Shooting with Aaron and Spud

As always happens when I go back to visit family in Michigan, I get together with Aaron of The Shekel blog and we go out to a gravel pit near Lapeer and shoot guns. This time was no exception, and we brought the Spud for the first time, because he never gets to do "guy stuff" normally and I don't want him growing up to be a hair stylist or an interior decorator...not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.

On the way, we stopped at a yard sale and bought a small mini-fridge for $5.00. The sellers swore that it worked, but were reluctant to let me plug it in and see. That didn't really matter though as we bought it to use as a target. Once at the pit, we set it out at approximately 200M and commenced to shooting it to pieces. Don't ask why--it's just what guys do.


Here's Aaron, demonstrating his new Saiga 12 gauge semi-auto shotgun. Basically, it's what you get when you re-engineer an AK-47 to fire 12 gauge shells. And with that Eotech sight on top, it's a wicked piece of work. Aaron put the first hole in our mini-fridge as the first slug he fired from the Siaga went clean through it. It was also devastating against cardboard boxes with shot, and we even shot a bit of skeet with it as another shooter tossed some clays for us. The Eotech works surprisingly good for that, too.










And the Spud got to shoot. Here he is with his own BB gun, a Crossman 760 that I got him for Christmas a year and a half ago. This was his first time out with it since no one that he lives with will take him shooting. Once he learned how to pump it up and aim it, he was gleefully killing plastic bottles regularly.


Then we put the Spud on a few grown-up weapons. Here's Aaron, coaching him on the AR-15 (top) and the Spud, still under close supervision, firing an AK-47 (bottom).










Then it was time to bring out the Browning.After anchoring the tripod's feet into to earth and watering the ground forward of the gun to prevent the muzzle blast from kicking up a massive dust cloud, we were ready to try out some of the new cloth-belted 1950's-vintage ammunition that the CMP so graciously made available. It was the first time that I got to test this ammo, and I have to say that I was pleased. Every round fired without a hitch, and aside from a heavy lacquer build-up inside the barrel's chamber from the glue used to put the rounds in the belt (not something I'd ever want in one of my rifles...), it was clean and shot well. Here's Aaron firing, with the Spud spotting for him.
And here's the Spud, getting some machine gun trigger time. He's not aiming and not on target, but he's having fun burning up ammo (and a good barrel). And yes, that's me in the background yelling "Stop!" over and over.


He'll get better.

And here's Aaron, demonstrating the concept of aimed MG fire. He's slower, but right on target. That poor mini-fridge never stood a chance.


We shot some pistols, too, and even gave Spud a whack at Aaron's Glock 22, which Spud did not care much for. He says that it hurts his hand. I just think that he's developing good taste and knows instinctively that Glocks are...well...let's just say that they're like the mopeds of the gun world. They do the job, but without any coolness or style.


A good time was had by all. When asked if he had fun, Spud grinned from ear to ear and yelled "YEAH!"

Happy gun.

Every man a Rifleman II

This simple but eloquent post by Ed Rasimus got me to thinking.

Every real, patriotic American should have a rifle and ammunition, and be proficient in their use. Our government once agreed, hence the creation of the Department of Civilian Marksmanship (DCM), now privatized and known today at the Civilian Marksmanship Program, or(CMP).

Yes, there was a time when the government wanted us all armed and able to shoot in defense of our nation and our freedom and liberty. Ironically, many in that government would love to take every one of those guns back away from us as liberty and freedom just aren't in in vogue these days. See what happens when liberals get control?

Anyway...I'm also a fan of preparedness and self-reliance when it comes to personal defense, which is why, like many of my readers and blog authors that I link to, I maintain the requisite tools.I've owned this M1A and 1911A1 pistol since the mid 1980's. Both are Springfield Armory products and two of the very few guns that I've ever purchased new. I've competed with them, traveled and camped with them, and fired countless thousands of rounds through them to get to the point where I seldom fail to hit what I aim either of them at. I will defend my country and my personal liberty at all costs and these are my liberty teeth.

But sometimes, you need a bit more. You can't really expect to play golf with just two clubs, can you? I mean, you can if that's all you have, but as different shots call for different clubs, you do better with a full set.

Sometimes, you need to go for distance.

Sometimes, you need to work in close.

And sometimes, when you really need to cover an area or defend a point, you need to work with a partner.
Will bear ammo and spot for Milk Bones.

