The Wandering Minstrel

I took the Glock 33 round magazine to the range today. Before leaving home, I loaded it up with 33 rounds of 9mm ammo.

When we got everything set up at the range, I snapped the magazine into “Little Boy,” my Glock 26 subcompact pistol and started firing at the target. All was well until about the twenty-second round when i encountered a misfeed. I visually inspected the gun and saw a round partially fed in the chamber and it was stuck there. I racked the slide a couple of times to clear the jam and two unspent cartridges were ejected. The rest of the rounds in the magazine fed and fired normally.

The Better Half loaded 22 rounds into the magazine and tested it - all 22 fed and fired normally. In the video above, yours truly loaded the last seventeen rounds in the box and all fed and fired properly.

I don’t know if it was a fluke that the round jammed (jams are very rare for this gun), but we did fire about 68 rounds downrange today using the big Glock magazine with “Little Boy.”

We also brought another 9mm pistol, the S&W 908 and fired 32 rounds with that gun. We fired 50 rounds of .38 special using The Better Half’s S&W 686 revolver.

In spite of the unusual jam, we enjoyed today’s target practice on a beautiful 65° February day in Wickenburg.

I can’t believe that it has been almost a year since I acquired my “Carolyn Clip” high-capacity 9mm magazine. I plan to take “Little Boy” to the range on Friday and empty thirty-three rounds using this magazine.

I bought the magazine last January after Rep. Carolyn McCarthy introduced H.R. 308, the “Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act.” McCarthy, (D-NY), introduced this idiotic knee-jerk legislation after the tragic Tucson shooting where a mentally-ill individual used one of these to kill several people and seriously wound Rep. Gabby Giffords.

At the time, I said I didn’t need one of these until that bitch told me I couldn’t have one. I’ll post a range report on Friday.

The Better Half and I went to the range today for our weekly target practice session.

The firearms shown in the (clickable) image at the right are the ones we practiced with today. Top to bottom, The Better Half’s unnamed S&W 908S 9mm pistol, “Fat Man,” my Glock 30 .45ACP pistol and “Jerry Lee,” my S&W 686 .357 magnum revolver. The guns are shown on the cleaning station that we break out after each practice session.

We shot a total of 50 rounds of 9mm, 50 rounds of .45 ACP and 50 rounds of .357 magnum. All shots stayed on target (as far as we could tell) with many of them close to or on the bullseye. We don’t keep score, so both of us generally use just one target per session.

We missed our trip to the range last week. We both just decided not to go - maybe it had something to do with it being Friday the 13th? Naaaah.

Anyhow, we made it out there today and fired The Better Half’s S&W 686 .357 revolver, my S&W 908 9mm pistol and my Glock 26 9mm sub-compact pistol. We fired 100 rounds of 9mm and 50 rounds of .38 special.

We set up a single silhouette target and paced off 7 yards to establish our firing line. By the time all rounds had been fired, most were within the center 30 percent of the target with a few outliers around the edges. I’m pretty sure all rounds actually hit the target somewhere. Keep in mind that we let ourselves get rusty while we were building and furnishing our new home. We’ll get better, I’m sure.

In the (clickable) image above, The Better Half is practicing shooting from her weak side. She likes the little S&W pistols just because they don’t kick a lot and she can practice single-handed shooting with them.

We went to the range today for our weekly target practice. We took three handguns with us: “Jerry Lee,” my .357 magnum revolver, “Little Boy,” my Glock 26 9mm pistol and The Better Half’s unnamed S&W 908S 9mm pistol. We shot 50 rounds of .38 special and 100 rounds of Luger 9mm parabellum ammo.

Video - The Better Half shooting “Jerry Lee.”

Now that we’re getting back to shooting on a regular basis, we can see ourselves improving after the long period of not shooting while we were building and getting moved in to our new house. The Better Half put a nice group of rounds on the small target at the top of the stand and I got three or four rounds out of 10 within two inches of the center of the big target. The other rounds were all in the black. We were shooting at a distance of about seven yards.

Before heading to the range last Friday for target practice, we stopped at the Gun Trader to renew our family membership to the Wickenburg Sportsmen’s Club. The renewal was quick and practically painless; we filled out the application and signed the waiver forms and paid our $75 2012 family membership fee. We used to pay about $400 for two yearly memberships at the indoor range near our old house in California. We like this range better at less than one-fifth of the price.

There is another CCW class coming up a week from Monday that will include a range orientation refresher for members. We’re planning to attend and ask some questions about some of the bays and how to use them, where to get target stands and so forth. We’re looking forward to participating.

One of the more positive things about our new (to us) shooting facility is that it is in a very scenic location in the high desert hills outside of town. We went to the range last Friday and I took some pictures of the range and some of the scenery in and around the area. Minstrel created the slideshow seen below. Click on the image below to start the show.

This is where I go to shoot - what does your range look like?

The Better Half and I have made an early New Year’s resolution; we will be going to the range on Fridays (weather permitting). We were there two Fridays ago but missed last week doing pre-Christmas chores. We went today and had a great time.

Clickable Image - A Great Day at the Range

We brought our 9mm and .357 guns today. The Better Half brought her S&W 908S 9mm pistol while I brought both “Little Boy” and “Jerry Lee,” my Glock 26 pistol and S&W 686 revolver, respectively. In the image above, she is shooting “Little Boy” and I am getting ready to shoot her 608. We each shot about 50 rounds of 9mm and we both shot about 50 rounds of .38 special ammo. We stayed about an hour at the range before heading back to our nice little house.