Thursday, April 10, 2014

A great day for some shooting.

So I started my day off with a visit to the physical therapist ("Ve haf vays of making you talk!") and after that, I hit the range for some long-overdue shooting.

Today's goal was to test a new 9mm load that I put together using IMR PB powder and 124gr. FMJ bullets. The test weapon for this was an old friend from down south, my Beretta 92F.
This one is special to me, both because it's the pistol that I used to shoot Todd G's "Aim Fast, Hit Fast" course (Todd, a former Beretta exhibition shooter, upon seeing this Beretta: "That's an old one. Where's you find that thing?") and because before it came to me, it was owned and used by the New Orleans, Louisiana Police Department.
This one always makes me smile every time I think back on how New Orleans' then-Mayor Marc Morial, taking his cue from the gun-banners, sued several gun manufacturers, including Beretta USA, claiming a right to recoup the cost of "gun violence" from these companies despite the fact that they sold legal products in accordance with federal law. This was the first of a wave of such lawsuits, designed in actuality to bankrupt the firearms manufacturers, and it crashed spectacularly when the defendant companies and the NRA produced a pistol just like this one here and pointed out that for years, the City of New Orleans itself had been selling it's surplus and seized firearms in the same commercial marketplace as the companies that the city was suing. Oops.

This one may be a bit shopworn, but it still shoots good, and it's tough enough that I trust it as a test platform for new loads. But no worries with this batch--they shot as good as anything I've ever made in 9mm so I'm happy with the recipe.

Then it was time to bring out the AR for a zeroing of it's new optic.
I built the rifle originally on a Rock River lower that I bought the day after Obama got elected in 2008. It normally sports an Aimpont Comp M4 red-dot, but as I expect to be taking a class in the near future where we'll be shooting at longer ranges, I decided to mate it up with an old ACOG TA-01 that I've had sitting around the gun room just being in the way for the last several years. To that end, I hit up the folks at LaRue Tactical and snagged this spiffy and rock-solid LT-100 mount that fit both the ACOG and the rifle's rail perfectly.
Once I started playing with this optic on the rifle, I couldn't believe that I haven't mounted it and used it years ago--it's fantastic!
4x magnification, bullet-drop compensator marks, and it illuminates at night courtesy of it's tritium element inside. With this optic and the Surefire lamp on the business end of the rifle, I can peer deep into my woods after dark and now that it's zeroed at 100M, I'm all set for some night-firing exercises.

And on my way home, I stopped at the 7-11 and I was pleased to see two guys walk in open-carrying. We met each other at the door, me going out and them going in, and everybody smiled as we checked out each other's hardware--my Beretta in my holster and a S&W M&P and a Glock on their hips. And did anyone at the 7-11 have a problem with this? Nope; they're used to it. It's good to be in a pro-gun place.

6 comments:

  1. Nothing like a well used gun in fact I prefer them well used.

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  2. Why did you not take a picture of the key you use to wind up that Beretta? Ducks =)

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  3. Good on you for redeeming/rehabilitating the Beretta.

    In Texas, we're hoping to get OC in the next legislative session (2015). There's a statewide OCTexas group that promotes the idea, and stages OC (of long arms, presently legal) 'walks' - to show average Joe & Janes (and hoplophobes, too) that gun folks are normal, responsible citizens.

    Unfortunately, some offshoot or splinter groups, not necessarily affiliated with or sanctioned by the state OCT, have held some demonstrations in which their primary aim seems to have been <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuEMVABRgl8'>getting into pi$$ing contests with some local PDs</a>. Hopefully, the more level-headed of us will be able to convince these yahoos that what they're doing is not likely to win friends and influence people.

    Background: The area in the video is a bit less than a mile from AT&T Stadium (home of the Dallas Cowgirls, and the NCAA basketball championship games). Arlington has an ordinance against pedestrian/motorist interaction, with a view toward increasing safety and curbing ticket scalping (the city is home to the Texas Rangers also) - arguably legitimate concerns. The OC proponents basically were too clever by half, arguing that the cops were squelching their 1A rights because they were handing copies of the Constitution to motorists. Heck, this is Texas - most of the cops probably are on our side regarding 2A issues, it really doesn't make much sense picking a fight with them.

    [SMH]

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  4. Donald, we've got those extremists here, too. All they want is confrontation and conflict and they've managed to turn away a lot of formerly uncommitted "mainstream" people and they've even caused some businesses to bar OC. As usual, that sort out there on the fringe is our own worst enemy.

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  5. Anonymous11:56 PM

    Sweet indeed

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  6. I told ya... That ACOG is a keeper... ;-)

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