A Good Time At The Range Today

Went to the Range with Tosh and his cousin who was in town from new York.

We let his cousin shoot stuff he can;t have in that benighted state.

Heck, he could even have normal capacity magazines for his H&K VP9 here, unlike New York where he's stuck to 10-rounders, so he enjoyed not having to reload quite as much.

I shot my AR15 which I hadn't taken to the range in awhile and the Carmel.

The Carmel continues to function perfectly, and the controls make it very easy to quickly manipulate.  Fully ambidextrous and laid out very similar to an AR15 but slightly more ergonomic, it makes some drills easier.

Speaking of drills, we did quite a few.

Mainly we did the MDFI Qualifiers for Shotgun, Carbine and Handgun.

7 yards for hadngun, 10 for shotgun, and 15 yards for the carbine.

Very straightforward, relatively basic drills that don't take a lot of rounds but get you working on your reloads - something I don't often do with the carbine on the clock.

I shot the IWI Masada for the handgun qual, and The Tavor for the shotgun quals, and shot both the AR and Carmel for the carbine quals. The Carmel seems to be ore solid for the multiple shot parts of the qual and the AR being lighter is a bit faster to move around for the reloads - but the larger magazine well of the Carmel makes the reloads a bit smoother as does the shape of the bolt release on the Carmel, making the overall time for the reloads a little bit faster.

So it was some good practice, and a very fun time at the range.

Last Range Trip of 2023

After arriving back in town on Friday night, On Saturday morning I got up nice and early and headed to the range to meet up with Tosh, Jason and Spencer.

Weather was cold but not terribly so but compared to where I had been it was kinda cold indeed.  So we got targets setup and commenced shooting.

We started off with handguns and I fired my Black Friday purchase for the first time.

A PSA Rock in 5.7 to compliment my PS90.

I had thrown on a Romeo Zero Pro (will be changing for a better optic shortly) and had it ready to go.

 First impression: Rather impressed. It came with two 23-round magazines, and was optic-ready right out of its very nice carrying case.

The firearm grip is not nearly as bulky as I thought it would be and it fits my hand well. Interestingly, the Romeo Zero Pro as installed was right on and required no adjustment to zero which was nice.

Spencer also had his new to him Smith and Wesson M&P 5.7 along for comparison.  We both found that the M&P 5.7's grip is more rectangular and feels like a 2x4 compared to the Rock's.   The M&P also carries one less round at 22 in the magazine.  The Rock's trigger was also better, and is better than a stock Glock.

Recoil on both was pretty much negligible, and the lack of recoil was made up for with rather loud and enthusiastic muzzle blast from each pistol.  Didn't time it, but Bill Drills were ridiculously fast as the guns simply didn't shift in recoil and stayed right in the A-zone the whole time while firing.

I'd say PSA got the Rock right and its one very attractive package both cost and functionally speaking for people looking to pickup a 5.7 pistol.

Fired 250 rounds through it with zero failures and big smiles from all four of us.

I then pulled out the PS90 and those 50-round mags got fired quickly and accurately by all, again with some big smiles.  Too much fun.

I also shot my IWI Masada, as I hadn't taken it to the range in a while, and it performed perfectly as expected.

We shot quite a few more handguns including Jason's new Beretta 80x and his new Stoeger STR9-F that he got for a steal of a price with its rebate. The Stoeger STR9-F feels kinda like a reshaped Gen 3 Glock, and at the price he got it for, it is one amazing value.   It was a nice shooter and had zero issues.

Since Spencer and Jason were going deer hunting after the range trip, they brought along their 450 Bushmaster rifles for us to try.

Spencer had a Savage in 450 and Jason had a Ruger American Ranch in 450. 

The 450 has lots more recoil than the 5.7, to say the least, but both were perfectly good shooting rifles with very smooth bolt actions.  Lots of fun was had by all hammering steel plates at a distance with them.

I then pulled out the Tavor and Jason and Tosh their AR-15s and we did some magazine changing drills on the clock.  Need more practice with that, but lots of fun.

It was a great way to close out the 2023 Shooting Year.

Memorial Day Range Trip

So for the morning of Memorial Day I headed to the range.

Met up with Tosh and his buddy Timo.  A good time was then had by all.

Had the Turknelli out and it ran like a top - even ran the lower powered 7.5 birdshot and the Federal Flite Control 8 pellet 00 Buck that it had choked on during its first time out.

 

In short no failures, fed everything it was given and seems good to go, and cleaning the pistons fixed the issue nicely.  

When I got it home, I took it down to clean it and  there was some solid carbon buildup on the pistons yet again, but not nearly as much this time, so hopefully the gunk is working itself out. Will need to keep an eye on it and I expect to make it a regular bit of maintenance to clean the pistons after each use.

