First pass at a color fill

With a little model enamel, enamel thinner, shop towels and some toothpicks, I've done my first coat of a color fill on the roll marks of my new lower.

Click to embiggenate

Patience of a saint

I may not have any other quality of a saint, but patience I certainly have.

It's been a long time coming, but here's the new Boomershoot gun.

Savage 10 BA, .308 Winchester

I tried to get two different scopes in the door, but I finally had to go with something that was definitely in stock and otherwise met the design criteria I was looking for: high magnification, front focal plane, super complicated reticle, et ceteras. Ultimately, this was a Leupold Mark 8 3.5-25x56mm riflescope with illuminated H-58 reticle. I went with a one piece scope mount, and added to it a Flat Line Ops level and angle indicator.

More turrets than a fairy princess castle.

Everything is properly levels, tightened and torqued, so now it's time to get out to the range and sight it in.

Every time you build an AR-15, a guardian angel gets its wings

Wally of York Arms was kind enough to fit me into his production schedule to make a custom AR-15 lower that I will stick a Tac-Con 3 mode trigger package in. Appropriately, there are three labels on the safety selector on this Monster Hunter International themed lower.

(click to embiggenate)

Coming soon...

I haven't posted much since just after Boomershoot, and there's a reason for that: I haven't been out to the range much since then. I just do gun stuff here. No politics, although I have strong opinions in that direction. No current events. No personal stuff. Just gun stuff, and I haven't been up to much.

But there is plenty about to happen:

• I have a Form 4 pending with the BATFE for a Osprey 45 suppressor. It'll take until February to finish up (at last estimate) a wait of only 11 months. I'll order the threaded barrels for my .45 pistols once it's in my hot little hands.
• I have a new Savage Arms 10 BA, my new Boomershoot gun, and I'm just waiting on the Nightforce BEAST optic to put on top of it.
• I'm taking 4 co-workers, plus one replacement for one that couldn't work the budget, to Boomershoot this year. Apparently, my videos looks like enough fun to warrant some serious vacation plans.
• With the help of an un-named manufacturer (inferred at his insistence until the matter is a fait accompli), I will have a new custom marked AR-15 lower to put a TacCon 3 mode trigger package in. I will report extensively on the behavior of this trigger, with video. Machine guns are illegal to possess in Washington State for your average civilian, but this is not a machine gun, by the determination of the BATFE.

Boomershoot 2013 wrap up

I had a blast. All puns, double entendres and innuendos are intentional.

Real life intruded, but here's my video extravaganza:

• Friday's High Intensity Clean Up
  
• Saturday's Rifle League instructional demo
  
• Sunday's Boomershoot opening fireball(s)
  

Year End New Shooter

The surprise new shooter of the end of 2012 is...

The Missus.

Well, it surprised me.

So we rented a Ruger 22/45 to start on for basic skills and familiarization, then we tried out what I had in the bag, a couple .45s.  At the rifle range, a .22 LR rifle, instructed by Miss Tacticute, followed by something with more oomph, as much as she had tolerance for.  As the Cornered Cat recommends, offer things to try, and quit when you're ahead.


All, in all, this was a very good day.

'Tis the Season to be Quiet, Fa la la la la, la la, la la

It's taken quite some time to get all the paperwork fixed, gunsmithing done, and find some time to get out to the range.  Fortunately (for high-sigma values of 'fortunately'), I felt like death warmed over this morning when it was time to get up to go to work.  Out of an abundance of caution, I called in sick.  A few more hours sleep, then shanghai'ed into taking the kids to school, and a few more hours sleep, and I felt much better.  I had a few hours left to go before my usual school pick-up routine, so I used it productively.

The new Trijicon RX06 sight is an amazing improvement.  Using the top point of the triangle as the aiming point, I was able to put .22LR rounds within an inch of each other.  Miss Tacticute will be thrilled.

I know when I'll be shooting next.  After all the sturm und drang over the shooting in Connecticut by a high disturbed young man, whose mother was trying to have committed, the end result of my discussions with my wife is that she (out of the blue) told me she wanted to get familiar with firearms.  After eleven years of marriage, and tens years of being pretty clear she wasn't interested, this surprised me a little.  But I kept her out of the guns stuff when she wanted to be out, and I'll certainly support her now that she wants to know.  In typical fashion, this has ballooned into a fully planned pistols in the morning, long guns in the afternoon extravaganza.  I guess I'll just have to keep up with the agenda.

