Blogshoot 2015 in pictures

Bloggers and others came from all over today to shoot and socialize at the blogshoot.

Here's Hayden, an English transplant to Ohio, holding a vintage Martini Henry and a round of .577-450 ammo for it.

Reunited at last. This Martini Henry left Britain in the late 1800's and wound up staying behind in Afghanistan for over a century before coming back to America a couple of years ago with a military contractor and winding up in my collection. And now for the first time since the Afghanis "acquired" it, it's in British hands again.

Here's the lovely Nancy, firing a Brown Bess black powder flintlock musket.

Larry the Historian shooting the musket.

There were modern guns here, too. Here we have a suppressed .300 blackout rifle with an Aimpoint Micro T2 optic. It's smaller and quieter (and easier on the shoulder).

Andrew shoots an FN SCAR-17 in .308.

The Miller, in person with a suppressed AR.

New Jovian Thunderbolt, with an unsuppressed AR.

Jesse from Washington DC, with a Ruger 10-22.

And two of the Usual Suspects, Jay and Old NFO, discussing some mischief or another.

Here's Jay, with a single-shot suppressed .300 blackout.

This rifle was almost as quiet as Old NFO's tricked-out Ruger 10-22 (sadly not shown) with a suppressor and subsonic ammo...Oh, man. Talk about quiet.

On the other end of the noise scale, Larry the Historian had his Barrett .50 rifle here again.

And there was a suppressed Uzi, shown here in the capable hands of Kara.

Some gun porn:

British #4MK2 Enfield (above), and American Model 1917 Eddystone (below). Both courtesy of Jesse.

Many rounds were fired from many weapons, many acquaintances were made or renewed. Dinner followed, and $600 was raised for this years's charity, Jefferson Community Ministries.

Thanks once again to all who came, and to 340 Defense for hosting us.

Blogshoot reminder.

Just a head's up that it's this coming Saturday. Usual range in eastern WV, starting at 10-ish. (Range actually opens at 9, so come as you like and go when you must.)

Dinner afterwards with the gang of usual suspects at the conclusion around 2-ish or so. And those of you coming in the night before or staying over Saturday night, other entertainment has been arranged, so be sure to let me know.

Cost is donation, with every penny taken in over the range fees going to a local charity to do good things. Bring as many guns as you like, and expect to see machine guns, suppressed guns and a .50 rifle or two. (And most owners will let you shoot them if you buy the ammo.)

If you are reading this, you're welcome. For RSVP and range info, drop me at e-mail at martinihenrywv@gmail.com and come out planning to have a great time.

Blogshoot After Action Report

Well it's Sunday now, and another Blogshoot is in the memory book. The weather was iffy to start, with predictions of rain and temps in the 40's, but it appears that all this did was keep the other shooters away from the range, with the result being that we had the place virtually to ourselves all day.

And the turnout was good, with 22 shooters: Old NFO, JayG, Nancy and her adorably precocious daughter, Keads, Aaron, Maureen, David, Larry, T-bolt, The Miller, Glen and his son Brendan from New York, Hayden and his wife Cara, Bubblehead Les, Stretch, John, Bruce, Joby, and Cindy.

The day got off to a bit of an annoying start as Aaron and I were loading my Jeep to it's max. gross weight with guns and ammo, Murphy and Belle together engineered an escape and ran out of the house while both the door to and the door from the basement were open at the same time. (And the darn Crazy Cat Neighbors are HOME on Saturday mornings! Noooo!) So they needed to be recovered before we could depart, and as a result, we wound up being one of the last to arrive. Thanks, jerk dogs. but we got there, and after a brief round of socializing and a safety briefing to make sure that everyone was on the same page, we spent the next five hours sending much lead downrange through everything from a Brown Bess musket (Nancy) to automatic weapons and state-of-the-art rifles, like Jay's here.

Suppressed weapons were also heard, but only if you listened really hard.

I wish that I had gotten photos of every shooter and every weapon, but alas, I did not. Still, of the ones that I did get paint a pretty good picture of the kind of day that we had.

Most of the shooters were experienced but the few novices who came out were welcomed and plied with more gun and better instruction than that could have managed anywhere else. Guns were passed around and shared and people got to fire everything from .22lr to .50BMG (courtesy of Larry and his Barrett). Keads ran a great pin shoot and everyone had fun trying to knock five pins off of the table for time. (I finally managed on my third try after my S&W Model 1917 revolver went down in the first two attempts with squib loads to the amusement of all.)

Afterwards, we adjourned to our usual restaurant for dinner and socializing, and prizes were passed out to the fastest pin shooters along with a prize to the shooter with the most interesting firearm (Nancy and her Brown Bess) and the shooter who came the farthest (Glenn and Brendan from New York). Collections were taken up for this year's designated charity, Cancer Care, and the total came out to $800. Not bad at all, and many thanks to all who came and gave.

Afterwards, most people headed home, but a few of the most energetic headed for the local Irish pub to a small after-party set up by Cindy. We had some nice conversations there until the "entertainment" showed up in the form of a guy with a guitar, a huge amplifier, and an astounding ability to ruin many classic songs at high volume.

Special thanks to everyone who came out and doubly so to those who pitched in and helped run things (Aaron and Keads) or who brought big coffee pots (Nancy).

This is gonna be fun!

The Great Keads has offered to set up a bowling pin shoot at the upcoming blogshoot, and for those of you who have never shot one before...you've been missing out.

