Shooting the S**t

 Got an invitation from a neighbor to try out his new .44 lever action and reloads, as well as his father's Winchester Model 94 that he'd found when his father passed, and just got around to loading up cast rounds for.

Shooting other people's guns? Hell yes, I'm up for that.

Of course, courtesy demands I bring toys to share, so an AR and S&W Highway Patrolman went into the truck for the trip to the family acreage. Shooting is informal compared to my local range. The backstop is the far bank of the creek, 150 yards from the well pump house, which also serves as the shooting rest. Which leads to less than ideal sighting in with a new never-rifle using an 8-inch shoot-n-see target on a piece of 2x2 cardboard with a couple hundred bullet holes in it.

So what does one do when tired of shooting a small target with poor feedback? Horse shit. Stands out great against yellow and green grass, misses are easily seen by the chunks of dirt flying in the air, and hits are, well, very easily seen as the material flies better than the dirt does. Revolvers at 100+ yards keep it interesting.But there are things more engaging blasting horse apples at long distances. Like having a copperhead pop up while crossing the creek recovering targets at the end of the day.

 Two men emptying revolvers into water a couple feet away, without prior planning or coordination, is very interesting indeed.

Let's Try This Again

Having unjacked my reproduction Enfield Model 1853, I think I'll see if I can manage to run some rounds through it tomorrow. 60 grains of Pyrodex seemed to drive a .57 caliber round ball nicely for the whole series of three shots I had last time, although they were striking to the right of center. I've just lubed up 15 Minie-style bullets with a mix of paraffin and vegetable oil that has worked well for me in a Remington Rolling Block in .43 Spanish; I'm thinking it'll be interesting to see what I can get for five-shot groups at fifty yards with both types of bullets. If I can get some decent groups, I have up to 300 yards of range available to really see what I can do with the rifle.

With luck I won't freeze out at the range tomorrow.

Redneck Gun Repair

or How To Replace A Hakim Ejector Spring On The Cheap.

First, let me note that it's possible to shoot over 50 rounds of surplus 8 mm and have all of them extract without the spring. I'm a little surprised by this, but having unintentionally done it, it's possible.

Seen clockwise above, the breech cover, bolt carrier, bolt, extractor, and safety housing. My first clue something was off occurred when disassembling the rifle for cleaning, and the extractor just fell onto the table.

Looking at this, my first thought was to wonder where I could buy a small piece of leaf spring material. Then, how to grind/cut/shape it for a good fit. That's when it occurred to me that I have a pile of leaf spring material sitting around:

The easily acquired, cheap stripper clip. In this case, from 5.56 rounds. These were sitting in the corner of the basement for the last 10+ years, but the rust scrubs off with a little steel wool and oil. A brief touch with a cutting wheel, or an appropriate handsaw, and a small length of leaf spring is available.


The piece above needed a little grinding along the long edge to adjust the width, and another cut to remove the retention curve at the tip.

Below, the finely-milled slots for receiving the spring can be seen at the base of the extractor recess.



With a bit of gentle pressure, the new spring can be slid into the milled recesses:


Next, gently prying upwards on the spring allows the extractor to be started into its recess:



A bit more gentle pressure, and the extractor will snap into place:


Total time to make, less then ten minutes, and a hell of a lot cheaper than buy the original parts via online auctions.

Old Rifles

With an "obsolete wooden stock rifle match" (we'll get into the concept of "obsolete" down the road) coming up this past Saturday, I thought I'd get into the spirit of the match (as I perceived it) and get old school. As in a Czech 98/22 formerly in Turkish service. This particular model is chambered in 7.9 x 57 mm Mauser. For its age, and who was using it, it's in reasonably good condition. The bore is darker than I'd like, but with strong rifling and what appears to be a muzzle in good condition. Unfortunately, using 154 grain Romanian military surplus ammunition off of a bench rest, I was getting "groups" of around two feet. No keyholing, just really, really bad accuracy. I've a feeling the muzzle is more worn than I'd thought. I'll probably end up running some Yugoslavian 198 grain rounds through it to see what happens, but when groups are that big, I think it's more than simply ammo preferences.

Down Time

Working hours here aren't much like those in the states. There's no labor law awarding overtime or comp time when the work week exceeds 40 hours, and if someone in the military is working only 40 hours a week here.........they're not really working. Regardless, there is down or free time here and there, which people take advantage of in different ways. Gym rats head to the workout tent, gamers to their consoles, caffeine addicts find a Green Bean or gather around a coffee pot to try their latest variation received from home, and the cigar afficianados gather in dark and secretive lairs to avoid the glares of the health nuts. Or, some people shop at the two "bazaars" on post:

But for a lack of money and an excess of regulations..........

