My Fathers Guns

 

Last Thursday was my father's birthday. He'd have been 79 years old. But life seldom works the way we'd like, and I inherited these shotguns a little over eight years ago.

This week-end, I took them out to the range to remember him. I brought a box of game loads for each of them and took down a fair number of clays in his memory. 

The 12 gauge Ithaca that I once gifted him was right on, breaking 22 of the 25 clays. It was an old parkerized police dept. gun that came with an 18" barrel but I fitted it with a 28" barrel for him for hunting...and he lost the 18" one somewhere over the years. (If any of you have one that you don't need, I'd love to replace it...)

The little Iver Johnson single shot 16 gauge that he bought as a teen was a little less effective as the bronze bead on the muzzle broke some time ago and requiring me to hold under the clay just right. I don't have it quite down yet, but someday...

It was a great day to be out, a cool and crisp 45 degrees and sunny...just like those fall days in Michigan like we used to go out in together. He'd have right at home here...and he'd have bitched constantly about the cold. But we'd have had fun.

Now the guns are getting a proper cleaning and oiling and I'll consider fixing that Iver Johnson front bead. I haven't decided whether I will or not yet but I probably will. Had he still been here I'd have fixed it for him just to keep him from blaming it every time he missed something.

I do miss him. 

And most of the day as I shot, and traveled to and from the range, I couldn't help but hum this song by the great Elton John. It came out when I was just a kid, not even old enough to ride a bike, but I never heard it until decades later. It has meaning for me now.

Another used-gun rack find

In other news, I stumbled across this little gem when I took a young lady out to buy her first pistol a few days back and after a bit of haggling and it followed me home. (And she got a Glock 48.)

It's an Ithaca Model 37, circa 1971, 12 gauge with a 20" barrel and 7+1 capacity. Action is smooth as a stripper's backside and it's one of the ones with the second sear, aka a "slam-fire" gun. Hold the trigger back and cycle the slide and she'll fire off eight just as fast as you can work it.

Shop seems to have not realized what they had. I nicked it for a fair bit lass than the $300 they were asking for it.

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.

Funny police shooting

Well that should get me some search engine traffic...

Anyway, I took my NOPD friend to the range as she had a desire to try the Kel-Tec KSG and they had one to rent. Mind you, her agency doesn't issue patrol shotguns so this was her first time shooting a shotgun of any kind. But the internet said that she had to have one of these, so here we were...

First try with her box of powder-puff low-brass #7 loads:


Shame on me. Can't blame Kel-Tec. She short-stroked it and caused a nasty jam that took me a while to un-bugger.

And then after we fixed that, I loaded a couple of Remington 2&3/4 slugs into the mag tube and told her that they might feel a little different.


Cute gun. Light and and short and holds a lot of rounds but you can't do an emergency reload and toss shells in through the open ejection port like you can with Remington/Mossberg/Winchester, etc. With it's Mag-Pul furniture, you can definitely hang a lot of junk accessories on it, so that will appeal to some folks, but I'm not sold on it as a fighting shotgun yet.

And lest ye ask, she has the bruise this morning. I've seen it and apparently poking it and asking if it hurts is not appreciated.

DOH!!! Estate guns appraisal and trouble

So the other night, I'm over at the house of a friend. His grandfather left him several old guns and he wanted me to take a look at them as he knows absolutely nothing about guns.

So we start to uncase them, and the first one feels kind of funny in the case. we open it up and a rather short Iver Johnson Champion single-shot slides out.

"Oh, Damn," I say.

"What is that one?" he asks.

"A ten year felony," I reply.

Long story short, his grandfather used to be a Sheriff's Deputy back in the old days in Southern Louisiana. This was one of his guns from those days. Nickel-plated action and the barrel measures out at around 13", give or take. I immediately took the barrel off of the gun and removed it from his house so that he now only possesses a Champion action, which is perfectly legal.

We discuss what to do about this gun, because he wants to keep it because it's a family heirloom. We look for some other Iver Johnson Champion barrels on line and there are a few out there but they're junk. It's actually a common enough gun, and I knew that I'd seen one before but couldn't recall where. We talk some more, and I tell him that there's a way to preserve this gun as-is, only it'll cost $200 to manufacture it and register it properly as a Short-Barreled Shotgun on a Form 1. Now the best complete IJ Champions out there are about $125, and this one is far from that even if it had a barrel, which it no longer does. I'd value this one at $30-$40. But he's game to spend the $200 to make this receiver that he has into a legal SBS, and while he's doing that I intend to do one of my own--a Remington 870 that I plan to send to Wilson Combat for their SBS rebuild.

Meanwhile though, I go back to my place with the old barrel, which he'll never see until his Form 1 is approved, and I go to set it in my shotgun cabinet...only to see another Iver Johnson Champion looking back at me. DAMN IT! I HAVE ONE!! And now I have an NFA-length barrel for it in the same house!! AAAHHH!!!

