First build in a long time. AR 15.

Well, I finally went back to do what I did so well in the Army, Work on AR/M4's and M16's.

No, this is not some illegal firearm but it is something I built up from kits. Took a bit longer as not having a perfectly ideal work bench as I would like. Hour and a half on it but all and all not to bad. Wednesday I have a meeting at the range to attend to anyway, so I will be shooting the barrel to proof it and test it out. It is a Surplus Ammo and Arms upper receiver, bolt group and lower receiver. You can find these guys Here. Outstanding service from them once again and the product is very good. The upper receiver was a tight test fit to a Rock River Arms lower, it took a bit of oil to get it to slide in but people pay premiums for tight fitting uppers and lowers as it is. Nothing fancy about the stuff but the prices are great if you want to build yourself a custom AR.  This is what I made up today:

DPMS 20 inch Bull Barrel, DPMS parts on the lower, and a Model 1 buttstock assembly.

Excited to try this out!

Range Day Tommrow.

Well, tomorrow is going to be a long day at the range, though I shouldn't have to worry about barrels overheating in the low 60's like I did when it was 80 degrees.

So first up I am going to finally fire my 300 WSM. I have 10 misc rounds to break in the barrel, which in itself will be a lengthy process. Then I have 4 rounds for four different load weights to try. Wish me luck because those solid copper Barnes bullets are spendy. I don't want more than two range sessions to dial in a load. 180 grains are the first loads up, If I can get those dialed in for this seasons deer hunt ill be content, and work on the 150s and the 165 class bullets as the winter wears on. Thor as that rifle is named is however dangerously close to just getting called the Bastard for now.

I also am trying some Varget powder for my AR15 Varmint to see if I can tighten up my groups from IMR 4895. It should shoot better than two inches at 100 yards for ten shots, but these attempts are 5 rounds each to get a better picture of what this rifle is capable of doing.

My other Remington 700, the 300 Savage classic class of 2003 will be shot as well, and the scope dialed in. I have four loads to try with that, I am optimistic for this rifle.

Finally the 30-30 Marlin is going out for the third range session with the 160 FTX Hornady leverlution bullets. Trying Winchester 748 ball powder. I hope this time I get something close, and can dial it in with a fourth session, (if Im lucky one of my loads will work dead on, but I'm not lucky so far)

The object here is the standard I run with every deer season, I want one Primary rifle, and one back up. I would love to put the Workhorse 30-06 to back up status with the 300 WSM as primary but we will have to wait and see. Since also, customarily if I hunt with my standard hunting buddy he often borrows one of my rifles, for his wife so having three or four deer rifles up and running tends to be useful.

Granted, I do only prefer one rifle for all applications, the 30-30 while a great compact brush gun isn't used for that for me. I hunt with a .44 Mag revolver for pushing brush, the rifle is slung to my back. I find this to be a better arrangement than trying to swing a rifle though the pickers that I end up driving. Also a pistol is a wonderful tool to finish off a deer. Yes, I know, one shot one kill but I do not like approaching a wounded deer or a deer that is laying there to finish the job with a knife. Those hooves are dangerous things and I have seen a doe attack from the ground before. A pistol is more controllable and efficient to put another round in to an animal than a high powered rifle. I typically, since my luck is horrible only end up shooting or seeing does. Since I eat them anyway I don't particularly care. Its easy to just approach an animal and put a single round to the head. No, it doesn't end up splattering brains all over like one would assume, at least with the .44 mag at a couple paces away. The hollow points don't even have time to expand at that range in the quick passage though the head. I find that this is much safer than trying to grapple with a wounded deer, or have one "recover" for one last ditch attempt to move.

And away.

Well the Lady has returned of whence she came. Its a bit of a sad day of course, always is to see someone cared for step away, however brief or long it may last. It was a great week, however all told in the balance of things. Probably one of my better weeks in my life. Good times on the road, its always nice road trip with someone that drives the way you do and thinks similar things of the annoyances on the road. We had a lot of good food and good times and laughs. And shooting as one of the previous posts here illustrates. In preparation for next time and to give me something to do besides clean, and clean guns I think I'll load up some bottom end of powder .38 special wadcutters for the little snubbie. Yes, I know Ides its a bit late but the rounds wont go bad so it will be something for next time, no matter what the weather may be.

As far as other things, It is the continued job hunt, as always of course, the clean up around this place, prepping things for fall and winter.. Though it was very fall like weather this entire week. Go figure the day Ides heads off its back to high 70's and low 80's.

I will polish up Thor, though it may just get called my Bastard Rifle. Time will tell. I'll load up some rounds again to break it in, and then start some Solid Copper 180's as well as some 165's or there abouts. I'll also get Classy, and my 30-30 dialed in this week, I hope anyway. Or at least closer.

Imma snagging this idea from Jay G... Top ten list.

So I had a thought today of what perhaps the top ten ionic fire arms are today for Americans for one reason or another, that everyone should have the chance to fire, even if its just for one day, now while I'm sure everyone will have a slightly modified list here and even on a different given day my list will perhaps change but these I feel are a good solid shoe in on any given day. These weapons will be from the last century, at least actively employed in warfare by us or against us, or in plain civilian life.