Souvenir!

A Martini-Henry carbine made by the Braendlin Company of Birmingham, England. This was found in a shop on Camp Phoenix in Kabul shortly after arriving in Afghanistan. These shops are full of Pakistani copies, most of which an experienced vintage collector will recognize out of hand simply by the quality of fit and finish on the part. Heavy grinder marks on all the metal tends to be one of the signature tells. There are some pieces that are very well done though, and require a shopper to know not only the proper markings, but the correct locations, sizes, and orientation of those marks. One of first clues this was a truly vintage rifle is fit and finish: the wood, although well-used, has excellent fit to the metal; another is the lack of grind marks, and the fine atttention to detail of the metal to metal fit between the stock and barrel near the muzzle. Another is the crossed pennants on top of the hexagonal rearmost portion of the barrel. Braendlins are worth less than rifles made by the Royal Armouries, and this commercial or "trade" marking adds no value to the piece as a counterfeit. As an aside, it's evident this piece apparently and an ejection issue at one time, as someone has seen fit to seriously beat the feed ramp portion of the breech block. Local merchants being what they are, there has been an attempt to present this rifle as something it isn't. Forged markings are seen to the left of the pennants, and on the left forward portion of the receiver, along with original correct manufacturer markings seen on the round portion of the barrel, as seen in the two images above. And on the opposite side, a very large set of forged markings, designed to get the novice collector or souvenir collector to part with his cash. And a definitive stamp; the manufacturer's trade stamp on the left receiver of the rifle. A very small, fine font with excellent linear character placement, which is difficult for the local gunmakers to duplicate. Again, this stamp actually lessens the value relative to a true military carbine, so this is also little incentive to duplicate it. Additionally, I have not been able to find any sources which note that British government accepted arms had this manufacturer's mark on the receiver in addition to governmental markings. Now, if the ATF would be so kind as to approve my import papers the military customs folks want before I can ship it home........

This Should Be Interesting

A Martini-Henry carbine I picked up in the bazaar at Camp Phoenix a couple months ago. This one was made by the Braendlin Armoury Co. in Birmingham, England. It's what appears to be called a "trade gun", in that it's not military issue, but available to volunteer units, or individuals who wished to purchase their own carbine in military furniture. Although at one time or another, one of the local vendors went to town with the faked stamps all over the metal. Which I'll post further pictures of in the near future.

But for the interesting part: Until 2009, antiques like this were simply allowed to be inspected by a US military customs unit, then allowed to be mailed if OK'd by them. Which, unfortunately, was apparently severely abused. Leading to the regional military command to restrict all antiques which fired center-fire and rimfire cartridges.

Except.

IF one gets a BATFE Form 6 (part II, for military personnel) approved, THEN one may send home the previously mentioned systems.

So. The form is filled, and I'll be getting some express envelopes at the post office hut next door tomorrow morning. I'm told it takes 4-6 to get the form back with a yea or nay. Let's see what happens.

Colt New Army & Navy Revolver

One of the things I've been doing while home on leave is cataloging my gun collection. One of the older pieces I have is this this Colt New Army & Navy Revolver. These have a rich, although not particularly successful history.

This revolver had a counter-clockwise rotating cylinder, opened for loading and ejection by pulling back on the release mounted on the left side of the frame behind the recoil shield. Rounds or empties were extracted by pushing the ejector rod to activate a star extractor. Reloading was accomplished by the method common to most modern revolvers. Sights, as seen above, were a basic rounded front blade and notched topstrap. Sources I've read note thant the finish on all military revolvers was blue, with civilian guns having a nickeled finish as an option.

The revolver became known as the New Army and Navy after acceptance by the Army in 1892. User feedback resulted in a series of improvements over the years. Although apparently revolvers intended for the civilian market retained the name through the refinements, the military continually updated the designations resulting in the Models 1892, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1901, 1903, and the Model 1905 Marine Corps revolver.