Then I realize that the gun I have is a 16 gauge, not a 12, and the barrel won't fit. (And yes, I actually checked to be sure.) But for a moment, I thought I'd tried to do someone a good turn by getting an NFA nightmare out of his house only to bring it into mine.

I'll post more about this old treasure as the paperwork goes through, and maybe about the other guns he got from that Grandfather, too. All are decent guns, but most have been refinished and the serial numbers seem to have been polished off of about half of them during the refinishing process. No idea if the Grandfather did this or if it was done before he came into them, but I'm not seeing any real bad intent there because Grandfather also had his full name engraved into the side of each of them an a rather large and well-done cursive script (even the Iver Johnson) so it's not like he was trying to conceal his ownership of them. It was also likely done back before the 1968 Gun Control Act which made serial numbers mandatory on all firearms. So I'm also going to be talking to BATFE about getting new serial numbers assigned to these guns and having them re-stamped, because they are nice guns--Brownings and Winchesters--and he wants to be able to use them and pass them down to his own kids.

And before people start blasting me about NFA violations--there truly was no knowledge or intent to possess one on the part of my friend and that gun and that barrel are now permanently separated by twenty miles and will never come together again until BATFE approves the union. We're not trying to game the system or get around it here, we're working to get my friend and his firearms into legal compliance through established means. It can be done and we're working on it. But if any of you have constructive suggestions or thoughts, I'd love to hear 'em.

My Father's Gun

Four years. Has it only been four years since he left? It seems like forever. So much has happened in my life that he wasn't here to see. So many things that we never got to.

Well yesterday I took some time to take this old Ithaca Model 37 out to the range for some trap shooting.

It was the one that I bought him so long ago back when we had plans to go out hunting together.

It was an old Sheriff's Dept. trade-in that I found, and I put a 28" field barrel on it for him. But the trips never really happened. We were both busy back then, and moving in different directions, and the hunting trips never happened like we'd planned. We'd gone trap shooting a few times, but that was about it.

Four years ago today, this old gun became mine again. I wish it hadn't, but...

Yesterday, in his memory, I took it out to the range and busted some clays with it.

I didn't get 'em all, because I'm out of practice and I was never that good to begin with, but I got enough that I think he'd have been impressed. Maybe even proud.

Miss ya, Pop. Wish you were here.

It Followed Me Home. Guess I'll Keep It.

On Monday, I found myself downtown, with my Jeep in the shop and me wandering around looking to kill some time. Eventually I drifted into one of the local pawn shops, just looking to see what they had, and two guns caught my attention. The first one was a .22 rifle that I thought might suit a friend, and the second, spotted while looking that over, was a sad-looking Ithaca Model 37 12 gauge shotgun that was covered with rust and grime.

I shook my head as I looked the Ithaca over, and I thought that it was probably so far gone that I really wasn't interested even when the manager, who knows me, offered me his "best out-the-door" price, which would have been tempting if the gun wasn't such a basket-case.

The .22 looked like a deal though, so we engaged in a bit of dickering, and before I knew what happened, we'd struck a deal in which I wound up buying both of them as a package for a fair bit off of the combined total. I have so little willpower. Or maybe I just felt sorry for the Ithaca.

Anyway, I spent a good chunk of Monday night and Tuesday working on it, slowing and carefully removing the rust with 000 steel wool and lots of CLP. I managed to get the wood cleaned up pretty decently too with some polish, and when all was done, I was quite surprised to find that I had a pretty nice shotgun on my hands.

So here it is. And I'm kicking myself for not taking some "before" pictures, because it sure looked rough.
The shotgun is a Model 37 "Featherlight" with a 28in. fixed-choke barrel (modified) and a bead front sight. It's chambered for 2&3/4 in. shells only.

The walnut shot and foregrip polished up ok. They have a few very minor dings and some of the varnish is missing from the bottom of the stock, but they both look pretty decent and I'm going to leave them as they are for now.

Like most Ithaca guns, it has sporting scenes roll-marked on each side of the receiver, and by being very careful, I was able to clean the rust off of these areas without damaging the finish or marring the scenes.

This gun looked like hell in the store, and I admit that I was skeptical, but after a day's work on it, carefully cleaning it and peeling off a layer of some sort of grime and surface rust, it turned out really nice. The action's decently smooth, especially now that it's all clean and lubricated properly, and it looks like I came away with a pretty nice shooter indeed. I'd initially planned to clean it up and flip it but now I'm thinking that I'm going to hold onto it and I can't wait for a chance to try it out on some clays.

And here it is in my gun cabinet, centered between two other Ithaca 12 gauges.

The one on the far left is an Ithaca 87 that I bought to go hunting with my father some thirty years ago. We picked it out together at Meijers. The one on the far right is my father's Ithaca 37 that I bought him for his birthday a few years after I got the 87 so that he wouldn't have to borrow one from one of his cousins when we went out together. It's mine now, as of a bit over two years ago. So Ithaca shotguns have a special place in my heart, and for that reason, there will probably always be room for one more in the gun cabinet.

