Range Reports

This weekend, Jon invited me up for a gaming weekend with the extended family and a range session at Ben Avery. I decided to bring some guns out of the safe that I haven't shot much, or not at all since I've owned them. The first of which was a rusty Remington 870 pump gun that I'd converted to a home defense/riotgun by dropping the wooden furniture for composites, a sidesaddle shellholder, and the ribbed barrel for a rifle-sighted slug barrel. The slugs flew true and made Jon envious of my sighting system, but he's willing to stick to his bead sight.




Jon trooped out his ex-stepkids, Celeste (top) and Piter to practice with his brother's 9-mm carbine. They'd both dabbled in our match league's games using a Mech-Tech pistol caliber carbine, but that didn't prove robust enough to stand up to a full day of match use. Once they've mastered the carbine, I imagine they'll graduate to one of Jon's Glocks or other pistols in the IPSC game.


I also brought along my second SKS, a green Parkerized gun bedded on a green composite stock that I hadn't fired since I bought it in the early 90s. Would you believe I bought it because it resembled a toy gun I lusted after as a kid but never got? I picked it up at a Maryland gun show, but never got around to shooting it until today. I brought along several boxes of 10-year-old Serbian 7.62X39 and multiple stripper clips...after determining that I'll need to knock the front sight over quite a bit, we perforated many paper plates with the Chinese Redux.


My next bring-along was a Colt Enhanced .45 that I'd bought at the same time I'd bought the frame for what is now my Ed Cameron project gun. Damn those Maryland waiting periods...they always forced me to pick up impulse buys at the end of the waiting period! Piter quickly picked up the funky dot sight system and nailed the plates, but Celeste got lost somehow and drew a blank. Personally, I think Pete (who is bigger I am I now) is ready for the real-man pistols.



Okay, the NAA .22LR...at 10 yards, most of the shots struck low on a 50-yard slow fire NRA target...half of them "keyholing" by striking the target sideways. Hey, that's better than hollowpoints! Jon gave me five hollowpoints to keep in reserve. I know better than to aim it at a target as far as that now...it's a point-blank defense weapon.

Now, I've got to tap the SKS front sight over a tad, get Ed Cameron to replace the sights on my Colt with some Novaks, and keep my little NAA clean and loaded with hollow-points. Life is good and America's youth is carrying the torch. Boo-yah!