I spent about 30 minutes making sign board templates from my M&P 2.0 and maybe another 30 minutes on my hot wire cutter. It was a fun and simple project.
Showing posts with label Guns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guns. Show all posts
Saturday, July 27, 2019
New Foam Project
Friday I picked up a Apache hard case from HF, they had a 25% off sale going.
I spent about 30 minutes making sign board templates from my M&P 2.0 and maybe another 30 minutes on my hot wire cutter. It was a fun and simple project.
I spent about 30 minutes making sign board templates from my M&P 2.0 and maybe another 30 minutes on my hot wire cutter. It was a fun and simple project.
Sunday, March 10, 2019
Green Laser
I found this little gem online, it was $19.99 and probably pure junk, but I planned to have some fun with it.
It came in very impressive packaging, a foam lined box with a magnetic closure.
It came with two mounts and two tail caps, one is push button the other is a pressure switch. I would have paid $20 for the mounts alone.
I mounted it on my AR-15 and sighting it in was easy, white plate at 100 yards and line up the dot with the scope. The dot was easily visible at 100 yards in daylight and once I had it sighted in it was fairly easy to hit a 4" plate from a hip shot, once you spent 20 seconds trying to figure out where the dot was and move it slow enough you didn't lose it again.
Unfortunately it didn't care much for the recoil of the gun and after 5-6 shots it moved. I had guessed as much so I plan to move it to my 10/22 and see if it will hold up on it. If it dosen't like that it will become a desk toy until I can think of something else to do with it.
It does make me want to buy a real one.
It came in very impressive packaging, a foam lined box with a magnetic closure.
It came with two mounts and two tail caps, one is push button the other is a pressure switch. I would have paid $20 for the mounts alone.
I mounted it on my AR-15 and sighting it in was easy, white plate at 100 yards and line up the dot with the scope. The dot was easily visible at 100 yards in daylight and once I had it sighted in it was fairly easy to hit a 4" plate from a hip shot, once you spent 20 seconds trying to figure out where the dot was and move it slow enough you didn't lose it again.
Unfortunately it didn't care much for the recoil of the gun and after 5-6 shots it moved. I had guessed as much so I plan to move it to my 10/22 and see if it will hold up on it. If it dosen't like that it will become a desk toy until I can think of something else to do with it.
It does make me want to buy a real one.
Saturday, February 16, 2019
Christmas Present
Normally Tania and I don't do much for each other for Christmas. Generally we buy what we want throughout the year that makes it the "how do you buy something for the person that has everything". This year I came up with the idea of each of us putting items on our Amazon wish lists and then we could go through the others list and pick what to get them.
Tania only had selected one of those fancy new pressure cookers so the choice for me was simple. I had like 10 different things picked, from those Tania bought me a Vortex Venom red dot. She even figured out the correct mount for it.
It was very easy to install and the past few weeks I have spent about three hours trying muscle memory exercises to allow for quick and easy sighting. It does take some getting used to along with resisting the urge to move your head to find the dot.
The thing I haven't yet decided is how I will sight it in. I don't have or have access to a sled that will hold a pistol, but since it does have a bottom rail and I have access to a good shooting table I might try this:
At least I think it will steady it for one axis, Ill find out.
I also picked up a trigger scale this week, I want to do a trigger job on my 10/22 and need a way to measure any changes. I'm less worried about the accuracy of the scale an more that it gives me a starting point to finish point.
Hopefully will have an early spring and I can go do some shooting soon.
Tania only had selected one of those fancy new pressure cookers so the choice for me was simple. I had like 10 different things picked, from those Tania bought me a Vortex Venom red dot. She even figured out the correct mount for it.
It was very easy to install and the past few weeks I have spent about three hours trying muscle memory exercises to allow for quick and easy sighting. It does take some getting used to along with resisting the urge to move your head to find the dot.
The thing I haven't yet decided is how I will sight it in. I don't have or have access to a sled that will hold a pistol, but since it does have a bottom rail and I have access to a good shooting table I might try this:
At least I think it will steady it for one axis, Ill find out.
I also picked up a trigger scale this week, I want to do a trigger job on my 10/22 and need a way to measure any changes. I'm less worried about the accuracy of the scale an more that it gives me a starting point to finish point.