SHOTGUN!

Brigid put up a truly wonderful post on her blog about the Remington 870 shotgun today:

The Remington 870 - Dressed to Thrill

It was such a wonderful article that I felt the need to post about mine as well.

I have two 870s of my own, both of which started out as police-surplus 12-gauge guns with 18" barrels. However, over the years, I've modified both for different roles.

The top one now sports a 28" field barrel with a vent rib and a removable choke tube. This 870 is prime for hunting fowl and for shooting trap and skeet should I wish.

The lower one is a defense/fighting shotgun which I've modified a fair bit to increased it's utility, as described in this earlier post:

The practical home-defense shotgun

This is the one that stays by the bed at night as a cure for things that go "bump" in the night. It sports a Surefire weapon light and holds 16 rounds of 12ga. in it's magazine tube, sidesaddle, and stock tubes. This is a "grab-and-go" weapon.

The 870 is a platform that handles either role exceptionally well as Brigid states so eloquently in her article, and I feel extremely well served having these two here in the Lair, one in the "social" rack in the living room and the other in the "on-deck circle". Remington scored a home run with this classic design when it first came out in 1951, and that's why over the last sixty years, they've made and sold over ten million of them. And they're still making and selling them today.

Edited to add: Keads has another nice post about his Remington 870 here:
Shotgun!

They're everywhere, folks. Because they're that good.

My Father's Guns

I have my father's guns now, three shotguns.

The first one is an Iver Johnson Champion 16 gauge single-shot that he bought back when he was a teen. The finish is original, if a bit neglected.

His brother told my this week how they went to a hardware store together back in the 1950's and my dad picked it out and bought it. Somehow it wound up disassembled and tucked away in my grandmother's basement for a few decades until I found it while nosing around in the late 1980s. My dad took it home again, and I spent some time carefully cleaning it up for him and gingerly removing a light layer of surface rust until the original blue shone through again. He kept it hanging on the wall of his den in a house he lived in in Dearborn, Mi for years, and then he moved again a few years ago and the shotgun wound up back in a closet again. During all this time, it likely never saw an oil rag, and I'm going to need to go over it again. That's a lot of time put into an old single-shot that's worth maybe a $150 on a good day, but this one's my dad's, so it'll get as much work as it needs to make it shine like new again, and then it'll get a place of honor here in the Lair.

No more basements or closets for this one.

The second one is one that I bought him, also back in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Back then, he and I were going hunting a bit and shooting clays, so I bought him a used but sharp Ithaca Model 37 12 gauge pump, both so that he could have his own gun for these things and because I worried about him living where he did, just a few blocks from the Detroit border.

It originally came to me with the 18" riot barrel as it had been a sheriff's department gun before, but I found a modified-choke field barrel at a gun show and bought that for it too so that he'd have both a game barrel and a deer/defense barrel for the gun. The shotgun was parkerized and the barrel blue, but unless you look close, you can't tell the difference. This gun's serial number indicates that it was manufactured in 1968.

He and I never took it out more than a few times back in the day, but I did find out at his memorial service that he'd had it out clay shooting with a good friend of his from work recently. That made me smile to think of him still finding enjoyment in this gun so many years on. He seems to have mislaid the original short barrel that the gun came with, as I could not find it in the closet where it sat on a shelf next to the Iver Johnson. But that's ok. After a good cleaning, it'll go into my living room display rack next to my own much younger Ithaca pump and I'll look at them and remember the times that we went out with them together.

Also found in that closet was another old single-barrel 12 gauge that I did not recognize at first. Then I remembered. Back when I was going to clean up his Iver Johnson for the first time, I wanted to do it right, without ruining anything. So I went to a local gun shop that had a bunch of junk guns and bought this battered and rusty old single for $25 or so, then I used it for practice with various cleaning and rust-removal techniques until I was sure that I could work on the IJ without harming it. After I was done, I cold-blued it and oiled the stock, and my dad wanted it for display in his den so I gave it to him. I'd forgotten all about this one until we pulled it down off the shelf. First I thought that it was his old 16 gauge and I was shocked at how bad it looked, and then I saw that it was a 12 gauge and I eventually remembered what it was and how it'd gotten there. This one is a Newport Model WN, which was a trade name used for guns made for the Hibbard Spencer Bartlett Company of Chicago, a large sporting goods wholesaler of the day. Crescent Fire Arms Company of Norwich,CT made these for them from 1892 until 1931. It's in poor shape and long past having any value at all other than sentimental, but it'll go nicely on the mantle over the fireplace in my library.

I didn't want your things, Pop. I'd have rather you just kept on having them forever. But life doesn't work that way. Rest assured that I'll take good care of them for you.