Shot the Tavor as well out to 100 yards (longest range they've got at the range sadly)  and no issues. Did decided to give it a cleaning as it had not been cleaned in quite some time, and I think it appreciated it. Got a lot of build up out of it and it is nice and clean now.

Also shot my Glock and IWI Masada.  Definitely need to practice more as my draw is pretty slow and could use some work.  Accuracy with both is good and I'm hitting an A Zone at 7 yards on Bill Drills pretty consistently, but need to speed it up, especially the draw.

This means some regular dry fire practice which I keep telling myself I'm going to do, so might as well do it.  From now on it's 15 minutes of leg stretches for the hip rehab followed by 15 minutes of dry-fire a day.  Let's see if I can stick to this.

Saturday Range Day

I took Abby to the range yesterday,  It's been quite awhile since she had come with me so it was a nice time together.

She really liked the M&P Compact 22 with the can on it and after a bit of practice did very well with it.

She could hit all three on demand, but occiasionally would rush herself and inevitabley shoot high above the plates, but once she settled down she could knock them all down.  I may even be able to talk her into trying steel challenge someday.

 She also tried the M&P 15-22 and thought it was a bit heavy but then she remembered shooting it awhile back as a kid and then she also got her hits with it too.

She said the Tavor felt too heavy for her but she would hit the paper with it (No plates with the Tavor as that steel is pistol-rated only).

I shot the Glock with the replacement Holosun on it and finished zeroing it.

Then we did a bit of shooting and (slowly) moving - first the rack of thre plates then moving to the other side with another rack of three plates for Abby and three plats and two poppers for me.  Good practice in teaching her how to move with a firearm while controlling the muzzle direction at all times, and she had a lot of fun doing it.

Overall a very nice and easy range trip.

Then we drove back and met up with the rest of the family for lunch and then got a lot of cleaning done around the house which was all good.  hen I headed out to a friend's 40th birthday party and had a good time doing that too. 

Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

Gun School - MDFI Foundation Carbine

Yesterday,  I got up early and headed out to Grass Lake, Michigan for MDFI's foundation carbine class.  My first carbine class, so I was looking forward to it.

Grass Lake is west of Ann Arbor, so it was about an hour away in the relatively light Sunday morning traffic.  Having never been to the range there, it was a good thing I left early, as the range wasn't quite where the mapping software said it was, which led to a bit of consternation.  Turns out it was actually about a mile from where the mapping software said the entrance was, but at least the entrance was on the same street so all was well. Not a huge deal but it's good to be early.  

I got there and unpacked in a light rain that soon became a minor downpour.  Fun training.  Luckily, some people had brought some canopies and generously shared their space. 

We all got checked in, with one no-show.  So the class started with 19 students and 4 instructors, which was a very good ratio for a basic carbine class.

The safety and objectives briefing was lengthy and properly serious. 

 It was going to be a hot range, with the students responsible for keeping their carbines loaded and ready at all times, so careful muzzle discipline at all times was the order of the day. Excellent instruction and demonstration of the proper method of picking up and slinging a loaded carbine and moving in a way that you do not muzzle yourself or anyone else.  Since we would be donning and doffing the carbines multiple times throughout the day and moving on and off the line with them, this was good to learn right off the bat and everyone was committed to doing so safely.

The rain then stopped and eventually the sun came out, which was nice.

Then we went over basics of I&I - inspection and inventory - checking over all the failure points of the firearm to make sure all was ready from muzzle to the heel of the stock- mounts, lights, optics and mounts properly tightened down, sling properly configured, ammunition ready.  Good procedure.

The class was then divided into two squads with one shooting and one learning by observing.  This also let the 4 instructors really pay close attention, and give personal attention to the shooters which was helpful.

Then there was a warm-up at 5 yards.  17 of the students were running AR15s, one was running an AK, and I brought along my Tavor X95 with the can as I wanted to work on it and get better with it. 

I had not shot the Tavor at such a short range and I had to work on my sight hold as my normal sight picture would shoot low at 5 yards.  Good to know.

Almost immediately, we had a couple AR-15s lock up as they were being run drier than the proverbial popcorn fart. 

One had to be mortared open which was instructive  - to mortar an AR  (1. Move stock to its closed position [or you will bend/break the stock tube], 2.  Put safety on if possible, 3. Keep muzzle in safe direction, 4. With a hand pushing on charging handle, wham the stock in the the dirt in an attempt to free the charging handle/bolt - it works).

In short for semi-auto rifles, clean and dry is iffy in terms of function, clean and dirty is very iffy in terms of function, clean and wet should work, and dirty and wet should work.  After some generous lubrication was applied to both of the ARs they were then up and running for the rest of the class.

Next we did the different ready positions, threat engagement, and post threat scan including how to do a 360 degree scan without muzzling anyone or yourself with muzzle either up or down. 