Another post about a time when movies were great...and machine guns

And speaking of television, and the good old days when Hollywood was patriotic and made great movies, I happened to catch the 1970 classic Kelly's Heroes yesterday.

Aside from the fact that the movie features Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, Caroll O'Connor, Harry Dean Stanton, Gavin MacLeod, Jeff Morris and Don Rickles all in the same movie, it's got lots of machine guns and tanks--tanks that run lots of stuff over and blow a ton of stuff up. How do you not like that? And adding to the cool factor, Don Rickles--one of my favorite comedians--spends a fair deal of time toting around a Browning 1919A4 machine gun and using it to whack about a score of Germans.

And looking for a clip to post up here, I found this fantastic one that even shows Rickles with the Browning.
How cool is that?


Now after watching Kelly's Heroes and seeing Don Rickles toting that Browning 1919A4, I felt the desire to blog about mine again. I own this wonderful piece of military history, the Browning 1919A4 .30 machine gun. It's an air-cooled, belt-fed gun that weighs about 28lbs by itself and about 41lbs with it's tripod and T&E mechanism, both of which are pretty well required.

It fires 550 rounds per minute of either .30-06, .308 or 8mm ammunition (very versatile guns, these Brownings) and the ammo feeds from either cloth belts or metallic links. Here's a can holding 250 rounds of .30-06 ammunition, and this can weighs about 20lbs all by itself.



So what does 250 rounds linked together really look like?



Well here's a linked belt taken out of the can and laid out straight. It's about twelve feet long and the gun can burn through this in about 30 seconds if necessary, but it's much easier on the gun to just fire 5-6 round bursts and keep the rate of fire down to about 120 rounds a minute so as not to burn the rifling out of the barrel. So at that rate, this belt lasts about two minutes. Obviously, more than one can is going to be needed for any practical employment of this gun.

In actual military use, a gun team would have one or two ammo bearers--soldiers whose main job is just to carry extra cans of ammo for this gun. That's in addition to any ammo carried by the gunner and assistant gunner and that assigned to other soldiers in the squad to carry. Many soldiers would lessen the weight by removing the belts from the can and draping them around their shoulders. This wasn't always good, because it allowed the links to get dirty and sometimes knocked rounds out of alignment--both of which could cause the gun to jam--but it was often done nonetheless, and it's still even done today by our troops as they field the Browning's successor guns, the M60 and M240.

I, of course, am always in the market for ammo bearers. In a perfect world, I would have ammo bearers who looked like these two patriotic ladies, each of whom seems to have exactly what this machine gunner needs:




















Sadly, I just get this guy:


Life can be so unfair.

Anyway, here's a nice clip of my Browning 1919A4 in operation. I just found this clip on Youtube, and apparently this guy filmed me and a couple of my cop pals, one of whom is fellow blogger Roanoake Cop, while we were shooting it at the state range near his place a couple years ago.

I thought that set-up looked familiar!

Oh--Well-deserved credit to The Sniper for the ammo bearer babes.

Color me officially jealous.

Per this article at Military.com News, Our troops in Afghanistan have got a new machine gun, the MK 48, made by (who else?) Fabrique Nationale. In use by Navy SEALs since 2000, this bad motor scooter fires the 7.62x51mm cartridge at a rate of up to 700 rounds per minute but weighs in at just 18.5 pounds!This comes about because our troops are finding the standard M240B to be too heavy to lug around the mountains at 27.5 pounds. And in a region where firepower counts, the need for a lighter gun capable of laying it down is only self-evident. The best gun in the world isn't any good if it gets left behind because it weighs too much to carry.

And yes, I'm jealous. Much as I love The Beast here, this World War Two-era Browning 1919A4 weighs in at 28 pounds for the gun alone, and that jumps to about forty-two pounds when you factor in the required tripod, pintle and T&E mechanism.
Hell, I get tired just pulling it out of the safe. And then there's the added weight of the ammo belts, spare barrels, and basic tools needed to keep any machine gun running...it's no wonder that the quest for ever-lighter guns goes on.

However, as much as I'd love to be able to trade the old Browning in on a newer, lighter FN gun just to reduce the weight penalty, I realize that our troops' needs come first, and getting them as many guns as possible is a priority. Unfortunately, we have a handful of jerks in the Senate who apparently don't agree. According to this article in the Washington Times, a band of senators both Democrat and Republican have just diverted 2.6 BILLION dollars out of the current defense spending appropriation--specifically from an appropriation intended to buy new guns and ammo for our troops. They've steered this money away from our men and women on the battlefield and into their own pet pork projects.