And this is why many of us choose to own firearms.

New Orleans, LA.

A 16-year-old boy was killed and a 15-year-old boy was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition after they were shot by the occupant of a house they allegedly broke into to try to burglarize, New Orleans police said.

Police were called to the 7400 block of Woodbine Drive about 11:30 a.m. and found the teens shot in the house's backyard, said officer Hilal Williams, an NOPD spokeswoman.

Paramedics pronounced the older boy dead at the scene. He wore gray pants and a hooded purple LSU sweatshirt. They rushed the second boy to a local hospital in critical condition.

According to investigators, the youths cut the power to the house and then threw a brick through a back window.

The burglary victim, who according to a relative is in his early 20s, was sleeping in the house when he heard a commotion, police said. He found the two teens climbing in the window, grabbed a gun and opened fire, police said.

The teens escaped the house through the same window they entered through, but were not able to flee the scene because of their injuries. Another 16-year-old boy who allegedly worked as a lookout was arrested without incident, Williams said

The Orleans Parish coroner's office did not find any weapons on the teen who died, and police could not immediately say whether the second suspect was armed when he was shot.

The victim's cousin, who asked that his name not be used because of safety concerns, said his cousin recently bought a gun for protection.

"I told him not to get it, but he said, 'If I have a gun -- you never know (if you'll need it). It's New Orleans East,'" the cousin said.

One neighbor who stood near the scene said the neighborhood, with its renovated houses and tidy lawns, has recovered well post-Katrina but that home burglaries have been a problem.

Williams said she did not expect police to file any charges against the burglary victim, because he apparently fired his gun in self-defense. However, detectives will discuss the case with the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office to decide if any action should be taken.

In 2006, then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed into law a bill that protects from prosecution anyone who kills an intruder "who has made unlawful entry into the dwelling ... and the person committing the homicide reasonably believes that the use of deadly force is necessary to prevent the entry or to compel the intruder to leave the premises."

Now I'm sure that by tonight, the families of the dead criminals will be all over the news, sobbing about how the deceased were good boys who were just getting ready to turn their lives around, but the real issue here is that today there is another man alive because he had one of those guns that many of our Congressmen want to keep us from having. Of course none of those Congressmen live in New Orleans East, or comparable neighborhoods with their own districts. Most live in gated communities or other well-heeled, neighborhoods that are far from where most criminals live and boast superior police protection.

But most of us will never be able to afford the level of security that our public servants enjoy on our dime. That's why it's incumbent upon us all to learn how to protect ourselves, and why Congress needs to back away from attempts to deny us the tools needed to do this.

In my case, Murphy's showing early signs of being a good watchdog--real good. But I can't just leave it all up to him. That's why I've invested heavily in quality self-defense training over the years and acquired quality tools that I can bring to bear when things go bump in the night or the patio door shatters.
And it's why I advocate for the gun rights of every other law-abiding citizen of this country, even those so stupid that they vote for Obama and other anti-gun legislators who will disarm them the moment that they have even a scant majority in Congress.

Remember, folks...when seconds count, the police are just minutes away. But when they get there, rest assured that they'll probably write a pretty good report and take lots of neat pictures of the crime scene.

Whether or not your part of that crime scene is up to you.

The practical home-defense shotgun

Shotguns. For defense of hearth and home, there's not much that's better. A good shotgun is easy to use, relatively child-proof compared to that pistol on the nightstand, and can deliver awesome knock-down power without the over-penetration problems that may come with rifles and many pistols. And they're also affordable, with a good used shotgun selling for about half of what you'd pay for a decent handgun. And used is fine, so long as it's been taken care of.

My personal home-defense shotgun is a Remington 870 with just a few modifications intended to increase it's utility as a fighting tool. If you're serious about defending yourself and your loved ones, I would recommend some or all of these modifications to your shotgun, but the weapon still works just fine without any of them.

I started out with a basic used Remington 870 12 gauge shotgun with an 18" barrel that looked a lot like this one and cost well under $200.
This gun, as it sits, is perfectly adequate as a defensive tool. In fact, it's last owner was a police department and they never saw fit to modify it before issuing it to their knights in blue.

Now the biggest complaint that can fairly be levied against a shotgun is that it doesn't hold a lot of shells. Well that's true, to a point. The shotgun above holds four shells in it's magazine tube, and if you like, you can keep a 5th shell in the chamber. While it's a fact that most defensive uses of a firearm involve either a display only (you show the gun and the bad guy runs away) or the discharge of relatively few rounds fired, there are always those exceptions. And I'm one of those who plans for the exceptions.

I chose to increase the magazine tube capacity from 4 rounds to six with the addition of the Choate Machine & Tool extended magazine.

