A Gun Guy Kind of Day

Well, the wife and child have headed out and south for the next couple of weeks, leaving me to man the fort all alone.
So, on an overcast Sunday afternoon, with nary a football game to really interest me (tomorrow nights fight between the Cowboys and Injun's is a must see though) I met with Steve from Ravnwood (a fine fine blog) over at the NRA for some gun play. Steve took along one of the purtiest SKS's I've ever seen, as well as a couple of nice handguns. I took my Glock 23, Ruger Mark II, the latest Marlin 336, the PC9 and of course, my commie gun complete with oh so very frikkin scary 40 round magazines.

A fun time was had by all, and by 12:30 or so (after an hour and a half), the range started getting pretty busy, with all the lanes filled and a large group waiting to enter. Steve ended up leaving and freeing his spot but I decided to stick around as I still needed to re-site my Mark II (I had taken it apart - including the sites - the other day) before shooting Neanderpundit's Postal Match Part Deux. I sited it in, and in the next half hour the range pretty quickly emptied out. Running low on .22lr ammo (actually I was out of the high velocity stuff my Ruger enjoys) I cut out of the range for a quick trip down the road to Galyan's to restock (the range store was awaiting a shipment).

Galyan's sadly, has undergone an awful change. First, they've reorganized everything, but whats even worse, is that the ammo selection was horrib (though I did get ammo) and the handgun selections are in very sorry shape. In fact, the entire hunting department looked like it had been worked over. While I was standing around waiting for help, a guy next to me was purchasing a Glock 19. Turns out, its the only one the store has and the front site has fallen off and no one can find it. It also comes with the wimpy 10 round mags, not the standard 15 rounders. They tell the guy they will have to send it off to Glock to be repaired (no charge to him, of course) and then proceed to ring him up. While the clerk is doing the background check, I mention to the guy that if they are sending the gun off, he ought to have the 10 rounders switched out for 15. He agrees and asks the clerk that question, and he responds that Galyans doesn't sell them and they cant do that. In fact, this does appear to be the case, as Galyans is selling 10 rounders for my G23 for $26.00. I purchased 13 rounders a little over a week ago for that same price. I could find no other hi cap mags anywhere in the store. Well, to make a long story short, this guy still bought the gun and was even willing to pay for it IN FULL up front. Geesh, don't know what price they gave him, but they are running a sale - $50 off handguns over $400 till October 2. Might be worth checking out.

I left Galyan's, and headed back to the NRA which was a virtual ghost town at this point. Took up a position in Lane 2 right next to a father and son shooting a sweet Springfield XD in .357 SIG. The father had really loaded these things up. He said he was trying to match a .257 magnum and it sure sounded and felt like it. I had never fired a Springfield XD (or a .357 SIG for that matter) and so he gladly obliged me. Of course, he had never fired a Glock before, so I let him and his son have some fun with it. He liked the Glock, but felt a bit more comfortable on his Springfield. Not surprising. I really liked it. The sites were perfect for me (3 dots insteasd of the U Glock has, and it just felt right in my hand. He said they sold for almost $100 less than a Glock. For that price, if your in the market for a new handgun, I would heartily recommend one.

After that diversion, I got to the task at hand - shooting for the neanderpundit Postal Match Part Deaux. Last time, using the 10/22 and an awfully difficult target, I performed less than stellarly. This time . . . . well, I don't know how I will match up, but my total score out of 100 was 87.

The first target I scored a 44 (a 10, two 9s, and two 8s) on the second target I scored a 43 (Three 9s and two 8s). Not too bad, though I think If i had eaten lunch, I would have shot a bit better.

Anyway, after finishing up, I decided to make some space for new ammo in the ammo locker. That of course, entailed sending about 150 rounds of .40S&W down the range, as well as finsihing off what was left of an old Wal Mart Remington Value Pack of .22lr. It originally had 500 rounds in it, but as I would open up and not empty different boxes of .22, I threw the extra rounds in this box. I estimate that I shot about 400 rounds of assort .22lr, on top of the 100 rounds I shot warming up and competing in the Postal Match. I also plowed through 60 rounds of Winchester .30-30, 40 rounds from the AK, and 50 rounds of 9mm from the PC9. Good fund.

Returning home, I cleaned my guns up, took a shower, headed for church, and then tonite rented on DVD the only movie that is truly fitting on a he Who Shall Not Be Named day like today . . . . Zulu, the greatest war movie ever and the best movie ever to take place in South Africa.