Stolen from our troops was $20 million that was requested by Sen. John Kerry for a new library in Massachusetts to be named for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. This of course has nothing to do with the military, won't help troop one, and the Kennedy family has more than enough money to pay for this out of their own pockets so it's particularly upsetting to see money taken from our troops for this monument to a dead Democrat.

$25 million more was siphoned off by Louisiana's two senators, Mary Landrieu(D) and David Vitter(R) for another World War two museum in New Orleans. Hel-lo! There's already one there. Why the hell do our soldiers have to go without in order to build a second one, and why do we have to loot our military budget during a war to pay for it?

And then there's the $20 million for Humvee maintenance at an Army National Guard installation in Maine, sponsored by Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe, the two turncoat Republicans who have been voting with the Dems on just about everything. Apparently their reward is not the traditional thirty pieces of silver that one pays a Judas but a whole steamer trunk full of cash, ostensibly to keep a vehicle maintenance facility going way the hell up in one of the most remote parts of our country, about as far away from most of our nation's Humvees as it could possibly be. But what is efficiency and combat readiness compared to being able to brag to Maine voters that their two RINO senators have the Dem leadership's favor?

It goes on and gets worse. Hell, with the bunch of self-serving thieves that we have in Congress today, it's a wonder that our troops aren't still expected to do the job with ancient Browning MG's like mine. But elections are coming around in 13 months, people...I say that we toss every one of these jerks out. 535 homeless chosen at random from inner-city shelters could hardly do worse, so let's replace the current crop, starting with the leadership--Sen. Harry Reid(D)--Nevada and Rep. Nancy Pelosi(D)--California.

And just maybe the new batch will consider lifting the 1986 ban on civilian purchases of new machine guns so that I actually can replace The Beast with something a little newer. Now that's change we can hope for!

Mexico and media lie about guns again.

So the big news on the headlines now is that an "anti-aircraft machine gun" has just been captured from a Mexican drug cartel, supposedly the first of it's kind discovered by anti-drug forces. ABC News has it, so does the Associated Press. According to the story, the weapon is a "confiscated .50-caliber, anti-aircraft machine gun can fire 800 rounds per minute and is capable of penetrating armor from more than 5,000 feet (1,500 meters). Police on a routine patrol Monday found the gun fitted atop an SUV at a house in northern Sonora state."

They go on to show pictures of the alleged ".50 caliber anti-aircraft weapon", and lo and behold, it's not even close!







That's right--those of you who know guns should easily recognize this gem--it's a World War two-era Browning model 1919A4 .30 machine gun. Not a .50, but just a little .30. And for those of you unfamiliar with such firearms, that's a big difference. It's like mistaking a Ford ranger 1/4 ton pick-up for a semi tractor rig. And this gun's not even set up for anti-aircraft use--it's on a ground tripod, not one suited at all for engaging aircraft, and the traverse and Elevation mechanism is missing, making it a pretty crummy ground gun too.
basically it's a 60+ year old weapon that serves primarily to intimidate peasants just by making a lot of noise.

And lest ye question my credentials or my weapons identification expertise, you only have to go to the search box in the upper left corner of this blog and use "Browning 1919A4" as a search term and you'll see several articles concerning the one that I personally own. Trust me--it's a nice historical item, but long obsolete and hardly as dangerous as the .50 caliber gun that they claimed it is. And again, this one's not even particularly useful either as an anti-aircraft weapon or in any other role without that T&E mechanism.

Authorities did not release any other details about the gun, including its make, where it was manufactured, or where it was sold.

Lemme help you out there, "authorities". It's a Browning 1919A4, caliber .30. It was most likely manufactured here in the good old US of A in during World War Two and subsequently given to some Central or South American country as military foreign aid in the 1960's...probably Mexico. It definitely didn't come from an American civilian gun shop, even though the Mexican government and Hillary Clinton like to claim that 90% of the weapons seized in that country do.