I further increased my access to ready ammunition by adding a sidesaddle shell holder to the left side of the shotgun. It installs in a couple of minutes and it puts six more shells at my fingertips. This also increases the gun's versatility, because now I can carry buckshot in the magazine and slugs on the sidesaddle (or vice-versa) and it only takes a second to pop one round out of the chamber and toss another one in from the sidesaddle, thus allowing you to transition from one ammo type to the other should your shooting situation change. So now I've got 12 rounds--6 in the gun and six on the gun, and a shotgun's magazine can be "topped off" during any lull in the firing just by grabbing a shell and stuffing it into the mag tube opening. People trained to run a shotgun generally do this automatically.

Going further, I replaced the wood stock on my gun with a Speedfeed 1 synthetic stock that also has two short magazine tubes--one on each side--that each hold two more shells. Now I have 16 rounds available the moment my hand touches the gun and even more choices as to what kind of shells to carry and where to store them. I don't have to fumble around in the dark looking for extra boxes of shells or silly elastic bandoliers that never seem to work right. I'm good to go right from jump street with enough ammo to ensure that I'm not going to run out any time soon.

Now this brings me to what I consider to be a very important upgrade--a tactical light. Since it's dark approximately half of any given day, I prefer to put a quality light on my gun to ensure that I can identify my target before making that final decision to fire. Since I like quality, I use Surefire weaponlights almost exclusively because they make good stuff and stand behind it with excellent customer service.

When all is done, my gun looks a little different that it did before, but it's a lot handier and still cost me about what I would have spent on a quality handgun. Now it looks like this:And that's really it. No silly-assed heat shields on the barrel, no clumsy folding stocks or bayonet lugs...none of that extra goofy crap that tells a savvy bad guy that you haven't a clue about what you're trying to do. Simple works, and simple is best, because when the glass breaks at 3AM, you need something that's simple, reliable and intuitive to operate, and all of that extra mall ninja/rambo crap is just going to slow you down and fuddle you up.

Frankly, if you're serious about defending yourself or your loved ones, you'd be hard-pressed to beat the venerable 12 gauge shotgun in most home environments. If you already have one, good for you. If you don't...well what are you waiting for?

Training Day

It was 90 degrees in the shade today, and there was no shade at all on the range where I go to train.

I had the place to myself this morning, so that meant that I got to set up a real nice multi-position shooting course to run through. I put several 5-gallon pail targets downrange at various distances, from 10 meters to 90 meters (sadly, that's all the room there is here) and parked my truck perpendicular to the targets midway between a large rock on one side and an orange and white ex-construction barrel on the other side. A bit forward of this line--between the truck and the barrel--was a smaller dirt berm. Downrange of the barrel there was the remains of an old table that I put several empty drink cans on. They'd be my final targets. Then I set about to practice my cover and transition drills with the Uzi submachine gun, Remington 870 shotgun and H&K P7M13 pistol.

The drill ran as follows:

1. Starting from a seated position in the truck, exit the truck and engage two of the targets with the primary weapon (Uzi or shotgun).
2. Run to the rock. Taking cover behind the rock, engage two targets from there.
3. Run back to the truck. Kneel behind the tire and fire around the front bumper. Engage two targets.
4. Run to rear of truck and use it for cover while engaging two more target pails.
5. Run forward to the berm and go prone behind it. Roll out and engage any two visible targets left.
6. Get up, run back to the barrel, and drop the Uzi (it's on a sling) or set down the shotgun (it doesn't have a sling) and transition to the pistol. Using the barrel as cover, clear the table of the cans.
7. Reload as necessary during the run, but without stopping. If the primary weapon jams or goes completely empty before getting to the barrel, transition to the pistol and finish the course.

Sounds easy, right?

Hell...

Anyone can just stand and shoot static targets like drink cans, but when your heart rate is up and your chest is pounding, you're out of breath, and the sweat is just flowing down your face and into your eyes, hitting those same little cans can be a vexing exercise, indeed. Add in the heat and the rough terrain, and well...you've got reality staring back at you. And that's the idea; real-life gunfights don't take place on 15-meter indoor pistol ranges.

I ran this course eight times--three times with the Uzi, four times with the shotgun, and once with an M1 carbine. I stumbled once while running with the Uzi and fell on top of it, and I'm extremely grateful that Uziel Gal put a grip safety on that thing as the muzzle nailed me hard in my ribs when I hit the ground. (This is why we don't run with our fingers on the triggers, people.) But I got right back up again and finished the course.

With the Uzi and the carbine, there was just one mag change required midway through each run, but with the shotgun, I had to constantly strip rounds from the sidesaddle and stock tubes to top off the gun or feed through the ejection port as I ran. That's an essential fighting shotgun skill that few people practice adequately.

During the four shotgun runs, I fired 65 rounds of buckshot and slugs, and when I finished the last run, I actually burned my hand on the barrel, it was so hot. But those 870s, like the Uzis, just keep going.

Only twice out of the seven runs was I able to clean all of the cans off of the last stage with one shot per can. Every other times, I was shaking and muffed one or more. But that's why we train--to get faster, smoother and better.

