Gun Thread: Sunday Evening Edition!

Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!

Welp, with the weather cooperating, guess who headed down to the farm this weekend? Go ahead! Guess! Yup, your 'ol pal Weasel headed to the farm for the weekend. I needed to do some mowing and some other chores, and finally do some shooting! You may recall one of the raffle prizes at the NoVaMoMe in July was a Dream Date with Weasel for a day of shooting at WeaselAcres. Our pal and Gun Thread regular, Thicc Boi won the raffle, and we were able to get together this weekend. The weather was favorable, and I took several guns down with me. The fun will be over by the time you read this, and we will have a full range report next week!

With that, let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?

So last week we started a discussion on negligent and accidental discharges. There is an arguably fine difference between the two, with the end result of a gun being discharged when you aren't expecting it to fire. We can debate this until the cows come home, but at the end of the day, suffice it to say this is something to be avoided. How, you ask? Well, treating every gun as being loaded until you have verified it is not is a great start. Let's look at some other causes in this video sent in by our pal CBD.

So what do you think? Anything to add?

First up, our new pal and delightful 'ette TecumsehTea poked her head in last week and mentioned she was headed to the range, and this week we have her first range report!

First I'd like to thank everyone who encouraged me last week. I’ve been a lurker at AOS for about 6 years but it wasn't 'til Covid hit that I actually worked up the nerve to comment. I don't comment often; I can't keep up with you guys. I wasn't sure about even saying anything about going for training Monday, but I'm glad I did. The kind words meant a lot.

The trainer is a woman, former military. Very no-nonsense. We got right to it, going over how to hold my pistol etc. Turns out everything my hubs told me (from his trainer, but a different range) was wrong. So all the things I'd been practicing I have to unlearn. We did classroom stuff and then she took me to the range. We worked on my stance and grip again, but when it was time to actually shoot I was very hesitant. She asked me if I would like her to shoot first, so she did. I'm glad she did because this is the first time I've ever seen a gun be shot. It's loud. Then I shot the remaining 7 rounds. The noise didn't startle me at all, after that first shot. I was concentrating so hard on stance, grip and pulling the trigger I'm not sure I even heard the gunshots.

The hour was exhausting. I used to be pro gun control, way back in my 20's (62 now), and though I have learned the error of my ways and I am very, very pro 2A and personal protection, it's one thing to be in favor of a thing and something else to DO that thing. Or maybe I just over-think everything.

I was very hesitant to go, fearing I would somehow fail. I didn't know what to expect, of the experience or myself. I'm glad to have this first training behind me. I'm sending a photo of the target. It was at the closest distance, I think 5 yards. I was shooting a S&W EZ 9mm.

Nicely done, TecumsehTea! Very nicely done! Thank you for sending this in and again, welcome to the Gun Thread. I am very happy you came out of the shadows of lurkerdom and joined the conversation. I hope you will continue to share your journey becoming a gun nut with us, because you are off to a great start. Nice shooting!

Next, our pal The RealMc sends a report on his experiences with a .22LR conversion kit.

Greetings fellow gun threaders. Thought it would be worth sharing my recent conversion kit experience.

In light of the scarcity of ammo and the price of lead seemingly surpassing the value of gold and also a strong desire to keep plinking I decided to try a .223/5.56 conversion kit for a couple of AR platforms me and the missus own, one S&W M&P 15, and one Sig Sauer both chambered per the manufacturers stamp in .223/5.56. Honestly, I was skeptical because well, I trust no one when it comes to these sorts of things, but the price was not something I could pass on based on my own research. I recommend you also do your own.

I purchased 2 CMMG 22LR AR Conversion Kit, Bravo, w/3 Magazines for a lot less than the price shown because, well, I know a guy. The 3 magazines are 25 rounds each and with 3 enough to go squirrel plinking for an hour or three out in our back 30.

I opened the packages and was firing rounds in less than 2 minutes. It took a few seconds to spray the bolt and carrier with some oil because they were packaged dry, other than that, it is so simple you can do the "conversion" in the dark in only a few seconds. That consisted of removing one bolt carrier and swapping in the conversion bolt carrier. I also used the same charging handle. The magazine with these kits fit right into the existing magazine well as the .223/5.56.

I fired to different types of .22 LR. Regular Remington .22LR hollow point rounds and then some CCI Quiet .22LR. The CCI ammo requires that you manually cycle the action because of the lower velocity of the round and in my experience in a rifle they are at least as quiet as a pellet gun. Both rounds are as accurate as any .22LR I have ever fired using the platforms described. I marked and will use the same bolt in the same rifle and while one could, I personally prefer not to swap them out between rifles unless necessary.

Seems like a great way to save on ammo! Anyone else considering a conversion kit? Thank you, The RealMc!

Next up we hear from our pal Sua Sponte on .22LR and 9mm tests with recommendations.