Friday Night Rifle League

On occasions when Mrs Tirno does not have a Friday engagement, or in this case when her sister is in town and we have en-suite babysitting, I can get out to West Coast Armory for a little rifle league. My first run with the lights on went very well, except that I forgot to set the camera to record. All good hits, no misses, no hits on the no-shoots. My second run, with the lights out didn't go quite as well. One no-shoot winged and some misses.

 Here's video:

 

Of interest:

• Despite only my bare legs being visible in the video, I am not shooting this video in the altogether. I'm totally rocking the anti-tacticool, Dad-in-shorts-and-sandals look.
• The long pause between setting my rifle on the barel and starting to shoot with the pistol was me trying to activate the Viridian laser/light module. Between my first run and the second run, the battery went dead.
• The 'aw, man' you hear at the end is me realizing I winged a no-shoot with my M&P 45C.

Note to Viridian: I seem to be replacing the batteries on that thing every time I turn around. I'm still running on the batteries that came with the Streamlight on my rifle, after more than a year. In the first run, the light and laser were nice and bright, and then I turned it off and put it away. Second run about an hour later, totally dead. Based on performance to date, I completely expect it not to work unless I have just replaced the battery. That is not the reputation you want in a bit of gear that is supposed to have tactical value.

Newest Shooters

We've been planning this for a long time, but Mr and Mrs Neighbor have finally been able to join us at the range.

 

We spent a lot of time discussing general gun safety and range rules on the drive over. I field stripped the weapons to show the mechanics of how they worked, and talked them through aiming (three different types of optics), holding, loading, chambering and firing three rifles, starting with Miss Tacticute's pink.22LR AR-15.

 I also got to try out my new Contour camera with mounts on each rifle.

Boomershoot 2013

It'll be a long several months waiting for this, but I have position 21 on the main range at Boomershoot next year, April 26th to the 28th.

There will be stuff to get ahead of that, plus practice with that stuff, but mostly I need a lot of match grade 7.62 NATO rounds, some sight in time to get my scope totally dialed in with those rounds, and some practice shooting from the prone position.

This is the sound of silence

Today was a good day at the range.

After carefully arranging the arrival time to be after the scheduled competition, we set up targets and made ready.

Miss Tacticute shot first with her AR-15/22.

Next was my turn.



That was certainly good fun, so Miss Tacticute wanted a turn. Not surprising, since my M-14 was now about as loud as her .22. The recoil was significantly less, so I calculated that she would be pushed around, but was unlikely to come to any harm or result in an unsafe situation.



Excellent results all around. Miss Tacticute put 75 rounds of .22LR into her targets at 25 yards. The larger holes were sight-in shots after adding the suppressor to the M-14.

After getting the scope sighted in so I was 3" high at 100 yards, I started taking shots at the 200 yard targets that had been waiting so patiently to be ventilated. The middle squares are my targets, and almost all the rounds are on the 8"x8" targets. This is pretty good, considering that I wasn't taking my time with the shots, and the backblast from the action was making my eyes water.

Next purchase priority: airtight shooting goggles to keep the gas out of my eyes.

Buy-A-Gun 2012

Well, not the gun, per se, but what is now attached to it.



Suppressor paid for: July 2011
Time Paperwork sent to BATFE: Early August 2011
Time Tax Stamp Finalized: Early March 2012
Arrived at Dealer: Late March 2012
BATFE Inspector: Sandra J Snook

I left the rifle with the dealer to have the Gem-tech QD mount put on, which necessitated removing the standard M-14 flash hider. Of course, this took the standard front sight with it, so the front of the gas block was replaced with a part that has a hooded front sight built into it.

Lamentably, the range I normally shoot at has a competition occupying the main range for the entire weekend, so I can't go shoot it until the next weekend. I'm sure the suburbia that has sprung up around my range will appreciate me changing the BANG! to a more sedate gun raspberry.

It was a cold and rainy day

Apparently, President's Day is a good day to go shooting... indoors. When Miss Tacticute and I arrived at the indoor range, the waiting time was two hours.

Well, no way, we wanna shoot something now.

In the rush to get out the door, Miss Tacticute's own coat was left behind. Had we been shooting indoors, this would be no concern, but now it was cold and rainy and we were outdoors.

Well, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Miss Tacticute got my jacket, with sleeves well rolled up.

Here she is on the beginning of 125 rounds of .22LR:



She had been making some complaint about being cold, and the report of nearby shooters bothering her, but as soon as she settled down to shoot, all of that went away.

I did 75 rounds of .22LR and about 41 rounds of .45 ACP myself later. I didn't bring my own larger caliber rifles because we had intended to shoot indoors at a range that doesn't permit rifle calibers.

