Rate Shipping targets.  One of the downsides of steel targets is that they're heavy, and weight equals higher shipping.  TacStrike decided to work the system, and developed a set of targets that fit in a couple sizes of the USPS Flat Rate shipping boxes to make it easier to get your hands on some durable targets.  These also have a bracket on the back to hang them from a standard steel garden fence post.

I snagged a SFRT, which showed up a couple days ago.  It's a pretty substantial little guy, 8.5"x5.5", and is a good little challenge at 100 yards.  I never seem to remember that black is not the best color with how wooded the berm is at the range I tend to shoot at...

Once they got done mowing, I set up at the 100 yard line and got to work. It seemed like a good day to get back to basics, and I have been itching to try out the RRA two-stage trigger I dropped in my A2.  On a side note, this is still probably my favorite setup for good relaxed shooting.

As I mentioned, at 100 yards, the small target is a bit of a challenge, but aim small, miss small.  The little thing doesn't as much 'ring' like you'd expect from a steel target, but when you do hit it, you get a good solid 'smack.'  55gr FMJ pretty much disintegrates, with minimal dimpling, so long as you're not too close to the edge.

(I may have gotten the wrong fence post...)

You will knock out some chunks if you're on the edge though.

Like I said earlier, the .223 rounds just about completely splatter, but 9mm leaves little lead flowers.

Next time I just need to remember some cheap spray paint in an easier to see color, but other than that, these are well worth the price, and it's a great time to pick some up.

Eyepro!!

Always a good idea.  LuckyGunner's Labs did some tests to see how stuff stacks up.

Some Styrofoam may have been injured in the test. 

Well worth the read.

Muscle Memory

Winter can be a bitch.  The temptation to stay on the couch covered in furry space heaters can really put a damper on your skills.  Muscles have memory, and like most memories, sometimes they're about as effective as a sieve.

Yesterday was the first solid "Spring is... well... mostly here.  It is Wisconsin dude" day of the year, with record setting high temperatures well into the 70s.  This of course led to the motivation to put on silly looking biking clothes and break out the XC bike.  The one with the clipless pedals.

For those of you not up on your bicycle lingo, "clipless" pedals are the sort that, despite the name, have a mechanism that a cleat on your shoe clips into (the term "clipless" comes from the older style that have straps that your foot slides into, and those straps have been known as "toe-clips" for decades.  The new mechanical ones give you the same advantages (your foot's locked into the pedal) without the toe-clips, so they're "clipless.")

This winter MandaFern and I started up gym memberships at a local gym, and due to Uncle Sam's insistence, throughout the winter, we did many miles on the treadmill.  I never once swapped out the knobby on the back of my bike and put it up on the trainer, meaning I never strapped on my biking shoes and clipped in to my pedals since some point in October.

Clipless pedals have a certain amount of "float" built in to them (about 7 degrees the way I have mine set up) that you can pivot your foot left or right before they release.  This keeps your ankle from getting jacked up and stiff without constantly releasing your cleat and letting your foot come off the pedal.  Yesterday, I must have only gotten the front of my cleat in the pedal, and suddenly felt that I was lacking in this float after about a block.  Right as I started to really hammer on my pedals.  No float = very early release, which leads to my ankle bouncing off the pedal.  Much to my surprise, I don't have a giant purple bruise (sure feels like it though) but it is rather stiff.

Earlier in the day, Cro and I hit up the range (benefits of having your "weekend" in the middle of the week) and spent a good amount of time working on rifle marksmanship.  I had the Anshutz, and Cro was rocking his CZ-452, and we were mainly working on prone and sitting at 100 yards (yes, .22lr open sight, bolt action rifles at 100. It's a challenge, and a fun one.)  

Shooting prone and bike riding suffer the same issue in Wisconsin during the winter, nobody wants to do it.  Proning out in the snow on the frozen ground sucks.  Thankfully bulk 22 is cheap, and my Anshutz works "good enough" with Federal bulk packs (apparently at 100 yards it yields 4-5" groups for the crappy ones.)  It probably took the better part of 100 rounds to actually warm the muscles back up to remembering what they need to do to make a sling loop work right.  By the end I was back to cursing my heartbeat for messing with my sight picture, but there were quite a few called flyers leading up to that (not to mention how small a 600 yard reduced target looks through peeps at 100...)