Hopefully will have an early spring and I can go do some shooting soon.
Monday, August 13, 2018
M&P 2.0
Ive been researching pistols for over a year now and I finally made up my mind to buy one. I initially wanted a 1911 .45, the limited capacity and the cost of the brands I was looking at made a big part of my decision to go a different direction. I started looking at full sized 9mm's and narrowed it down to the Glock 19, H&K VP9 and S&W 2.0. The 2.0 felt the best in my hand and its cost made it the clear winner for me. I was able to shoot both it and the Glock before I made my decision. I would have liked to shoot the H&K but in the end it didn't feel as good and was substantially more expensive.
Tonight after work I stopped at my buddies house and was able to shoot 300 rounds through it, I am really happy with my choice. I noticed that I was shooting high and left, basically twisting the gun while I fired. I changed the back strap to a narrower one and it helped bring it back to center. The fatter back strap felt better but made how I squeezed the trigger different.
Tonight after work I stopped at my buddies house and was able to shoot 300 rounds through it, I am really happy with my choice. I noticed that I was shooting high and left, basically twisting the gun while I fired. I changed the back strap to a narrower one and it helped bring it back to center. The fatter back strap felt better but made how I squeezed the trigger different.
Monday, August 6, 2018
Range Fun - Update
I spoke to my boss today about the AR-15 I sighted in for him yesterday, and through that conversation the mystery was solved as to why the windage was full right. The scope is a UTG Bugbuster and it has a lighted reticle for which he believed there was a spare battery. Instead of screwing off the cover on the left side of the scope he turned the windage knob full CCW on the right side of the scope.
At least I know now why it was so far off.
At least I know now why it was so far off.
Sunday, August 5, 2018
Range Fun
The last two weekends were taken up by working on the range, this weekend we get to use it.
My boss just finished building an AR-15 for his son and asked me to sight it in for him. I started off and 50 yards and after 3 shots I couldn't even see where it was hitting. I moved up to 25 with the same result and then about 15 yards and still couldn't tell. We grabbed some clean cardboard and at 10 yards I could see the shots were three feet off center to the right.When I went to put windage to the left into the scope I checked and it was maxed to the right, I'm not sure why. With it fairly close at 50 yards we moved out to 100 and I was able to make three shots that overlapped each other on the 4" plate.
Here is my buddy's range from 100 yards, the white tent is where we shoot from 50.
This is standing in front of the trap looking back the opposite direction.
This is the same shot zoomed in, the shooting bench is just to the left of his pickup.
I was also testing a shell bag I bought last week for $10.00. It attaches to the gun with a velcro strap and has a zipper at the bottom of the bag to empty it. It works great and takes the pain out of collecting shells, with it on the gun you hardly even notice its there. I wish I had known about these a long time ago.
Next my buddy got out his Barrett .338 Lapua Magnum. He had never shot his AR500 with it and even though the guy he bought it from guaranteed it would handle the gun at 100 yards there was still some doubt. Here is a short video of him hitting dead center on the 10" plate.
The next victim for the Barrett was a 5lb fire extinguisher I have had in my garage for 7 years. It had dropped below minimum charge and because it has a plastic head no one would recharge it.
After that I shot the Barrett at some mild steel pistol targets we had hung next to the AR500. The targets were the type that flipped up and you would shoot one to reset them. The problem with them is it took a 45 to reliably flip them so we never shot them much .
As you can see the Barrett went through the one I shot rather easily, that was a hollow point round not even armor piercing or anything fancy.
We shot about 400 rounds of .22 the rest of the afternoon, all in all a very vun day.
My boss just finished building an AR-15 for his son and asked me to sight it in for him. I started off and 50 yards and after 3 shots I couldn't even see where it was hitting. I moved up to 25 with the same result and then about 15 yards and still couldn't tell. We grabbed some clean cardboard and at 10 yards I could see the shots were three feet off center to the right.When I went to put windage to the left into the scope I checked and it was maxed to the right, I'm not sure why. With it fairly close at 50 yards we moved out to 100 and I was able to make three shots that overlapped each other on the 4" plate.
Here is my buddy's range from 100 yards, the white tent is where we shoot from 50.
This is standing in front of the trap looking back the opposite direction.
This is the same shot zoomed in, the shooting bench is just to the left of his pickup.
