Bonus!!

Took Noah to the range this evening and we burned through a few hundred rounds of ammo in the .22LR and .17M2 rifles. We had a bunch of fun even though we sweated our patooties off. The funny thing is that when I got around to cleaning the Remington M597 tonight, an "extra" part fell out of the trigger assembly when I removed it from the receiver. It looks like a little metal spacer but I couldn't find anywhere inside that it might have come from. Funny thing is that we've shot this rifle bunches of times before and never ended up with extra parts. Even funnier is that I didn't even take the trigger group apart. Here's a pic of the part:




Will have to contact Remington and get their take on what this might be and if its appearance might be troublesome. Given my recent luck with guns, I'm beginning to think I should take up a different hobby. :-(

What to do?

The weekend is upon us and I need to plan some extracurricular activities. :-)Movies are always an option, with the following high on the list:






Still need to do some work on the Magnumlite .17M2 rifle, so a trip to the range may also be in order. Window shopping ('cause I'm broke!!) at the game or gun store is usually good for a pick-me-up, too. I'm on the fence about a couple of games - to buy or not to buy, that is the question. Battlefield: Bad Company and Metal Gear Solid 4 have piqued my interest, but not enough to run right out and buy them. Maybe I'll just hold out for Mercenaries 2: World in Flames next month. I've got several other games that I need to finish anyway.

Thanks to my wife for getting the MP3 player installed and working on the blog. If you don't like what's playing at the moment - too bad...

Vacation is finally over!!

Well, all I can say is, "It's good to be home." Vacations are more stressful than relaxing for me. Not sure why, but that seems to be the way it always turns out.

We managed to do some fun stuff like spending the day at the indoor water park (no sunburn - YIPPEE!!!) and wearing ourselves to the bone at Kings Island. More leisurely activities included several visits to the Cheesecake Factory and a stroll through the Newport Aquarium. Now, on to more important matters...

I managed to hit the range shortly before vacation and try out some different ammo in the Magnumlite .17M2 rifle. Ran some CCI, Hornady, and Eley rounds down the bore with the following results: all three brands showed case head bulging just like the Remington ammo; there were no case head ruptures from any of the three; and, functioning was 100% with CCI and Hornady, and 96% (2 failures to eject out of 50 rounds) for the Eley. The Eley was much stinkier and dirtier than the other brands, which is odd considering the Brits usually take great care in their ammo manufacturing, especially with a "target" driven brand like Eley. Here are a few pics of some of the spent casings:






So, at this point, it looks as if the gun may need to go back to Magnum Research to correct a timing problem or some other issue such as bolt mass or recoil or hammer spring tension. Needless to say, I'm a bit disappointed in the performance of this gun considering it is essentially a custom "production" conversion built on the ultra-reliable Ruger 10/22 action. Oh well, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Surprise!!

Pretty decent day at work. Reported end of fiscal year results to corporate and we max'ed out all of our safety and environmental goals. It was a tough year and things were touch-and-go at times, but it feels good to do what lots of people thought couldn't be done in a plant like ours. Next year will be very difficult, but we're just enjoying the moment for right now.

Came home to find out that Shari had picked up Guitar Hero: Aerosmith on the PS3 for us. Seems like a lot of fun, but I didn't get much of a chance to really play it. I didn't really know the Aerosmith songs in the first level, but this was offset by the fact that you get to play as an opening band for the first several songs, ripping through classics like "Dream Police" (Cheap Trick), "I Hate Myself for Loving You" (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts), and "All Day and All of the Night" (The Kinks).

The graphics render amazingly likenesses of the band. I can't wait to get to some of the tracks further into the game like "Cat Scratch Fever" (Ted Nugent) and the Aerosmith tracks I know - "Sweet Emotion", "Dream On", "Train Kept A Rollin", "Walk This Way", etc.

Gonna be a busy weekend - July 4th, range time with the new .17M2 ammo, prepping for vacation next week...

Not much happening...