In a pin shoot, the shooter is faced with a table of five or six evil bowling pins, and when the timer beeps, the shooter has to raise their pistol loaded with six rounds--and six rounds only--and knock all the pins off of the table for time. Easy, you say? It's not. If a pin is hit solidly, it usually leaves the table, but if it's just clipped, it often falls over on it's side, and more hits are required to get it off the table. Oh, and that six rounds/six pins thing? if you're good, you might get all of them off the table without a reload, but most of us will typically end up having to reload under time pressure to finish up, and that's where the real skill comes in.



The best time of the day will win something nominal I guess, plus bragging rights. The money raised from this event and the blogshoot in general (less our range fee) will all go to Cancer Care this year, an organization that helps patients and families dealing with cancer and one whose overhead is very low, ensuring that most of the money that they receive actually goes to the cause and not salaries and mailing expenses.

Blogshoot invite, again.

"Ya gonna take that one to the blogshoot, Boss?"

Maybe, maybe not, Murphy, but I'll be bringing lots of others. And since I've just heard that a certain lady shooter of some esteem will be there with some vintage black powder weapons, it's a fair bet that I'll be trotting one or two of those out in addition to everything else.

Why not? If she can, I can.

Rumor has it that JayG and Bubblehead Les will be coming with some cool stuff, too. Question is, what will YOU bring?

November 1st, 1000 hours, Jefferson County, WV. E-mail martinihenrywv@gmail.com for the particulars. RSVP early, please.

Dog Shoot!!!

Hey everyone, Murphy here. We're having a dog shoot on November First! Belle and I are going to be shooting this gun!

Belle here. Actually it's a BLOG shoot, not a dog shoot, so the gun might be there, but Murphy and I won't. This is the same blog shoot that the boss has put on here the last few years. Bloggers and readers are welcome to come out and shoot, and funds will be raised for a good charity. Previous years have seen the money raised donated to Wounded Warriors and Soldiers' Angels. There will also be a dinner afterwards so you all can keep mingling over food. Machine guns and suppressors are allowed and welcome and the range has various firing points from 25 yards to 400. Lots of famous bloggers are expected, including Proud Hillbilly, Aaron of The Shekel, Keads and Old NFO, and that's just the early confirmations. Hopefully there will be a lot more! If you have questions or want information, hit the boss up at MartiniHenryWV@gmail.com. The shoot will be in Jefferson County, West Virginia, just north of the Virginia state line. There's lots of decent hotels in the area and it'll be tons of fun...and CHARITY!

So come one, come all and send an e-mail to the boss to get directions and let him know that you're in.

And Murphy, you can clean this thing and put it back in the safe any time.

Wait! I see a cat! Swing this thing around and let's nail it!

A great time with great people

The weather could not have been better yesterday--sonny, low 70's, no wind...perfect for shooting. And that's what we did.

Nancy showed up with her black powder creation described here.

Larry The Historian brought a Barrett .50 M82A1 and graciously invited everyone to shoot it.

Here's Proud Hillbilly firing it--it's longer than she is tall. (But then so are most rifles.)

And here's Andrew touching it off. (Not the shell ejecting from the rifle.)

AJ spent some time zeroing his bullpup in on the 100-yard line here.

And much use was made of the pistol range.
Here, Stretch gives Katherine A. a few pointers as she shoot one of his many classic .22 pistols.

And Keads shows up all how it's done with his incredible USMC Colt .45.

Nancy steps up to something a bit more modern with a Smith and Wesson Model 66.

And Eric couldn't stop grinning after getting to run a mag through an Uzi submachinegun.

The Japanese were well-represented this day, with four World War Two Jap rifles.

Top one is Keads Type 38. Below that is Nancy's Type 38. Next is my Type 99, and on the bottom is Proud Hillbilly's Type 99.

The idea was that we were all going to fire these together, but unfortunately the top two were 6.5 caliber so none of the ammo that was brought for them fit. Ah well...next year, perhaps.

And heads Keads on the M-60.

Dinner followed, and as usual, everyone hung around in the restaurant parking lot afterwards because nobody wanted to leave. But it finally ended, and we raised a little over $500 for Soldiers' Angels, which will be donated in memory of Master Sergeant George A Bannar, Jr., formerly of Orange County, VA, who gave his life in Afghanistan last month.

Special thanks to Jerry at 340 Defense for getting us onto this range at short notice and to Chuck, who volunteered to spend the day as our RSO.

It's that time again. Third Annual charity Blogshoot!

In 2011, there was THIS ONE.

2012 saw a larger one, with more fun HERE.

Now it's 2013, and we're doing it again. Saturday, September 14th, here in the West Virginia panhandle, we're going to have the third annual blogshoot.

Come one, come all. If you like guns, gun people, or just want to support a good cause, we'll be gathering in Summit Point, WV this time, on a larger range that'll be ours exclusively. (No sharing it with a reality show promo like last year.)

There's no cost, but we do ask that when you come, you consider making a donation to cover the group range fee, with anything over that amount going to a veterans' charity, just like the last two years.

Last year, we had people come from as far away as North Carolina, Ohio and Michigan. Please spread the word and let's see if we can't make this one bigger and more far-ranging.

Hit me with a comment if you're interested. I won't post comments that contain contact info. Area lodging is available and for those who want to, we can do dinner the night before and a meal afterwards is, as always, the capstone to a great gunfire-filled day.

For more info and directions, contact me at: Martinihenrywv@gmail.com