So... any of our members here have an interest in firearms?

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This Ruger is one of the most accurate handguns I own. She is a tack driver. The Ruger does a great job on varmint control
I agree. I think I have had .22 rifles that were not as accurate, but they were about a 1/3 the cost as well.
 
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I thought this group might appreciate a story, but first the requisite picture:



Years ago in law school, I discovered that the University of Texas had an underground shooting range on campus for its shooting teams. At night, a person could purchase 100 rounds of .22 for $1.00 and plink. It became my go-to study break. Close the books in the library around 7PM, walk over, send 2-300 rounds down range, then get back to the books.

The range was staffed by volunteers, and one regular volunteer was the crustiest, grumpiest, ex-Marine shooting team old timer - complete with a patch over one eye. He rarely spoke.

After months of me coming in at nights and shooting single-hand, I go to buy a second box of ammo and he speaks: “you want to learn how to really shoot?” I felt like Yoda has finally spoken. “Of course.”

He instructed me to (1) take one of the competition pellet guns, (2) turn the target to its blank side (no markings) at the requisite 10m, and (3) use a sandbag rest to shoot from. He then said, “when you can send 5 pellets into a blank target at a group smaller than a nickel from a sandbag, I’ll tell you the next step.”

My impression of crusty Yoda’s instructions was that he thought it would take me several months to be able to meet his challenge. I set into it. While I had never done real precision shooting competition, I was an above average shooter.

So I was very proud of myself when it took me only 20-30 minutes to get that nickel-sized group at 10m on a blank target from a sandbag. But I thought I’d play it cool.

I walked over to his station, and without saying a word slid the prize target in front of him.

He slowly leaned over and looked at it, much cooler than I was, then slowly leaned back. Without looking at at me and turning back to whatever else he was doing, he says, “well, now you know what the pistol is capable of, and that the rest is just you fυcking up.”
Sounds like the accuracy on all firearms. The gun is more consistent or "better" than you are. Setting aside a timing/cylinder alignment issue on a firearm, the shooter is always the "problem". Only once I had a P226 that the rear sight was sliding side to side, so it was not "my" fault for the horrible group. A little paint on the sight and it tightened it right up.
 
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To further the point made above. When I started shooting my 9mm, I was consistently off to the right by 1" to 1-1/2". My groupings were respectable, but I could not figure out what I was doing wrong. Was it the sights?. A brand new gun, it must be the sights.
A coworker of mine is a certified instructor. Told him my problem and we met up to solve it. He shoots the gun first and no apparent sighting issues. I shoot next and sure enough, miss to the right. He examines my grip and my trigger finger location. He tells me to pull the trigger with my finger tip this time. PROBLEM SOLVED.
With the first fold of my index finger over the trigger I had been pulling the gun to the right, at squeeze. Using just the the tip eliminated the pull.
The new results after a couple of mags.
 
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To further the point made above. When I started shooting my 9mm, I was consistently off to the right by 1" to 1-1/2". My groupings were respectable, but I could not figure out what I was doing wrong. Was it the sights?. A brand new gun, it must be the sights.
A coworker of mine is a certified instructor. Told him my problem and we met up to solve it. He shoots the gun first and no apparent sighting issues. I shoot next and sure enough, miss to the right. He examines my grip and my trigger finger location. He tells me to pull the trigger with my finger tip this time. PROBLEM SOLVED.
With the first fold of my index finger over the trigger I had been pulling the gun to the right, at squeeze. Using just the the tip eliminated the pull.
The new results after a couple of mags.

Among the “classics”:

 
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To further the point made above. When I started shooting my 9mm, I was consistently off to the right by 1" to 1-1/2". My groupings were respectable, but I could not figure out what I was doing wrong. Was it the sights?. A brand new gun, it must be the sights.
A coworker of mine is a certified instructor. Told him my problem and we met up to solve it. He shoots the gun first and no apparent sighting issues. I shoot next and sure enough, miss to the right. He examines my grip and my trigger finger location. He tells me to pull the trigger with my finger tip this time. PROBLEM SOLVED.
With the first fold of my index finger over the trigger I had been pulling the gun to the right, at squeeze. Using just the the tip eliminated the pull.
The new results after a couple of mags.

