Range time

Finally the range wasn't flooded so I got to try out the newish Remington Model 11. And for a 76-year old shotgun, it performed flawlessly. And it was busting ALL the clays until I started getting sloppy on the second box of shells and let a string of "Away" clays get by me. Just bad cheek weld and head position on my part from trying to rush the shots because they clays were going into a shaded spot and I couldn't follow them for more than a few seconds. But once I started focusing on those exclusively and slowing down, the gun did it's part and the clays all dies valiantly.

Then the cut-down Krag came out to play, fresh back from a visit to the CMP custom shot to have a new front sight base installed. It looked great but once there was a base and blade, it was obvious that the barrel wasn't timed all the way to center as it had a noticeable cant and it was hitting about 5" right at 25M. And that's 20" at 100M and exponentially worse farther out. Pity. because the groups were tight as hell. This rifle probably wasn't shot much after it was re-built and cut down so it's worth seeing if CMP can fix that too.

Also tested out an old Sears and Roebuck Ted Williams .30-30 lever gun that's been on my rack forever. I bought it a couple years ago because Sears and Ted Wiliams but never shot it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had a pretty good 100M zero already but it wasn't extracting well so I suspect it's overdue for a teardown and good cleaning.

Back in the day, baseball star and Marine Corps pilot Williams had a deal with Sears where his name only went on premium gear that he himself evaluated first. These rifles were made for Sears by Winchester and he gave them his personal ok before his name went on them. My only bitch with this one is that someone cut the stock for a rubber buttpad. Very nice job but I'm looking to restore it with an original butt one of these days when I find one.
I put 50 rounds of .45 on steel with my old 1911 next.

I haven't shot it in quite some time so this seemed like a good time to take it back out. I remember when I had the trigger down and had it reduced from 13lbs to 5lbs back in the 80's. I thought it was an awesome trigger then. It's horrible by today's standards and may need to be reworked again.

New shotgun

I'm still around--honest. I keep meaning to post but wow--so busy. Not busy enough to keep me from picking up a new gun though, and this after I promised myself I'd quit buying them. (In fact, I've been selling a few to thin the collection a bit.)

This one came along at a stupid low price and since I'm really enjoying shooting clays as of late I could not say no.

Gun is a Remington Model 11, 12 gauge, semi automatic. If it looks like a Browning A5, that's because it is. When John Moses Browning designed that gun in 1898, it was a revolutionary firearm. As was usual back then, Browning took his ideas to American companies like Winchester and Remington and they turned him down. So he took them to Fabrique Nationale in Belgium and that firm made tons of money and produced this gun in particular for ninety-eight years. In 1905 though, Remington also decided that they wanted it so they worked out a deal where Remington made them here in the US from 1905 until 1947 when they replaced it with the 11-48. This particular one, per it's serial number and barrel date code, was made in October of 1943, and some of it's markings attest to the fact that it was made for a special customer.

During World War Two, the US government was buying most anything decent that could shoot and a lot of these were purchased as training guns for anti-aircraft gunners and as recreational tools for officers and airmen. Some with shorter barrels were used for guard duty and a few even made it into combat zones as fighting iron. This one still sports it's 26" barrel though and was probably a trainer or sporter. The history on these is all over the place but the provenance is there in it's markings and date codes, all of which match up.

In face the only flaw in this gun from a collector's point is one gouge on the left side of the stock right where an inspector's stamp would likely be and there's actually the faint remains of an ordnance wheel just ahead of it. I'm willing to bet that if that gouge wasn't there we'd see the initials "FJA" for Frank J. Atwood, military inspector, right there.

Still. Sweet gun, clean, and I had the chance to pick up for just over $300 so I wasn't about to say pass on it.

Now as soon as the range quits being underwater I'm looking forward to trying it out.