Back from the range

Well it was a nice day out, so I went out to check out a new range not too far from me. Actually "range" is too kind--it's one step away from being a landfill. The owners let anyone bring out whatever they want to shoot at so the area is covered with old computers, small appliances, bottles and cans of every sort, and lots of other miscellaneous junk. Add to this the fact that the shooters just before me found and killed a 4.5ft. timber rattler that was underneath the sole picnic table there(I saw it) and you get the picture.

But on the other hand, they allow rapid fire and position shooting, something that the range nazis at the Izaak Walton club do not. So it's worth it in the balance.

I started out with this beautiful old warhorse. It's a #4 MK1 Enfield .303 rifle made for the British forces in World War Two. This particular one was actually manufactured by the Savage Arms Company in Utica, New York. As it was made back in the early days of the war when the United States was still technically adhering to a policy of not providing arms to any belligerent nation (This would have included Britain and Germany equally but for President Roosevelt's decision to covertly aid England), the guns were all maked "US Property" to facilitate the fiction that they were *really* our guns that we were just loaning to the British.
Of course the fact that the US did not ever use either the Enfield or the .303 cartridge exposed that lie right off. But it didn't stop the shipments of these guns from New York to England and this is one of the rifles that actually made it past the blockading U-Boats and got to England. I know this because it has British proof marks on the barrel--a sure sign that they received and tested it. Somehow it got back here to the States again and I picked it up a few years ago at a private sale. But I hadn't actually fired it until today, and let me tell you--for a rifle with non-adjustable sights, it was dead on at 100 yards. My preferred target was a chunk of cast iron a foot tall and about four inches wide that someone had obligingly painted bright orange to help me see it clearly, and almost every shot was rewarded with a crisp, loud ringing sound as the bullets impacted that chunk of iron a football field away. No doubt about it--this rifle's a keeper.

After burning through 50 rounds of 1950's surplus ammunition I put the Enfield up and broke out my little Israeli friend.
This is the venerable Uzi submachine gun, the real reason that I'm shooting on this "range". Actually this one is an Israeli receiver with South African parts which was assembled in Salt Lake City, USA, and it's one of the best submachine guns available to shooters as it's simple, reliable, and parts and accessories are still widely and cheaply available for it. I just put the wooden stock on it a few weeks ago, replacing the standard metal folding one. I'm not sure that I'm sold on this wood stock yet. It's awfully short and will take
some getting used to. I know that it was made to be short so that the weapon could be employed from inside automobiles and armored vehicles, but it's still an awkward fit to someone like me who is used to longer rifle stocks.

I burned a few hundred rounds of 9mm ammunition, blasting various items in the junk piles nearby until the ammo was gone. Sadly, ammo never seems to last long when the Uzi's in use. But then again, that's part of the little gun's charm.

As I was emptying my range bag, I found another small bag of 9mm ammunition which I had initially mistaken for SMG ammunition. Turned out that it was nice clean Winchester commercial stuff, so I downloaded my Heckler and Koch P7 PSP and finished off the targets that the Uzi had only wounded.
This particular P7 is an ex-GSG9 gun, having been formerly issued to and used by a member of the elite West German anti-terrorist unit Grenzschutzgruppe 9. It carries their mark on it's slide and it's worn enough that I have no problem believing that it really was. It's a precision weapon and the exact opposite of the Uzi in that it can put individual bullets precisely where the operator (me) wants them, and I carry it as my primary self-defense sidearm for that reason. I probably shouldn't have shot this one too, as now I have three guns to clean, but it's just such an enjoyable weapon to shoot. I couldn't resist.

Now I'm home, and getting ready to break out the cleaning supplies. But it was a great day to shoot, the weapons all functioned perfectly, and I'm not ashamed to say that I shot exceptionally well with all three of them. Figures that there's never anyone else around whenever I'm on top of my game like I was today.