Monday Adulting

Yep, that about sums it up.

Saturday Cleaning

I spent the morning standing at the workbench cleaning the guns we shot the past few weeks. There are worse ways to spend a rainy Saturday morning I suppose. (There are better ways too, like shooting them.) I had planned to clean just one. Then I grabbed another. Then another... Before you know it I was wrist deep in dirty cleaning patches and the aroma of solvent filled the air. It's quite satisfying actually.

Now they are clean, which only means they need to be made dirty again. The smell of Hoppe's #9 will linger on my hands all day. That's okay, it has been rated as one of the top 15 manly smells.

Really, who needs one of these when you have the real thing?

Five O'Clock Friday: ATF At Work

Fortunately that doesn't look like the lake where my guns fell overboard.

H/T Miguel at Gun Free Zone.

Another Range Outing

My son and I got out for another fun visit to the range this week. As I was gathering the gear, I was undecided which gun I wanted to shoot this trip. To solve that dilemma, I simply brought several! And we shot them all.

I started out shooting the S&W Shield, which I hadn't shot in a while. I used the short seven round magazines — no pinky extension — since that fits the IDPA BUG requirements. There are several opportunities to shoot BUG matches in the coming months, and I wanted to get in a bit of a "refresher." Except for shooting a tad high due to the different (from the SIG) sight picture, that went well.

Both of us spent the rest of our time switching around between the three SIG Sauer pistols. It took me a few shots to get used to the DA/SA trigger of the P226 after shooting the striker fired P320s so much lately.

It was quite an enjoyable hour. Even the temperature and humidity were at a very pleasant level, Mother Nature apparently having forgotten it's July. I am sure she'll self correct soon enough!

Batman: One Line At A Time

A bit of mid-week humor to pass the time.

Memories.

Bonus Range Time

It's like putting on a pair of pants and finding money I didn't realize I had! While at the indoor range this week I discovered I had not unloaded all the magazines from the weekend's match. So instead of the planned 150, I got to shoot an extra 30 rounds! It really is the little things that make life fun.

This trip I started out running the Julie Golob 50 drill. After that, the remaining 100 130 rounds were devoted to working on sight alignment and trigger control on some splatter targets at 7 yards. I have mixed feelings regarding the definition of success with those drills. On one hand, I kept all the shots in the 5" circle. On the other hand, the holes were generally in the lower left quadrant of said 5" circle.

Near the end of my time I realized I was sweating almost as much as I would be if I was at the outside range as there is no air conditioning at the indoor facility. Perhaps I should stick with the outdoor range. Therein lies a conflict — shooting on the move is forbidden at either venue. However, indoors I am permitted to fire strings of more than 2 rounds. On the other hand, outdoors I can hang two targets and shoot both, but I'm limited to one round on each per string of fire. But I can draw from the holster.

Sigh, there's got to be a better way...

Cavalier IDPA Match

"It's not the heat, it's the humidity."

Actually, it's the heat too. July's IDPA match at Cavalier featured both heat and humidity, in addition to four really fun stages. A brief rain shower right when shooting started only added to the oppressive typical Virginia summer weather. Fortunately the rain was brief, and we never had to shoot at bagged targets.

Stage 1 featured an old friend I call "Earl." This time our hapless victim was on a table where he was receiving CPR. There were three targets to be engaged strong hand only, all while our weak hand remained on Earl's chest. For the second string of the stage, we moved forward to face an array of four reduced area targets which were also fronted by two non-threats. A fifth threat target was placed to the right. All five targets required two body and one head shot each.

Moving to the second stage we found a complex set up of walls, barrels, a table, falling steel, and six paper targets. For the unusual start position we placed one magazine on each of three barrels and our unloaded gun on the table. The start position was in yet another place on the stage. At the start we ran to the barrels, grabbing any magazines we wished, and continued on to retrieve and load our gun. After engaging three targets, we retreated back to the start position to engage the two steel targets. From there we crossed the stage, grabbing ammo as needed, and maneuvered through a turning hallway to shoot the remaining three targets. I thought this was an extremely fun stage, offering plenty of options for the shooter. It was also my best stage of the match, with just one point down.

Stage 3 started with our hands on a chainsaw. There were three targets to be engaged while backing up. Finishing those targets we moved to the next position of cover to shoot two steel plates. The plates were deviously placed in front of a non-threat target. Moving to the final shooting position, we found three more paper targets waiting. 

This turned out to be a disappointing stage for me. I've dealt with quite successfully with steel plates in front of non-threats in the past, and these plates were close in. Yet, I struggled to hit them. I found myself closing my weak eye, both from the sting of sweat, and out of frustration. Shooting with one eye closed actually seems to degrade my accuracy. It's an old habit, left from the Rx shooting glasses days, that I've worked to break but which sneaks in from time to time. 

The final stage once again offered us the, um, opportunity to run. Our magazines and gun were placed on each of four barrels. We started the stage on the opposite side of the course, holding a swinging non-threat in the down position. At the start we released the swinger, and ran to retrieve gun and ammo. The shooter then had a myriad of choices on how to complete the stage. There was a wall at the barrels that hid four threat targets, at most three of which could be engaged from one end of the wall. Moving to the other end of the wall allowed the remaining target(s) to be hit. Also from the center of the stage, a target behind the still swinging non-threat was visible. To finish, a steel popper and another paper target were engaged from the last shooting position. Due to the overlap of cover positions, there was an interesting array of crossing fault lines in the center of the stage. Given the options available, it was important to have a plan, and stick with it.

The stages at this month's match were probably some of the most complex I've shot, at least at local monthly matches. They were also simply put, a whole lot of fun. It certainly disproves some critics who claim there are no options when shooting IDPA. Despite the fun, I did not finish well on this day. Between a lack of speed and some inaccurate shooting, I ended up 20th of 31Overall and 12th of 17 in SSP. However, as I've noted, it was a whole lot of fun! Now it's back to the practice range to prepare for the next match adventure that awaits.

More pics from the match here.

Five O'Clock Friday: Marriage Humor

Tom finally decided to tie the knot with his longtime girlfriend. 

One evening, after the honeymoon, he was welding some stuff in the garage just for fun. 

His new wife was standing there at the bench watching him.

After a long period of silence she finally spoke, "Honey, I've just been thinking, now that we are married maybe it's time you quit spending all your time out here in the shop. You probably should just consider selling all your welders along with your gun collection and that stupid vintage Harley."

Tom got a horrified look on his face.

"She said, "Darling, what's wrong?"

He replied, "There for a minute you were starting to sound like my ex-wife."

"Ex-wife!" she screamed, "YOU NEVER TOLD ME YOU WERE MARRIED BEFORE!"

Tom replied: "I wasn't."

I can laugh because I am blessed that Colleen not only supports, but very much encourages my hobbies.

H/T to Irons in the Fire for the humor.