The problem here is that lies like this, if allowed to stand, will eventually become the basis for stricter gun control laws here in our country. Hillary's said that we need more restrictions on our gun ownership to help Mexico, and Eric Holder, Obama's radically anti-gun Attorney General has made the same claim. excuses are being made right now to slam the lid on your gun-buying ability and mine, and deliberate misinformation like this propaganda piece are part and parcel to those efforts even though that claim is just not true. The truth is that the drug cartels in Mexico arm themselves with military-grade weapons from other countries, including many that were originally given or sold to the Mexican government and diverted to the criminal gangs via corrupt Mexican officials. But American gun owners are poised to take the rap for Mexico's corruption and out-of-control crime problem, and our own gun-haters like Clinton and Holder and Obama himself are more than willing to play along with the lie and pretend that the only way to stop Mexico's violent crime is to close US gun shops and shows and ban many types of guns that Americans like to own. This is going to happen unless we stand up and tell our elected servants that we're not going to go along with it and that we'll replace every one of them that wants to go down that road.

And if they really want to keep US guns out of Mexico so badly, you'd think that both our government and the Mexicans would be rushing to build a border wall between the two countries. Such a wall would serve to keep our guns here and Mexico's drugs and citizens in their country, thus solving a lot of problems.

But apparently neither country wants to do anything that drastic. They just want to stop law-abiding Americans from buying and owning guns, particularly the guns that may someday protect them from the well-armed Mexican criminals who decide that it's safer and more lucrative to come here in search of easy prey.

West Virginia musing

Ah, stereotypes...everyone loves 'em, usually because there's some truth behind them.

One of my favorites about West Virginia is the image of the typical resident sitting on his porch with a shotgun, yelling "Git off'n my land!" at anyone who passes by.

Now last night was nice and warm, so Lagniappe and I did our best to live up to that fine state stereotype as we sat out on the porch cleaning guns and linking machine gun ammunition.

Alas, we're not rude enough to tell people to get off our land, but we did wave to several neighbors who passed by, oblivious to the fact that we were assembling eleven-foot lengths of "carnage in a can", otherwise known as 240 rounds of .30, linked, mixed 4 M2 Ball to 1 M25 Tracer.

We've been running the reloading press heavy this past week, figuring that we might as well load up all of the loose components sitting around since everyone is panicking over the pending Obama gun bans. First I loaded enough for my matches and expected practice sessions, and then I put the remainder into links for the Browning. And I'm here to tell ya that after I clean and resize the brass, swage the primer pockets, trim the cases, put new primers in the cases, charge the cases with power, seat the bullets, put the bullets onto the links and fold the belts up into the cans, I have so much time invested that I almost don't want to shoot it now.

But it is fun to shoot. And Lagniappe agrees. Just look at that smile.

We packed four cans last night. We're ready for Deer Season.

Yep. You read right. Deer Season.

You see, Obama wants to ban all of the so-called "assault weapons". Well Lagniappe and I don't have any of those. We just have this "deer rifle". No nasty, dangerous "assault weapons" around these parts. Heck, I don't even know what an "assault weapon" is, do you? I think that someone said that it's a gun with a bayonet lug on it. Well this 1919A4 clearly doesn't have one of those, so it's obviously not an "assault weapon".


We're just a couple of deer hunters here, Lagniappe and I are. And all we have is this deer rifle. The Democrats always promise that they only want to ban "assault weapons" and that they have no desire to ban hunting guns. So we got rid of all of our "assault weapons" (whatever they are) and all we have now is hunting guns like this Browning.




Now I know that someone will say that we don't need a gun like that to hunt deer. But I beg to differ, and I offer this photo of the back yard of the Lair, taken just this morning. If the deer are going to come in squad strength, we need firepower sufficient to harvest them all.


Venison steaks, anyone? We're fixin' to have plenty.

Another new toy to play with

So my tax money came back, and while most of it went to bills and savings, I allowed myself the luxury of one new toy.

Feast your eyes on the Super Sniper 10x42 scope, shown here attached to a Savage 110 Tactical, special limited left-handed edition.

I've had the rifle for over a decade, but until now, I've never done anything with it other than mount a cheap Tasco World Class scope on it and banish it to the back corner of the gun safe. I hadn't really seen a need for the rifle all these years but I bought it way back when just because it was a left-handed tactical rifle. I'd frequently said back then that if a company ever decided to make a left-handed tactical rifle in .308, I'd buy it. Well Savage eventually made a run of them back in the early 1990's and I snared this one. Of course back then, I wasn't much of a bolt-rifle shooter and didn't know a thing about optics, so the rifle just languished.





