On my first deer hunt I learned a lot of things.
What follows is a list of things I learned. It’s in no particular order. It’s probably far from comprehensive. But it is a list of things I learned. And while some things are specific to hunting or shooting, some things are just applicable to anything in life.
At the advice of Tom Hogel, I sent my S&W 442 to Mr. Verne Trester for some custom smith work.
I got a red insert on the front sight ramp. Made a HUGE difference in the visibility of that sight.
I also got the action worked on.
Price for the work was very reasonable.
Took a little over a month for complete turnaround, which was fine.
As soon as it arrived I took it out and just spent time dry firing it. Felt nice. Still a long trigger pull, but it felt smoother and a tad lighter, tho still a “heavy” trigger pull.
Took it to the range. Ran all sorts of ammo through it, different makes and brands, some .38 Special, some .38 Special +P. All sorts of stuff. Everything ran without a hitch. I tried 5 of my Buffalo Bore 20C’s. The first one didn’t fire, but the rest did, and the first one fired when it came around a second time. I’m not sure what the deal was there and will be asking Verne. Could have been a hard primer or just a fluke, or could be something with how he tuned the action (he did ask me prior to starting the work what ammo I’d be shooting out of it). Nice thing about the revolver tho… just keep pulling the trigger. 🙂
This is also the first time I got to shoot it since putting on the new grips. I must say they did a great job. I had more control over the gun due to the longer grip and thus having a pinky on there. The covering of the backstrap was very welcome, especially when shooting those Buffalo Bore. They are certainly bigger than the previous grips and there’s no question that affects concealability. But I don’t think the concealability is all that unmanageable (it doesn’t bulge in my pocket any more than the cylinder width causes things to bulge). As well, when I slip my hand in my pocket and get a grip on the gun, it’s a far more proper grip; with the original grips I noticed that what felt comfortable for a grip in my pocket was NOT a good firing grip. Still, I wouldn’t be opposed to switching back to the little grips if I really needed to maximize concealability. But for general carry and shooting, I will stick with the Pachmayr Compac grips.
Between Verne Trester’s work and the grips, I think I have a good snub. I still think I’d like to get an all-steel snub, like a S&W 640 with no internal lock… but those are getting harder to find so I just have to keep my eyes out. Meantime, my custom 442 will serve me just fine. Now I look forward to Claude Werner‘s snub classes @ KR Training in February 2010. I picked up some RCBS carbide .38 dies at Cabela’s today. I need to get reloading on that.
I want to thank Verne Trester for his work. He was always very polite on the phone and in emails, prompt in returning calls and speaking with me and answering questions until I was satisfied. Good customer service, good work. I’m satisfied and would certainly use him again.
From John Stossel:
It’s not that taxes don’t anger me. They do. But I’m more angry about the arrogance of the ruling class. It reminds me of Walter Williams’ riff: “Politicians are worse than thieves. At least when thieves take your money, they don’t expect you to thank them for it.”
Taxes, even counting hidden taxes, are not the real measure of what the thieves take. The true burden of government, the late Milton Friedman said, is the spending level. Taxation is just one way government gets money. The other ways — borrowing and inflation — are equally burdens on the people. (State governments can’t inflate, but they sure can borrow.)
O’Reilly told me that America is ready for a tax revolt. I hope he’s right. But I don’t think it will happen until more people see the ruling elite for what it is: a gang of arrogant bullies that has the audacity to believe that they know how to direct our lives better than we do.
That’s why, bad as the taxes are, I’m more upset about ObamaCare, Medicare, the “stimulus,” the auto bailout, the bank bailouts, the Fannie/Freddie bailouts, the trillions in guarantees, and on and on.
The politicians’ spending schemes represent presumptuous interference in our lives. They are an assault on our autonomy.
Dave Re, IPSC Grandmaster-level shooter, on creative dry fire
My father and his wife is visiting us for a few days. It’s always good to see him.
Growing up I didn’t do much with guns. Dad was a Captain, Second Infantry, US Army. Mom however didn’t like guns. So while I always remember this .22 rifle being in the storage room, it was never used; in fact, I just learned today that Dad had removed the bolt and hid it long long ago, thus it was never functional. So while growing up I was never anti-gun, I was just never really exposed to it. I do remember one family vacation that Dad took me skeet shooting. Shot a 20 gauge, had a great time. My first real exposure to guns. Certainly had some pellet guns and such over time growing up, but really nothing much.
So that made today kinda special, especially since today ended up being Son teaching Father. 🙂
Dad does shoot, but mostly shotguns for skeet and trap. I believe he gets out on occasion as well to go duck and pheasant hunting (lives in Nebraska, after all). But the last time Dad touched an M-14 was back in the Army, Expert qualification I believe with the M-14, M1 Carbine, .45 handgun, and so on. But certainly, Dad’s technique reflected old school technique. I showed him some modern technique. 🙂  Plus some guns he’d never shot before.
Started out with my Smith & Wesson 442. I just got it back from the gunsmith (I’ll write about that later) so I had to try it out. Buddy foo.c gave me a bunch of various .38 loads that he had lying around I think from his father-in-law, so just an assortment of stuff. They all ran just fine, probably went through almost 100 rounds: me shooting 5, my Dad shooting 5, and trading off like that. Gun felt good, but I know I need more practice (now that I have it back, I can do that.. pulled to the right a lot, that long trigger). Dad was slapping the trigger a lot, lots of anticipation. But heck, for a first time with a snub he did just fine.
Moved on to the Browning Buck Mark. Of course, that gun is a lot of fun. Dad was certainly excelling with this, tearing one ragged hole in the center of his target. I think without question that was his favorite gun to shoot, because well.. that gun is just tons of fun to shoot.
Then we moved on to my Springfield XD-9. Dad fired one shot. “Wow…”. Heh heh. 🙂  He finished one magazine and said that was enough for him. Heh heh.
After that we opted to put the handguns away and move over to the 100 yard rifle range. I had brought along my Springfield M1A Scout Squad. Dad seemed to enjoy that too. One thing about his shooting is while he may have been off a slight bit in terms of “hitting the bullseye” he was very consistent. I think with the M1A it was probably some measure of the fact the gun was set up and sighted for me, not him. But he shot well.
While at the rifle range, met another gentleman shooting there. The M1A always seems to attract folks and strike up conversations. The gentleman actually did a lot of custom work on M1A’s. He let me try out the trigger on one he had just finished customizing. As well, he let me fire 5 of his handloads out of my M1A and man they were accurate. He even shared the load recipe with me (must remember, using Federal brass to put half a grain more powder in, and using other factory brass like Winchester, etc. to put a full grain more… that I think he was using Black Hills match cases). Anyway…. very nice guy and I’m sure I’ll be in touch with him in the future.
Just being able to spend the one-on-one time with my Dad was precious to me. For that, I am thankful.
My friend foo.c talks about the Force-on-Force classes from last weekend. I was originally scheduled to attend the classes but it didn’t pan out. Looks like I missed a good time, and a good learning experience.
Gee.
They say you can’t have a gun.
But yet, these politicians all have guns.
Ah. Chicago politicians. That explains it.
Got the idea from the Climbing Up Blog. I may not post 10 every day, but let’s see about 10 for today.
Stuff From Hsoi 