Outdoor fun in mid-December

 

One reason to live in Tennessee: tshirt weather in the middle of December. The secret to this local warming is burning enough gunpowder!

Beck Defense carbine in 7.62×35(300 Blackout). For more effective warming of the environment, .510 Beck — in this instance, a 690 grain monolithic subsonic.

Muffled guns are more fun and easier on the ears. In an AR10, even the .510 monster round is pretty easy on the shoulder, with far less impact than a 30-30 or a 44Mag from a lever action carbine.

Another Beck shortie. Contrary to my expectations based on using most other suppressed ARs, these rifles produced no blowback to the user at all.

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Subcompact camera update

Sony RX100 IV proved a disappointment. Image quality is well below my expectations with poor colors, and the usability for video is poor with focus problems. My eyeglasses push the pop-up viewfinder out of alignment, so that’s only marginally helpful. Fortunately, B&H issued an RMA.

I think this concludes my effort to go below micro 4/3 in size. I have a Panasonic G2 which, while not small, is more portable than my A7R or 5DSR. Perhaps a Pen-size camera with a pancake lens would work better, but that’s a quest I will leave for some unspecified future. As with pistols, eventually the utility of larger tools outstrips the convenience of the subcompacts.

Now I am looking for a standalone video camera, having got frustrated with the handling limitations of DSLRs for that purpose. Canon XA20 is the current favorite. Does anyone have experience with it, particularly with the effectiveness of autofocus?

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Good parenting is more than…

…just taking your two champion kids to World Steel Championship 2015 and shooting along with them, it’s also about horsey rides even if the kids are already teenagers.

Talk about setting a high standard for their future mates!

 

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Scoping the PTR91

So I finally got curious about the accuracy potential of the MAD 33AR and the PTR91. With iron sights, I can do OK but not well enough to make hits on smaller targets. The scope mount I got didn’t quite fit the MAD 33AR, so it went on the 91 even though the BDC is for .223 round. Inside of 500 yards, the differences are sufficiently minor anyway. For 5.56mm, the most obvious solution would be MAD 33kAR with Picatinny rail on the receiver.

The eye relief of the 3×30 ACOG is just right, which is good, as the mount permits little variation in position. You can see the faint image of the protective ring around the front sight at the bottom of the sight picture, but it’s not intrusive. Accuracy definitely improved. Groups got smaller by about 50% (close to 2MOA with ball) but, more importantly, the centering of the groups moved much closer to the point of aim. I only wish that the scope had some reticle other than the extra-bright green chevron. Fortunately, quite a few options are available. My top picks would be red cross-hairs or dot-horseshoe, followed by green. Yellow is much harder to see in my environment.

I strongly suspect that the main appeal of PSG1 style “sniper” stocks is in moving the cheekbone away from the stock hump. With the rifle as it is now, one has to be careful of the face placement to avoid eventual bruising. But even with the base furniture, PTR91 usefulness improves considerably with a good scope.

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The grin of the win

Today, I was at the range with three friends. We did a little shooting competition. Wooden boards sized about 6″x9″ were propped up on the bushes by the berm and we shot at them from 150 yards. Each shooter had five rounds and we fired at will. I had a .223 bolt action with what proved a loose scope mount — the predictable end result was no hits at all. Another friend had an Ishapore .308 Enfield, no hits either as he aimed at the middle middle rather than under the target with sights set to 200m. The third man had a Vepr 7.62×54 with a 6x PSOP scope and he had one center hit, but the board didn’t fall off the bush. Robert, pictured above with a happy grin, shot his .223 Savage with a 3-9x Weaver scope and got three hit out of five shots, knocking the board down.

We did a re-match, with the results repeated, only this time he knocked the board down in two shots. And I went down to the 100 yard line, missed some more and finally had the bright idea of checking the scope mount. Ironically, I also tried to hit the target with my old G23, only to have it break in the middle of the magazine (the recoil spring connection to the guide rod is busted). So the lesson is: “Test your weapons and optics. Have spare weapons on hand.”

 

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PTR91 wide handguard?

Why is this young lady sad? She just found out that the slim forend shifts on firing and can pinch fingers against the receiver. Where could I find a wide forend for this PTR91?

 

Posted in advice requested, rkba, weapon | Tagged | 2 Comments

Pass it on!

It’s good to be a competitive shooter, like Dani Bryan-Nickens for Team CZ Forum. It’s even better to also pass on the skills and the mindset to the next generation.

That Volquartsen Scorpion is worth a lot more in competent hands…even if those hands are only eight years old.

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If .223 is for poodle-shooting…

…the .308 must be for hellhounds?

Aero Precision 308 carbine with Viridian V300 power zoom laser illuminator and Vortex 1-6x scope.