The usual - work, yelling at the kids, etc. Got a couple of replies on the .17M2 ammo problem. Remington says ship all of it back for a full refund (which is not what I asked for, but a nice gesture on their part). I plan to ship back one box for them to check out and see if it is safe or not. If they test it and deem it "unsafe", I'll ship it all back. I got it at a killer deal ($3.49/box), so I would like to keep it if at all possible.

Magnum Research said to shoot some different ammo (which arrived via BBT today) through the gun. I now have CCI, Eley and Hornady to run through it and see how they function. Since Eley manufactures the .17M2 ammo for Remington, I'm not holding my breath that it will work well. Lots of folks have had good luck with CCI; mixed reviews on the Hornady round. The latter two are significantly more pricey (about double) than the Eley/Remington stuff. Hopefully, the Fourth of July weekend will present an opportunity to hit the range and try them out.

Been thinking about culling a few more guns from the safe. Something new and different is always catching my eye and the routine is "sell one, buy one". We'll see how that shakes out. This is the gun that makes me drool uncontrollably - the Springfield Armory SOCOM II in urban camo.

Trouble in paradise!!

I managed to get up early and scoot out to the range for some quality time with my new Magnumlite rifle in .17 Mach 2. The results were both encouraging and unnerving.

The encouraging part is that this rifle will shoot. This is a very blurry cell phone shot of a 10 round string at 100 yards, with 6 rounds in one tight cluster that is ~1 MOA and the rest being flyers that are my fault. So, the rifle will do its job if I do mine. Problem is that I rarely hold up my end of the bargain.

As good as the accuracy was, I had numerous functioning problems (between 1-2 out of nearly each magazine of 10 rounds). I shot 200 rounds this AM, that translates to about 30-40 function failures. On closer examination of the spent cartridges, I noted that almost every case showed signs of overpressure - primarily bulging case heads ("mushrooming", as I call it). I even had two case head separations. The ammo in use was Remington Premier Rimfire, .17 Mach 2, 17gr AccuTip-V Boattail (#PR17LR). If only I had a chronograph, I could make a determination regarding the consistency of this ammo. At any rate, I don't blame these failures on the gun or the magazine (yet) and I already have 3 other brands of ammo on order to see if they exhibit the same problem. However, I will be contacting both Magnum Research and Remington to get their responses to the situation. Here are some pics of the spent cases:

Took the kids to see Wall E this afternoon. While I didn't really care for the not-so-subliminal "humans are killing Mother Earth" message, it was good for a few chuckles and the kids all seemed to like it. I would recommend it for those who have young children. Lots more cleaning today - spent most of the time on the car and a little on the Hi-Power. Time to settle back for a nice cold Vanilla Coke. :-)

Really?

My wife (and numerous other people) make fun of me for noticing things that no one else bothers to notice. I catch little things like movie mess-ups (the banana was on the table in the scene just two seconds ago, but now it's gone!!), I remember seeing a complete stranger in Taco Bell six hours earlier in the day, etc.. Well, today was another one of those days. While watching Mark Keefe's (host of American Rifleman TV) review the Springfield Armory Lightweight Operator pistol, I noticed that when he inserted the mag and racked the slide to begin shooting, the slide didn't go into battery!! If you watch closely, you will see about an inch of the barrel sticking out of the end of the slide when he brings the pistol up to firing position. Now I realize that most pistols need a little break-in period but, given that he was probably feeding it Federal USA hardball ammo, I find it curious that the gun would not go into battery. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the weapon, now does it?

Picked Logan up and the first thing we had to do was feed him. :-) Being a finicky eater, he hadn't eaten anything the camp served this week, so off to Wendy's we went. The rest of the mid-day was consumed by chores and errands - hair cut, oil change and tire rotation, shopping for sundries - and cleaning more guns.

Managed to restore the AR-15 and one of the CZ-83's to acceptably clean condition. In the process of doing so, I noticed that the CZ-83 (being a well-worn specimen) has developed a crack in the left grip panel leading from the top to the grip screw hole. Nothing that a little Super Glue won't fix. Had a few minutes before sundown to take the kids out into the back yard to break some Shatterblast targets with the BB gun.

Weather looks nice and cool for tomorrow morning. Maybe a trip to the range to continue breaking in the Magnumlite is in order.

