My new favorite rifle

Today I had to get out of New Orleans for a bit and go reconnect with America.

I headed out I-10 past Slidell until I reached the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area and the Honey Island Shooting Range. It was here that I gave the new FAL a try.

I came out skeptical, but came home seriously impressed.

The sights needed a bit of tweaking but she consistently hits a six inch steel gong at 100 yards and the function is flawless. 80 rounds fired today (and twenty kept loaded in a mag in reserve for the trip home) and no defects, failures or surprises.

I LOVE this rifle!

And a FAL with brass marks below the ejection port is a happy FAL indeed. Don't ask me why they all do this. They just do.

And here's a father and daughter shooting an AR-15 together. Because America.

Almost everyone on the rifle line seemed to be shooting some type of AR today. I remember not too many years ago when I was often the only AR shooter on the range and was even mocked by other shooters for having one.

Great range at Honey Island. Just a 100 yard rifle line and a 25 yard pistol line, and a bit more restrictive than I like, but the Range Officers were all polite, professional and non-asinine. Two of them came over to see the FAL, asking what it was and admitting to having never seen one before. It sure beats dealing with "know-it-all" types, most of whm really don't know jack. And the mix of stands for paper targets and steel gongs available to most shooters makes for a good shoot spot for just $6. I'll definitely be back out here.