These days, I've got plenty of time to shoot but not a lot of extra cash to drop on new guns. I also need to re-think my own tactical scenarios since I'm arguably not as fast or agile as I once was. That up close and personal CQB stuff is better left to the younger folks, ideally those with two natural feet.

I can still play those games, mind you--former employers spent a lot of time and money training me to do just that and I haven't forgotten or stopped training--but I think that it's time to revamp my tactics around skills and equipment that give me the edge via distance.




Sure, I can hose bad guys off or cover whole areas from a distance with the Browning MG, but it's really not the handiest tool in the safe for most applications due to it's weight and rather voracious appetite and the requirement for an assistant or two to lug it's fodder and keep it in action. While the Browning has it's niche, I really need something a little lighter for routine distance shooting.




So the Savage is now out of mothballs and it's been topped with this professional-grade scope. It's a fixed-power 30mm scope that's currently seeing much use in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as here on the home front with numerous police department SWAT teams. It's got a mil-dot reticle and nice target turrets--a perfect compliment to this great police-grade rifle that Savage crafted.

I took it out to the range today to zero the scope, and once on paper and dialed in for the M852 military match round that I have a quantity of thanks to a generous Uncle Sam, I had no trouble putting three and four round groups on the 100M targets that could be covered with a half dollar. And it doesn't hurt that this rifle shoots the 7.62x51mm cartridge. Thanks to the aforementioned Browning, I've got tons of it that I can use for low-cost practice.

Me likey.

I'm still getting used to this new tool, but I see a lot of potential here, plus I get to learn a new aspect of shooting that goes beyond the basic iron sight skills. With this set-up, I can theoretically hit head-sized targets out to 500m and consistent torso-sized target hits out to 1000m if I do my part. I figure that this'll give me something to do for a while and help keep me out of trouble while I work on mastering some new techniques.


No Lagniappe. You ain't getting it. You'll just have to keep dealing with the neighbor's cats the old-fashioned way...by chasing them like normal dogs do.

The bane of my shooting existence

I swear, half the reason that I keep this gun around is because it keeps me humble.



See those little rachety teeth about half an inch above the circular barrel opening? Well those are notches on the .30 barrel of the Browning Model 1919A4 machine gun that is driving me slowing but inexorably insane. And to get down to it, those notches are a major part of the pending insanity.

You see, in order for this wonderfully simple yet incredibly complex gun to fire, the barrel has to be just the right distance away from the bolt face, that distance being set by the operator, who turns that barrel one notch at a time until the setting is juuust right. Get it just a little bit wrong, and the gun goes "click" instead of "Rat-tat-tat..". Get it wrong enough and the gun goes "KA-BOOM!" and pieces-parts go flying every which way as the top cover blows open or even clean off the gun.
If you'll notice, there are no tick-marks or other labels to indicate when the barrel is lined up right. No, that would be too easy and no doubt deprive the ghost of John Moses Browning of more than a few chuckles as frustrated gunners have cursed and fiddled with that setting ever since the first World War. Instead, the setting is determined by pulling the bolt back about 3/4 of an inch, turning the barrel until you reach a setting where it will not completely close under spring pressure when the bolt is released, then going back one notch to the point where it just closes. Then you back it off two more notches for a .30 setting, or 4-5 notches for a .308 setting, and hopefully you're in business. Done right, you get a satisfying roar as the gun fires at a rate of 550 rounds per minute, give or take. Done wrong, and you look like a horses' ass as the gun does...well, nothing. (Or it goes "BLAMMO!" You'd rather it do nothing...trust me there.)

I've just spent the last half and hour re-setting the headspace on this one.Why half an hour? Because despite the fairly thorough cleaning that I gave it at Aaron's place last week, when I slid the barrel and other internals out of the gun, (and to get the barrel out, everything else has to come out, too) I kept finding more bits and pieces that weren't quite clean/lubricated enough, so I had to keep side-tracking to tend to that stuff before sliding the whole mess back together again. I guess this is what happens when you try to clean a gun, drink beer, and watch Burn Notice, all without getting any dirt or cleaning solution at all on Aaron's wife's basement carpeting.