I was also testing a shell bag I bought last week for $10.00. It attaches to the gun with a velcro strap and has a zipper at the bottom of the bag to empty it. It works great and takes the pain out of collecting shells, with it on the gun you hardly even notice its there. I wish I had known about these a long time ago.
Next my buddy got out his Barrett .338 Lapua Magnum. He had never shot his AR500 with it and even though the guy he bought it from guaranteed it would handle the gun at 100 yards there was still some doubt. Here is a short video of him hitting dead center on the 10" plate.
The next victim for the Barrett was a 5lb fire extinguisher I have had in my garage for 7 years. It had dropped below minimum charge and because it has a plastic head no one would recharge it.
After that I shot the Barrett at some mild steel pistol targets we had hung next to the AR500. The targets were the type that flipped up and you would shoot one to reset them. The problem with them is it took a 45 to reliably flip them so we never shot them much .
As you can see the Barrett went through the one I shot rather easily, that was a hollow point round not even armor piercing or anything fancy.
We shot about 400 rounds of .22 the rest of the afternoon, all in all a very vun day.
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Range Repair
The weekend after the 4th my buddy called asking if I could help him do some repairs to his shooting range. I shoot there quite often with him so I don't mind at all helping him with any maintenance on it.
He had family over for the 4th and noticed sand coming out from around the main wall. The wall we shoot into is one wall of a 8' x 8' sand trap. Its really overkill for anything we would be shooting and typical of my buddy.
This shows about two years of use and after looking things over has been falling apart for at least six months. Normally this would be a solid wall of rail road ties with some old interior doors screwed over them. The doors make it easy to staple targets in place but they also tend to hide the damage to the ties.
After we started removing the ties we noticed that the sand was also moving out around one of the sides. There have been a lot of recent heavy rains and the lag screws holding the ties to the 4x4 pulled through the ties. We had to bring in my buddies toy to dig the sand out and then dig out the corner by hand so we could push the ties back into place.
Here you can see the area we had to dig out to get the lower ties on the right side back into place.
This weekend we finished up by putting the lower ties back in place. We cut one in half and placed each half on end on each side to hold the lower ties in place. I talked my buddy into leaving out the upper ties. The sand sloping across is still over a food deep at its thinnest spot at the top. Behind that there is a railroad tie, 75 yards of heavily wooded forest and a 30ft berm, I think it is more than safe.
I bought a rail road tie from Lowes to place over the top since the upper tie is now gone we had nothing to hang the AR500 plates from. Unfortunately Lowes 8' ties are apparently only 7.5' so we had to add some 4x4s to hold it in place.
I think this setup will work much better and last a lot longer, the only consumable with this is the doors and I think he has about 12 more of them. To this point we have gone through three of them in two years. The 22's and .223/5.56 don't do much damage to them, not like the rail road ties that splinter and break up.
He had family over for the 4th and noticed sand coming out from around the main wall. The wall we shoot into is one wall of a 8' x 8' sand trap. Its really overkill for anything we would be shooting and typical of my buddy.
This shows about two years of use and after looking things over has been falling apart for at least six months. Normally this would be a solid wall of rail road ties with some old interior doors screwed over them. The doors make it easy to staple targets in place but they also tend to hide the damage to the ties.
After we started removing the ties we noticed that the sand was also moving out around one of the sides. There have been a lot of recent heavy rains and the lag screws holding the ties to the 4x4 pulled through the ties. We had to bring in my buddies toy to dig the sand out and then dig out the corner by hand so we could push the ties back into place.
Here you can see the area we had to dig out to get the lower ties on the right side back into place.
This weekend we finished up by putting the lower ties back in place. We cut one in half and placed each half on end on each side to hold the lower ties in place. I talked my buddy into leaving out the upper ties. The sand sloping across is still over a food deep at its thinnest spot at the top. Behind that there is a railroad tie, 75 yards of heavily wooded forest and a 30ft berm, I think it is more than safe.
I bought a rail road tie from Lowes to place over the top since the upper tie is now gone we had nothing to hang the AR500 plates from. Unfortunately Lowes 8' ties are apparently only 7.5' so we had to add some 4x4s to hold it in place.
