Pew-Pew-Pew... Range Day - Take Two.

Today was MUCH nicer than yesterday. Yesterday's storm front even cooled things off a bit.

Not a lot, mind you. This is Texas in June afterall. I bought a cup of coffee at a drive through on the way to the range and drank half of it on the way. I left it in the truck and it was still pleasantly hot when I left the range 2 1/2 hours later.

All things are relative:) At least it wasn't over 100.

The range was very active, as it has been ever since January. Usually this time of year I've got the place to myself. Seems like lots of folks are interested in exercising their 2nd amendment rights - which is a wonderful thing. Still, I kind of miss having the elbow room sometimes.

I took the K31, the WASR, and the SKS. I didn't shoot handgun this time around. I shot all three girls at a 50 yd station, but I walked the K31 out to 100 yds, in addition.

I started with the K31. I've not shot her at 100 yds with iron sights until today. I started out at 50 yds to "warm up".

Then we moved out to 100 yds.

I'm pulling a bit to the right. Still not too bad (for me) at 100 yds, shooting at a target the size of my fist, with iron sights.

I don't "cherry pick" targets to post. Don't get me wrong... I'd love to do that. Problem is, all my targets are pretty much the same for any particular gun and range - so it wouldn't do me any good :) I'm pretty pleased with the way I'm shooting her now, with the exception of the occasional flyer. Much better than when I first started rifle shooting, that's for sure. My groups get a little better every time and that's what I'm working toward.

I switched to the SKS, next.

Yeah... that's right. I'm firmly in touch with my inner-Bubba, so go ahead and taunt me for altering an SKS with a Tapco stock. I've heard it all before, and I am completely unimpressed :) I'm a dogcatcher, for Pete's sake. Think you're going to make me self conscious about my gun?

Is.To.Laugh.

I shot OK with the SKS. I'm still having trouble with the double "ring" that I'm seeing using the aperature sight. I can also see the circle of the front sight hood and I find myself not focusing on the front post like I should, with so much crap in my field of view. I'm seriously considering altering the front sight hood and leaving just enough to act as protective "ears" on either side of the front post. It would end up looking like an AK front sight.

Here's 20 rounds on a typical target at 50 yards.

You can see the upper and lower flyers that crop up when I loose the front post focus. All these shots would have fit on a paper plate, but I know I can do better. Over all, I'm pretty pleased to group this well. I have a hard enough time just seeing the black bullseye on these targets at 50 yards. There's always room for improvement though.

Last, I picked up the WASR.

The main purpose of the WASR shoot was to try and sight her in. If you aren't familiar with WASRs, they are pretty low on the totem pole as far as AK47 clone knockoffs. They look cool, are fun to shoot, and are rugged as hell, but they do have their issues.

The mag well was originally made to fit a single stack mag. They were later cut out to accomodate a double stack mag, but the quality control on this is so lax that the mag will wiggle in the opening on most WASRs- just enough to annoy me. It won't come out or anything, and I've never had a feed problem, but that wiggle is irritating. Also, and more importantly, the front sight posts on many of them are canted one way or the other. Mine was canted so much that I couldn't hit paper on a normal sized target from a sandbag at 50 yds! I had to tap out the pins and tap the sight post over with a mallet to somewhat eyeball it true.

That's my WASR 50yd target. You can see how I barely made it on to paper at first (upper left). At least now I could adjust with the sight tool a bit at a time until I was consistantly nearer the center of the target with each shot. This was the last gun I shot today, and I was fatigued, so we'll see how she does next trip.

I can't believe how much WASR10's have gone up in price since I got mine, pre-Obamapanic. I wouldn't have sold her at all, until I was sure I had the accuracy issue resolved. It wouldn't have seem right, to me. Now that I have that problem fixed, I'm pretty sure I could sell her for twice what I paid for her. I don't have plans to sell her now, but I have been drooling over the Ruger Mini14 short tactical rifle... MMMMMMMmmmmmm....

Sorry.

I shot a little video while at the range today, just to mess around with. Nothing fancy, just me taking a couple of shots with all three guns. I read several different "gunnie" type blogs, but I don't see actual shooting very often on any of them. I see the occasional target, and lots of gun porn (and I DO love both!), but almost no actual shooting.

So, in the absence of anyone actually good shooting - you'll get me. If you're stuck at work, looking out the window and wishing you were at the range - give the video a look-see. Maybe it will make you feel like you're there :)