Anyway, the reason for my annoyance with this setting is that, while out with the gun and Aaron last week, a bullet lodged in the barrel forced me to strip this gun down in the field, and while reassembling the smoking-hot components, I screwed up the headspace and could not get the gun to fire again no matter what I did. Granted the parts were all very hot and difficult to work on, and Aaron's constant yelling about how the Germans were coming while he videotaped my cursing and fumbling certainly didn't help, but it still shouldn't have happened. While I was fairly comfortable working on this gun on my gun room workbench, I failed miserably at trying to repair it under field conditions...on the ground, in the sand, with the parts all hot enough to fry eggs on and covered with hot oil.

So there was a lesson learned here, and it's one that all shooters should take something from no matter how complex or simple your gun is: Know your equipment, and know it intimately enough that you can fix it when it goes down, not on a toolbench or kitchen table later, but right then and there under operating conditions. The same holds true whether you're trying to lay down suppressing fire with a GPMG, shooting an M-1/M14 in a rifle match, or firing a CAR-15, a shotgun or your favorite pistol in a true self-defense situation. Hopefully it'll never quit on you, and if it does, with any luck it'll only be during a practice session, but Murphy's a bastard and you should be able to diagnose and fix simple problems when and where they happen, because if you really need that gun, the need doesn't go away just because the gun stops working. Can you clear a jam in your carry gun instantly and by feel if need be? if it's more serious than a stove-pipe or double-feed, can you withdraw and quickly tear it down to remove a broken case or replace a broken firing pin right where you are? Do you know what tools you need, and which substitutes will work in a pinch? And do you carry or at least keep handy the small spare parts that you're most likely to need?

If the answer to any of these questions is "no" or "I'm not sure..." then you might want to buy a manual and the requisite parts and tools and make such drills part of your practice sessions. Your life, or that of someone else, may depend on it someday.

In real life, it probably will never come to such a scenario, but is that a gamble that you're willing to take? A shot missed due to a malfunction or a breakage is just as bad as one missed due to poor marksmanship. We all practice marksmanship. But when's the last time that you've practiced realistic stoppage and repair drills?

Back I am

Sorry for the prolonged absence. Lagniappe and I took a well-deserved vacation.

We went up to Michigan for a while to visit family and Aaron, creator of The Shekel blog. He also blogged about this week-end--before I could--and he used several of the pictures that I'd planned to use. Ah well.



We went out to the local gravel pit and I unlimbered the 1919A4.
The target of choice today was my old dehumidifier, which had quit working--but not running or using electricity--a few months ago. It was placed on the hillside and reduced to scrap metal and plastic in fine form, as can be seen on this video:

Note the proper use of short bursts initially, just like the military field manuals proscribe. Long bursts are fun, but barrels are expensive to replace, so why burn them out prematurely? As it was, the video shows how quickly that 120 rounds can go even when you're making a halfhearted effort to shoot slowly. What can I say? It's fun!

I also had the chance to try out an old Enfield #5 Jungle Carbine for the first time. These rifles came about through an attempt by the British to make a lighter rifle for their troops in Malaysia and other colonial territories. They were made for about three years, from 1944 through 1947, until production ceased in favor of newer designs. They were never really popular with the troops despite the light weight because the recoil was rather stout with military loads and the rifle's zero tended to wander when it got hot, possibly due to some of the lightening cuts that were made.And this one is light. Surprisingly light. I think I've hefted heavier toy rifles.

I managed to pick this one up for a song, probably because some bubba had chromed the buttplate, trigger guard and forward band. Eventually I'll restore it with the correct parts and replace a seriously weak magazine spring and it'll be worth twice what I gave for it. In the meantime, it's a fun shooter and a great addition to my historic collection. I suspect that it also needs a longer bolt head eventually due to a string of incipient case-head separations that I observed when the handloads I was testing got close to max pressure, but it handles just fine with lighter loads and it kicks a lot less.

We got a lot of shooting in before it was over. Aaron had his Uzi submachine gun out as well. I also had an older AR15A1 that I'm rather fond of, and Aaron had a newer AR15 M-4 clone with an Israeli Meprolight sight that turned out to be an incredible addition to the platform. Think EOTech Holosight only without a need for batteries and with a finer dot easier to use at longer ranges. Seriously impressive. I got some practice in with my 1911A1 and old reliable Ruger 10/22 as well. No matter how many new or exotic guns I manage to lay my hands on, none have yet diminished the enjoyment that I get from that old .22

Thank you, Ohio Ordnance. How customer service is supposed to work.