I think this setup will work much better and last a lot longer, the only consumable with this is the doors and I think he has about 12 more of them. To this point we have gone through three of them in two years. The 22's and .223/5.56 don't do much damage to them, not like the rail road ties that splinter and break up.
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Hot Wire Foam Cutter
Over the last few weeks I started looking at different soft cases available for my AR15. The particular cases I was looking at were in the $50-$80 dollar range when I came across the Plano All Weather Rifle Hard Case for $62.00.
Plano claims their All Weather cases "create watertight and airtight shields that protect your guns even in the most extreme conditions" and "are designed to withstand the continuous bumping and jarring of airline travel". I found a lot of positive reviews on it so I went ahead and ordered one.
The main layer of foam in the case consists of approximately 2.5" of "pick and pluck foam" which consists of partially cut 1" squares. Once you have traced an outline on the foam you pluck what is not needed. It makes it easy to make a cutout for the gun but it gives it an unsightly appearance and it is not at all durable. It is not as supportive as solid foam and if anything catches on the foam it will pluck that piece out.
Here is a picture of a newly done gun case with pick and pluck foam, note how the pieces around the gun are already starting to be displaced.
This one shows the same type of foam after it has been in use for a while. You can see where it has started to deteriorate and separate.
The alternative is using solid foam that is cut specifically to the items you are trying to protect. This is a far more durable option that produces a more professional appearance. There are various ways to cut solid foam from regular knifes to water jets and lasers. Hot wire cutters are fairly simple and make very clean cuts so I decided to build one.
I purchased a folding tailgate table from "The Walmart" and using some scrap metal I had along with some uni-strut constructed a, way more complex than it needed to be, hot wire foam cutter.
The folding table made the entire project much harder than if I had just used a simple piece of wood. I wanted something I could fold up and put away when I wasn't using it.
The top piece of the cutter has an adjustment knob for when the wire heats up or stretches. The wire itself is Kanthal and seems to be fairly durable. The adjustment knob also allows for the wire to be quickly disconnected and strung through the foam for making inside cuts. The fan was a last minute addition to blow the smoke away from the cut.
The cutter clamps to the sides of the table by interference fit. There is a common beam across the bottom that has a tongue which fits into the main piece. This is also interference fit which allows the entire cutter to be quickly installed or removed.
A simple automotive battery charger is used to apply 12v @ 2 amps to the cutting wire.
This video shows the cutter in action with an old piece of 3" thick foam. This was the first time I tried using it.
With the cutter working the next step was to make templates for the items I wanted in my gun case. Using poster board allows the wire to be run along it, because the wire wont quickly cut the poster board it makes for very accurate cuts.
The templates are difficult when the item does not sit flat, the gun itself took me about 90 minutes to accurately trace. This can be done more quickly if fit is not a big concern.
Once it was traced out I cut it with scissors and pinned it to the foam. It took about 6 minutes to cut it out with the hot wire. The cutouts are then placed on their side for a perpendicular cut this is to make a piece that goes back in the cutout hole and raises the item in the cutout hole. In the picture below I set up a simple fence for the amount I wanted to cut off the gun cutout. If I were to make a hot wire cutter again this would be something I would include in the design.
Overall I am very happy with the hot wire cutter, I have about 45-50 dollars invested in it. The foam itself can be very expensive, I was lucky enough to find a few pieces in the trash at work that were close to the size I needed. Below is a shot of my first try at foaming my gun case, It was a lot of work but I am very happy with the outcome.
I positioned the gun to the left side in anticipation of the Hearing Protection Act. To offset the weight of the gun I have 5 loaded mags positioned to the right with a minimum of 1" spacing from any item to the edge of the foam.
Plano claims their All Weather cases "create watertight and airtight shields that protect your guns even in the most extreme conditions" and "are designed to withstand the continuous bumping and jarring of airline travel". I found a lot of positive reviews on it so I went ahead and ordered one.
The main layer of foam in the case consists of approximately 2.5" of "pick and pluck foam" which consists of partially cut 1" squares. Once you have traced an outline on the foam you pluck what is not needed. It makes it easy to make a cutout for the gun but it gives it an unsightly appearance and it is not at all durable. It is not as supportive as solid foam and if anything catches on the foam it will pluck that piece out.
Here is a picture of a newly done gun case with pick and pluck foam, note how the pieces around the gun are already starting to be displaced.