Thankfully, I'm not planning on racing or going to Camp Perry this year, so I'm not behind the curve.  I'm heading to Afghanistan towards the end of the year, so I've been working on other skills this winter.  Prioritizing is pretty important too.

(To end on a good note, it was a beautiful day, and the route back from the range goes right past the cheese factory... so the grill came out, and the burgers had slices of the freshest Co-jack melted to perfection on top. Those were served up with some of the great offerings from New Glarus to wash them down.)

The Dime Club

Vuurwapen Blog reminisces about Scout Camp, and the shooting sports area, leading to a .22lr shooting challenge and ammo comparison.  I like going back to this type of shooting from time to time, simply to brush up on the basics, and I've found it helps almost all forms of shooting (I did find it severely handicapt me when going to skeet however.)

At the camp I worked at a couple years back, we have the full out NRA Marksmanship Course for the Rifle and Shotgun areas.  Turns out the medals are authorized for wear on the Scout uniform, and there's a sweet certificate to go along with them-

After a bit I was allowed to use one of the three Anschutz rifles the camp has (in this case, a beautiful vintage Match 54,) and since I had nailed my Expert rating the first year, I concentrated on the weekly staff high score.

I went undefeated for two summers straight.

That was my first "perfect" target, a score of 50.  Round number 4 nudged itself a touch up and right, but it's still breaking the ten ring.  The total size of the group from edge to edge is under .3"... that's firing 5 rounds from the prone with a sling at 50' using target peep sights (no optics.)  I shrank them down from there on a few occasions, probably averaging about .25"-.27" if I had to guess.

After my first year there, I had weapons qualification for the Army Reserve, and managed a 37/40 (those 250M targets always get me... can hit the 300 all day though.)  I also pegged a Cambell's Soup can at 100 yards with my buddy's M4gery at an informal range session with the first shot. It's tough to see a soup can at 100 yards, let alone shoot the silly thing with an unfamiliar rifle.

So if you get around my bragging, what I'm saying is a simple extended range session with your favorite .22lr, a brick of ammo, and some simple bullseye targets can do wonders for just about any shooting.  Plus it's cheap, and you can do it at just about any gun range.  There's really no excuse not to give it a try.

No More Custom Guns for Sniper Comp

Snipers from around the world will soon shoot against each other at Fort Benning, Ga., but this year they’ll have to leave their fine-tuned rifles and high-powered optics at home. For the first time in the eleven-year history of the U.S. Army International Sniper Competition, all competitors will use the same sniper rifle and optics of equal power.

The new rules are designed to “level the playing field, so it isn’t so much an equipment race,” said Capt. Daniel Wilcox, who overseas Army Sniper School at Benning as commander of C Company, 2nd Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment.

 (H/T KitUp)

Personally, I think it's a good idea, or at least worth trying for a year.

For the Lulz

Robb's first rejection letter.

MD - Art of the Precision Rifle

Full trailer has been released.




Looks pretty good.

I love the shot of the bullet trace at about the 20 second mark too... quite sweet.

Not sure on price, but it's a 5 disc set.  If you're doing any precision long range shooting it's probably going to be well worth thinking about.

Range Time

The 10/22 has apparently been claimed...

Although she could use a stock with a slightly higher comb than the factory one (any suggestions would be appreciated.  Also a sling-ready one would be nice.)  Fern has a small face and the TechSights are a little tall for her.

On the upside, she says she likes the iron sights better than the red-dot for general plinking.  I like the red-dot for first time shooters, as it's simple, but if they show more interest, then I'd rather they master irons before getting much into optics.  This'll work great with Fern, her archery background has her more interested in bullseye-style target shooting more than tactical stuff, so it suits her fine.

I fully stripped down the little Ruger before the range session as well, and noted the new finish they're using seems a bit thick on the inside of the receiver, and was actually chipping off inside.  I think this may have been part of the reliability issues I've been having with this gun.  I scrapped off as much as I could inside, and am contemplating just polishing out as much as I can in the not so distant future.  Yesterday it only had two failure-to-eject type malfs, much better than past sessions.