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Pretty sharp

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Sphinx Origins: new book by Amie Gibbons

Just finished the cover for another witch story by Amie, one in a new series. I read it, recommend it to people who like urban fantasy genre. CQB with electrical effects shown on the cover is present in the text.

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Hazards of modeling: the hungry beasts

So you are just standing in a meadow, trying to look properly angsty…and this big beast comes up and tries to nibble on you!

Posted in beast, humor, interesting people, nature | Tagged , | 2 Comments

A speeding bullet

From NSSF 2015 World Steel Challenge.

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Grand Power

Rotary breech, very low felt recoil and good accuracy. The X-Calibur model needs a slightly shorter safety paddle (could be taken from the standard K100) and a less goofy font on the slide.

Posted in pistol | Tagged | 4 Comments

Don’t judge!

I don’t judge people for having one or more imaginary friends different from mine. I don’t judge them for eating or drinking something I wouldn’t touch. When they listen to strange music, watch TV shows or wear goofy outfits, I don’t judge. Same for having intimacy with one sex or the other or with an abstract idea instead. People can do pretty much anything that doesn’t harm me or mine — it’s not my privilege to judge them.

People who try to rob or rape me or mine get judged. People who advocate robbing or raping me or mine get judged. So do those who try to do it through proxies. With judgment comes the sentencing.

Those who are all talk, get sentenced to living their lives without my company. Those who would actively trespass against me or mine, might get a chance to reincarnate as something better. For in-between actions, my responses vary — sometimes, it is not expedient or practical to apply the penalty merited for a specific evil, but the record of the judgment is kept for the future.

Posted in civil rights, self-defense | Tagged | 8 Comments

7.62x54R proved a bit much for the eight year old girl

A little while ago, Alexis tried SVD sniper rifle, found the recoil excessive. The slanted stock shape contributed to the problem. 6.5 Grendel, a mild cartridge with high ballistic coefficient bullets, may be the reasonable solution for her long-range use. This is one of Fighting Sheepdog custom rifles, not hers to keep. For the sake of her family’s ammo budget, she’s staying with 22LR and 5.56mm for now.

(The lower is a Spike’s Tactical “Jack”)

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OD Green Kel-Tec PMR30

A year or more ago, one of my friends lend me a brand new PMR30 for use in photos. I thought I knew who it was, but the person I asked declined any knowledge of it. I am done with the photos and would like to return it. Would the true PMR owner please call or email me to claim it.

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Trijicon MRO in use

Smith & Wesson MP15-22 with cut down Plinker Tactical magazines (35 rounds down to 20, for shooting prone). The sight is Trijicon MRO provided to Alexis by the maker. I was quite impressed with it — the controls are simple and do not intrude into the field of view, the lens is wide and only slightly tinted. Steve Fisher, well known for destructive testing of optics, hasn’t broken his MRO yet.

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The most serious threats are not always obvious

Terrorism gets a lot of attention. It doesn’t produce many casualties relative to the population size, and would produce even fewer if governments didn’t insist on disarming their own residents. The various government shenanigans with health care, restraints of trade and taxes don’t get quite as much headline space. And yet, “obamacare” all by itself messes with the availability of medical services, viability of research, and reduces the amount of resources available for other purposes. The cumulative effect of these impositions in terms of earlier deaths, more illness, longer working hours to pay for it all, will be far greater than the occasional public murder by deranged psychopaths.

It’s the old story of Eastasian aggression and victory gin rations being bigger news than the actual events and trends of importance, a sleight of hand to distract. The most obvious question with any newsworthy calamity is: “what’s happening in the shadows while we are squinting at the limelight?”

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How long does it take for a cell phone to connect?

A thought exercise for the unarmed: how long does it take for a phone to connect your 911 call? I’ve seen times ranging from about three seconds to nearly fifteen. Let’s assume three seconds and being able to hit speed dial — much harder on a smart phone than on an older flip phone for lack of tactile reference — before the attacker starts on you. Can a motivated thug with a gun, knife, stick or just strong hand and hard-soled shoes on his feet shoot, stab, beat, strangle or kick you into incapacity within those three seconds?

Violence can happen very quickly. Drawing a weapon is quicker than calling for help, much less waiting for the help to arrive, find you and stop the attack. The most obvious alternative is flight, but that’s only a viable option if you are not the specific target but just at the wrong place at the wrong time. In that case, huddling in place makes it more likely that you would see the threat — and have a chance to shoot it — before it sees you.

Posted in rkba, self-defense, training, weapon | 4 Comments

Midwest Industries Light Carbine: new AllOutdoor

Intelligent design without fanaticism.

Posted in rifle, weapon | Tagged , , | 1 Comment