I purchased a folding tailgate table from "The Walmart" and using some scrap metal I had along with some uni-strut constructed a, way more complex than it needed to be, hot wire foam cutter.
The folding table made the entire project much harder than if I had just used a simple piece of wood. I wanted something I could fold up and put away when I wasn't using it.
The top piece of the cutter has an adjustment knob for when the wire heats up or stretches. The wire itself is Kanthal and seems to be fairly durable. The adjustment knob also allows for the wire to be quickly disconnected and strung through the foam for making inside cuts. The fan was a last minute addition to blow the smoke away from the cut.
The cutter clamps to the sides of the table by interference fit. There is a common beam across the bottom that has a tongue which fits into the main piece. This is also interference fit which allows the entire cutter to be quickly installed or removed.
A simple automotive battery charger is used to apply 12v @ 2 amps to the cutting wire.
This video shows the cutter in action with an old piece of 3" thick foam. This was the first time I tried using it.
With the cutter working the next step was to make templates for the items I wanted in my gun case. Using poster board allows the wire to be run along it, because the wire wont quickly cut the poster board it makes for very accurate cuts.
The templates are difficult when the item does not sit flat, the gun itself took me about 90 minutes to accurately trace. This can be done more quickly if fit is not a big concern.
Once it was traced out I cut it with scissors and pinned it to the foam. It took about 6 minutes to cut it out with the hot wire. The cutouts are then placed on their side for a perpendicular cut this is to make a piece that goes back in the cutout hole and raises the item in the cutout hole. In the picture below I set up a simple fence for the amount I wanted to cut off the gun cutout. If I were to make a hot wire cutter again this would be something I would include in the design.
Overall I am very happy with the hot wire cutter, I have about 45-50 dollars invested in it. The foam itself can be very expensive, I was lucky enough to find a few pieces in the trash at work that were close to the size I needed. Below is a shot of my first try at foaming my gun case, It was a lot of work but I am very happy with the outcome.
I positioned the gun to the left side in anticipation of the Hearing Protection Act. To offset the weight of the gun I have 5 loaded mags positioned to the right with a minimum of 1" spacing from any item to the edge of the foam.
Monday, January 2, 2017
Scope Zero
I've been researching scopes for my M&P 15, early on I decided on 1-6 versus a red dot, the 1-6 is more versatile in my opinion. My price point took me to the Vortex 1-6x24 Strike Eagle which is a very popular scope and didn't appear to ever go on sale. I found it after thanks giving as a package deal at SWFA for its normal $329.00 with a S.S.A.L.T. mount and two Magpul magazines.
Over the last few weeks I have added a Magpul MOE handguard, a Fenix PD34 TAC and the Strike Eagle.
Yesterday my buddy contacted me, he said he would be working on some projects outside and I should stop over to sight in my gun. When I got there I set up his shooting bench, grabbed a couple targets, and his bench bag.
I shot 21 rounds before I was satisfied with the setup, probably way more than I needed to use but I had only done this once before and never alone.
I numbered my three shot groupings on the photo below with the last shots I took being at the lower right corner of the target.
After the seventh grouping I stood an empty brass up at 50 yards and dialed in another click of elevation, I hit the casing on the first shot. I'm by no means a good shot but I am more than happy with the sighting on the gun.
Over the last few weeks I have added a Magpul MOE handguard, a Fenix PD34 TAC and the Strike Eagle.
Yesterday my buddy contacted me, he said he would be working on some projects outside and I should stop over to sight in my gun. When I got there I set up his shooting bench, grabbed a couple targets, and his bench bag.
I shot 21 rounds before I was satisfied with the setup, probably way more than I needed to use but I had only done this once before and never alone.
I numbered my three shot groupings on the photo below with the last shots I took being at the lower right corner of the target.
After the seventh grouping I stood an empty brass up at 50 yards and dialed in another click of elevation, I hit the casing on the first shot. I'm by no means a good shot but I am more than happy with the sighting on the gun.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
New Gun
With it looking more and more like Hillary is going to win the election, or at least that's the excuse I'm using, I decided to buy an AR. I figured they would either be impossible to get or stupid expensive.
