Gun Thread: Halloween 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!

Last week was a real doozy! I left Texas as a newly minted Honorary Texan with extra luggage early on Sunday morning and drove like a maniac for a couple of days arriving home Monday afternoon, smiling the whole way. What a trip! What an excellent MoMe! Please see below for a recap on the madcap festivities, and feel free to share your MoMe story in the comments.

Today is Halloween, as evidenced by the skeery picture up above. I downloaded the pic from a stock photo site and recalled the cross with the circle is a Celtic Cross (wiki) which is evidently interpreted by some retards as a white supremacy sign. If that's the case, why aren't they all over Glenn Youngkin's campaign bus? Is there anything that's not a white supremacy sign anymore? Sheesh. Anyhoo, Happy Halloween! Do you get trick-or-treaters where you live?

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

Q: Weasel, why not start at the beginning?
A: You know, that's just crazy enough to work!

In the beginning, or approximately Wednesday, we started setting up the handgun and rifle ranges. Hay bales and steel plates on the handgun side with six shooting positions, and a separate firing point for beginners or those needing or wanting some one-on-one instruction. On the rifle range, we had steel targets at 50, 100, 200, 300, 500 and 700 yards. Thursday, preparations were in high gear setting up tables and chairs and various other infrastructure for the main event, and also doing some very necessary shooting as a QC check on the steel plates to make sure they were working properly. Once the targets were sufficiently "tuned" we adjourned to the carport to visit and enjoy an outstanding dinner prepared by Ben Had, wrapping up the pre-MoMe.

On Friday, the scheduled events started at 8am on the carport for the classroom portion of the rifle clinic. The attendance was great and we had a very enjoyable three hour conversation on considerations for mid-range shooting, including; gear and setup, interior and exterior ballistics, and computing firing solutions. An eager group of shooters adjourned to the range around lunchtime, making room for the presentation on handguns by our pal Jim - SND and Eromero to include topics and demonstrations on safety, shooting stance, grip and target/sight alignment. A major thank you to these two for all of their efforts.

Back on the rifle range, shooters were able to engage targets sitting or prone from a bench on the back of a flatbed trailer out to the distances previously mentioned, and boy do we ever have some shooters in the group with many scoring repeatable hits on the 700 yd target! A big, hearty Texas-size Thank You to all those who helped, including RI Red, Scuba Dude and "Steven", if we are to believe that's his real name.

While everyone was making the rifle targets look stupid, we could hear gunfire from the direction of the main house meaning the handgun range was open. Special thanks to nurse r, Helena Handbasket, Steck and Satrose for their help on the handgun range offering both instruction and serving as beautiful and delightful RSO's. I had many attendees approach me throughout the event and mention how much help you all were, and how much they enjoyed all of your efforts on the handgun range. Thank you, and we're already planning big things on the range for TXMoMe 2022!

On Saturday, both ranges opened around 9am until after lunch so the range crews could come up to the house and join the party which was by then in full swing. I mentioned it earlier, and the organizers deserve to be mentioned again - Ben Had, Cow Horse Queen and RancherBob and Brian - did an outstanding job on the food and drink and making sure everyone had an excellent time. Pork loin, pulled pork, tater salad and a seemingly endless and amazing array of side dishes contributed by dozens of people. I'm not sure who made the chocolate chip cookies but I think I ate about 63 of them. Thanks! I am going to keep saying this until every damn last one of you attends a MoMe, you are only cheating yourself if you don't come to one. For you skeptics, the TXMoMe is the one event I commit to each year that I actually look forward to. No shit. It's fun to watch the first-time bashful introverts arrive and later depart laughing, smiling and giving hugs all around.

WeaselThanks
Please allow me to indulge myself with a heartfelt thanks to you all. Over the last few years, it has been my absolute pleasure to share some of the lessons I have learned about shooting, not only here on the Gun Thread, but also in person at the Texas MoMe. Writing this weekly thread and going to Texas each October have given me the opportunity to make some amazing friends, so please believe me when I say the pleasure is all mine! Suffice it to say I was very surprised when, at the end of the prize drawings, I was included with the organizers and received the following special momento from some very special NoVa Morons.

This is going to go right along with the items I have saved over the course of my career as a competitive shooter. Thank you so much!

If I weren't honored enough already, Ben Had stepped up and in true Texas fashion, super-double honored me by asking those present to vote on whether or not I should be made an Honorary Texan, and then presenting me with this truly remarkable custom rifle case.

Weasel is still speechless. Weasel is literally without speech.

Words cannot adequately describe my appreciation to Ben Had, the Va Morons, and to each and every one of you. I could go on about how special this is to me, but frankly words will never seem adequate to convey my feelings of gratitude so I will end this part with only two:

Thank You.

Again, please feel free to discuss your TXMoMe experience in the comments below!

P.S. Jim - SND is working on a group rate at the Holiday Inn Express in Corscicana for next year's MoMe. If you stayed at the property this year, or would consider it for next year, please email Jim HERE.

Finally, after going through months of gunpowder withdrawal, I managed to hit one of my favorite ranges: 7 Mile Hill shooting Range, a range, I might add, was featured many moons ago, when the Gun Thread was young.

