Can you Dear Reader name the guns? Grumpy
Category: Gear & Stuff
I saw an AK-47 while in Vietnam and it had a 30 round magazine. So I cut the top and bottom off of a couple of M-14 Magazines and welded them together and made a “40” Round magazine for my M-14. It really didn’t work very well when test firing it, several of the last rounds would not chamber with only two springs. So I put “three” springs into the magazine, but then I could only load a little over 30 rounds. There just wasn’t enough room for three springs and 40 Full Metal Jacket rounds in that magazine. I sure received some strange looks while walking around with my 40 round magazine. Semper Fi, Larry Hilton via Grunt.com
And the Brass wonders why Tommy is always tired & has a bad attitude. By the way if he “lost” any of this junk, he had to pay for it out of his patheic WWII pay! Grumpy
From the moment Birchwood Casey introduced its line of Shoot-N-C targets, gun people were in big trouble, because this is a target that simply cannot tell a lie and won’t allow the user to stretch the truth even a little bit.
It ain’t fair! No more tales from Uncle Ned about shooting sub-MOA groups from his vintage Model 94 .30-30 at 100 yards using iron sights. Your best buddy “Dead-eye” suddenly became kind of scarce at the range every Saturday morning.
Then along came Champion’s VisiShot targets, also capable of showing bullet impact spots. The deck is stacked against braggarts.
This is why I loved such targets from the get-go. From the shooting bench, one needs only to view the target through a spotting scope or binoculars and viola!, there is no need for guesswork about where to shift one’s sights, or how many clicks need to be applied, either up or down, right or left.
I’ve used these targets almost exclusively over the past few decades to illustrate various gun reviews, because they don’t lie. They’re great teaching tools as well as a means to keep everybody honest about their shooting abilities.
Now and then, I may substitute a tin can or a playing card for a change of pace, but at the end of the day, these high-visibility targets, which consist of a couple of layers of material that instantly show bullet strikes, are tough to beat. I wish I’d have invented the things.
Several years ago, I drove to a meadow just east of Snoqualmie Pass with my pal Brian Lull a week before the deer season opener to check the zero on our rifles. With the targets set approximately 120 yards away and slightly uphill, we both confirmed where our rifles put bullets, out of cold barrels. As I recall, I was shooting 180-grain Nosler AccuBonds ahead of a full dose of H110 through my .30-06, and my bullets were striking about 2 inches high and were spot-on in terms of windage. The following weekend, we both notched tags on Snake River mule deer bucks at better than 200 yards.
Variety
There are so many variations of these targets it is impossible to list them all. You’ll find traditional round targets with bull’s eyes, 12×18-inch silhouettes, 7- and 9-inch oval silhouettes, square 8-inch sight-in targets with a grid of 1-inch squares, and so on, and so on.
In my work, they make for some great photos. I’ve used them with different handguns to illustrate how accurate they might be with different loads, and on occasion with different rifles I may be shooting in preparation for a hunt.
Trust me, if you’re shooting poorly, these targets will shame you into additional practice!
The only downside I’ve experienced is that they sometimes seem prone to not sticking to the target backing as well as I might like. I’ve taken to stapling them down on cardboard after pressing them down. Thus anchored, they stay put through multiple hits.
VisiShot targets I’ve used don’t have the adhesive, so I simply stapled them to cardboard. In terms of performance, they did the same thing; each time a bullet punched through, a bright yellow or orange spot appeared, depending upon the target brand.
In the Cards
I mentioned playing cards before. Sure, I’ve used them as targets and so have many other people, for a variety of reasons in the beginning, but when the smoke clears, we all ended up with conversation pieces.
Of course, aces are the most popular cards, followed by the various face cards including Jokers, and then you work down the numbers. I saw an image of an Ace of Spades apparently punctured by Elmer Keith, using a .44-caliber revolver, and the body of the spade was pretty near shot completely out.
If you’re shooting a .22-caliber rifle or pistol, try a business card. They’re smaller and more challenging, and anybody who can consistently punch holes through one at 25 yards is one dead-eye sonofagun! Sometime between now and this fall’s grouse and cottontail rabbit seasons, I will have been to the range with my RugerMKIV pistol and 10/22 rifle brushing up my skills.
Be prepared to go through several decks of cards once you get into the habit. It really is addictive, and if you do it right — that is, concentrate on trigger squeeze, sight alignment and your breathing — by the time you’ve gone through the first deck, your marksmanship will definitely be improved. If not, well, there’s always Friday night bowling.
The importance of these exercises cannot be overstated. One never knows when an opportunity or emergency will arise, and you will need to shoot accurately, and maybe fast. (See below!)
Albuquerque ‘Crack Down’
Following a fatal triple homicide (“mass shooting”) in Farmington, New Mexico, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller announced this summer his administration will be “cracking down on guns.”
