Saturday, August 26, 2017

Yet Another Saturday!


Yes, back in the saddle again!

Not saying that we had a big ole time at the Mill Creek Shooting Resort last week, but I realized we shot up pretty much all my 6.5 Creedmoor match ammo (Hornady 140-gr ELD-Match). This is indeed a spectacular facility, located in what I think is the most beautiful part of America, southern Colorado. The accommodations are super, the meals delicious and the shooting beyond spectacular.

We did most of our filming on top of a mesa with ranges from 400 - 1300 yards. The SG episode will focus on training from Sean Murphy at Nightforce and featuring co-hosts Iain Harrison and Di Muller. Thanks to Sean, I did get to push my personal best out to 1300 yards. The combination of the MPA rifle, the 7-35X Nightforce and the Hornady ELD ammo got the job done.

Iain is heading out for a bear hunt next week, and that got me thinking a bit about hunting. We're sort of  on opposite ends of the spectrum  he's the classic "adventure hunter," and he's amazingly good at it. I suspect those expedition days are behind me now, but you never know. I'm more of a "travelogue hunter," focusing on places I've never been. I probably need to think about this more. I will say pretty much the only red meat I eat is game meat. Beef is just not the same anymore.

Since I was in Africa this year, I don't have huge plans for the fall. I would like to get down to FTW or one of the big Texas ranches to break in my new Montana Rifle 6.5 Creedmoor, probably on whitetail, but maybe an exotic like axis or fallow deer.

My Sweetie's out at a 3-Gun match, but I was just a spec burned up from last week's filming schedule. I'm probably going to sped a couple of hours on the range today doing .22 work. I need to sight in my Sweetie's .22 AR that she wants to shoot in NSSF Rimfire Challenge. I was finally able to gather up enough CCI Tactical, the ammo the gun was built around, to get through a few matches. She asked me to put a low power scope on it, not because she might need it in Rimfire Challenge, but because she wants the .22 to mirror her Stag 3-Gun rifle. I gave her my workhorse Leupold 1.5-4X Firedot. I've used that scope for years in both competition and hunting…I think that at less than $400 MSRP,  it's one of the great screaming buys in optics.

I also want to start working with my ancient S&W M41 topped with an UltraDot 30mm.


Grips, which I plan to grind the hell out of, especially around the magazine release button, are Hogue.

Ridiculously good day for new gum releases. As choirs of angels sing, I'm waiting for my Glock 19 Gen 5. I couldn't make the super-secret Glock media event in early August, which coincided with the InterMedia Editor's Roundtable on new products, so I don't have any hands-on yet. I'm willing to bet ti shoots amazingly like a Glock. I'm glad to see the finger grooves gone, but I am apparently one of 3 people in The Entire Universe whose hands fit the finger grooves on the last few generations of Glocks. Also interesting to see Glock abandon polygonal rifling after years of defending it. It'll cut into the aftermarket barrel market, to be sure.

I think it's also very cool that Auto Ordnance has rolled out a 9mm Thompson.


C'mon, admit it! This would be totally cool to use in a USPSA PCC competition. Or add a 1911 .22 (or a conversion unit), and you will be the coolest kid at the NSSF Rimfire Challenge match. I say this as the last — indeed, only! — national champion in the "manually operated" class for Rimfire Challenge. Maybe they can add a retro class, and I could compete with guys running the .22 StG-44 we filmed with this year for GUN STORIES WITH JOE MANTEGNA and a classic Stoeger .22 Luger. American Tactical Imports also has a .22 AK, but I'm pretty much at a loss for the appropriate pistol…there is a Makarov .22 conversion unit, but I've never seen one in the wild. Of course, somebody would show up with a CZ-75 Kadet, and the arms race would be on!
Finally, I've now started putting rounds through the SCCY CPX-3 .380. The ones I've shot have a really smooth trigger and are exceptionally accurate. I've talked about the larger format .380s before, both when the Ruger LC380 and the Glock 43 came out. The mini-9mms do bark, and I believe they are more appropriate in the hands of experienced shooters. OTOH, the pocket .380s like the LCP2 or Kahrs can be hard to shoot well once the distance gets beyond arms-length. The larger-framed modern .380s are, to me, viable self defense tools, given modern ammunition. They're holster guns, of course...I have been able to cram a Ruger LC9 into a cargo pants pocket, but it looked like I was carrying a concealed encyclopedia.

16 comments:

magnum1b said...

At Talon Range IDPA match today we got to see the Gen5 G19 and G19. The 17 was shot in LEO Division in fact. I understand Glock filtered some out to variius matched around the country this weekend and they're to be oficially unveiled publicly next weekend.

magnum1b said...

Meant to say G19 and G17

Exurbankevin said...

I've got one of those Sccys in myself, writing it up for one of the gun mags. It is *ridiculously* easy rack the slide.

We forget just how hard that is to do for the elderly and the less-strong, and if a potential gun owner finds out they can't do that, they start to question gun ownership in the first place.

Honestly, this is a great choice for maybe, oh, half the people who walk into a gun store... the ones who will only put 100 or so rounds through it in a year, will never get a CCW (much less train) and only want a gun to make them "feel safe".

Anonymous said...

Glock's doing away with polygonal rifling? That's sure a surprise to me too. I can't believe that there was a big-enough demand for a less superior technology than cut, or forged land-and-groove rifling from the "lead-casters". There's got to be more to this story.

Awhile back, I read in I think Shooting Times Magazine, about an AR-based rifle that a match shooter had that had a custom polygonally rifled barrel in 6mm caliber. He claimed that it never needed cleaning and it was dead-nuts accurate even after thousands of rounds. I've heard the same from Glock owners.

Hmmmm.

Life Member

P. S.: Ref. "beef". Being an ol' hunter and farm-boy, I still like to add some "age" to my meats. Even a lesser cut of beef can have it's flavor and texture enhanced by aging it for another month, in a cold refrigerator. On better cuts, they become "entry-into-Heaven barter". Lately, our neighborhood butcher has been featuring on a low-key basis, what he calls "butchers cuts". They're select cuts of beef that are usually relegated to the "meatball" tub because they're raggedy and small, OR the butcher's own table. They come from the inside of the carcass usually. When dry-aged, they look beautiful with their ruby color and separated fibers. They taste even better than they look when tossed onto a 700-degree F grill for only a minute, or two per side. Accompany them with you favorite sides and wash 'em down with a nice Malbec.

Tokarev said...

Way back when Makarov.com was still running, I bought one of the Bulgarian .22 conversions. It was one of 500 they had imported and as I had a Bulgarian Mak, I had to have one. The lettering on the box, and the instructions, at in Whatever language they speak in Bulgaria, but I found some English translations someplace online back then. The one magazine I have only holds 8 rounds and the sights on the slide are fixed, but I keep the conversion installed because it's more fun to shoot that way.

Reg T said...

Just a comment on your interest in the Ultradot line. I recently purchased an Ultradot LT for my Keltec PMR-30. I dropped the pistol _once_ - not landing on the Ultradot LT, but upon the muzzle of the pistol - and it ceased to function. Because it wasn't due to a defect in the sight, I sent it to them willing to pay to have the $250 sight repaired, but they said it was unrepairable.

Yes, the fault was mine, but a sight this weak - compared to other red dot sights which I've had which _could_ take some abuse before failing - leaves me unwilling to spend any further money on anything they produce. I don't know which part of the electronics (the laser, perhaps?) which failed, but the fact that it was unrepairable speaks poorly to the quality of their sights. YMMV.

Xdowner45 said...

Your Sccy actually fires?

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