Sunday Range Day

Went to the range today on a chilly day that began around 25 degrees but the sun was out and it got to 40 ish pretty quickly. I met up with Heath, Spencer and his friend Steve who I met for the first time today.

Steve, as it turns out knows his stuff, and was a firearms instructor in the army among other roles. Nice guy, and a solid and safe shooter. Steve had neat drill that we tried that was quite good.

I shot the IWI Masada with the can on it, the PSA Rock (which needed a red dot sight adjustment and is now nice and zeroed but still the Romeo Zero needs to be replaced by a better red dot), some SIGs, including my P365 from concealment.  Concealment on this day meant an open jacket and the P365 under a sweater, and with thin wool gloves on, so the draw took a bit of work but was quite achievable, and good winter weather practice.

I also brought out the Tavor and my latest SBR.

The ATI Galeo pistol which was on clearance. I've Form 1'd it into a Galil SAR.  I've always wanted a Galil SAR after shooting a real one years ago, and now I've got one.

Happily, it functioned 100% even with IWI magazines.  

One risk with the ATI line of Galil clones is that ATI often have them tuned to function with Tapco polymer Galil magazines, which are now pretty much unobtainium.  But, my IWI magazines fit and fed just fine, which was very happy making.

100% functionality is kind of expected, since the Galil is a later development and refinement of the Finnish Valmet, which is itself a later development and refinement of the AK-47 series of rifles and reliability is the touted hallmark of the system.

Everyone enjoyed shooting it, and it's a nice handy and reliable package of a firearm. Shooting 5.56, the recoil is negligible and it is easy to get rapid aimed shots on target. It can also be easily fired with the stock folded. The rock 'n' lock magazine as seen with the AK series makes magazine changes a little slower than an AR or Tavor, but with the charging handle set upward, the firearm can be charged with either hand, letting you keep your firing hand on the grip.

Due to a neat quirk in Michigan law, while it is federally an SBR, it is still considered a pistol in Michigan, so I could legally carry it concealed if I so chose to do so (talk about effective winter carry), or have it loaded in a vehicle, again, if I so chose to do so. Not saying I will, but it's nice to have legal options.

A great time at the range and everyone had a good time. Range time is always better shared with friends.

Went home and got other stuff done, and now I'm about to make Steak Frites for dinner, because, why not?

Finally Got A Golani

Just picked this rifle up locally and added it to my collection.

It's the Golani, Century Arms' semi-auto build of the famed Israeli Galil. I've been wanting a classic Galil-type rifle for a long time now.

The Galil is an improved variant of the basic Kalashnikov design, with many Israeli enhancements for shoot-ability and reliability.

A solid ring surrounds the front sight and there's a flip up tritium sight for night time shooting (no tritium with the rifle sadly).

The rear sight is the ring type with a flip-able rear aperture for different distances and also a flip up tritium sight (again no tritium included but the sight is still there.

Makes shooting a lot more accurate and easy than the standard Kalashnikov sights.

On the left side of the rifle by the pistol grip is a switch for the safety which moves the lever you typically find on the right side of a Kalashnikov rifle. Makes taking it on and off safe very easy indeed without having to reach over for the lever.

The charging handle is turned upward with a knurled knob for easy charging of the rifle with either hand.

The Galil has a side-folding tubular stock that is very nice and locks up solidly and feels good against the shoulder. With the stock folded it makes for a nice compact package.

Someone put a Midwest industries railed hand-guard on the front and a different pistol grip, while the install is solid and it does look nice and is certainly adds some functionality by making the rifle ready for a red dot or similar, I'll likely order the more correct handguard and pistol grip types for it soon to make it look more authentic.

A nice bonus was it came with 6 steel 35-round Israeli Galil magazines, most in what look to be unused condition. The mags are hard to find which made this a nice acquisition.

To enhance the current look, I immediately put an Israeli sling on it.

I've shot a real Galil, the Galilon version in Israel some 25 years ago, and this one is about as close as you can get to it so far without SBR'ing it.

Looks like it hasn't been shot much if at all and I'm looking forward to taking it to the range.