Survived Black Monday...

Last week, one week before we celebrate our "Independence Day," I spent a lot of time putting the ole John Hancock on specially drafted assignment forms placing each and every magazine of greater than 15 rounds that I or my Sweetie own into our Gun Trust, one form for each magazine. The firearms went into the Trust in late February. My plan is that any future firearms, especially Class 3 items, will be sold directly to the Trust as opposed to an individual.

We will prevail in this, and damn them all come 2014!

I also survived the He-Man 3-Gun Championships at the Whittington Center last weekend, although I'm pretty certain in LAST place...LOL! It was absolutely a hard match, a marksman's match, and the people there are the best of the best. I would say that they made the stages look easy, but they didn't...they made themselves look really, really good.

I was (surprisingly) very pleased with my performance with the rifle, the Colt 901 7.62. As you guys know, I fitted the rifle with a Leupold Firedot 1.5-4X in  Burris PEPR mount last week and sighted it in with Federal 168-gr Sierra Match, one inch high at 100 yards, since I could only get to a 100 yard range. The bulk of the long-range rifle targets were in the high 200-320 yard range, and the rifle was a rock. I POA'ed the 200 yard targets and went to a point between the crosshairs and the first hashmark (360 meters) for the 300 yarders. On my best shot on the 385 yard plate I used the first hashmark as the aiming point. I also used the green Firedot in its lowest setting all the time, as it made it easier to quickly obtain the crosshair. Also, there were a LOT of close-in rifle paper (full-size and I believe 1/3-size IPSC targets) either before or after the long shots, which were offhand, kneeling and prone. I used the dot for anything close in.

BTW, most of the rifles were AR-10 variants, mostly set up for 3-Gun just like the 5.56s. Zoot Suit founder Jason "The Hustler" Huss, studly guy that he is, shot the match with an iron-sighted PTR 91 and did great!

We also had a 550-yard shot with a "pick-up" rifle, a Savage .308 with a 6X scope. The shot was prone, with the rifle off a small Caldwell rest and a rear bag if needed. The tricksy part was the scope was mounted on an AR mount, thus about an inch, inch and a half, too high on a bolt gun! As they told us going in, it would be impossible to get in a classic prone position with a good cheek weld..."didn't want to make it too easy," we were told. LOL again! Every single person in our squad made the shot, and every person used a different technique to deal with the awkwardly mounted scope. My technique, based on a hint from our excellent range officer, was to use my left hand on top of the stock to give me a much higher cheek weld. On a normal prone, I would use my left had to snug the stock into my shoulder and adjust the elevation. It was a little rickety, but it still allowed me to make the shot.

The Benelli Nova worked great. I picked it up Thursday afternoon, fitted it with with a +7 Nordic tube, ran a bunch of dummy rounds through it and Friday AM took it to New Mexico. I was faster with my shotgun reloads, but not NEARLY fast enough...for example, we had a 40+ round birdshot course, and every piece of steel you hit launched clays or triggered stars or spinners. Yikes! I think I only hit one slug shot, because I hadn't been able to run the shotgun with slugs before the match and I had no idea where it was hitting. My bad, but I knew that going in. The Nova has a 24-inch barrel and a red fiber optic front bead. I would have killed for a set of rifle sights on those 100-yard uphill or downhill slug shots! My favorite shotgun run was on 10 30-50 yard full-sized pepper poppers with buckshot. I went to a full choke with Wolf heavy #00 buck...I have bruises, but darn, those poppers went down quick!

I had trouble with the 40-50 yard pistol plates, and I have not the slightest excuse for that. The Wilson 1911 will deliver (and has delivered at those distances in the past), but I wasn't there for it last weekend. Something to add to the training list!

I had no malfunctions with any of the guns during the match. I did NOT detail strip them to clean before the match, but did a light disassembly and a quick clean, followed by lubing with Ballistol. Whittington is dry, dusty and hot this time of year, which is hard on guns, and I've had good luck with Ballistol in those conditions.

[PS: Armscor is a major sponsor of the shows, thank you! Neither Colt, nor Leupold, nor Benelli, nor Nordic Components nor Wilson Combat, nor Federal, Wolf or Fiocchi are sponsors of the shows, DRTV or the podcast...FWIW]