Range day!
Major range day.
Nephew and I loaded up the truck with such a bucketload of shit, it’s amazing we got it all in the truck.
Pistols:
Uberti Colt Cattleman
Ruger Mark II
Rifles:
Ma Bell (Interarms Mark X in 30-06)
Remington 241 Speedmaster
Winchester 94 in 30-30 wcf
K31
Cugir
Scatterguns
Springfield armory 12 gauge
LeFever Nitro Special 20 gauge
We went through all the ammo I brought, which was hundreds and hundreds of rounds.
The gem of the day was, of course,the K31. I shot twenty rounds through Ma Bell, which used to be my favorite, and which, frankly, was usually able to get me single ragged hole groups.These days, I can’t seem to get better than a couple inches across.
On the other hand, the K31, I was able to keep everything in six inches. At 100 yarde. With Iron sights.
If I had to give up every rifle I owned, and keep but one, this would be the one. It comes to the shoulder unaided, it springs to life beneath my grip. THe warmth of it’s barrel comforts me and the weight of it makes me wish I had purchased it earlier. I grow ever more satisfied with this fine rifle, and I intend to restore it’s stock and get it back to as-new condition as soon as I can.
We ran out of 30-30. We ran out of 30-06. We ran out of 7.5 swiss. We went through more than 500 rounds of 22 long rifle.
We shot and shot and shot, until we wore grins so large our faces hurt.
THen came the clays. Now i’ll readily admit to sucking with sporting clays, and today was no exception- but I remembered what it took to GET good. Practice.
Now, I’ve done a lot of things that I never got any good at- I tried to learn the guitar about three hundred times, and I go from nothing to sucking in a couple days, where I plateau at sucking for about ever. No matter what I do, I rarely if ever get beyond sucking.
Clays, of course, I do improve. I went, during the course of a couple hundred clays, from sucking to hitting about every one. I did have some issues getting the old LeFever to run well- it;s a little old and cantankerous and I suspect I will have to do some work to it to get it to be more reliable- and in any event, it was never a trap gun. The Springfield Armory is really only a hyped up Savage, and it shoots well, but again, it’s not a trap gun, not mean tto shoot all day long. I had better luck with the 20 than with the 12, but that’s because of familiarity. At any rate, 20 straight was my best hit, and I’m, looking forward to a lot more.
All in all? damn, i feel good. And a bottle of cheap sauternes at the end of the day is gonna make it a good dall all told. Now I must go nap. Happy fourth!
I certainly hope you saved a little ammo for the upcoming blogfest!!
(Sounds like you had a great time, though!)
Sounds like your Independence Day weekend was just like mine. THough, I didn’t shoot nearly as many rounds.
And, I agree with your assessment of the K31. Looks like Aim Surplus is now selling collector grades as well.
One other thing to point out about the K31 (and my Garand) – even with the oppressive heat beating down on us in Georgia – while I couldn’t pick up most of my guns cause they were simply too hot to handle, I had no problem grasping and firing and hitting clay pigeons at 75 yards with the k31.
What a wonderful treasure.
Mahn,I really wish the blogmeet was not on the same weekend as one of my re-enactments.
Sorry I won’t be at Buffler Rock. Momma Bear and me is teaching a bunch of Ladies (first timers) to shoot over to Howells. We got more than 20 of them this time. I belong to another un around Sugar Grove. You can contact me and I can guest you in there sometime.