So yesterday, I went to the Nation's Gun Show in Chantilly, Virgina with some friends from work. I saw lots of nice guns that would augment my collection splendidly, but unfortunately, prices were a bit on the high side across the board and funds are a little tight right now. So I came home with some reloading gear. At least I can spend my off time this winter making more ammunition.

While I was there though, I took to opportunity to corral Frank at the Ohio Ordnance table to ask him about a problem that I've been having with my Browning 1919A4 heavy machine gun. (My gun was rebuilt by them a few years ago.)

The problem was that lately upon completion of firing, I've noticed that the bolt becomes extremely hard to pull back, and that once the gun cools, it literally requires a 2x4 and a hammer to get it open. Now I've stripped the gun dozens of times, fiddled with headspace until I heard clicks in my sleep, and detail-cleaned every single component inside that receiver until I was dizzy from cleaner fumes, but sure as anything, once back together again, the problem kept coming back, leaving me frustrated, confused, and in pain. (I slipped once while doing the hammer/2x4 trick and whacked the back of my hand with the ball-peen hammer.) I'd even swapped barrels twice but it just kept happening. Now considering that this gun cost more than my last car, I wanted it working right and without having to beat it with a hammer. So when I saw Frank, I asked if he had a minute and even though their table was swamped, he took the time to help me figure out where the trouble lie.

I explained what it was doing and told him what I'd tried to correct it, and he thought about it for no more than a few seconds before asking me if I'd checked the booster for carbon build-up. he said that it was quite common for carbon residue to collect in the space between the barrel booster and the barrel itself and solidify when the barrel cooled, literally locking the barrel and attached bolt assembly in place from the front end.

Well damn. I'd spent several hours playing around with the parts back inside the receiver, thinking that it had to be something jamming up back there because that's where the stuck parts were, but it had never crossed my mind that the trouble might be way up at the muzzle end where there aren't any parts save the tip of the barrel and of course the booster.

So I wrenched the booster off and sure enough, there inside it was a thick, solid carbon ring that had been gripping the barrel end like a vice-grip, keeping it from retracting when I tried to pull back on the charging handle.

Frank gave me some advice on carb cleaners and other chemicals and tools that I could use to get rid of this deposit, and he suggested that I try the newer Israeli booster assembly that was actually recessed inside to create more room for carbon build-up. He had several there for pretty good prices but I already had one for the .308 conversion for my gun so he sold me the .30-06 end plug for that one. Gotta love the versatility of the old 1919's.

Frank gave me several other tips on keeping the gun running and minimizing downtime, and he steered me away from several of the unneeded "must-have" accessories that others insist that every 1919 operator needs. He gave me quite a bit of his time and to me it was worth the admission I paid to get into the show just for the info that I got from Frank. He never blew me off or cut the Q&A session short to talk to people that might have been waiting to spend more money there than I did that day. He gave me the exact sort of great customer service that I've always gotten from Ohio Ordnance and that's why I'll continue to shop and get service work done there even though other places are cheaper.

And once I got home and swapped out the booster, the bolt moves free and easy and the gun's ready to repel human wave attacks, engage hostile low-flying aircraft, deny aggressors an easy approach up my driveway or just shoot up empty propane tanks and other debris at the gravel pit some more.



Behold, the happy war veteran with the new, improved booster in place of the old one sitting front and center.

What a satisfying day

So I get up this morning and get the news from Michelle Malkin that Elvira Arellano was officially deported and is now back in her rightful place--Mexico. If she comes back again I hope that she gets prison time, ideally in Maricopa County, Arizona where Sheriff Joe Arpaio knows how to handle his prisoners.

Then I head for the bus, and get to the stop just in time to catch a seat next to my pal, the bus bitch. As usual, she was pretending to be snoozing with her handbag parked on the seat next to her to make sure that no one who really needs the extra leg room can get the seat. I rather loudly asked her if she wouldn't mind moving her bag so that I could sit down, and the look that she gave me...Oh man, if looks could kill I'd have dropped right there. I thought for a second that she was going to say something but she didn't. However her hostile glare spoke volumes. How dare I ask her to move her bag and make her give up one of the two best seats on the bus? Obviously I was unaware that she's the queen of Loudon County's DC10 Bus and owns both those seats even though she had no apparent disability and isn't even that tall. So I plunked down next to her, enjoying her body language that conveyed all too clearly just how bothered she was. In fact I felt so guilty that I started to cough, and I for some reason I coughed off and on most of the way to my stop.