He said so in his “State of the City” address, according to KOB News.
“We are going to triangulate existing restrictions around schools to aggressively target any crime with a gun anywhere in downtown Albuquerque,” Keller, a Democrat, stated.
This could be interesting, because New Mexico has a state constitutional provision which says the following: “No law shall abridge the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms for security and defense, for lawful hunting and recreational use and for other lawful purposes, but nothing herein shall be held to permit the carrying of concealed weapons. No municipality or county shall regulate, in any way, an incident of the right to keep and bear arms.”
This is what we call a preemption law, but unlike other states, New Mexico’s provision is part of the state constitution. It is supposed to prevent politicians like Keller from doing what he’s just announced he will be doing. He may, or may not, be challenged, but the bottom line here is whether anything Albuquerque does this summer will have any effect on the violent crime rate.
Crime in Albuquerque is already down this year, according to KRQE News. Mayor Keller noted in his address that violent crime is down 8% from last year and property crime is down a whopping 140%. Over the previous 17 months, he said last month, 170 murder suspects had been arrested, which is a promising revelation. No rational person likes violent crime, particularly if he or she is a gun owner, since ultimately, it is gun owners who somehow wind up being penalized.
Keep Your Wits
Who’s heard a witty saying worth sharing? Wyatt Earp reportedly said, “Fast is fine, but accuracy is final,” along with “You must learn to be slow in a hurry.”
There was a line of dialogue in an old Kirk Douglas western many years ago which has always made sense to me: “Get it out fast, and put it away slow.” People who disagree, or simply laugh at the concept, have probably never encountered a bear on the trail.
“Never holster an empty gun” was a tidbit that got my attention somewhere way back in the last century. Ever try to shoot small game only to hear an embarrassing “click?” It only needs to happen once. It’s a lesson that stays with you.
Anybody else? Send replies to insider@americanhandgunner.com
Soldiers develop an unnatural attachment to the tools of their peculiar profession. Let a stockbroker suffer a catastrophic laptop failure and some critical PowerPoint presentation will likely suffer. The same failure of an Infantryman’s primary tool carries substantially greater gravitas.
Soldiering is a young man’s game. Not only could my knees not bear a proper road march, my general comportment would no longer tolerate the job. If ordered to take some forsaken hill these days, I’d be more inclined to nuke the site from orbit just so I could get home for a good night’s sleep. Old guys make formidable if unpredictable adversaries.
Details
Military service, for all its exoticism, regimentation, and abject lunacy, is quite the rush so long as you’re not getting vaporized. The toys simply have no peer. If you put a 23-year-old male behind the controls of a multimillion dollar gunship helicopter you can’t honestly be surprised when he rolls it inverted just to see what might happen. It drops out of the sky like a greased brick … or so I’m told.
An M1A1 tank weighs 135,000 lbs. yet can get you stopped for speeding in many suburban locales. An Mk19 automatic grenade launcher throws high explosive grenades out to 2,200 meters at a rate of 380 rounds per minute. Watching rocket artillery work over an impact area is like glimpsing the death angel at play. However, all that cool-guy stuff pales in comparison to the one piece of GI kit that rules them all — the humble woobie.
Weapon: Mass Relaxation
The National Stock Number is 8405-01-547-2559. The technical appellation is the Poncho Liner, USGI Issue, ACU Pattern (UCP). Everybody who has ever worn the uniform calls it the woobie.
The term itself has murky origins. The military version holds “woobie” is mil-slang for “You Would Be cold without it.” I don’t buy that. In the 1983 Michael Keaton film Mr. Mom, the kid calls his security blanket his woobie. I subscribe to the Mr. Mom school myself.
The item in question was first issued in the Vietnam era. The woobie consists of two layers of gossamer nylon material within which is sandwiched a thin stratum of polyester filling. The whole shebang is sewed crossways and edged for exceptional durability. Those earliest woobies were crafted from WWII-surplus parachute material. Hence the camouflage.
The woobie was intended to be secured within a GI-issue poncho by means of tie strings along its edges. My ponchos always smelled like roadkill. By contrast, my woobie was more like a portable all-weather womb.
Military Intimacy
I signed into my battalion in Alaska amidst what would ultimately be one of the coldest winters on record. Once I made my introductions at the S3 shop the ops NCO said, “Hey, sir. You want to go to Cool School?”
I was an Army Aviator. Of course I wanted to go to Cool School. Perhaps I could teach the instructors a few things concerning the refined art of being awesome. Just what was Cool School again?
Cool School is the Air Force Arctic Survival Course. This five-day jaunt into the Alaskan tundra is also colloquially referred to as The Air Force Food Appreciation Course. Two days in the arctic on a single MRE is hardly the Bataan Death March, but I licked every scrap of that thing down and also ate a boiled rabbit. You burn a lot of calories at 40 below zero.
