Sunday Range Day

With snow still on the ground, and temperatures a balmy 20 degrees F, I headed to the range to meet up with Tosh and Spencer.

Started out shooting carbines.  I shot my 300 Blackout with the AAC suppressor and was impressed over how very quiet it is.  Haven't shot it in some time and  it shot well, but needed some added lubrication as it hadn't been shot in quite awhile.  That has now been remedied, as well as it being cleaned thoroughly after the range trip.

After the rifles, we then switched to handguns.

Tosh had a new drill he wanted to try: A variation on this impressively difficult shooting on the move drill.

It was a very challenging drill and we certainly didn't hit the 3.5 second par time, especially as Tosh had declared that only A-Zone hits count.

Doing it in the snow, in the cold, and drawing from concealment with all the winter gear on, was quite time-consuming. I used my Sig 320 to shoot the drill.

We managed to do it in around 5-6 seconds per sub stage and now we have a time to improve on.

We then did a variation of doing a Bill Drill on each of the two targets while moving from cone to cone.  It made for a great drill but it eats a box of ammo to get to all 4 cones. We figured out a reasonable par time for that one is 6 seconds. 

This drill is a lot of fun and leads to some practice in an often overlooked area of shooting on the move and combines speed, movement, and accurate shooting.

After that we then shot some other handguns and I brought out the boat anchor.

The S&W 5946 is a heavy 15-shot 9mm pistol. It is still the standard sidearm of the RCMP and has a very smooth double action only  trigger. This one happens to be an ex-NYPD officer's pistol. The upside from all the weight is the recoil is pretty much negligible and quick accurate multiple shots are easy to do, such as on a bill drill. The heavy weight sucks up the recoil and keeps it on target.

3 hours on the range, and it was getting all sorts of cold for everyone and it was time to head out.

Lots of good practice and that's a fun new drill to try and keep on improving.

So, it was a very fun and challenging, and indeed chilling time at the range.

The Guns Of February

Sunny and 20 degrees, about as good a February weather forecast for outdoor shooting that you can get in Michigan.

And so, to the range I did go.

I went with my friend Manuel to the outdoor range where I'm a member.

Manuel had just purchased a Tavor with an 18" barrel with a Trijicon ACOG mounted on it, and he needed to take it out and try it alongside mine, and get it zeroed in.

We shot the Tavors side by side at 25 yards and hit our targets nicely.

I think that makes us Tavorishes.

Both Tavors, as expected, functioned perfectly.

At close range, the Aimpoint Pro gave a faster sight picture, especially when we practiced snap shots, but the ACOG shines at longer range with its magnification. We each appreciated each other's Tavor and the different optics on them.

After shooting the Tavors, we pulled out our carry pistols. My S&W M&P 40c and his Glock 27.

I also pulled out my new-to-me but clearly used 40 M&P full size.

This was a police trade in with night sights, and the pistol arrived with a lot of slide wear and it was pretty gunked up. It was so gunked up that the magazine release would not drop the magazine when pressed but it only moved down a bit. The gunk seemed to have been coffee and doughnuts stuck in the internals. Some judicious cleaning and oiling and it is as good as new and the mag drops freely, the grip is no longer sticky and the suspiciously-looking-like-coffee stain on the metal part of the takedown tool is now gone.

After shooting the compact, the full size was much easier to handle, even though the full size is not that much bigger than the compact, it fits the hand just a tad better and is more controllable.

A little bit more grip goes a long way, and I could clear the plate rack a lot faster, not to mention make consistent head-shots out to 25 yards on USPSA targets. I may just follow Tam's lead and just start carrying a full size M&P. We'll have to try it out and see how it fits, or I may end up rotating it with the compact depending on wardrobe requirements.

Manuel's Glock 27 had a Crimson Trace laser grip on it, which unfortunately in all the bright sunlight and snow was not useful as the dot was completely washed out. The laser still is a valuable tool for use at night and in dark areas, but don't expect it to perform in bright light with reflective snow for a fore- and backdrop.

His Glock also had an interesting custom safety installed:

The safety was a bit problematic - if you weren't careful while firing you could unintentionally activate it, so you had to take care with your grip.

The Glock 27 was decent, especially how he has it setup with the 13 round magazines from the Glock 23 with magazine sleeves on them, but I'm finding I'm shooting better with the M&P.

We also did some weak-hand only shooting, which showed that yes, I need to do more weak hand shooting.

Then we headed out to the 100 yard range, breaking a path though thigh-deep snow to get there.

We shot the Tavors again and shot my 300 Blackout AR15.

The Tavors had no problem ringing the steel plates at 100 yards, as did the 300 Blackout AR15.

That's another 120 rounds through my Tavor with no stoppages or issues to date.

The hours passed and our hands were starting to get pretty cold by the time we were done shooting. So we cleaned up, packed up, and headed home.

A darn good range trip.