After that was various reload techniques. Reloads with retention, speed reloads, and emergency reloads were done with the various varieties explained and practiced.  The L shape for fast retention reloads works really well on the Tavor, the OK technique doesn't work well at all given the position of the magazine well and your shoulder.

One new insight came out of the reload portion.  You can stuff 31 rounds into a Magpul PMAG.  If you're doing a reload with a round in the chamber and the bolt forward, the magazine will not want to fit into the gun as a result.  Something to watch for.

Then we did hands-on malfunction drills including how to clear double feeds and the brass over bolt malfunction. This involved setting up the malfunction for your opposite squad member without them seeing what you did, and they had to diagnose and fix the problem and get the carbine back in action.  Fun.

My Tavor ran like a top throughout the class with no issues, and cleared simulated malfunctions like double feeds without a problem.

Then we finished up with the qualifier which was 14 rounds.  I hit all 14 in the advanced inner box but was just too slow on the reloads, having badly bungled one and that cost me.  I now know what to practice, as I have not previously practiced rifle reloads on the clock, but will now.  Good to know what to work on to improve.

It was an all-day class starting at 9 and ending at 6:30, and very well run.

Foundation carbine is both a stand-alone class and MDFI's gateway to their more advanced carbine classes. As a comprehensive, basic-level class, it gave a good grounding in the fundamentals of carbine handling and usage. It was an excellent full day of instruction with a great set of instructors and a great set of students.

Today's Range Trip - A Great Range Outing With Friends

A bunch of friends decided to meet up at the range today.  Four of them were rolling buddies from jiu-jitsu - it seems there's a large cross-over between the jiu-jitsu community and the firearms community. 

Tosh had also brought Scott along, one of his co-workers that had recently escaped from California and is now enjoying standard capacity magazines and the many other benefits being relocated from CA can provide.

It was sunny out, but the temperature had plummeted 30 degrees from yesterday. Standing in the sun, it wasn't bad - but get under some shade and 30 degrees feels cold pretty quickly.

We started out with rifles/arm-braced pistols and I shot my new build for the first time:

 

It's a 10.5 inch AR on a stripped Spike's lower.  Lower and Upper all pit together from parts. I had a stripped upper lying around for awhile now, and I decided to get it built up, and now seemed to be the time to do it.  I decided to put some decent parts into it, including a flat Geissele trigger which is awesome, a Midwest industries rail and some other decent parts.

It ran flawlessly on this it's first time out, which was nice. Got the scope dialed in as well. It's a Vortex Strike Eagle 1-8 and it is very decent glass.  Very fast at the low magnifications and sharp at the high end.

I also installed the AAC 7.62SDN suppressor onto it and it ran like a champ, but a quieter champ.

Then on to the Tavor, complete with silencer attached as I had installed an AAC flashider on it as well.

It ran like a top with the suppressor attached, and with the suppressor it was still shorter overall than the 10.5 was bare, complete with the Tavor's 13" barrel.  I do think its my favorite rifle at this point.

Interestingly, it appears that 5.56 makes the suppressor a lot hotter, longer,  than the 300 Blackout for some reason. 

Scott had a blast and enjoyed shooting the suppressed rifles, and everyone else's rifle there too.  We're friendly like that.

Then on to pistols.

I had a great set at shooting at a steel A zone at 25 yards.  

On timer, from draw to hit my best time today was 1.4 seconds, with other runs at the 1.67-1.70 second range.  Quite happy-making.

The 3x2 drill was in the 3 econd range so it still needs some work.

Scott and others liked the Masada quite a bit.  A solid 150 rounds through it with zero issues.

Scott also enjoyed shooting my suppressed M&P Compact 22 - so quiet you don't need ear pro, and the sound of the bullet hitting the steel is louder than the shot.  Much fun.

He now wants to buy a suppressor, because he can now.  And another angel gets its wings.

We also helped Jason out quite a bit with appendix carry.  Jason has a lot of reserve muscle mass you might say, so he's shied away from appendix carry as a result.  

He recently got a Shadow Systems MR918 and its a great pistol and he's running an RMR on it with good results.  

With a borrowed PHLster Floodlight holster  and a Surefire attached to his pistol we got him trying appendix carry out. First with just a bluegun, then the real gun and active shooting.

Having him try appendix as compared to his usual IWB hip position, his draws were measurably faster on the timer - At least a second or more faster - and that's trying appendix for the first time after carrying hip side for years.   Pretty impressive improvement just from changing the carry location.

Lots of fun shooting and a great bunch of guys.

Great Range Trip Today

So I headed to the range and met up with Jason, Tosh, and Tosh's friend Anthony. It was going to be a nice hot day.

We started out shooting some pistol as Tosh wanted to try and run his ETS HK magazines through my P30s to see if they would work as they did not work in his P2000SK.