In the case of my pistol, it's evident that the cylinder was blued. I strongly suspect someone decided spend several hours with a polishing wheel on the rest of the revolver, rather than being a nickel finish. If so, the value on this gun is severely diminished, as well as the very worn condition of the cylinder. This leads me to consider possible re-bluing this gun. I normally stay away from refinishing guns, as I tend to look at things from a collecting point of view, rather than a utility or attractiveness perspective. But in this case, if the value is truly minimal, this piece may be best refinished, and placed in a shadow box on the wall. To me, it essentially comes down to what would be the most correct finish; if it's been "unofficially" altered by a someone with a power tool fetish, why not take it back to facsimile of it's original appearance. If it's simply had the cylinder swapped out at some point, it'll probably go up on the wall as is.

Thoughts?

Old Friend, New Clothes

Had a soldier come into our quarters at NTC with something that definitely wasn't an M4 from a distance, and had to go look at it. I was suprised to see this current version of the M14, tricked out like a mall ninja's wet dream. The big difference being that these add-ons will see use somewhere besides the range. A fair number of the 11Bs were given these fine rifles based upon their qualification scores during the last range qual. These troops are now squad designated marksmen, something I both envy and approve of. Envy, because properly set up this rifle will take out a hostile far beyond the effective range of the M4 gopher gun most of us are saddled with. Approve, because at least someone has something with both range and individual accuracy you can't get with an M240B machine gun. This is the man and gun you go to when Akbar the part-time sniper pops of rounds from his Enfield or Mosin while nicely ensconced in his ROE off-limits compound full of women and kids. Lucky dog.

Odd, But Not Ugly

I was watching some of the younger troops playing a video game last night, and noticed the main character running around with something like the image above. It reminds me of the older FN-FALs when they first came out. There's something about walnut that adds elegance to any firearm, no matter how utilitarian it started out. This particular set of furniture runs about $240, which is low enough to start me considering upgrading my rifle at home.

For Today's Relaxation...........

disassembled, tweaked, and reassembled a troublesome ceiling fan, which burned up the morning;

Sanded down the dried joint compound applied to the entry way ceiling, one 2 x 2 foot section at a time perched on a rather old, creaky wooden ladder;

Picked up stuff for more projects out at the local Menards;

Detail cleaned someone else's rifle that was shot well over a year ago and never cleaned.

I remember a time in my 20's when Saturday was the time I'd go out to the range for four or five hours for some leisurely shooting, then some beers out in the backyard while cleaning whatever number of rifles and pistols I'd dirtied that day*. What the hell happened to me?

* Yep, I enjoyed beer while cleaning guns. It's not my problem if some someone else is too thick to completely unload and clear at the range, and then again at home, before breaking down their weapon and popping a bottle. And ammo and cleaning doesn't mix, EVER. Ditto cleaning guns with someone else cleaning theirs; that's asking for trouble all by itself. But then again, I like cigars and riding motorcycles without a helmet in nice weather, so I'm obviously a knuckle-draggin' yahoo with no common sense anyway.

'

Range Time

A "flex" day off, the homework is done, and it's in the 70s. Time to burn some powder, even if the wind is blowing my full-size pickup across the center lane every time I let up on the wheel.

Today's choice is once again the AR-15, and the Beretta 92F. Never hurts to go with what you know, and might have to use in the future. My AR is a Century C-15 mixmaster. I've read some truly horrible things about the quality of these, but it was literally one of the last ones Century had in stock during the great Obama Scare of '08. As far as I can tell, other than the new Century lower, the rest is lightly used, with the sole flaw I've found being a notch where the dust cover pin latches, making it overly easy for the dust cover to pop open. Making a slightly longer catch pin will take care of that. And what it's fed:

Yes, the nearly universally reviled Brown Bear brand. At the time of purchase, this was literally all that was available. Reading (once again) Internet reviews of the brand, I was expecting jams, extraction failures, and poor accuracy. I have had a failure to feed. Once. Today, after over 300 rounds without cleaning the rifle. Accuracy? All my shooting has been with paper silhouettes simulating the military pop-up targets, so it's been hits that count, rather than MOA; at 200 yards, unsupported prone, I've been able to put 40/40 on target. With sandbags and younger eyes, I think I'd get some reasonable groups. Come warmer weather, I'll try some bullseye shooting to see what I can get. Compared to reloadable brass-cased new production at sixty or more cents per round, I can live with a slightly lower level of accuracy, especially with torso-size targets.

A Little Slice of Heaven

This weekend:

Will be my first days off after six continuous weeks of work and Guard;

Will have the spring gunshow put on by the local gun club in the local Guard armory;

Will see some extended family on The Wife's side coming to town, resulting in a visit to the local provider of steak and beer;

Will probably result in another blast of sleet and snow after two days of acceptable (above 39 degrees and dry) riding weather if the local weather-guesser is correct.