Ive been looking for a while and out of the numerous entry level AR's I decided on an M&P 15 Sport II. Rural King had them for a good price so we drove down to Martinsville to get it. After doing the background check and getting ready to pay for it I found out that I had to purchase a case for it that was lockable to buy it. Apparently the Rural King is within 1000 yards of a school so state law requires it to go out of the store in a locked case. I found a Ruger soft case that had a hole in the zipper pull, which the clerk locked with the guns breech lock. After I paid for the gun they called the store manager who carried the gun to the front door and after we walked through it she handed it to me. I'm not really sure what that did other than insure they sell a lot of gun cases, I guess the people that buy there regularly know to bring one along with them.
I was able to get over to my buddies house a few days ago and sight it in. Shooting iron or in this case plastic sights at 50 yards was fun for my old eyes, but using a gun vice on his bench we had it dialed in with six shots.
I dont plan on modding it too much but would like to put some optics on it. I'm looking more along the lines of a 1-4 or 1-6 scope versus a red dot. I think the scope is a bit more versatile.
Ive been looking for a while and out of the numerous entry level AR's I decided on an M&P 15 Sport II. Rural King had them for a good price so we drove down to Martinsville to get it. After doing the background check and getting ready to pay for it I found out that I had to purchase a case for it that was lockable to buy it. Apparently the Rural King is within 1000 yards of a school so state law requires it to go out of the store in a locked case. I found a Ruger soft case that had a hole in the zipper pull, which the clerk locked with the guns breech lock. After I paid for the gun they called the store manager who carried the gun to the front door and after we walked through it she handed it to me. I'm not really sure what that did other than insure they sell a lot of gun cases, I guess the people that buy there regularly know to bring one along with them.
I was able to get over to my buddies house a few days ago and sight it in. Shooting iron or in this case plastic sights at 50 yards was fun for my old eyes, but using a gun vice on his bench we had it dialed in with six shots.
I dont plan on modding it too much but would like to put some optics on it. I'm looking more along the lines of a 1-4 or 1-6 scope versus a red dot. I think the scope is a bit more versatile.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
4th of July Festivities
My buddy contacted me last week about coming over for the 4th, to do some shooting, eat some food and blow some stuff up.
We arrived about 11am and started hauling everything from the truck down to his range. He had a 10x20 tent set up over his shooting bench at 50 yards and I set up my tent at 12 yards for us to shoot pistols from.
This arrangement works very good, we just leave the tent at 12 yards in place and shoot through it when we are shooting rifles.
Around 2pm we fired up his charcoal Webber and threw on some teriyaki chicken, garlic chicken and steaks. His neighbors had brought some deserts and the lady clear down the street that was just bored brought by some good salad and spent the entire day there just chatting.
Normally when he contacts me about shooting, its the day of, in this case he contacted me days before so I had some time to plan. I decided my contribution would be 30 1/4lb jars of Tannerite, after all its the 4th!
These sounded like cannons going off, I think we ended up shooting about 10 of them total, letting everyone there take turns shooting them. They would definitely make you jump at 50 yards.
As the afternoon progressed some more people showed up and at dusk we fired up the grille again and finished off the meat we had not cooked earlier. My buddy had bought a bunch of mortars and we finished off the night with a fireworks display next to his range.
It was one of the best fourth of Julys I have had in years, I hope we can repeat it next year I still have about 20 1/4lb targets to shoot.
We arrived about 11am and started hauling everything from the truck down to his range. He had a 10x20 tent set up over his shooting bench at 50 yards and I set up my tent at 12 yards for us to shoot pistols from.
This arrangement works very good, we just leave the tent at 12 yards in place and shoot through it when we are shooting rifles.
Around 2pm we fired up his charcoal Webber and threw on some teriyaki chicken, garlic chicken and steaks. His neighbors had brought some deserts and the lady clear down the street that was just bored brought by some good salad and spent the entire day there just chatting.
Normally when he contacts me about shooting, its the day of, in this case he contacted me days before so I had some time to plan. I decided my contribution would be 30 1/4lb jars of Tannerite, after all its the 4th!
These sounded like cannons going off, I think we ended up shooting about 10 of them total, letting everyone there take turns shooting them. They would definitely make you jump at 50 yards.
As the afternoon progressed some more people showed up and at dusk we fired up the grille again and finished off the meat we had not cooked earlier. My buddy had bought a bunch of mortars and we finished off the night with a fireworks display next to his range.