This is among the most common issues with handgun accuracy, along with "trigger jerking." After decades of firing, I still have to remind myself now and then.

Coincidentally, I pulled this out earlier and loaded it. I find it corrects pretty much all trigger squeezing, anticipation, eyes closing, etc issues..
 
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30+ years ago I shot metallic silhouette tournaments on weekends. Dan Wesson 45 and then 44mag 10 inch barrel rolled my own to save $$.
Today I have a small collection of Pistols am slowly looking for a couple more.
 
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I just picked up this 1937 Colt Officer's Model with the optional heavy barrel. It is in excellent condition. I'll have to go out and get it zeroed in for myself this week.
 
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Interesting what you find when going through old photos.

Back in the mid 1970s the New South Wales Police range was closed for de-leading/repair so the RAAF 25 metre range at my base was provided so that they could conduct their annual qualification shoots.

Their armourer was also "under repair" so I was seconded to the police for two weeks to act as armourer on the shoot.

When the two instructors turned up on day one to set things up, one of them commented, with a smile "where's your gun?" (they were both wearing their issue 38s.

"Don't have one here" I replied, the other instructor reached into his bag and handed me this:



They both had a chuckle and made a few comments (don't shoot yourself in the foot etc.) and we got on with it.

I started putting up targets, trying to pin the target to the board and get the staples through the holes was a bit of a PITA.
One of the guys came up and said "Here. Watch!", quickly followed by four shots, one at each corner of the target. Staples went through perfectly 😁.

So every morning when I set up fresh boards, there were twenty wadcutters going into the butts.
Sometimes during the day the boards got shot up too much, even the sticks got shot through, so proceedings would come to a halt while I took a fresh board and target down range, set it up, went bang!bang!bang!bang!, pinned the target and walked back, sometimes to amusing comments from the peanut gallery.

I think it was the best two weeks I spent at that base.
 
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Part of my daily routine was to inspect and test fire the weapons bought in by each batch of shooters (usually five).
They would lay their guns on my bench and go inside for the briefing and I would check each one, take it to my position and fire five or six rounds, then go back and do the next one.

It was all going well and on the second day I think I was on about my tenth test fire.

Bang! Bang! pop!

My brain immediately said "that's not right" and I swung the chamber open to see a round in the throat of the barrel.

I was also aware of two frantic instructors running from the shed, waving their arms and screaming "STOP STOP STOP!".
I turned to face them, with my open gun in my left hand, they stopped, looked at me, looked at each other, shrugged and went back to the briefing.

Turns out the owner of the gun never wore it and had never fired it except for annuals, but he used to store it loaded in his desk drawer.
He'd get it out of his drawer once a month and spray it with WD40 to keep it clean and stop rust. Bullets and all! 😲

I suspect the excess WD40 had worked its way into the case and affected the propellant.

After the shoot he was given a pretty good chewing out (I could hear the yelling from outside the range shed!), and then he was passed to me and I had to formally show him how to clean his gun properly.

I think the instructors trusted me after that.
 
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1964 Chinese SKS (Vietnam War bring back) is now my 2020 social distancing tool!

Only four feet long to pointy end but I'm pretty sure six feet of separation is readily achievable in the real world, wouldn't you think?

Humor aside, I found this at a pawn shop about a week before the world went crazy. It was part of a collection of 300 old guns sold to the shop by a recently deceased' estate. (yes, my heart sunk too at some poor fool's idea of selling to a pawn shop)

The deceased was a Vietnam War vet and there a ton of old surplus guns and bits stuffed around the shop because they didn't have renough room for them. Interestingly enough, they don't know much about guns there and because the bottom fixed magazine was missing, they plunked it in a barrel labeled "misc guns....$50". No kidding. I asked if it was legit to be in the $50 barrel and he said "yeah the gun don't work with the missing parts."

I told him I would take the SKS and had filled out the 4473 paperwork, so was wandering around the store waiting for that to process, and found a bin of misc holsters and magazines, where I noticed an aftermarket 10rd SKS magazine. I yelled across the store "hey will you throw in this old mag?"...."Sure!" he said.