On the NFA front, I'm looking forward to getting my tax stamp for my 7.62 Gemtech suppressor any day now. The .22LR suppressor will be some time behind it, but the 5.56 suppressor is delayed due to USPS buffoonery. Apparently, the package I sent through the mail was thick enough to jam their machines and got shredded. They mailed back the parts that had my address on them, which was just the check. Other paperwork they mailed back to the dealer. The Form 4s were nowhere to be found. I had my dealer make new Form 4s, and now I'm going to scan those suckers in so I have my own copies. I forgot to do that this time, although I scanned other things.

And then he lightly tapped my scrotum

I'm flying to Israel on business, and since I'm not travelling with my family as I was a couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to opt-out of the backscatter X-ray. No fuss, the opt-out was handled without a raised eyebrow, and the TSA agent accomplished the invasion of my privacy with as much professionalism as could be wanted under the circumstances.

Some updates of recent history, since I have time to kill in this terminal:

The week before flying to England, I attended rifle league at West Coast Armory. Checking the score sheet before I left, I saw that I was the only one that had perfect 26/26 hits on both runs. My times were about double the front-runners, and this is not surprising. At my regular range, rapid fire is not permitted, so I don't get much opportunity to practice double taps or recoil management. Still, it's good to hit what I want to hit and not hit what shouldn't be hit.

My Form 4 for my 7.62 suppressor still hasn't cleared the ATF, but my dealer finally got the .22 suppressor transferred to him, so I got to send off the Form 4 for that yesterday.

Black Dog Machine comes through

Yet another fine range visit has come and gone.

Miss Tacticute discovered recently that she likes sharing what she knows. She had an opportunity at her Kung Fu club to help out the kid's Basic class, and it was reported back to me that she did a very good job. So I considered what Miss Tacticute knew that she could teach, and what would make the biggest impression on her as a nascent teacher.

So I asked Mrs Friendly Neighbor if she would like Miss Tacticute to teach her how to shoot. I can't think of something with more kid-cred than being able to teach a grown-up how to do something.

That couldn't be done this weekend, so I brought Miss Tacticute to the range for a practice session.

She showed that 25 yard target who was boss.



Twice.



Following that performance, I got to go through two magazines from my M-14 (soon with can!). Miss Tacticute was my spotter through a 50x160mm spotting scope.



Not exactly Carlos Hathcock, but my first shot was on the left target, and it's the one touching the bullseye dot in the center. So, if I messed up, I messed up the right way.

After we had packed up and Miss Tacticute was sitting in the car, the Range Safety Officer came over to tell me how impressed he was with her shooting, and furthermore how amusing it was to hear her spotting my 200 yard shots.

I brought four Black Dog all-polymer .22lr magazines to the range along with four of their new polymer with metal feed lips magazines. Two of the new mags fed wonderfully. Two wouldn't feed, and in fact I had problems getting the rounds out later, even using tools. The feed lips just grabbed the rims of the rounds very, very tightly, so much that I couldn't budge them if I didn't depress them away from the feed lips.

So, Monday morning, I email Black Dog Machine, LLC, and ask them if there is something I should do to smooth the feed lips. By Monday afternoon, Rachel from Black Dog had emailed me back, confirmed that they had had some issues with the first run, and used my details from my order to send me two more. Following that email were confirmation emails from their online store confirming shipping. Rachel also suggested that I could use a file on the malfunctioning ones to widen the feed lips slightly so they are functional. Assuming that works, I'll had six working magazines, and if it doesn't I'll still have four that work. That's a solid customer service relationship and outstanding standing-behind-your-product.

So, if you have a .22LR conversion kit or dedicated upper for your AR-15, I must highly recommend Black Dog Machine LLC .22LR magazines.

UPDATE 10/21/2011: I had misunderstood. What Black Dog was sending me was two replacement steel feed lips parts, which arrived today. So I just need to pop the other ones off the polymer bodies and put these new ones on.

Items of mild import

On Friday, I attended another Rifle League session at West Coast Armory. I met my goal: I wasn't DQ-ed. I had earlier stopped by a gun shop and purchased a Streamlight TR-1, which was significantly better than a head-mounted lamp for low-light shots. There were so many attendees, however, that it took two hours to start the second runs.

While there, I ran into a guy wearing a Top Notch Tactical t-shirt. I inquired as to whether said person worked for the company, or if that was tchotchke. He replied that he was the owner. That made it rather easy to identify him as Alan, as he is the fellow that has been working on my silencer purchases. It's a small gunny world after all.