It was one of the best fourth of Julys I have had in years, I hope we can repeat it next year I still have about 20 1/4lb targets to shoot.
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Dad's Visit
My dad and step mom flew in this week to spend three days with us and three days with my sisters family. We we took them around to some of the sites in Indy, and Sunday Dad and I went to the NMCA All American Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway Park. Sunday was the finals and we got a late start not arriving until 9 am. When we pulled into the lot something was off, there were literally 40 cars and the west side of the track was completely empty. When we got out of the truck I could hear and see the cars making passes so we walked up and bought tickets at $25.00 each and headed to the stands. When we entered the stands thee were literally 20-30 people there, it was just weird. After being there about 15 minutes I realized the class finals hadn't started yet they were still racing out some of the semi-finals. We ended up staying about six hours, I had to make my dad leave he was so burned from the sun, he needed to leave but never gets a chance to see racing like this. We had a really good time and the small crowd was actually nice.
Monday we took them to Parabellum, a shooting range in Avon. My buddy was out of town so we ended up going to an indoor range. My stepmom was very excited about going and had a good time, my dad not so much. We took my 10/22 and 9mm Nano, Matty brought his 9mm Beretta and the SKS. Its just a 25 yard range and no way to bench rest a rifle, but for the most part everyone had a good time. It seemed like we had just got set up and started shooting on the two lanes I rented when we were out of time.
Tuesday we went to the museum at Indianapolis Raceway Park.The first car on display was the ultra rare, ultra expensive Aston Martin Vulcan. It had been featured on the "New" Top Gear just the week before. I learned from the episode it was named after the British Vulcan bomber and only 24 were to be made. It has a naturally aspirated 7.0 liter V12 that produces 820 hp and weighs just under 3,000 lbs. If you want to buy one you only need to currently own an Aston, be one of 24 to get chosen and come up with 2.4 mil. Thats not even the bad news, the car isn't street legal, cannot be registered. Another fun fact from the episode was that the car exceeds all the noise limits of every track in England, so it cannot be legally driven anywhere in the country that designed and built it.
This one was number 11 of 24, it is a dark shade of purple with a lot of exposed carbon fiber.
I found a picture of it online that shows it on the Indy track, here you can see the color better.
Monday we took them to Parabellum, a shooting range in Avon. My buddy was out of town so we ended up going to an indoor range. My stepmom was very excited about going and had a good time, my dad not so much. We took my 10/22 and 9mm Nano, Matty brought his 9mm Beretta and the SKS. Its just a 25 yard range and no way to bench rest a rifle, but for the most part everyone had a good time. It seemed like we had just got set up and started shooting on the two lanes I rented when we were out of time.
Tuesday we went to the museum at Indianapolis Raceway Park.The first car on display was the ultra rare, ultra expensive Aston Martin Vulcan. It had been featured on the "New" Top Gear just the week before. I learned from the episode it was named after the British Vulcan bomber and only 24 were to be made. It has a naturally aspirated 7.0 liter V12 that produces 820 hp and weighs just under 3,000 lbs. If you want to buy one you only need to currently own an Aston, be one of 24 to get chosen and come up with 2.4 mil. Thats not even the bad news, the car isn't street legal, cannot be registered. Another fun fact from the episode was that the car exceeds all the noise limits of every track in England, so it cannot be legally driven anywhere in the country that designed and built it.
This one was number 11 of 24, it is a dark shade of purple with a lot of exposed carbon fiber.
I found a picture of it online that shows it on the Indy track, here you can see the color better.
Monday, May 30, 2016
More Target Practice
It was another day with near perfect weather and my buddy contacted me about shooting at his range. Matty and I headed over and shot mostly rifles, he has a friend that lets him borrow his SKS and I shot about 200 rounds through the 10/22.
Later in the afternoon my buddy got out his Windham AR-10 and let me shoot 25 rounds through it. Its a very fun gun to shoot with enough kick that I would loose site of the target at fifty yards after almost every shot. I still managed a nice grouping with a gun I was unfamiliar with.
To top the day off my buddy got out his MRAD .338 Lapua Magnum. Shooting it at 50 yards is and not getting a bulls-eye would almost be hard to do. At around $5.00 a shot we all took just one, below is a short video of Matty taking his turn.