Interestingly enough, while they would lock into the gun if the slide was back, they would not do so with the slide forward when the mags were fully loaded. They had issues including not dropping free when hitting the paddle release and not holding the last shot open. Other than that, they did feed ok. They did run fine and functioned perfectly in Jason's VP9, including dropping free when the release was hit on the VP9. This was weird as the VP9 and the P30 use the same exact magazine. So, the ETS mags were good in a VP9, not so good in the P30 or P2000.

I hadn't shot the P30s in awhile, but they cleared plate racks with no issues.

We then switched to rifles, and I shot my IWI Tavor SBR and my M1A which was a lot of fun hitting the steel targets Tosh had brought hat were rifle rated. The M1A seriously made the steel targets and stands rock back when hit.

Then back to pistol and I switched to the Masada.

Anthony had brought a Sig P320 compact and we all got a chance to shoot it, it was good to finally try one of those out. Quite a nice and reliable firearm.

Battle Dots shooting competitions were had and we all had a good time.

Then under the timer. Twice the pressure of both the clock and having your friends watch you mess up.

5-4-3-2-1 drills (5 circles on an 8x11 paper decreasing in size down to 1". You shoot 5 at the largest circle, 4 at the next, and so on), it was a lot of fun.

Then we ran some FAST Drills.

Then we did the 3 yard portion of the Sentinel Concepts Warm-up Drill. Draw from concealment and hit the box with all three shots under 2 seconds. More challenging and frustrating than it sounds.

I managed the best time of 1.76 clean - but only after quite a few rounds of practice and then managed to get it under 2 seconds pretty regularly, which was a lot of progress compared to my prior range sessions where I wasn't getting near to that time. Good progress that.

We then switched to dot torture and I got a 49 because one was just outside the dot - drat, so close to a perfect run. The second and last Dot Torture I got sloppy and did 47/50.

It was an excellent range time. Another 350 trouble-free rounds through the Masada, and 50 each through both the P30 and P30Sk, and 120 rounds through the Tavor.

A great time with some good people.

Memorial Day Monday Range Trip

This morning I got up early and joined Tosh and Jason at the range.

A fun time was had by all. We shot the Tavor, Galil, FAL, and their AR15s.

The Tavor is nicely dialed in for a 100 yard zero, so that the 4 line in the scope is dead on at 25 yards

Tosh had brought some rifle-rated steel to the range so shooting the rifles and ringing the steel was fun.

They really liked shooting the FAL.

We also did a lot of pistol practice - battle dots, dot torture, and 5x5 drills.

Running a timer on the 5x5 drill adds to the pressure, along with not wanting to mess up in front of your friends.  Add a friend videotaping your performance and it gets even more of a "please don't let me goof this up" pressure.

The 5x5 drill is 5 shots in the circle , at 5 yards,  in under 5 seconds par time from concealment.

I shot it clean and within the time at 4.71, which was nice.  Now to work on getting that time down.

That's 350 more rounds through the Masada with zero failures, and some 50 through my Glock shooting  and 100 rounds through the P99, shooting with zero failures as well.

It was a great morning out with some great people.

Now I'm home for a cleaning and prep of the house.  We have a few friends coming over for Memorial Day now that Gov Haf-Whit has graciously and arbitrarily allowed gatherings of up to 10 people.  So time to make the place spic and span.

I had the smoker going all yesterday, smoking some goodness, and it was in the oven all night stalled out and now getting to its final temp before pulling and serving.  Should be tasty and smells great already.

I hope you all have a great Memorial Day, no matter how locked down you may be out there.

256 Days Until Approval

256 Days.  That's how long it took for the Form 4 to be approved by BATFE.

It finally arrived in my friendly FFL's hands this Friday, and transfer was then completed as I zipped over there to pick it up.

While the wait is mighty excessive, the end result, as one might say, is worth it.

Yes, its The Tavor X95 SBR.  I've been wanting this thing since the last NRA Annual Meeting, which feels like a lifetime ago.

After I bought it and while counting the days, I figured it would need accessories worthy of it, so I went out and found an excellent optic for it.

It's an Israeli Defense Forces surplus TA31I ACOG. Mounted on an ARMS 19 mount as the Israelis use them, together with the Tenebrex flash hider and adjustment caps.

Only downside with it, is that as it is surplus is its missing a couple of the screws in the back. So, if anyone knows those screw dimensions and where to get some repalcements, let me know so I can buy some to replace them.

The Tavor SBR shoots great and with a 13 inch barrel is a very handy firearm indeed.

We all shot it at both the 25 yard and 100 yard range and rang the 100 yard range steel nicely.   The X95 can shoot.

200 rounds through it and zero failures or issues of any kind.  Ran great, and it handled great, so I guess the wait was worth it.

A very nice handy firearm, I think I'll get it setup for a can sometime in the future and put a forward grip on it as well.