When I finished, I went down to check out of the range. The desk staff was shocked to see that I was soaking wet and covered with sand. "What were you doing out there?" they asked.

My prosthetist asked the same question half an hour later when I showed up in his office for another "emergency" repair. Once again, I'd torn through the neoprene sleeve holding my leg in place by repeatedly kneeling and going prone on it. And once again, I was reminded that my leg wasn't designed for this sort of abuse. But until they come out with one that is, I guess I'll keep tearing this one up. Screw it--that's why I have insurance and plenty of spare sleeves and other parts for it at home. But for now, I guess that I probably should go out and try to find some knee pads that'll fit over it.

Oh well...other than a burned hand, a few cuts and scrapes, and some bruising in my ribs, I'm feeling great. Confidence is high.

So what'd you do today to make yourself a better you?

My lifesaving tools.

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.

Fun-filled Friday, part 2

Since I needed to work out some frustrations after dealing with that stove, and since a box had come from Surefire, Inc., containing the repair parts for my shotgun's tactical light, I decided that tonight would be a good night for a test of the shotgun, coupled with a night-firing session. Obviously with the temperature hovering around ten degrees, I could count on having the range to myself. And since both the shotgun and the AR-15 carbine needed function testing, why not make sure that they work in the cold?

I drove out to the range with the two weapons, arriving a bit after full dark.

Unfortunately, my primary tactical light was dead due to my using it to work on the stove. (DOH!) Since it's rechargeable, I couldn't just pop new batteries in it but had to leave it on the charger. I missed it immediately as I was forced to check and load the firearms by braille. But I suppose that's good practice, too. The only drawback was that I'd brought out about fifty shotgun shells of all different types, and I couldn't see them well enough to know what was what. Ah well...The cost of not bringing a back-up light was never knowing when I'd chambered a heavy slug until after I'd touched the trigger. That'll teach me.

I put up a police pistol silhouette on the 25m line and engaged it from different positions and locations on the range. I practiced speed-firing, including reloading from both the side-saddle carrier and my pocket, and feeding single rounds through the ejection port. Mr. silhouette bad guy didn't look too good when the firing stopped. In fact he seemed to be missing almost all of his center-mass five-ring. Oh well...I'll bet the next time that I tell him to show me his hands, he'll do it.

I did learn that my tactical gloves--work issue and therefore pretty damned cheap--were not a match for the shotgun, as the glove material kept getting caught up in between the shells and the magazine tube until finally I discarded them and shot with bare (and cold) hands.

Then the AR carbine came out. I put sixty rounds into the target three rounds at a time, again moving rapidly between firing points and alternating between standing, kneeling and prone. It's Pentagon light worked well, other than it's tendency to flash whenever the rifle's bolt slams home on an empty chamber. (Yo, Pentagon...you need to fix that.) I was using the rifle' back-up iron sight (BUIS)--an ARMS 40L. I have to admit, I'm still not sold on the ARMS BUIS. It has no elevation adjustment, so the rifle's front sight post is the only means of adjusting it, and the long-range peep sight has to be folded down to allow use of the larger ghost ring CQB sight and then folded up again before the sight can be folded down and locked. That's not really instinctive and it seems a bit fragile. I guess time will tell.

The shotgun and it's Surefire light performed flawlessly, and if fifty rounds of heavy stuff didn't blow the bulb out, I think that I can conclude that the last problem was in the old bulb assembly. The AR still seems to have a quirk or two to work out, but it's getting there. That's what I get for cobbling my own rifle together instead of buying one that was completely assembled and factory tested. Still, it's coming along and I'm not unhappy with it, especially knowing that it won't be too long before B. Hussein Obama and his gun-hating allies in the Dem-controlled House and Senate push through another ban on so-called "assault weapons" like my AR's. It's reassuring to know that whatever happens in DC, I've already got mine.

Shooting and stuff

Aaron and I predictably got away for some shooting, this time a night session where we fired a variety of handguns and long guns by flashlight, auto headlight and weapon-mounted lights.

Aaron has a new Czech military surplus CZ-82 pistol which, I must admit, feels damned good in the hand and shoots like a dream. I'm sure that he'll be blogging about it later (EDITED to add that he did--right here.) and I'm resisting the urge to call up and order one this morning.

We also had a quantity of new AR-15 rifles--he had two and I had one--all recently put together by us and brought out for testing. Sadly that didn't go well as one of his AR's (a AR pistol made of CMMG parts) and mine--assembled over a few months from Rock River components--both exhibited some sort of binding in the buffer tubes that kept the actions from cycling. I've never seen this before and it was curious to watch both of our guns--made by different people from different companies' components and using different ammunition both fail from the same apparent problem at the same time. But as Aaron said, better at a test shoot than later when needed.

