The Wandering Minstrel

Unsurprisingly, gun sales and shooting range activity are on the rise in the wake of Arizona’s new Constitutional Carry Law. Arizonans who wish to carry concealed are now allowed to, providing they are 21 years of age and have no felony criminal record. Shooting, guns and ammo remain as booming businesses in spite of the Obamination’s double-dipping recession.

Via NRA-ILA:

From the Daily News Sun:

Gun sales rise following new weapons law

Firearms have been a hot topic in Arizona in recent months as several laws loosening gun regulations were recently enacted.

And while it is too early to discern whether those laws, particularly SB 1108, which makes it legal for citizens 21 and older to carry a concealed weapon without a permit, will make things more difficult or dangerous from a law enforcement standpoint, Arizona Game and Fish officials said shooting training is on the rise.

Ben Avery Shooting Range, which is on the border of north Peoria and Phoenix and is the largest outdoor range in the Valley and one of the largest in the country. It had perhaps its best statistical year ever in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, said Doug Burt, a public information officer for Arizona Game and Fish.

The range experienced more “shooting days,” which measure the number of individual visits to the range, not the number of different visitors, last fiscal year than any previous year. About 200,000 shooting days were recorded, marking a 5-10 percent increase from the previous fiscal year.

[more]

The article is pretty good except for a minor undertone about law enforcement having ‘concerns’ about citizens carrying. The last three paragraphs are attributed to a police information officer whining about not performing background checks for CCW and ‘officer safety.’ What about citizen safety?

The Arizona Game and Fish Department sponsors a program developed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation in conjunction with the firearms industry. It’s good to see that kids in our new town will have a chance to get proper firearms training from NRA certified instructors.

From Wickenburg Sportsmen’s Club:

Kids win. Parents win. Coaches win.

That’s really what we’re shooting for!

The Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) is a team-based youth development that uses the shotgun sports as to instill discipline, safety, teamwork, ethics, self-confidence and other life values. Team members can participate in any or all of three clay target disciplines: trap, skeet, and sporting clays.

SCTP was developed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation in conjunction with the firearms industry and shotgun shooting governing bodies and is now nationally governed by the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation to provide team participation to youth in the shotgun shooting sports.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department sponsors the program in Arizona and invites students from age 9 thorough graduation of high school to an opportunity to learn about firearms, safety, and teamwork in a safe environment by certified shotgun coaches. [more]

Our shooting range in California recently required that only slugs and buckshot can be fired through shotguns. Their reason is that birdshot will not stick in the backing downrange and will be ricocheted back towards shooters. As a complication, the rifled slugs are ill-advised to be shot through guns with chokes as it will damage the threads into which the choke is secured. That’s why I became highly interested in a new product - the Trulock Tactical Choke available from Brownell’s for about $55:

TACTICAL CHOKE TUBE

* Mfr:TRULOCK CHOKES
* Price:$54.99
* Delivers Excellent Performance From A Wide Range Of Law Enforcement Ammo

Multi-purpose, screw-in choke tube gives excellent performance with a variety of law enforcement shotgun ammunition, including rifled slugs, buckshot, and breaching rounds. Direct replacement for popular factory screw-in tubes, so it eliminates the inconvenience of having to change the muzzle device for specific applications. Sharply crenelated muzzle provides the proper stand-off distance and secure grip on the surface for use as a breaching device. Won’t interfere with performance of buckshot, and preserves the downrange accuracy of slugs. Precision machined from carbon steel, with a knurled surface for easy installation/removal, and a wear-resistant, non-glare black oxide finish.

SPECS: Carbon steel, matte black oxide finish. Extends 2.1” (5.3cm) from end of muzzle. 12 gauge only. Remington fits Rem™ Choke Win/Brng/Moss fits WinChoke®, Browning Invector, and Mossberg 500. Benelli/Beretta fits Mobilchoke™ system.

The 12 gauge only thing bothers us since The Better Half’s Remington 870 “Junior” is 20 ga. Maybe Trulock will offer a 20 gauge version later. The Better Half thinks this would look awesome sticking out the front of our 870s.

I ran across this article while perusing the Wickenburg Sun website:

This past spring, a high school rifle team consisting of Wickenburg representatives set a new national record while competing in Arizona’s State Midrange Championships.

The team of Michael Dalton, Victoria Gray, William Burg and Travis Burian recorded the highest team score for junior shooters in the nation. Five state records were set by the team consisting of Jordan Busone, Victoria Gray, Michael Dalton, William Burg, Dylan Evans and Travis Burian. The other four records were all set by sharp-shooter Burian.