I'll take three out four.......

Out of curiosity: Iowa has a long history of gunshows being held in armories. I've always taken this as the norm, but looking at some states' view of private gun ownership, I wonder if that is correct. Anyone have any experience with that from other states?

Mosins N' Carhartts

Actually made it out to the range for the first time in months, which is way too long. And instead of being 28 degrees, it was a balmy 42, with a 10mph wind out of the very flat, unobstructed west. Anticipating this, I decided to take my snowblowing gear, which is a set of lined Carhartt bibs and jacket.

Getting to the range, I was a little suprised there was anyone else there, but there was one pistol shooter with his very supportive wife/girlfriend/something, who looked decidedly cold. Shortly after this, another two pistol shooters showed up, one of them shooting in jeans and a t-shirt. I love shooting, but not enough to freeze my ass off for a fifty round plinking session. Then again, he was probably wondering why some guy was shooting an antique dressed like a construction worker in January. Hey, at least I was comfortable, even lying on the ground for an hour of prone unsupported at 200 yards.

Some realizations from this session:

I can shoot my Model 1891 Mosin made in 1916 more accurately at 200 yards than I can shoot my AR, which also went along today;

With the right weather and a good tin roof overhead, the 7.62 x 54R makes a beautiful rolling boom that really stands out on the range;

My AR fires Brown Bear 62 grain softpoints without a hiccup;

Two years of no shooting past 50 yards takes a noticeable toll on my skills;

Carhartts are a great product;

I may start doing some winter shooting if I can be as comfortable as I was today.

The

300 rounds of 7.62x51 picked up from the delivery office today, which made me pretty happy. Not making me so happy was riding in the unexpected and cold downpour without rain gear (nice planning on my part) and finding my glasses mangled in my jacket pocket from apparently smashing them against the pick-up counter when I signed for the package.

But as I dried out, and un-mangled my frames, I figure I've come out ahead. Might have to break out some of the Israeli Mausers in 7.62 in the near future....

We Wants It, We Do

Having a little time at lunch during drill yesterday, I slipped off to check one of my favorite mil-surp haunts for the last twenty-three years. Where I finally found bricks of standard velocity .22 rimfire, currently unavailable in my home town. When I informed the clerk I would like three, he assumed I meant boxes, and was surprised when I told him I meant bricks. Apparently they do things on a small scale here these days.

But more exciting, and disappointing at the same time, was finally running across an Uberti reproduction Schofield at another local shop. Although this one primarily markets outdoor products marketed to the local granola munchers, the profits support the real interest of the owners: the shooting section. This tends strongly towards shotguns, being in the Midwest, and plastic/stainless pistols, modern tastes being what they are, but I still occasionally find something of interest. I've lusted after the repro Schofields since the first time I saw one in American Rifleman, and would damn near rob a convenience store to get money for a copy of the Russian Model in the correct caliber. Although this one was a different variant, it was still a beautiful copy in blued steel and warm wooden grips well worth having. But an $840.00 out the door, it's still to steep for me. Perhaps next May when the taxes come back, if Dear Leader is feeling generous, I'll have some tax returns to apply towards it.

Stimulating The Economy

Gun show tomorrow at the local fairgrounds. I shall be doing my part to keep America out of the soup kitchens by by stimulating the primer and powder industry.

If I look hard enough and long enough, I will find primers, I will find powder, and I will find enough 7.62 NATO for my stocks to make hippies and socialists pee themselves.

Because as President O says, "If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress."

Thanks for the advice, BO!

In The Oddest Places

As I'm clearing away paperwork in my barracks room, I have the TV on. All programming is through the post television station. On one of the four English-language channels, World's Most Dangerous Places or something of that nature is on. Today, it's the host wandering about the Democratic Republic of Congo. Some of the things that drew my attention away from my paperwork:

This line from the host as he goes with some park rangers looking for mountain gorillas:

The first sign- a fresh turd.

Truly, something I have never heard on TV before. And delivered with complete earnestness.

Second, and more interesting to me, was watching the park rangers assemble. A short platoon of men, armed with M1 carbines. In what appeared to be very good condition. How long must those rifles have been sitting in Africa?

And Now For Something Completely Different....

I'm speechless.

We're #1!

As is right and proper.

Yay for us.