Here goes, oh and the one exempting factor. Since Class 3 Firearms are only available to those of us that have done military service or some sorts of police work those fire arms are off of the list, at least if they only come in a Class 3 Variant. Belt fed semi autos Ill include with that as the price range of those systems takes them out of the average shooters availability.

In no particular order...

1. AK 47, or at least the civilian clones there of. It is the weapon nearly everyone pictures from Vietnam forward that defines armed conflict, and the sheer millions of these weapons out there assure that we will continue to see them for some time to come. They define movies and every single bad stereotype out there for Assault Weapons, but the civilian legal versions... (Well at least in -some- states) are quite a bit of fun to shoot, and ammunition is easy to get and cheap.

2. M16/AR15/AR 10, Again the civilian legal variants of these. Soft, easy shooting, reliable now days, and they define the tinker and personalize your rifle like no other. Also the bit of infamy they have as a relic of the Vietnam fielding days adds to the interest or hatred of these weapons. Now days you can have them in nearly any caliber size for any role.

3. .38 special snub nose revolver. What police movie or PI movie made before the 1980's doesn't have one of these in it? Either Bad guy or good guy? These in the Colt, or Smith and Wesson flavor defined concealed carry or back up guns or stereotypically "ladies" guns for decades. Tricky to fire well and master they still should at least be tried by everyone once.

4. Beretta 92/M9.  No other pistol has caused so much controversy in the armed services as this weapon. (God did I hate fixing them too) But these seemed to be the weapons that the police took to in the change over from revolvers, and the movies followed suit. Easy shooting and high capacity defining love or hate they heralded a change over in American Military thinking for side arms and the police as well, followed up by...

5. Glock 17. The polymer framed pistol. Initially offered it created a media panic. "OMG plastic gunz with no metal, you cant detect them!!!!11111" it soon found a to this day loyal following with many many police departments. It took a few years but the rest of the public soon took to polymer and the revolution started by Glock continues to this day.

6 1911A1 .45.  The Yankee fist as it took to being called, it fought in every conflict for the United States to this day, at least with some special forces, it was brought in to play in the M1911 form for WW1, Modified slightly in time for WW2 where so many were made that they stopped all production after that war, and continued using rebuilt and rebuilt again pistols all the way in to the 90's in some National Guard units, and Still the basic design remains with some Special Forces units in Iraq, and Afghanistan. It is considered the pistol which all other combat designs are still measured against.

7 M1 Garand. The partner to the M1911A1 this was the first seriously fielded successful Semi Automatic Battle rifle. It fought in two wars in general issue, and a limited extent in Vietnam.

These next three are more a basic operating system than anything but they still are iconic in the success of the basic principals of how these work.

8. Pump action Shotgun. There are many many good makers of these shotguns in many different gages. Find one, shoot it.

9. Bolt Action hunting rifles by Browning, Winchester, or Remington. These things still sell tens of thousands a year. These basic actions are the building blocks for custom rifles, super accurate sniper rifle systems and have killed hundreds of thousands of deer every year. Most of these are based off some WW1 or 2 Weapon, Mauser generally but the basic principals of how they work are the same. Every single caliber that you can think of has a Bolt Action chambered for it somewhere.

10. This next one is going to get a dual credit. The Double Action Revolver, made most famous for the .38 Special and .357 Magnum Cambering it is also in damn near every police movie out there till the 80's.

Ill give two honorable mentions.

The Lever action rifle. Its more of a relic of the Western movies, it still lives on, in various forms, by various makes today in the hunting camps around the country.

Smith and Wesson .44 Magnum AKA Dirty Harry Fame.  Someone mentions a magnum and that still tends to be what they think of because of the "most powerful hand gun in the world"

Take the food out of your mouth first!

Well called up Remington arms. Not a bad wait, couple minutes or so.
Sadly I had such a difficult time understanding the woman on the phone that I did not receive a good answer on it. She told me I had three repair centers in the state I could take the rifle to. Or perhaps it was take it to Gander Mountain. Or was it Both? I could not understand her around what seemed to be a mouthful of food and coffee.

Gander Mountain however seemed to be much easier. Told to just take it in to the one I bought it at, the one I called. And they would have it on the computer and could look it up. Even better their gunsmith is in Tuesday.

It is a frustrating situation for me. I could fix the weapon myself I suppose. Polish up the feed lips some and see if that helps, or even polish up the feed ramp. Its the matter this is a brand new rifle that I have not even shot yet.

It should not have come out of the factory this way. I would expect something like this on a used firearm. I should not have to do repairs on something unfired. Here is to hoping Gander Mountain repairs it, or replaces the magazine well lining so I can break in the barrel and get rounds loaded.

Slow descent in to reloading should be completed tommrow.

Seems that many years ago now, oh say seven or eight at this point I got in to reloading. But due to a couple tough financial situations, relationship issues and two Army deployments kept me from actually starting.
Finally I bit the bullet so to speak and set up a table, and loaded up some rounds for the 30-30 and the 30-06.

 With a bit of cooperation with the weather tomorrow I will get a chance to put the rounds on paper, and maybe, just maybe have a worked up load that is cooperating. If not It still will be a nice warm summer day to shoot, get out in the fresh air and have some fun. I also do have to agree with the common consensus that reloading is enjoyable.
Now it is time to make some bacon and eggs for the little spawns and myself and see about getting the day rolling.