Prepping for tomorrow

Well, Logan comes home from camp tomorrow morning and everyone is ready for him to be back. I'm sure he will complain a little about having to leave, but I imagine the first thing he will do is scramble for all of life's little conveniences that he left behind this week - cell phone, PlayStation 3, etc.

Long day at work and Shari, Noah and Kendall were gone when I got home. They had taken off to Memphis for a photo shoot, so I took advantage of my short-lived bachelorhood to dine at the local China Pan buffet.

Managed to get three guns - the Magnumlite .17Mach2, Walther P22, and Taurus Ultralite - cleaned up while waiting for the family to get home tonight. Lots of leading in the barrel of the P22 from the Winchester Wildcat we shot through it on the last outing. Will have to try some copper-plated ammo and see if that makes a difference.

Big development today was the Supreme Court ruling on Heller vs. D.C. - lots of coverage on all the news talk shows. Of course, the hoplophobes are doing their best Chicken Little imitation by screaming, "Blood will flow in the streets!!", and trying to spin it as an insignificant decision. I do agree with them to the extent that its impact will likely be limited (e.g., Morton Grove, IL, and other cities that have outright gun bans), but I'm sure that the NRA will do everything within its power to broaden its scope. Good for them...

Just another day in the life...

Typical workday...lots to do and not enough time to do it. Caught a bunch of flack from two of my three nurses who don't seem to believe that you can head off a minor case of pink eye with judicious use of antibiotic eye drops before symptoms appear. Shari had it really bad on Monday evening and I started dosing my eyeball as soon as I saw her when I got home from work. I woke up yesterday with just a little goop, stayed home to keep from infecting anyone, and went back to work today.

Had to head to Henderson to see my oldest, Logan, as he is at church camp down there this week. They had a mid-week devotional and talent show. Too any rude people talking amongst themselves for me to enjoy the "talent". Have to pick him up early Friday morning - none too soon for his little sister, Kendall, who misses him terribly.

Gotta get out tomorrow after work and clean up some of the toys that were used during the last trip to the range - the Magnumlite, M597, P22, and Ultralite. Not nearly as much fun as getting them dirty. ;-)

Just to play catch-up a bit...

Managed to get out and see a few movies in the past few weeks, including:

• Iron Man - My favorite comic book character from my childhood. I'm already anxious for the sequel and the Avengers movie.
• The Happening - A waste of money, IMHO.
• The Incredible Hulk - Good...but Edward Norton? Whose idea was that?
• The Strangers - The moral of the story? Have a gun, know how to use it, and don't be afraid to. Oh, and confirm your target before you let lead fly. I should have spent the money on a brick of .22LR ammo.
• Kung Fu Panda - I'm not a big fan of Jack Black, but it's a cute movie for the kids.

I always LOVE taking my family to the range with me. I hope they get as much enjoyment out of it as I do. Here's the crew in action from a week or two ago:

My incredible wife, Shari, cutting loose with the 9mm Hi-Power. I actually managed to snap the shell casing in mid-air coming out of the ejection port. She can outshoot me on most days...






My sweet little girl, Kendall, with her little pink single-shot .22 rifle. She really enjoys shooting and can burn through an amazing quantity of ammo going one round at a time.

I hope that she will want to do this for a very long time.

Noah just LOVES shooting my scoped Savage .17HMR rifle. The only problem is that he can put you in the poor house doing it. He shot nearly 250 rounds on this particular day. That's about $60-75!!

Logan is a young man after my own heart. Not only is he a champion BB gun shooter (on the local 4H school team), but he is very good with just about every firearm he has picked up so far. If I can just keep him interested and practicing (the teenage years are approaching quickly), he will become an outstanding shooter one day.

I have arrived!

I finally decided to join the 21st century with my own blog. It may not be pretty, but here it is. As I am something less than a novice at this, don't expect too much.

Thanks to my wonderful wife for getting me started and helping with the formatting and such. Special thanks for taking all the pictures that will be posted here. I LOVE YOU!!

As you can tell from my links, my interests are narrow and specific - shooting, aviation, video gaming, and scientific junk. Not everyone's cup of tea but, then again, it's not their blog.