Tuesday I went up north shooting. I heard Ben Stoeger and Lucas Botkin talking about fudd ranges, and some of the rules were shocking to me. I haven’t been to a range in years, don’t intend to go back either. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3IOtarsk1k But it occurred to me while shooting just how much freedom I have in the woods. It’s a state forest, no fees, or permits, yes there’s taxes but you get the idea.
There’s no rules about not shooting too fast, or shooting at multiple targets, no B.S. about what kind of guns and what kind of ammo you can or can’t have. I can move, and shoot, shoot on the move, lay prone and shoot, move and shoot, and shoot on the move and shoot, and lay prone again and shoot. I can shoot from a bench. I can shoot logs… Shooting logs is fascinating, if you haven’t, you should try, and see what different types of guns and calibers and cartridge types can do or not do. It was seeing the huge increase in penetration on logs from Win. Lake City M855 that led me to quit using Win. Lake City M193. The M855 is less accurate, yes, but, I’ll take the extra penetration and decreased accuracy. I view my AR15’s as tools first, toys second.
And of course you can bring targets, such as old crap from the garage, or my favorite… Melons. Melons, besides being funner, are also easier, since they’re biodegradable, I don’t have to pick up the mess. Curious though, the critters never eat enemy melon flesh. (RFK Jr., are you cleaning up our food???)
I brought two huge seeded water-melons, big, fat and surprisingly heavy. The first I shot with my Glock G34 Gen. 5. That did surprisingly little damage. After the each of the first five shots, I’d go and look. Fairly small exit holes, maybe half dollar sized, but it leaked a lot of blood (melon juice). I was standing about 20 yards away too, and thought I’d missed each of those first 5 or so shots. I’m wondering if these having so much “blood” in them, compared to the previous seedless watermelons I’d shot, which didn’t seem to have much if any, made the difference? It took a lot of magazines to kill that enemy melon. Federal American Eagle, 115gr FMJ… More on that later…
I’d also been working on a Weatherby Vanguard Outfitter chambered in .223 Rem. Now, what makes this Vanguard any different than any other Vanguard that’s synthetic stocked, and Cerokoted… https://weatherby.com/store/vanguard-outfitter/ You be the judge. The muzzle’s threaded and it came with a brake… (I wonder how much I ended up paying for that stupid thing?) But I keep the thread protector on. I don’t bother with suppressors. I’ve accepted that for my passion I will have hearing loss, and I already do. And I don’t care. To me it’s no different that a wrestler having back and knee and hip problems or a pitcher having shoulder problems or a foot ballers knees going out. It’s the price you pay. I use ear plugs, I’m not that stupid as to not wear something. But oh well.
I’ve had the Weatherby since… Late winter? The first scope was bad, I didn’t put it on right, should’ve been a notch or two further back on the 1913 rail. Plus it was a 3-9x 40mm, tough to see the .22 cal holes at 100 yards. Last weekend switched it out for the next one up, same Vortex Diamondback, but, 4-12x 40mm. And triple checked the eye relief this time. I’m pleased. It sure made shooting the rifle a lot more fun.
People often talk about how bad push feeds are, and I’ve had some, but I won’t name names… Or should I?… Why not, I’m not a paid “gun ‘riter”… The Mossberg Patriot, that was so sloppy the bolt would jam on an empty chamber! The idiots also drilled and tapped it cock eyed, so the scope was never rock solid (The gun store mounted it)… Strange, considered, it never felt loose. Little did I know, till a few hundred rounds later and no matter what kind of ammo, and never anything that would be considered a “group” by today’s standards, and trying to remount the scope that the front weaver mount was loose because it was a hair off center. I only found that out, because after taking off one ring, then I could feel the looseness in the front Weaver mount. That POS is no longer in my battery. And I’ll never (never say never) buy a Mossberg again.
This Weatherby, I’ve worked the action at all angles, on its sides, muzzle skyward, muzzle down, muzzle sort of up, and sort of down, every which way, no jams or hiccups. I did again this time out as well, no jams, no hiccups. Which leads me to believe the whole push feed vs controlled round feed argument depends more upon quality control tolerances in the factory than, than the actual concept of a push feed being bad… After all our beloved AR15 weapons system is a push feed, and the Vanguard uses what they call an “M16 style extractor”, which is true… But, Mr. Stoner borrowed his extractor design from Sako… So who’s extractor does Weatherby truly use? Oh, and Weatherby, despite their move to Wyoming, still had Howa in Japan making the Vanguard, which is a shame. But, for the money, I can’t find any American made rifles which look and feel as good or better.
I finally got the Weatherby sighted in. Evidently the dials were way off on the scope from the factory too, cranked nearly all the way in one direction. I didn’t bore sight it at home, just used levels. I have a partial case of Winchester .223 Rem. 62gr FMJ, which should be perfect since the twist is a 1/8, but, no. Very disappointing. Since the rifle holds 5 cartridges I shot 5 shot groups. 2″ to 3″ was the best I could do at 100 yards. Most groups were, way worse. And yes, I let the barrel cool, it was never sizzling, when I went to shoot again. I’m not concerned, I’m convinced it’s the ammo. The last time out with this rifle and ammo I even had a dud. Next time, if my wallets a little fatter I’ll go to the gun store and look for some true target ammo, and see what the rifle can really do. But 100 rounds, and not a single hiccup. Plus it was hot… That was draining. So that didn’t help my shooting, though I’m no bench shooter to begin with.