Then I get the amusing news that the GreenStone radio network, a year-old joint venture between Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem, accepted it's failure and closed down today. Apparently no one wanted to listen to or advertise on shows that just bitched and whined. Heck, any married guy gets enough of that already without having to dial more up on his car radio. Of course the show's producers claim that women just can't get ahead in today's radio market, but they overlook the fact that there are many wildly successful women on the radio, including Laura Ingram, Tammy Bruce and Laura Schlessinger. The difference between those women and "Hanoi Jane" Fonda is that Ingram, Bruce and Schlessinger say intelligent things and talk about topics that people actually want to hear. So Bye-Bye, Gloria and Jane. You won't be missed, and frankly I didn't even know that you two bimbettes had a show until news of it's failure broke today.

In other good news, the weather's finally cooling off, and I got to get out and shoot this week-end. I didn't get any pictures of me shooting but it was good because the old fuddy-duddies who cry and pee themselves any time I practice any tactical shooting there (because we all know that guns were meant to be fired slowly from a rest at paper targets...) were absent so I got to practice my "shoot-and-scoot" fire-on-the-move drills, and I shot my H&K P7 until it was hot enough to burn my finger. Then I let it cool for a bit and shot it until it burned me some more. I love my P7 and it's one--and only--flaw in my opinion is the fact that due to it's gas system, the top of the frame above the trigger guard gets dangerously hot after several dozen rapid-fire rounds. In actual pistol combat it's unlikely that a shooter will fire that many rounds, but it is a pain on the practice courses.

And since I have no photos from that shoot, here's a gratuitous picture of my nephew, The Spud, learning how to lay down suppressing fire with the Browning 1919A4 heavy machine gun.

Day #5. We shot!

This day we went shooting. It was me, Aaron (aka: Shekel-boy), my Old Man, Marty (a guy who my Old Man knows from work) and Scott, the blogger who owns the Providentia blog. We went out to a gravel pit near Lapeer and unlimbered the toys. We started out with the Uzi submachine guns. Both Aaron and I have one of these handy and reliable 9mm firearms. (Mine's cooler because it has a wooden stock on it in lieu of the plain old stamped metal folding one.) My Pops has shot mine once and Marty'd never shot one before, nor had the Owl. Here's the old guy with the Uzi, tearing up some targets downrange.

After some fun time with the Uzis, it was time for me to officially introduce Baby to the world. This was the most recent acquisition to the Lair's arsenal, one that required the sale of many lesser firearms to finance.

This gun, shown here with Lagniappe during his operator's training, is a Browning 1919A4 .30 caliber air-cooled heavy machine gun. Made for and used by the US military in World War Two and Korea, this was one of the guns that was eventually transferred to Israel, eventually returning here and re-sold without the right side plate as a "parts kit". It was rebuilt on a new side plate by the fine folks at Ohio Ordnance Works and I took possession of it a few months ago after getting a sweetheart deal on it from a cop buddy down in Florida. Set up to run in caliber .30-06, it can be switched over to fire both the 7.62x51 NATO round(.308) or the venerable 8mm cartridge in about 5 minutes. This was only the second time that I had it out, and it was definitely a hit with all the manly-men who were present.

Here's Marty shooting the 1919 on the left, and Scott on the right. Note Scott's happy grin and Marty's open cell phone as he calls people and has them listen to the gun firing.



Yeah, that Browning sure piles up the empty cartridges and the metallic links that it feeds from. It operates at a cyclic rate of 550 rounds per minute and even though we shot it much slower, it's barrel and jacket were still too hot to touch half an hour later. Instead of the quick-change barrels seen on many of it's contemporaries like the German MG34 and MG-42 and the M-60 that replaced it in US service, the 1919 relies on a barrel made up of almost 8lbs of steel. (I have whole rifles that weigh less.)

The gun itself weighs 28 lbs and with it's tripod it tips the scales at about 41 lbs without ammunition. But this gun has the power, and if you can see a target you can probably destroy it with this beauty. Here's my Pops burning up another belt of Taiwan military surplus .30-06 ammo. Get some! Get some!



Finally, here's the only shot I got of Aaron with his Uzi. WTF?! His eyes are closed! (Well that would explain his "marksmanship".) And on the right is my Pops with that million-dollar grin that a guy gets after doing guy stuff with other guys.




A good time was had by all!