Fern also caught her first piece of shrapnel when I had her shoot the SigPro at the steel target... tiny bit of bullet jacket came back and smacked her in the forehead.  Thankfully it only left the tiniest of cuts, and didn't even bleed.  She immediately took her finger off the trigger and kept it pointed in a safe direction, even though the slide was locked open (last round) but decided that was enough 9mm for the day.  Eye pro is important when shooting steel!

Front Sight!

It having been a while since I did any precision iron sight work, I kept having to yell at my self (in my head) to focus on the front sight.  I think it's a sign I need to get the old 10/22 with the Tech-SIGHTS cleaned up and back out for some quality fundamentals time.

Red-dots are sweet, but it just goes to show that skills do suffer when ignored.

Little Magnetic Dudes

We all know that dry fire practice is a good thing.  One of the things you need for effective practice is an aiming point.  Not content with a thumbtack or something stuck in the wall (and sure the landlord wouldn't be a fan either,) I pulled out a pack of magnetic paper I picked up a while back and a black Sharpie, and stuck these guys one the front of my oven.

I've got a good 15 foot or so lane from the living room area carpet.  Not bad for a small apartment, and I can switch them over to the fridge door if I want to stand up and work on handguns.  Of course you can draw whatever shapes you like, and the sheets are 8"x11" and work with ink jet printers, so your target options are quite limitless.

As with all dry fire practice, safety is paramount.  Ensure your firearm is unloaded, and that all ammunition is triple locked in a box in the other side of the building, if not in another building a county away (common sense people...) and do your best to ensure you're directing your gun in as safe a direction as possible (in my building I'm going through a large appliance, utility room, and towards the next apt.'s oven... not the best, but as good as I'm going to get in my building.)

Down the road, it would be nice to add a LaserLyte training laser to the mix. In the mean time, it should help me get back in decent target form.  Cro's been mentioning hitting up some service rifle competitions when he gets back, and I just happen to have an A2 style AR rifle...

Ping!!!

Just pulled the metaphorical trigger on the Small Spring Base and Small Practical Plinger from Salute Products Inc.

The range I tend to frequent is generally in rough shape, being free and open to the public with no supervision (yeah, some scary moments over the years, but it beats the snot out of the county run alternative with downright retarded arbitrary rules...) The target stands generally don't make it more than a month on the shorter ranges, and even when they're still there, paper just gets boring after a while.

I like the easily replaceable target face, and from what I can find on the ol' interwebs, if you only use one spring they should respond to .22lr, which should make it more than fantastic for getting new shooters hooked.  The audible and visual indication of a hit always makes it more pleasurable.  (Paper still has it's place for training and technique evaluation though.)

I'm pretty excited though, hopefully it's just the thing to kick my butt back into getting to the range regularly.

New(ish) Resource

At least new to me.  Power Factor Show has a good series of videos to help you get into shooting games.

(H/T Caleb)

Conspicuous in the Coffee House

Caleb's video just made half the place turn around and look at me.  Something about the dialog at the beginning. (Thankfully I had headphones on...)

Art of the Precision Rifle

They may not have had new products at SHOT, but they're certainly not resting on their laurels.

Just posted today-



0:30 mark is just plain sweet...

Rem 700 Bolt on Bolt Handle

From Kinetic Research Group. 

The "Bolt Lift" is exactly that, a bolt on oversized bolt handle for the Remington 700 rifle that requires no modifications to the rifle.  Currently only in black, but Tan and OD likely in the future.

(H/T SSD)

Withee Appleseed Shoot

The Withee, WI Appleseed shoot has been rescheduled for October 30, 2010.  Hopefully I'll be able to make it.

First Timers

There's a bit of it going around right now, I think it got started by somebody complaining about suggesting women buy .38spc revolvers this time... (we all know my feelings on that crap...)

Anywho, I've had my fair share of first timers out at the range, and I think I've got a pretty good system down.  The pre-planning almost always involves the question "well, what do you want to shoot?(No, really, anything.  If I don't have it I probably know somebody who does.)"  The range trip referenced above for example was strongly based on that question since there were a couple new/newish shooters in the bunch.  (The answers, if you're interested, were "...something cool!" and "an AK, who doesn't like stereotypes?" (Adam is of loosely middle-east decent and has a good sense of humor about it))  Of course things always start with .22lr of some shape or form to get the basics down, plus I don't care how much .22lr people shoot up.  It's cheap enough that I'm cool donating it to the cause.