In addition to Arizona state championships, the junior team will be going once again to the national championships held at Camp Perry, Ohio. They will leave July 27 and compete there for more than a week.

Although it is not yet final who will participate, the members who have committed to this challenge so far are Burian, Dalton, Gray, Burg, Busone and Steven Swayzee. The trip will be funded primarily from donations the Wickenburg community.

The rifle team will be practicing all summer long for Camp Perry, a National Guard post on the shores of Lake Erie. The National Trophy Team Match brings in the top civilian and military shooters in the world together every year.

Imagine the scenario, as described by The Union Democrat newspaper, of Sonora, Calif.:

Six-person teams line up — eight at a time — along a quarter-mile firing line, starting at 600 yards. The targets are of the military variety, human upper-body silhouettes, rather than the usual bull’s eyes.

At the command to begin, all the shooters start firing as fast as they can, sending as many rounds downrange as possible in 50 seconds.

Shooters then hustle up to 500 yards and do it all over again, laying down a barrage aimed at slightly smaller silhouettes.

Next, it’s 300 yards and even smaller targets.

When it’s over — and it’s over fast — the team that hit the most targets the most often wins.

Practice for the local rifle team generally takes place at the Ben Avery shooting facility located off State Route 74 near Interstate 17 in Phoenix. This year’s WHS team is quite a bit larger than last year’s, in spite of the fact that Coach Rex Powers has retired as a teacher. Powers has been the coach for more than 16 years, and often personally finances much of the team’s expenses.

Today, the Better Half and I made our last trip to our local (California) shooting range. We haven’t been shooting in the several months since we have been acquiring our new home so we decided we would go today - our memberships expire at midnight tonight (June 30, 2010).

We have been members of the old range since 2006. We decided not to renew our membership despite the fact that we will still be in California on and off over the next year or so. When management recently ‘refurbished’ the range, they introduced a couple of ‘features’ that we don’t like.

The first feature is the flimsy teetering target holders which are no match for the T-bar holders they replaced. They are less stable, wobble back and forth and easily damaged by a not-so-well placed round.

The second feature is the replacement baffles downrange will bounce birdshot back towards the shooters. The rangemaster requires if you shoot your shotguns that you use 00 buckshot or rifled slugs. Both are more expensive than birdshot so we tend to shoot fewer rounds. In addition, slug ammunition cannot be used with either of our shotguns with chokes.

In the video, The Better Half fires five slug rounds with the Remington 870 Security Gun.

The good news is I got in contact with the Wickenburg Sportsman’s Club. We arranged for our safety orientation when we head back later in July. We plan on doing our shooting while we are in Arizona where you can open carry and you don’t have to register your long guns.

My laptop computer is starting to crap out so I’m using my old system until the new laptop arrives sometime this week. I’m replacing the old semi-crapped-out Dell with a new HP G60-630us Notebook PC.

In the meantime, gaze upon these beautiful carbines . . .

Top: M16A1 Bottom: M16A2

On our list of accomplishments this trip to Arizona, there were several things we wanted to do. One was to secure a post office box. We also wanted to locate and check out what will become our new shooting range, the Sportsman’s Club. We did both of those yesterday.

Today, we got a couple of things done. We started the process of changing our wireless telephone and data services to the area. But, most importantly, we got our Arizona Drivers Licenses and registered to vote in one painless and expedient visit to the Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division (ADOT MVD).

When we walked into the MVD office, we were first in line. They asked us to fill out applications and bring them to the window. There were two chairs that we could sit on when the agent was working on our applications. After a few moments, we walked over to a station where there was a camera for the obligatory mugshot. About two minutes after the photos were taken, we each had a completed Arizona Driver’s License in our hands. No temp, no waiting for them to mail it to you, but the finished product. Now THAT would never be the case in California where there are long lines, chairs only in a waiting bullpen and surly DMV agents with unionized attitudes.

One thing to note about verifying our identities. Both the USPS for the P.O. Box and ADOT for the DL required two forms of picture ID. In both cases, our existing DLs and our Utah CCW permits were cheerfully accepted.

The Better Half and I took a ride today out to the Wickenburg Sportsman’s Club. You can see from the signage in front that they are a full-services shooting facility with a 100 yard rifle range, 3 bays for pistol and two 5 stage trap range and a skeet field. We will probably get our membership after we get our arsenal moved to the new home.

Clickable Image.