Category Archives: Shooting

Some Range Time With Reese

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Reese and I went down to the range to try out that Rossi .22 rifle today and had a blast (pun intended). The sites were out of adjustment, but a little tweaking got that sorted out nicely. He was hitting the steels pretty consistently and we were able to start working on fine tuning grip and stance a little more. The rifle is great! It’s a youth sized gun, so no fitment problems, and easy to operate. We had some misfires, but I’m blaming that on the cheap .22 ammo, not the gun. In all cases save one, cocking the hammer and firing again did the trick. That one was just not going to go off, and the primer area had a nice hard strike. We’re definitely giving it two thumbs up!

Shooting the Rossi .22

Reese shooting the Rossi .22

Rossi Matched Pair

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While out finishing off some Christmas shopping, I happened to find myself at the gun counter over at Dick’s Sporting Goods, looking at one of the Rossi Matched Pairs. It’s a neat setup, with interchangeable single-shot barrels in .22lr and .410 shotgun. It’s youth sized, so I thought it would be great for me to work with Reese on basic marksmanship and safety. I was pretty impressed with its fit and finish, and since the price was extremely compelling (and there was a rebate to boot), the last one in the store came home with me. We’ll see how the little guy does with it when he comes down to visit…

No More NFA CLEO Sign-off Soon?

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If this article over at Outdoor Wire is to be believed, the ATF is poised to remove the CLEO sign-off requirement for Form 1 and Form 4 paperwork. That means that individuals will be able to complete NFA purchases in counties where the sheriff is hostile. In Texas that includes Bexar (San Antonio), Harris (Houston), and Dallas (Dallas) counties. In other words, a sheriff will not be able to deny someone their constitutional rights simply because they don’t like them.

I would still advise against going down the individual transfer route. It leaves ones family unprotected, as opposed to a well written trust. That has been the legally permissible route to get around CLEOs that refuse to sign off on NFA paperwork. One big reason why it should still be the route of choice is that it allows you to put your family on the trust as well as you. That means that they can legally be in possession of the NFA items as well. For example, lets assume you and your significant other go to the range with a suppressor and you are injured and have to be taken to the hospital. If you’ve done an individual transfer, that suppressor can’t be in anyone else’s possession. It’s an illegal transfer, which is a felony punishable by a $10,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison. So your significant other could not take it home to lock it back up in your safe (you DO have a safe, right?). On the other hand, if it were transferred via a trust, and the significant other is on the trust, it’s good and nobody’s facing jail time.

Keep an eye on this, because it sounds like they’re going to open a comment period, and you can expect the opposition to come out of the woodwork. They love CLEO sign-off on everything, even though it is used to deny people their rights for political reasons.

Taking The Sparrow Out For A Spin

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I got up at the butt crack of dawn and dodged showers over to the Dallas Pistol Club to give the SilencerCo Sparrow a try. This was my first trip to the range with it, so I set up a testing regimen to be sure everything was in working order. First was two magazines of standard velocity .22 to verify that the pistol was in good working order. Then I ran two magazines of subsonic through it to make sure that the action would cycle. No problems were experienced. After that I removed the thread protector and installed the suppressor and then ran a couple magazines of the subsonic ammo through. I was pleasantly surprised at just how quiet AND noisy it was. There was literally no report, but the action cycling was louder than I’d though, as was the sound of the bullet hitting the steel target. The pistol, a Ruger MkII, continued to feed and cycle without issue. I also ran a couple magazines of the standard .22 through, and while it was a bit louder, it was still comfortable without any hearing protection. Here’s a YouTube video of me running a couple magazines of the subsonic ammo through it.

Picked Up The MkII

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Heather and I went up to the Bavarian Grill for dinner and then popped over to my FFL’s place to pick up the Ruger MkII I had dropped off to be threaded for a suppressor. Andrew did a fantastic job not only threading the barrel but also machining a thread protector that looks like it isn’t even a separate part. The suppressor fits perfectly, but until the tax stamp comes in, I can’t write about its performance. Hopefully that will be in soon, there’s just no telling…

What Centuty Is This?

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This post over on Breda‘s blog popped up yesterday, and it’s taken me a day or so to digest it and come up with a somewhat intelligent response instead of just calling his intelligence, parentage, and sanity into question.

Seriously.  I’d hoped we were adults enough to understand a few simple concepts.  First, you don’t use someone’s creative output without permission.  You.  Just.  Don’t.  Second, regardless of where said subject exists on the attractiveness spectrum, whether it be on the “face that launched a thousand ships” side or on the “OMGWTFKILLITWITHFIRE!!!!1!!1eleventy!” side, you don’t post said creative output with the title “<person’s name> porn”.  That’s just tacky, and really isn’t doing the rest of us who genuinely want to see more people from the Two X Chromosome set out at the range any favors.  Third, if you choose to disregard points first and second, be an adult when (not if) you get called out on it.  Responses like “I knew girls like you in High School, but I thought they all grew up.” will only get you the kind of attention that you don’t want.  In fact, they’re more likely to get you on the list of People I Don’t Associate With.

Congratulations, gunmart.blogspot.com.  You just won the enmity of a good chunk of the on-line shooting community.  Good luck digging yourself out of that hole.

Banning Private Gun Sales

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This is a longer version of a post on Facebook.  The 420 character limit makes it a little tough to thoroughly shred her stance.

It seems the new head of the DNC, one Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, wants to screen all firearms sales, whether they be private or through an FFL.

Lets take a look at some numbers, shall we?  According to the CDC, heart disease, cancer, stroke, and lower respiratory diseases each kill more people than “accidents” (which lumps falls, car crashes, and even accidental shootings into one bucket).  And what’s worse for Rep. Schultz and her friends is that homicide didn’t even make the top 10 list.

Lets ask ourselves what the folks opposed to firearms ownership would stand to gain if they could force private sales to be screened?  Well, first of all, it’s kind of hard to actually stop two people from meeting somewhere and exchanging paper for steel.  We haven’t been able to do it for certain chemical compounds, so what makes her think it’ll work this time?  Besides, I’m don’t think that it would be workable without also requiring gun registration (see! slippery slope!).  So would that be next?  A few years from now are we going to listen to some elected official saying that we need to register all firearms so that we can stop those illegal sales?  What’s next after that?  Since they’ll know who has what, confiscation is next on the list.  It’s happened everywhere ekse where gun registration was implemented.

If she really wanted to reduce deaths in this country, shouldn’t she be pushing for the almighty government to require a cholesterol check before allowing someone to buy a Big Mac?

For extra credit, head on over and read Joe Huffman’s Jews In The Attic Test for even more reasons why this is a bad idea.

Suppressor Paperwork Is On Its Way

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It’s all out of my hands now.  The paperwork and payment for the transfer taxes is making its way to the BATFE.  It looks like processing times are in the neighborhood of 10 – 14 weeks, but there seems to be some pretty wide variability in that, and if Congress can’t keep the lights on it could get even longer.  Now to get some barrels threaded and get ready for some fun…