We also fired tactical shotguns for a bit, as both of us have Remington 870's with Surefire lights. His is an older light that he bought used for less than half what mine cost new, so when my bulb blew out on shot number seven as his kept working, well let's just say that I was not amused. Fortunately it's a Surefire and they stand behind their stuff. That's why I buy their lights almost exclusively. I have no doubt that this'll be fixed quickly.

That aside, there's nothing like a 12 gauge shotgun when you just want to shred targets. They do have their uses.

We finished up with some tactical shooting from and around my car. It's all good practice, as you never know when the wolves will appear or what may be around you. Cars are almost always around and they make pretty good cover. And the night-shooting? Well it is dark half of the time.

We finished up and returned to Aaron's house, where we spent half of the night cleaning guns, drinking beer and watching Jason Statham movies. Of course morning was heralded way too soon by the stomping and giggling and horseplay of their little girls. There really should be a law barring small children from getting up early on Saturday mornings. I mean, it's not like there's cartoons on all the TV channels any more. Remember when there were just three channels on the TV and all of them showed cartoons on Saturdays? And FUN cartoons--not half-hour long barely-disguised toy commercials. For some reason, that stopped. Since it did, kids under twelve really need to sleep until at least noon on Saturdays now.

But since they didn't, I wound up playing numerous games with the oldest daughter, games whose rules seemed to be invented on the spot by her and always to her advantage. That kid's going to make one heck of a Contracts lawyer some day.

Lagniappe and I drove home yesterday. And as usual, I have a couple of observations and some common sense to impart.

When road construction on a highway causes the state to shift the lanes and put up signs that order all trucks and buses to use the left lane, that also means that other slow vehicles which are not trucks and buses need also move to the left instead of driving along like bliss ninnies in the right lane at or below the speed of the slowest trucks or buses which are now in the left lanes. I should not have to state this, but after the drive, it's obvious that some people just don't get it. Also, the old caveat still applies that if there is no one ahead of you for half a mile or more while an unbroken line of cars behind you stretches clear back to the horizon, YOU'RE WRONG! Get the hell out of the way and let the people whose heads aren't up their asses like yours is get past.

Improving your shotgun--do's and don't's.

Yesterday, on a particular forum that I participate in (usually by ridiculing the mall ninjas and Rambo wanna-be's who think that they're big and bad) a member sent me a message asking for help in customizing a Remington 870 shotgun for home defense. He was all set to put a side-folding stock and some kind of accessory rail on it and wanted my suggestions as to what he should put on. He admitted that he'd gleaned from my prior public posts that I had some experience with fighting shotguns.

Well he's right, and this is basically what I told him:

As far as an 870 goes, it's an excellent home-defense tool, but you'll come out ahead if you leave the silly stuff off of it. The next time you see a police car, if you can see it's shotgun, notice that it still has it's factory stock. 99%+ of military and law enforcement shotguns do and that's not because they're just not as hi-speed as the internet Rambos on these forums are. No serious combat shotgun has a side-folding stock or any other sort of collapsible stock and that's for several reasons. A proper stock gives you support, helps you to aim, provides balance, absorbs recoil, and is useful should you need to wrestle with or otherwise strike with the shotgun directly. By contrast, I'd be hard-pressed to think of a disadvantage to a solid wood or plastic stock.

Folding stocks, on the other hand, are awkward, unreliable, often make recoil unmanageable, and when the stress is high and you're moving fast, you aren't going to be messing with it anyway. It may look "cool" to some, but it tells the rest of us that the person holding it really doesn't know what he's doing. Posers have those on their guns. Professionals don't.

So leave that part of the gun alone and invest the money that you would have wasted on a folding stock on more ammo or other accessories like a Tac Star sidesaddle shell holder(a must, IMHO) or a good Surefire fore-end light. Again, there's no call for a rail when Surefire makes the best light on the market and it's part of the fore-end. Look up the Surefire 618 FA, or the 618 LF if you want an LED, and go with that. Yeah, it's pricey, but what's your life worth? If you want a defensive tool that will really come through when you need it, there's no substitute for this one.

Also, avoid stupid stuff that you see posers with in the magazines and on websites. This includes lasers, bayonets, heat shields, breechers on the muzzle and other crap intended to make the shotgun look "bad-ass". And leave the slings off of it, too. You're not carrying it on a 20 mile march and it'll just get caught on stuff when you're rushing.

In sum, Minimalism is the way to go, and a light and extra shells are all you really want. Keep the stock, add a Surefire front end, mount a sidesaddle extra shell carrier for $25.00 or so, and add a magazine tube extension such as made by Remington themselves or Choate Machine Tool. The extra shot or two that they give you are worth the money. If you still want four more rounds, put a speed-feed stock on it. These handy stocks look like factory stocks but have two spring-loaded shell tubes--one on each side--and each holds two more rounds. Using those on-gun holders, you can have up to sixteen rounds on the gun, giving you all that you'll need to end a fight without scrambling for extra shells in the dark.