And now you have below a 1964 Chinese Vietnam War bring back SKS (no import marks), with aftermarket mag, for $50.

 
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Story #2:

Went back to same pawn shop a few days later as they said they had more stuff from that estate that was in the backroom getting ready to come out to the floor.

Went to the $50 barrel and found a few more things, mostly old broken bb guns and home made blackpowder stuff...real junk...except for a decent Savage hunting rifle with Weaver mounts, rings, and Weaver 2-6x40 scope in 30-06.

The tag said "bolt won't remove". I asked the guy what it meant. He said he couldn't get the bolt out so it must be broken. Well as it turns out, you just have to know how. Came out just fine for me, so plunked it on the counter and said "sold". Here's your $50.

Unfortunately, the good times ended with that one because a couple days later the crisis hit and the local community cleaned him out of just about every gun he had, and all the ammo too.
 
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Noice!

I was stocked up already, and didn't have to clean anyone out for guns and ammo before the crisis.
 
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When it gets light out again, I'll shoot my Mossberg with the wood furniture and the bayonet.

Tom
 
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1964 Chinese SKS (Vietnam War bring back) is now my 2020 social distancing tool!

Only four feet long to pointy end but I'm pretty sure six feet of separation is readily achievable in the real world, wouldn't you think?

Humor aside, I found this at a pawn shop about a week before the world went crazy. It was part of a collection of 300 old guns sold to the shop by a recently deceased' estate. (yes, my heart sunk too at some poor fool's idea of selling to a pawn shop)

The deceased was a Vietnam War vet and there a ton of old surplus guns and bits stuffed around the shop because they didn't have renough room for them. Interestingly enough, they don't know much about guns there and because the bottom fixed magazine was missing, they plunked it in a barrel labeled "misc guns....$50". No kidding. I asked if it was legit to be in the $50 barrel and he said "yeah the gun don't work with the missing parts."

I told him I would take the SKS and had filled out the 4473 paperwork, so was wandering around the store waiting for that to process, and found a bin of misc holsters and magazines, where I noticed an aftermarket 10rd SKS magazine. I yelled across the store "hey will you throw in this old mag?"...."Sure!" he said.

And now you have below a 1964 Chinese Vietnam War bring back SKS (no import marks), with aftermarket mag, for $50.


At the range one day a dufus kid brought his SKS purchase and a Walmart bag of ammo. Rifle no case. Bayonet attached. Walking up to the range with that uncased bayonet ready SKS.......the howls of WTF reached a crescendo.

SKS is nice though.
 
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Noice!

I was stocked up already, and didn't have to clean anyone out for guns and ammo before the crisis.

Hehehe... I was stocked up 20yrs ago.
 
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The state of my small collection: 5 pistols (Sig Sauer & HK) and 1 shotgun (Remington 870 Magnum Marine).

I'm considering adding a revolver, probably a S&W 686.
 
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When it gets light out again, I'll shoot my Mossberg with the wood furniture and the bayonet.

Tom

Here's the shotgun.



Mossberg 590L, in other words a left-handed model. Plastic furniture replaced with wood, light mount added, sling is for a M1918 BAR. The M1907 sling is too short unless you get a special match sling.

Bayonet mount and barrel shield is stock for this model.

Rubber 00 buck because I live in an apartment building and I don't want my neighbors in danger.

Tom
 
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Here's the shotgun.



Mossberg 590L, in other words a left-handed model. Plastic furniture replaced with wood, light mount added, sling is for a M1918 BAR. The M1907 sling is too short unless you get a special match sling.

Bayonet mount and barrel shield is stock for this model.

Rubber 00 buck because I live in an apartment building and I don't want my neighbors in danger.

Tom
Rubber 00. Great deal. Extended tube, 8 shellS, I suspect.
I will have to get a box or two for that same reason of not shooting through walls of house and guy next door.
Will skip the bayonet though
 
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Will skip the bayonet though

The bayonet scares the crap out of most people so you don't have to shoot.

Tom
 
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The bayonet scares the crap out of most people so you don't have to shoot.

Tom

The sound of racking a jankity mossberg doesnt?