Later in the afternoon my buddy got out his Windham AR-10 and let me shoot 25 rounds through it. Its a very fun gun to shoot with enough kick that I would loose site of the target at fifty yards after almost every shot. I still managed a nice grouping with a gun I was unfamiliar with.
To top the day off my buddy got out his MRAD .338 Lapua Magnum. Shooting it at 50 yards is and not getting a bulls-eye would almost be hard to do. At around $5.00 a shot we all took just one, below is a short video of Matty taking his turn.
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Reactive Targets
In anticipation of the weather warming up and a chance to finally shoot my new rifle, I have been saving 2 liter bottles to use as reactive targets.
I purchased 25 tire valve stems off of ebay for $5.00 and installed them in the twist off caps of the 2 liter bottles. A little bit of flower along with 100 psi and they were ready to go.
While not as fun as the Tannerite they still had a pretty good bang.
The rifle itself was only one click out on windage and is a blast to shoot, I think I will have a lot of fun with it.
I purchased 25 tire valve stems off of ebay for $5.00 and installed them in the twist off caps of the 2 liter bottles. A little bit of flower along with 100 psi and they were ready to go.
While not as fun as the Tannerite they still had a pretty good bang.
The rifle itself was only one click out on windage and is a blast to shoot, I think I will have a lot of fun with it.
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Ruger update
I had some time to take my 10/22 apart and see what I actually had. Searching the serial number on Rugers site indicated it had been manufactured sometime late in 2012. I was not able to figure out what model it was and the bull barrel has no markings at all to indicate who manufactured it. The stock is a Hogue overmold that has a cheek rest added. The trigger group has mixed Ruger and Kidd parts. The scope is a Bushnell Banner 3x9x40 Dusk to Dawn with a lighted reticle and Butler Creek dust caps.
Last week I purchased a Cadwell bipod and a 25 round Ruger magazine for it. I'm still waiting on a weather opportunity to try it out.
Last week I purchased a Cadwell bipod and a 25 round Ruger magazine for it. I'm still waiting on a weather opportunity to try it out.
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Gun Show
A friend of mine from work invited me to go with him to the Indy Gun Show. I have never been to one before but based on the fun Matty and I had on Christmas eve I decided I wanted to get a rifle.
The Gun Show itself was a bit overwhelming in shear volume of both guns and people. Initially I had set a budget of $500.00 and was looking for an AR platform. At that price I wasn't going to get much new or used and after going through about half the displays I came across a nicely modified Ruger 10/22 bull barrel. The price was fair and from what I could see without taking it apart it would be difficult to duplicate for what I paid for it.
Now I just have to wait for the weather to warm up to go shooting.
The Gun Show itself was a bit overwhelming in shear volume of both guns and people. Initially I had set a budget of $500.00 and was looking for an AR platform. At that price I wasn't going to get much new or used and after going through about half the displays I came across a nicely modified Ruger 10/22 bull barrel. The price was fair and from what I could see without taking it apart it would be difficult to duplicate for what I paid for it.
Now I just have to wait for the weather to warm up to go shooting.
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Christmas Eve
Yesterday reached a record high for this area of 64 degrees. Because it has been so warm here the last few days a good friend of mine contacted me to let me know he was going to do some shooting today. He has a nice 100 yard range in his back yard and lives just a couple miles from me, I haven't shot my pistol in a while so I grabbed Matty and we headed over this afternoon.
After we shot pistols for a while some other people stopped by with rifles and we set up a shooting bench at 50 yards. My friend had purchased some rimfire sensitive Tannerite that came with containers that look like the ones you would keep ear plugs in. These containers are just over one inch in diameter and put out a good boom. The video below is Matty shooting a Mossberg AR 22 at one of the reactive targets, its the yellow dot just to the right of center on the backstop.
After we shot pistols for a while some other people stopped by with rifles and we set up a shooting bench at 50 yards. My friend had purchased some rimfire sensitive Tannerite that came with containers that look like the ones you would keep ear plugs in. These containers are just over one inch in diameter and put out a good boom. The video below is Matty shooting a Mossberg AR 22 at one of the reactive targets, its the yellow dot just to the right of center on the backstop.
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