Last weekend, I received a little envelope from the USAF, and contained within was my Honorable Discharge certificate. I am now officially ex-military. Following a confirmatory call to the AFPC for instructions, I unceremoniously applied some scissors to my military ID, and now I have a pile of somewhat serviceable yet out-of-date uniform components to clear out of my closet. My Gortex wet weather gear is still good, although I suppose I should remove the Captain's bars from the rank tab.

The Quest for Silence

As I was checking my bank records today, I noticed a welcome thing.

The BATFE has cashed my (Trust's) check for the Form 4 for my M-14's suppressor.

The clock is now ticking. Anecdotally, I'm looking at 6 to 8 weeks more processing time.

Seriously, however... how much of this processing could be replaced by a NICS check? The entire process is a hold over from the days when there was no such thing. The amount of manpower and resources, overhead, benefits costs, etc for the dozen BATFE agents that process these forms has to be more than the total revenue from the tax stamps. They could reduce costs, increase speed, improve overall adherence to the overall principles of the Second Amendment, and increase revenue by:

1. Moving suppressors to the same restrictions as the host weapon they will be mated to.


2. Pay the Tax Stamp costs at the FFL


3. Do the background check via NICS (fine, Delay for the first purchase for extra checking)


4. Cache the investigation results for the purchaser so the second purchase can be done on the spot

Double shooty

This was a good weekend. I went shooting twice.

When you consider the round count, however, it doesn't look like much:

• 60 rounds 7.62 NATO


• 60 rounds 5.56 NATO


• 18 rounds .45 ACP


• 5 rounds .22LR, plus another 95 for Miss Tacticute

The important thing, however, was that I was in good company while I was shooting.

Friday night was Rifle League at West Coast Armory. It was my first time participating, although I had been gearing up to do it for a while.

The course of fire was simple: double taps on all targets, first two targets fired under a table, then three targets at the next location to the right, two more targets firing around the left ride of a barrier, mandatory mag change, three more targets, show empty then transition to pistol for the last three. In between shooting, congenial conversation with the other participants.

I took it slow and just worked on being careful. I did discover that a head mounted light doesn't work well in the dark scenario, but I was able to use a optical cortex trick of the Binden Aiming Concept to get the reticle from my ACOG (which I couldn't see through properly due to the glare off the rear lens from my headlamp) to appear in my right eye and appear to be superimposed on my left eye sight picture. Not a good operating plan, but I hit all the targets and hit no no-shoots.

One of the participants had an N.D, and I'd like to highlight how a heavily armed individual took this. The rules are clear: any N.D, and you're barred from participation for four weeks. Well, he dropped his magazine while he was transiting from position three to four, and with a round in the chamber, touched the trigger while reloading. He shot a barrier, and the bullet likely went into the ceiling. Everyone stopped, the rangemaster called for him to clear his rifle and pistol, and they checked the damage. Meekly and with no histrionics, he packed his gear and went home. Amazing; according to some, he should have started a shooting spree at this little setback. Not so amazingly, such people live with counter-factual internal model of how real people behave.

The second shooting even was Sunday, for the long awaited range visit with Miss Tacticute. As usual, the other guys at the range were utter charmed by the little seven year old with her pink AR-15. Here's how she did at 25 confidence boosting yards:



Here's how I did at 200 confidence deflating yards:



Miss Tacticute herself took that last picture, moving me around like an Oleg Volk protege to get the picture she wanted. It doesn't matter, I still look overweight, which must be a trick of the light.

I readily admit that I screwed up that shooting. I was shooting high to begin with, so a couple clicks over and I was shooting worse. I got the Up/Down mixed up in my sight adjustment. By the time I finished, I was getting a consistent 2" high shot placement right above the bulls-eye. Well, I can adjust for that.

My daughter, the next Hit Girl

So, Miss Tacticute and I went to the range on a lovely Sunday, only to discover that when the range schedule said "competition", it really meant "state championships". No where for us to squeeze in.

So we went to an indoor range.

So, picture this (and you'll get video later, so you don't need to picture it for long): Seven year old half-asian, quarter-hispanic girl, pony tail, tie-die t-shirt, pink capris...

And her trusty pink AR-15 in .22LR. The range staff helpfully found a wooden box for her to stand on so she could get behind her rifle on its bipod in bay 12, away from the other shooters.

So she's rocking away on her pretty AR, pumping .22 into a Homeland Security Standard qualification target. She shoots a 25 round magazine into the center of the target. She also works out that, due to the reduced range, her rounds hit below the aimpoiint of her Trijicon reflex sight, so she walked the rounds up to the center.