Oh, and the last 10 rounds was used on the second melon. The exit holes were I think only slightly bigger than the Glocks. I was shocked. I’ve shot melons before, with AR15’s and nothing like this happened. But those I think were the seedless type, and smaller. 10 shots of .223 did very little damage. It bled a lot though. But didn’t crack up, held it’s oval shape. It took the Glock, and a lot of 9mm to kill that second enemy melon.
I also worked on my Daniel Defense DD M4 V7 SLW… Don’t ask what that all means. It’s 14.5″ chromed, pencil thin, 1/7 twist, with a pinned and welded flash hider (not an SBR). That got tough to shoot. Oh no, not because of the gun, it’s the weather. Any of you clowns think Minnesota doesn’t get hot… Come here in June and try wearing an LBE harness and shooting. Yeah you got another thing coming. We have two seasons, winter, (where we freeze our asses off) and road work (where we sweat our asses off). That Swarovfski Z3 3-10x 42mm is very nice. But, still in that heat, doing practical shooting, not even a nice scope can fix things. All Win. Lake City M855. No hiccups, except, I did find out one thing, a new batch of magazines, https://www.cabelas.com/p/dh-tactical-223-remington-556-30-round-grey-ar15-magazine do NOT drop free from the Daniel Defense. They drop free out of S&W MP15-3 though. Strange. My other metal magazines work fine from FN and PSA, but I think those are steel and are OKAY Industries made OEM’s. Since OKAY doesn’t sell direct anymore, I’m going to stick with Lancers. The last batch of Magpuls I got flared from the start, or maybe they shipped just a little fatter, at the upper body, and don’t drop free from any AR15 I have, not even with 30 rounds in them. I won’t tolerate AR15 magazines that don’t ALWAYS drop free. We’re talking AR15’s not M14 style or AK style rifles which need to have their magazines yanked out manually. AR15’s are tools first, and the magazines must work in all or it’s off to the garbage can with them (The magazine, NOT the rifle.)
Now the G34 Gen. 5… Fun… Endless fun, by far the funnest gun I’d brought Tuesday. So much fun I forgot about the Marlin 600 in the back seat of the truck. Yes, 600 not 60. Being able to shoot a pistol again is amazing. Thank God and the doctors. I was still, bad, but great by my standards, minute of plate at 30 yards even, consistently, (mostly- bad ammo). So I’m making progress. Though I couldn’t group, not even up close. This latest case of Federal American Eagle 115gr FMJ was severely under-powered. Sometimes I’d have to hold way high to hit the plate, others dead center. The range didn’t seem to matter. The ejection was terrible, most empties only flying 4″ maybe up and out of the ejection port before falling to the ground. Still smoky, but not as bad as the last case. I had two hiccups, one was the slide, slow to return to battery and the other a jam- failure to feed. I checked that magazine, a number of times, it wasn’t that, just a bad lot of ammo. And it was the lot, because the plastic cartridge holders inside the 50ct boxes were of a different type than the last one. Before I went shooting I ordered another case, thinking it was good ammo… Oh well.
I shot 1,000 rounds last time, and 1,000 rounds this time without cleaning in between. For my G17 I’d usually limit it to 2,000 rounds and then clean just for peace of mind, not because of any issues. The two hiccups happened very early into the case, within the first couple hundred rounds. Even the recoil felt weak. So the Glock isn’t “dirty” enough to cause malfunctions. But, for peace of mind I think I’ll clean it. And try finding a different domestic brand of range ammo. Maybe a case of Remington, haven’t shot anything from them lately, though Remington ammo’s owned by Federal, but made down in… Alabama? Wherever their old ammo plant is, not Anoka. My Dad’s always like Winchester range ammo in is 1911, maybe give I’ll them a try, but I’ll have to order teeny weenie booolets… Not the all American big bore .45ACP, just little 9mm Luger.
And, yes, I did try Ben Stoeger’s shooting tips, https://2awhiterook.com/target-focus/ I could not make that work, at all. I think that’s a “me” problem though, with by binocular vision disorder an all. Two eyes open, but just couldn’t hit anything without lining up the sights. https://2awhiterook.com/pistol-shooting-stance/ I tried… Failed. Need to keep trying. And I tried this one, https://2awhiterook.com/understanding-connectionim-bad-at-this/ I can’t, my hands, the grip, I don’t know, just can’t make it work, the more I tried, the worse I shot, went back to my regular two handed, thumbs forward hold. I tried bullseye shooting, never got around to trying this, https://2awhiterook.com/something-i-need-to-try/
The tick’s were bad, and tick juice had little effect. And since I shot all day, I drove the 200 and some odd miles home, in the dark. And Chevy, if you’re listening, the high beams on your new 2025 3/4 tons SUCK! They suck so bad, I never bothered turning them on, just left the low beams on. The high beams aren’t any brighter than the low beams! Chevy had better rethink that.
Remember, you are the Militia. Don’t be a fudd and only shoot a box of ammo a couple times a year. Shooting is a perishable skill. Get your guns dirty. Use your gear. Train. Get with the program. I’m no expert, I’m not tall and tough, and a perfect shot like John Wayne or built like Rambo. But I’m training, and getting my guns and gear dirty. Are you?
Leave a Reply