From left to right: Howa .243 Winchester, heavy varmint barrel topped by a Burris Veracity 3-15x 50 FFP, Hogue overmolded stock with full bed block. Capable of 1/2 MOA, if I'm feeling good.

M1 Garand. Nuff said.

Sig 1911

Taurus .357 Magnum wheel gun bought used, years ago, in AZ. Either someone did a trigger job or shot it frequently, because the trigger pull is smoooth.

Smith & Wesson 686+ .357 Magnum

Kimber Custom II 1911

K-31 Swiss

Savage Model 93 FV .22 Magnum with Accutrigger topped by a BSA Sweet 22 Scope. Ugly as sin, but, very accurate out to 100 yards.

The idea was to shoot these various firearms, maybe take some pics, if I managed to keep stuff on paper, then submit for bragging rights. Or, mocking rights, as the case may be. Unfortunately, the wind was against me and, while I was able to stay on paper, that was the best I could do with the rifles. Funny thing, downrange, the wind was manageable. However, at the firing line, the wind was hitting me so hard, it was actually making the rifle vibrate and move, making it impossible to do anything resembling shooting for accuracy. But, I succeeded in my goal of getting some rifles to the range that had not had their triggers caressed in a while.

After the rifle bay, I moved down to the pistol bay, which has lots of nifty steel targets and proceeded to make the steel let me know when I missed, or hit, as the case may be. I was quite pleased, as both 1911's hadn't been run in months, the Sig long than the Kimber, and both performed flawlessly. I also shot some 38 Special +P out of the Smith & Wesson at the steel, did reasonably well, considering the trigger take-up is a bit different than a 1911. Shooting magnum loads at steel at this range is a no no, so, don't do it! Overall, despite the wind conditions, it was a fine afternoon at the range.

Man, do I ever love shooting in that part of the country! Thanks for sharing, Blake!

Next up, a Long Time Lurker sends pictures of a recent discovery hiding in his gun safe!

Just got word last Wed that my company will require the f'n shot. So to help get my mind off that bull crap, I decided to find out what was lurking in all the dark corners of my grandfathers Remington Model 341 Sportmaster. Spent a few hours throughout the last week disassembling the receiver and bolt, thoroughly cleaned all the pieces, polished the sear faces (because why not?) and reassembled. Decided yesterday to see what was under the 80 year old nearly opaque finish on the stock, and I discovered a stunning piece of walnut hiding underneath! The Model 341, made for 4 years (1936-40) has a patented loading mechanism that elevates the cartridge (S,L or LR!) and pushes from the rear like a naval gun.

Holy Crap! That's beautiful! Thanks Long Time Lurker!!

Next up, our pal Blaster shares pics of his Extar EP9 and shows he knows how to shoot it!

I wrote about my experience with an Extar EP9 a few weeks ago and here is some more about it. First the firearm itself. It is a 9mm "pistol" but kinda more like a PCC. It is AR "like" in form and function. Like an AR pistol it has a "brace". But It is NOT an AR pistol. A few parts are interchangeable like the trigger group and the pistol grip. Not much else, actually. But it feels very familiar to an AR shooter. The side charging handle is a little different but easy to operate and get used to.

There are lots of good things about it. It is made in 'Merica. It is light weight they say 4.1 lbs unloaded. This is achieved by the use of lots and lots of polymer. Lots of it. There are some upgrades available from third parties that allow replacement of plastic parts with metal actual AR parts. But that goes against weight and the other great result of the polymer: price. Current list is $449. Also this uses Glock mags. Ships with a 17 rounder and can use anything from 15 to 33 rounders. So if you have a Glock mag cache that gets you double duty.

I wrote before that I got to fire it the week after I got to fire Ed L's SP5. I think it compares very favorably to it. Again, it is NOT an SP5 but it's most of the way there for a whole lot less money. Now maybe it ia just me and the proximity of the experience because none of the reviews I have read or watched make such an extraordinary claim. But they are universally positive and they are touted as a good value at least.

So I have convinced sra blaster that I need one for Christmas. This is the hard part. They are sold directly from the Extar website only. And they are usually sold out. Extar has worked the demand side a bit by raising the price from $419 earlier this year. Some are available from people who buy them and resell them marked up. Two on Gunbroker as of this writing at $550, which affects the value proposition a bit.

So, yeah, how does it shoot? Pretty dang good. The one I shot had a Romeo 5 red dot sight on it (oh yeah stock it is "optic ready" meaning no iron sights even so put that in the budget). Picked it up cold and the below was the result from about 30 feet that target is on 8x11.5 paper. So, yeah, that works.

Very nice and good shooting! Thanks for sharing, Blaster!

Next, our pal Scuba Dude, when not at the range shooting, also likes watching shooting videos! This one features an interesting range setup in Switzerland.

Thanks Scoob!

A few threads back we were back and forthing on revolvers. I mentioned the problem of properly handing and gripping a revolver and got a few how ya doin's from the horde. Holding one with your hand where the frame and cylinder meet is a recipe for injury. I think this is pretty important considering the number of folks we've got that may be new to firearms.

Nice! Thanks McGyver!

Thanks red!

Ramon Allones Cuban from Cigar One in Geneva, Switzerland. At $12 each, these aren't a daily smoke for me, but are perfect for a special occasion, like the Gun Thread!

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

Our pal Iron Dave shares the following from his local range.

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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