Well, that's a big target, and she's shot up the center, so I suggest she shoot the head area.

"Yay!" Oooookay.

So she mostly sends the next 25 rounds into the head, for a time competing for speed with the guy in lane 6 who's relatively rapidfiring his 9mm. I slow her down and she starts shooting all over the target. What's going on?

"I shot him in the shoulders!" Well, nice grouping, sweetie.

So I reel in the target to show her what's she's done, and she's pleased with it. The target is pretty well peppered with .22, enough that it's not worth firing more .22, but maybe I can use it with something larger before putting up another target.

Sweetie, I think I'll shoot this target for a bit. You've been shooting with this, shows her a .22LR round, but I'll be shooting with this, shows her a .45 ACP 230gr FMJ.

"Wow, that's big! Cool!"

So I set her in bay 11 so .45 ACP brass doesn't plink on her head, run the target out, load up and...

"Daddy! Daddy! I want to tell you where to shoot!"

Like Simon says?

"Yeah!" Arrighty then, that sounds like fun.

"Tummy!" Ah, center of mass. *BLAM*

"Head!" Another classic choice. *BLAM*

"Ear!" Er, what? "Ear, daddy!" Right. Careful aim, front sight, press, *BLAM*

"Shoulders!", she says with a giggle. *BLAM* *BLAM*

"SHOOT HIM IN THE EYES!" *BLAM* *BLAM*

"Yeah! Make a smiley face!"

Oh, I wish I had had the camera running for that.

Behold! The awesome power of the Intrawebs!

By the power of RFC 791, I have the power!

But first, a range report.

Miss Tacticute was grumpy and strongwilled today, so she had to miss out. We'll get back to her when we've fitted her AR-15/22 with a suppressor.

So, in the mean time, I decided to have a long range day with the M-14. I have some concerns about my scope sight in at 200 yards however, so I'm going to employ a sled for my sight in activities.



Sight picture:



So, that shooting went on for a while, until a guy came along to do some range clean-up work. He said he only needed a few minutes, so why not. I was done with my sight-in work:



(I worked from left to right until my cluster was more centered on the bullseye.)

So, here I am with a bit of time on my hands.... and a shortage of targets. Yes, I forget to get the extra package of targets from the garage before I left. So, adapt and overcomes.

Paper plus Pen plus Target Stand equals Field Expedient Zombies.

200 yards:


100 yards:


25 yards with M&P 45:


On that last one, I had a steep learning curve. I kept plowing the earth with 230gr 45ACP until I figure out I had to keep the front sight up above the rear sight. There was a lot of bullet drop over 75 feet from that 4" barrel.

So, now, as advertised, the power of teh interwebs.

As I finish up shooting my 100 yard zombie and come up empty, a young fellow approaches. And he asked, "Sir, do you know anything about M-14s?"

Well, I might know a little, seeing as I am shooting one, so I follow the young gent over to see what the problem was. The problem seems to be Live Round In The Chamber, Hammer Has Been Dropped, Action Won't Open.

Well, that's a puzzler, and an immanent safety hazard. The rifle can't be transported like this. Out comes the iPhone, which has an IRC app, and connects to the Gunblogger's Conspiracy.

So, to the conspirators I pose the question, and Wally (who has no blog) comes to the rescue, going to his safe to get a representative M1A. We try a couple things, checking the safety operation, hammer position, etc. Finally it is determined that a vigorous thump on the operating handle is warranted, and the action extracts the round. A light primer strike is noted.

So we try again with another round, and the same thing happens. Thump, and it is extracted.

Meanwhile, the young gentlemen are astounded that I could find someone with experience on their matter over my iPhone. I read one of the gentlemen's t-shirts, and deduce that he is a USAF Academy cadet. I introduce myself as a Captain. Bonding is had all around. Solidarity, zoomie!

Finally, we discover that the problem is their ammo. It's marked on the case with "P G 308 WIN" and it doesn't even work in my M-14 (which has never failed to fire, extract or feed, ever). Fortunately, they had some ammo marked with "R G 93" and a cross in a circle, which I identified as Radway Green British military surplus of 1993. The stuff they were firing appeared to be slightly out of normal in the shoulder. The Radway Green works fine, as does a single round of my own Lithuanian milsurp.

Ultimately, I had to wonder at this new fantastic future that we're living in. When faced with a problem, if I can't find it with a Google search, I can engage a live pool of experts that are familiar with my issue (at least one of them), and use this expertise to come to a satisfactory resolution. Could I have done this 5 years ago? Probably not.

I love living in the future.