Do these things and you'll have a fighting shotgun on par with most anything in use today by the average professional law enforcement agency that uses such tools.

And then get out and PRACTICE with it until your load, unload and malfunction drills are second-nature and you can hit your target dead center from 10 and 25 yards with shot and 25, 50 and 100 yards with 1oz slugs. (hint: reduced recoil are the way to go. You're not trying to drop a trophy buck at 150 yards...reduced recoil shells have all the power you need without the jarring recoil that slows follow-up shots and takes all the fun out of practice.)My own 870, waiting on it's Speedfeed stock to arrive.

Back...

Sorry for the delay there, folks. Contrary to popular opinion, I actually do have a job and it occasionally requires me to do stuff. This past week, I've been pretty busy on a project that I finally just wrapped up this morning. No time for shooting, running, flying, or blogging. Ah well...such is life.

I did have an interesting experience last night though. A little bit after midnight, as Lagniappe and I sat out on the deck, we heard something big scrambling around in the woods next to my house.

Now a couple of weeks ago, there were several bear sightings right around here, and the morning after one of those, a section of my fence was noticeably damaged. It didn't take a whole lot of imagination to suspect that the bear had been here too, so when I heard the commotion in the woods, I went out to investigate, suitably armed with my trusty Remington 870 and it's attached Surefire light.(I was literally "armed for bear".)
I approached the source of the commotion, and when I got close, I activated the light, surprising a pair of deer who were, shall we say, "getting busy".

OK, that mystery solved, I was heading back towards the house when I saw a van coming down the road very slowly. As I watched, it's lights went out and it slowed to a stop. The driver got out and walked into the trees on my property.

OK, now I'm curious, especially as we've had a rash of burglaries and thefts around here as of late. So I walked down my driveway to the road and approached the back of the van. As I did so, he came back out of my woods so I put the light on him and asked him what he was doing.
He put his hands up to shield his eyes and demanded that I turn the light off.
I told him that that wasn't going to happen, and again asked him what he was doing in those woods.
He replied that he was on his way home, and that he just lived a short distance away on a nearby road, and that he'd stopped to relieve himself. He sounded like he'd had a few drinks (not surprising around here), and when he told me where he lived, I recognized his van as one I frequently see parked there.

I politely but firmly recommended that he refrain from such conduct on other people's property in the future and advised him to have a good night. I still hadn't turned off the light or taken it out of his eyes because I like keeping the tactical advantage, even if I am just dealing with a neighborhood boozer. So after he got into his van and closed the door, he rolled the window down and shouted "The next time you shine that light in someone's eyes you might just get your ass kicked!" Then he put the van into gear and drove off down the road, apparently blissfully aware of the fact that the light he objected to was attached to the business end of a 12 gauge shotgun.

No harm, no foul in this instance, but if you're one of those trash-talkers who likes to run his mouth at people you don't know (and/or can't even see), you might want to consider the possibility that sometimes your mouth might be writing a check that your body can't cash.

I'm just saying...

Life just got tougher for things that go bump in the night

A long overdue addition to the armory... A Surefire 618A tactical forend for the venerable Remington 870 12 gauge shotgun.

I've long advocated the 12 gauge for home defense. It's powerful and easy to use, and mine has a place next to the bed as part of my safety kit. Mine's not much as looks go. It's an old police department gun, still bearing a "City of Dearborn" stamp on the stock. I got it years ago from a friend on that department when that city sold all their old guns to their officers and other LEO's. But it's been gone over and it's drop-dead reliable. With it's magazine-tube extension it carries six in the magazine and one more in the chamber, giving me more than enough back-up should I need to investigate strange noises at night. But until now, I've always been limited in my ability to hold it and a flashlight, causing me to fall back on a "nightstand ready" Glock pistol, which could more easily be handled in conjunction with a hand-held flashlight. Of course that came at a stopping-power price so I finally bit the bullet and picked up this Surefire light. Now the flashlight is a permanent part of the gun, ready to switch on with the click of a button or just pop on with pressure on a pressure pad.

The light's powered by two long-life lithium batteries and the light and mount are designed to withstand the shock of the shotgun's firing. It wasn't cheap, but since it's dark roughly half of any given 24-hour cycle, you have to weigh the cost against the benefit and ask yourself how much your life's worth when and if the bad guys decide to come calling outside of the socially-acceptable daylight hours. I had one of these on my work shotgun for years as a cop, and while I'd always meant to get one, I kept putting it off. But I got a sweet deal from an acquaintance who deals in these things so I finally picked one up. I can hardly wait for it to get dark tonight so I can turn off all the house lights and play with---I mean so that I can PRACTICE with it.
And of course it's covered by Surefire's lifetime warranty. Any Surefire product that ever fails to work right will be promptly fixed or replaced at no cost. I've used their warranty service before and I can vouch for their fantastic customer service.