In my opinion, the most important thing with a new shooter is to make sure they have a good time.  The basics are important, because hitting your target is 3,000 times more fun than just making noise (which is still fun as hell by itself), but like with any habit, you need to hook 'em early.  Standing around lecturing and nitpicking every small detail of their technique can come later.  On the other hand, give a young dance major raised in a strongly liberal household an AK and a bunch of balloons... (ah memories...)(eta: Adam's not the dance major. She's much cuter.)

That brings up another good point, targets.  Paper's great for honing technique, but instant feedback is much more pleasurable.  Not everyone gets pleasure out of punching tiny little groups in the 10 ring, but I have yet to meet the shooter who doesn't love that "PING!" of a steel target.  Pick up a couple party packs of 100 balloons from Box-mart and you're set for some great first time targets.  Less walking too, there's no doubt if you hit it.  (Can be a nice change for us regular shooters too, put a couple small ones out at 100 and see who can pop theirs first... off hand... with 22's.  And some 8" steel at 300 with .22lr pistols is downright hilarious, especially when you hit. Pop........................................................................ping!)

And don't push your first timer either.  If they don't want to shoot the Earschplitten-Shoulderbreaker, that's fine.  Of course they very well could change their mind after you fire off a couple shots and show them it's not going to hurt them (in the BSA Climbing/COPE world we call it "Challenge by Choice.")  I'm sure we can all agree that guy who gives the 90lb girlfriend the .500mag and laughs as it bounces off her forehead should be punched, so don't be that guy.  But if they're perfectly happy popping balloons at 50 yards with the 10/22 all afternoon, just make sure you've got enough balloons.

Whatever happens, just make sure they have fun.  If you take out a first timer and they actually enjoy it, they're gonna be shooters for life, and that's why we win.

Slow Bloggin'

Just not feeling it today, had a huge stack of comics and we hit the range later in the evening.  Working third shift tonight and heading up to camp for the morning at least to do some rappelling and say hi if nothing else.

On the other hand, checked out a new (to me) range today, has all the standard "the public can't be trusted so here's a bunch of arbitrary" rules, but you can stretch out to 300 yards.  You kinda forget how far that is if you don't shoot it that often...

The Springfield did pretty darn well too.  I managed to keep most of them in the black of a "NRA 50 Meter slow-fire" target as long as I took my time.  Gonna have to get up there more often I think.

Oh, and a couple more mags went through Cro's AR, rubber chunk is still holding up...

Golf Meme

It's been making it's way around the gun blogoshpere lately, so I may as well jump in.  The Firearm Blog linked an article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and being a semi-local paper (same state at least...) I figured I'd jump on that.

It's more about the "First Shots" clinics that National Shooting Sports Foundation set up a few years ago, but in the middle of the article they do break out some numbers:

According to a study conducted by Responsive Management, 34.4 million Americans went target shooting in 2009.

For comparison, 28.6 million Americans golfed (a minimum of one round) in 2008, according to the National Golf Foundation.

 Yup, more people are target shooting than playing golf. Yet:

And unlike golf, shooting carries a negative stigma in much of mainstream America.

Oh well, little bit of work to do yet I guess.  But it looks like the program's headed in the right direction.

According to the NSSF, more than half (56% for handgun, 53% for shotgun) of the program's participants are first-time shooters.

Nationally, about 45% of attendees are female.

The leading reasons for attending the programs are to learn skills for target shooting and personal protection, tied at 68%.

Forty-three percent have subsequently purchased shooting-related equipment.

And nearly all (93% for handgun, 86% for shotgun) participants said they are likely to continue shooting.

Especially that second one, a widely noted trend I sure hope continues. (especially since a girlfriend that shoots is way up on the list of wants...)

Alternative to sleeping mat chunks and 100mph tape.

Riser Stock Pouch for the M14/M1A.  The M14's on my short list of "need but damn that's expensive" and I would have a hard time not setting it up as a SDMR.  Plus it has a mag pouch on one side, and a see-through holder on the other side for your notes.  Pretty good looking and handy design, if a little on the pricey side.