The first night outside was 34 below zero. The second was 43 below. I spent the entirety of that second day building a snow cave. Think of it as a tomb just big enough for your fart sack (sleeping bag) and surrounded by about three feet of packed snow. I wrapped myself in my woobie before inserting my miserable carcass into my cold-soaked sack. Two hours’ worth of shivering later, I was snug and toasty, while my woobie and I were enjoying a relationship that was not altogether professional.
I learned a lot about life when I was a soldier. I enjoyed some extraordinary fellowship and did indeed see the world. I also discovered that I really, really hate eating boiled rabbit.
Forget hypersonic missiles, carrier battle groups, and CAG operators HALO-ing out of the darkness. That’s all just comic book stuff. America’s most effective combat multiplier is undoubtedly the humble woobie.
Why anyone makes the decisions they make is an interesting topic. What are the Whys behind the firearm someone chooses, taking their first class, venturing across the country to train once, and then doing it again?
One of the advantages of teaching at Gunsite is having access to a student base that comes from all over. I recently helped teach an Intermediate Pistol class, Gunsite #350. There were four women in the class, and they agreed to talk to me about this article. Please share this information – you don’t have to be a steely-eyed commando or a barrel-chested freedom fighter to take a class, especially not at Gunsite or most other facilities. Like any other field of study, solid initial training is a good thing. Recurrent training is a must – lest your skills atrophy.
Megan, mom & wife, business owner
She started training once she realized she wanted to adopt a more protective mindset for “my family!” Not enough people were doing that. She absolutely did not want to be a victim.
She chose Gunsite because a friend had been there. After returning home from school, they told her it not only enhanced their mindset but that the class had enhanced their abilities too.
Returning for her #350 pistol class, she liked how she was able to build her skills once immersed in the material by being “here” for several days.
Megan prefers the Sig P320 platform, going with the metal frame Scorpion, because of both performance and feel.
Ashley, wedding photographer, part-time firearms instructor, and retail sales
After being robbed at gunpoint in the United States and experiencing several other “spicey” situations here and abroad, she sought training. A concealed carry permit class opened her eyes to training and the importance of learning when and how to use her defensive tools.
She came to Gunsite based on a co-worker’s recommendation. When asked, Ashley told me she returns because of each instructor’s real-world experience and actual application versus those with just’ book learning.’
Her handgun is a Canik TP9-SFX. She’d gone to buy a Glock 34 when she saw the Canik on the rental board at the range. The quality of the trigger was the best she felt of the guns that had come through the store, and its “crisp re-set” sealed the deal. She went with a Holosun optic based on retail cost and co-worker recommendations.
Christine, trauma surgeon from the Midwest
She described herself now as a competent shooter, not a gun enthusiast. After the 2020 events came to her front yard, she had to consider whether she could use deadly force to defend herself and her loved ones. After making the decision, she began to work with a .22 handgun.
She went to Gunsite because, as a long-time educator, she wanted professional, efficiently & well-presented training because she didn’t want to be “that person who has been shooting thirty years but only learned to shoot 2-3 years ago.”
With her medical background, she wanted a safe training environment because she did not want to worry about being injured or having to treat someone who was hurt.
Her husband started her on an M&P .22 because that’s what was available, and they could buy the ammunition for it. Once they were both comfortable with her abilities, they headed to Gunsite for a #250 Pistol class. A 9mm M&P was available as a rental for the class. Afterward, she found a 9mm M&P CORE pistol at a local gun store and bought it.
She practiced the material for 18 months after the class before returning to take the #350 Intermediate Defensive Pistol course.
One equipment issue for Christine was that her holster was designed for an M&P with a smaller Streamlight pistol light, like the TLR7. Because she was not using a light on her pistol, she had issues with how it fit the holster. The school’s Pro Shop was able to help her out with that.
Lissa is a wife, mom, and part-time firearms instructor.
She started training because she wanted to be more involved with running a “The Well-Armed Women/Armed Women of America” chapter. She was concerned about education on pending gun laws. She keeps training to give back to her community. As for Gunsite, she keeps returning because the classes are realistic, relevant, and applicable to her life, not “tacticool.”
Lissa has put, by her estimate, about fifteen thousand rounds through her Sig M18 over the last two years. She also uses it when teaching. The pistol’s thumb safety was a driving factor for her choosing this handgun. A Wilson Combat modified P320 frame was her introduction to these pistols.
Final Thoughts
Four different students with some similar reasons for starting to train. Interesting overlaps and divergences in the Whys behind their equipment as well. Regardless, get your loved ones to good training.
If you are in the upper midwest and you want to support a gun store (and range) that takes training and your rights seriously, consider visiting Fletcher Arms (https://fletcherarms.com).