This is a continuation of the SAR9 I purchased a few months back. It was a turn in I purchased for about $245, came with two 17 round magazines and three sets of backstraps, they've been retailing in and around $330 NIB. I had been looking for a decent pistol to carry while working on the property, but didn't want anything too exorbitant as I expected it to get knocked around while I worked. So far I've put about 500 round through it and haven't had one issue, running several types of ammo to include HP and steel. The only ammo that gave me issues was the Federal Syntec. The nose coating kept hanging up on the ramp. Other than that, it's ran everything I put in it. IN the hand it's very reminiscent of an H&K VP9, most likely that where the design came from. The angle of the grip and the palm swell gives a really good solid contact with the entire hand. The heavy recoil spring makes follow up shots pretty smooth, but the heavy trigger pull takes a little getting used to. I put my pull gauge on it and it averages about 7lbs, a bit much for a striker fired. A couple of companies offer upgrade kits to reduce the trigger pull and will more than likely take that route. It's got a nice long slide that makes acquiring the target smooth and the sights are up-gradable also, another item on the list. I like the blade safety on the trigger, which also has an indicator that the pistol is charged, but not a big fan of the manual safety, which is ambidextrous. The only upgrade I've done at this point is a magazine extender I bought through Galloway Precision which now gives me a 20 +1 capability. It also comes with a picatinny rail for the addition of a light or laser. For my holster (OWB), the only place I could find one was through Aliengear. Good solid retention with no worries as I'm moving around on equipment and such. Breakdown for cleaning will be very familiar to those with Glocks. One thing I have done is ensure that the feed ramp is highly polished. I ran a smoothing stone over it to remove any burrs and then several applications of Flitz. Bottom line, for the price, this has been a pretty good firearm.

The second item is a Kel-Tec CP33 22LR my son picked up and we are in the process of tweaking it a bit. What could be more fun than 33 per magazine? So far we've added a Tandemkross Game Changer Comp, safety thumb ledge, forward thumb ledge, and slapped on a $40 Tru-Glo red dot, which has held up pretty good and provides smooth and quick follow up shots. It has fiber optic sights and served fairly well, but, opted for the red dot for quicker follow ups. We'll be following up shortly with a Galloway Precision short stroke trigger. Overall it's a great little range gun, but man, magazine reloading is a time and finger killer, need to find a mag loader for this one.

Great report as usual, Sua Sponte! Thanks!

Next up we have a question from our pal Mostly Peaceful Grognard

I'm ignorant of the best way to go about selling off old, less-loved firearms so I can buy new, hopefully more-lovable ones.

I did manage to flog one to another moron last year (hooray moron meetups!). However, I've got a few more I'm looking to sell and not sure that "meet a fellow AoS moron somewhere in the Ohio wilderness" is always the optimum way to go about this. I've considered just putting them up on gunbroker.com, or trying my friendly LGS, but thought I'd turn to the moron horde for suggestions for what to do with these.

Great question! How are the rest of you parting with guns when the time comes?

Next up, our pal NA NA has been to the range with a 1911 and sends this range report.

This is a .45 ACP Colt M1991A1 w/ 230 grain full metal jacket taking rapid aimed shots at 15 yards. The basic GI style sights (front blade, rear notch, no dots) are difficult to pick up on an indoor range, especially with black on black contrast between the sights and the target. This is the first firearm I bought back in 1994. It cost me $375, which was a decent amount back then. The parkerized finish recalled the late WWII Colt M1911A1 production pistols. I bought this mainly because I'd carried a M1911A1 for Desert Storm in 1991 and my National Guard unit still had .45s and hadn't received the new M9s yet. Of course, that changed only a couple of months after I bought this.

Nice shooting, NA NA, and thanks for the report!

Finally! The Story of Lubricating Oil!

Our pal redc1c4 shares a story from on AK Models

Very nice, thanks redc1c4!

Gun Basics 101

Continuing our series on the basics, here are a couple of videos from the "She Equips Herself" girl; the first on common gun terminology, and the second on what to expect to going to the range alone for the first time. I completely understand how overwhelming a first range trip can be, but knowing what to expect in advance can help the process go smoothly. Just look how well TecumsehTea did!

Some common gun terms explained.

What to expect at the range.

Also, last week our pal and delightful 'ette Helena Handbasket recommended a couple of great resources for finding an NRA instructor and for the NRA's Women On Target Program. The latter is designed for ladies new to shooting and consistently receives great reviews from those who have attended one of the classes. I'd also like to add a couple; first The Cornered Cat which is a website for ladies on the subject of self-defense, and The High Road which is a very well run general firearms forum and a great place to find answers to questions. I learned a lot from this website over the years!

Link-O-Rama

I'm really very seriously not kidding around anymore. Buy Ammo
AmmoSeek - online ammo search tool
GunBot - online ammo search tool
SG Ammo
Palmetto State Armory
Georgia Arms
AmmoMan
Target Sports USA
Bud's Gun Shop

This week's gun funny comes to us courtesy of our pal and all 'round wonderful human being Fungus Boy

Please note the new and improved protonmail account gunthread at protonmail dot com. An informal Gun Thread archive can be found HERE. Future expansion plans are in the works for the site Weasel Gun Thread. If you have a question you would like to ask Gun Thread Staff offline, just send us a note and we'll do our best to answer. If you care to share the story of your favorite firearm, send a picture with your nic and tell us what you sadly lost in the tragic canoe accident. If you would like to remain completely anonymous, just say so. Lurkers are always welcome!

That's it for this week - have you been to the range?

posted by Weasel at 07:00 PM

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