Saturday, January 28, 2012

Pictures of my newest toys

Got to the range today. Took along three of my four most recent firearm aquisitions. Started out with the CZ452FS. Still looking for ammo it really likes  Shot it today with Remington Target and Remington Golden Bulk ammo. Pic is of my two best groups at 50yds. The orange dot is 1.25"

Also took the S&W 32 Hand Ejector I loaded for last night. Still trying to get used to the light weight and tiny thin sights on this gun. Last time I shot it, it would put 6 shots into 3" at 15 paces. That was shooting double action slow fire. Today we were sharing the range with other shooters, so all pistol shooting was at 25yds. Lets just say it will put them all on a piece of writing paper at that range. Oddly like the other gun I took today I shoot it best double action rather than single action. The third gun taken was a S&W model 36 with a 3" barrel. If you were a burgler in my house, this is what you would find greeting you. Yes I have bigger guns, and semi autos with more shots. But, this one goes bang every time I pull the trigger and when it goes bang I hit what it's pointed at. It only has 5 shots. I only need one. It's also easier to train everyone in the house revolver use.
After shooting the club we were at had a venison dinner. The home made venison pastrami was pretty awesome. I got the recipe from the guy that made it. The roasts from my next deer will probably end up as pastrami. The venison stew served as the main course was OK. I'm not a big stew person.

All in all it was a good day. Even if it was blowing cold and snowing.

Woods

I just made $35.00 an hour

WOW! $35.00 an hour. Well kinda, sorta. Not long ago I aquired a early 1920's vintage S&W .32 Hand Ejector. The price was right, really right. This is my second .32 long chambered revolver I've owned. The first was a Colt Police Positive of similar vintage. These guns make perfect "kit guns". Better than a .22 rim fire in my opinion. When I aquired the Colt 10+ years ago it came with nearly 2000rds of assorted ammunition and a set of reloading dies. I never had a chance to use the dies until tonight. When I sold the Colt I kept the dies and about a quarter of the 32 long brass and 2 boxes of recent manufacture ammo. everything else was collector grade ammo and got sold at a very healthy profit.

Well having aquired another gun I went out and blew right through my 2 boxes of ammo. Tomorrow I'm going shooting with a friend. This friend and I have always had a competitive streak when it comes to guns. He pulls out a 1910 vintage S&W 38 with target sights and I pull out an early Colt 38 Officers model still in it's box. That kind of competitive streak. Well, I couldn't show up tomorrow without my newest toy, so I hit the local gun shop for ammo. Talk about sticker shock! $37.00 a box for ammo! Well My solution to that was "give me a pound of Red Dot and 200 primers".  7000 grains of powder in a pound and 2 grains of powder in a 32 long cartridge case. Red Dot is $26.00 a pound and primers $2.96 a hundred. Years ago somebody gave me a coffee can full of 90 grain cast SWC bullets. Pulled out my mics and they were pretty round and were right around .312" diameter. A dab of liquid alox and they were loadable as is. I just spent two hours loading 100 rounds on my coffee table. Pelenaka wouldn't have appreciated me clamping my powder measure to her glass table top, so I hand weighed all 100 charges. Otherwise it would have taken half  as long. Still if I do my math right it works out to $1.85 a box. Or about $35.00 a box savings. That's less than $.04 a shot. I can't buy good .22's for that.

I gotta be careful. I could end up shooting more and that would blow any saving out the window.

What a horrible dillema to be in.

Woods

Thursday, January 5, 2012

The Other Woman

My wife says it's like there is another woman in my life.

Don't worry my friends. I haven't been unfaithful or broken my vows.

The other woman is a gun making town in the Czech republic. So far the other woman has given me three children. The first was an Interarms MarkX in 7x57 mauser with a manlicher style stock, made by CZ for Interarms in 1977. The second child is a Brno VZ24 in 8x57 mauser. A gun that someone in the past put through a sporterization that at best can be described as brutal. Bad enough of a job that the gun has been nicknamed UG (ugly gun). Soon you will see more of her, just as soon as I have gathered up the parts.

Today the other woman sent me my newest child. I have actually saved the money up to buy this gun four times. Two of those times I sold other guns to get the money. All four times some emergency has come up that caused the saved money to be spent. The last event was in november when the car broke down. I had just gotten the price quote minutes before the car broke. When the store I worked for closed in october some of us were offered an extra months severance pay if we stayed long enough to take the store apart. I took them up on it. That check came last friday. I stressed about it over night. I know giving the state of the economy, my health and my age, this may be the last NEW gun I ever buy. I've nicknamed this one "The Understudy". She is the 22LR version of my Interarms deer rifle.
I didn't spend the $60 for CZ made scope rings. While the CZ has 11mm grooves for the scope mounts, I have found windage adjustable 3/8" groove rings have enough adjustment to work on the CZ. I had these rings in my junk box left over from another gun I sold.  The scope is a Deerhunter BSA 2.5X20 shotgun Scope  purchsed off Amazon with gift cards earned through swagbucks. If the weather holds tomorrow we'll see how she shoots.