Schroeder Bauman Maiden Voyage

Here's the lovely Schroeder Bauman... my Commander barrel on the Officers frame;  

The diamond back cut of the serrations is repeated on the front strap and the mainspring housing.

The mainspring housing is also rounded for a much comfier grip;  

On the full sized grips, the finger grooves were too wide and extended forward too far to be a comfortable fit for me. This compact (3") frame has scaled back grooves that are less prominent and closer together, making the fit better for my grip;

Night sights, Novak night sights, how I love thee;  

Most of her first range work was right about 35ft. Ish.   

I ran about 100 rounds of dirty Winchester White Box through...For those of you who like those "dirty pics" ;)

The trigger is so smooth, it's amazing. There's just a hint...barely detectable...of take up (so nearly imperceptible, I don't even want to call it "take up" but can't think of what other word might fit)...then the sweet crisp of the break.
It's truly a clouds parting, heavens opening, doves descending, harp music playing, sunbeam showering moment...  

It's worth the effort and cashola to get those little personalized areas done to your liking (like the rounded grip, the scaled back grooves, etc.)
I'm a fan of the internal extractor, too.
The diamond back design is cut a smidgen deeper on the slide than on the front/back straps...giving it that extra frictiony feel for slingshot reload.
On a low to high scale of 1-10 where I'd rated my Kimbers at 7s and 8s, and the Sig at a 9... this one gets a 9.9.

I don't know if it's the Holy Grail of 1911, but it's close enough to be my unicorn. 

  

Colt CCG and a rainy day

I'm really digging the fiber optic front sight on this Colt CCG (Colt Combat Government).
Did a little indoor zombie shooting, ran them out to 30ft, according to the markers on the wall...

 Smoked me a zombie...he never saw it coming. Or at least he won't now!
I heard him yelling, "You'll shoot my eye out, kid!!"

When you run those targets out on that wire overhead, the thing just never stops bouncing.
I finally just stacked my sand bags, got my sight picture, and got familiar with the timing pattern of when the "eye" would bounce back into line with my front post. Just about the time I thought it should arrive...*squeeze*.
It worked!
Didn't think I'd be lucky enough for it to work a second time, though... when it did, my shootin' pal said, "Girly, before you fire one more round, you better take a picture of that!"

That'll do

Indoor ranges. Blech.
When I first started shooting, it's all I knew. I'd go exclusively to indoor ranges. Since I'd never been to an outdoor range, I didn't know how different it could be.
I had occasion to go back to an indoor range recently, after not doing so for years.
The reasons I prefer outdoors all came back to me.

Lighting;
Indoors is always dark. It seems like no matter how you crank up the lights out by your target or how many you turn on in the whole place, it's just still dark. With old lady bifocaled eyes, that 50ft target might as well be 100 miles.

Air;
Face it. No matter how good the vent system is, it's not even comparable to the slightest breeze outdoors that will carry away the smokiness of whatever you're shooting. In an indoor range, it just sort of hangs there right by your face so you can keep shooting and keep breathing in all that leaded up smoke. Yuck.

Noise;
You're basically shooting in a concrete tunnel. With every shot you take, you not only hear it louder, you feel it. I use some pretty quality electronic earpro...indoors, they are little more than useless. I ended up doubling my hearing protection by putting foam plugs under my muffs. And that was for the lowly .22s. It's bad enough when you're alone... when there are others shooting in any of the other galleries, it's like they are right by your head. Go bigger than .22 and it's just flat out NOT FUN anymore.

Brass;
Every gallery has partitions. Your brass is going to ricochet. It will hit you in the head about 90% of the time. Don't even think it won't.

Expense;
I don't know what it is all over the country, but my outdoor range is $35 for the whole year. Plus, you can take a guest for free.
The indoor range is ten dollars an hour. And that's AFTER you buy the mandatory annual membership.  There are no guest passes. If you have a friend from out of state shooting with you for only ONE time...they still have to pay for an annual membership, plus ten bucks an hour.

The only saving grace about indoor ranges is the ease with which you can find your brass and if you need to zero something, there's no crosswind to contend with factoring in.
All that being said, I'd rather shoot in an indoor range than not shoot at all.

 

.22LR

Not as pretty as I WANTED to be sitting... but bordering on "comfortable" for now.
Just so long as I only use .22 for teaching and none for plinking (for *myself*). It should get me through July if I only use 1k a month. I don't know what I'll do after that, since I got wind that .22LR will be scarce into 2015. I hope the company reps are wrong... but I really don't know.

New Grips Came for the Kimber

I sold those Crimson Trace grips for a couple hundred bucks and after a long wait, got these;

Next up, I'll be checking around for something different for the Series 70 Colt.

It's a great shooter!

New Shooter's Blog

Check out Wheelgun's Shooting Blog. He's new to the blogosphere and likes cowboy shooting.
Click over and say howdy in the comments!
<--You'll find him linked over there in "blogs of note".
Welcome to the blogosphere, Wheelgun!

The Grip Method I Use

I made a little video about the grip method I use that gets the best results on the target. If you don't use this method, and you're not happy with the results of your targets...give it a try! You never know. :)

Designer Targets!

Plus a mag full of Zombie Max (Hornady) through the Sig Sauer;

Range Day - New Sig XO

Well, today was the day. I started off with factory ammo, and here are the first four shots from 25-30 feet;

After a box of that, I introduced some Wilson Combat mags and it seemed to like that combination, too. The snag I hit, was that it didn't so much care for something about my reloads. Upon inserting a fresh mag with my reloads, the slide wouldn't go full battery;

Same thing would happen if I topped off the mag with a factory round...that one would go fine, but when my reload would get stripped off the mag...no full battery. I shot a bunch more factory and tried some of those same reloads that didn't pass the first time. Some of them went that time. When it was all said and done, all my reloads did go...but not without me getting the slide un-stuck, popping out the round, putting it back in the mag, and going for it again. Anyhow...I'm happy enough...

Lemonade on a cold February day

When I got the Rock Island, I had an issue with it not fully seating my .452 diameter bullets.

Armscor decided to give me a new barrel rather than re-chamber the original.
When I got it back, unfortunately, they gave me a 3” barrel… the gun is 4”.

After they rectified that, the very next time shooting it, the C-bushing broke and twisted up the spring between the slide and the barrel.

That was a mess.
They fixed that.
I changed the grips to a much more comfortable “slim grip”

(which meant a change of not only grips, but screws that fit the pilot holes…and then bushings that fit the screws).


On the next trip to the range, I didn’t know until the end of the day that the vibration had not only kicked out a screw…but took the bushing with it. The screw was tight into the bushing, but I should have used Loc-Tite on the bushing in the frame.
Instead of ordering yet another set of screws and bushings…I just ended up rigging it to work. I found a pack of tiny washers and put one behind a totally different screw and that did the trick.



I have to admit, for as much trouble as it seemed to give me, Armscor was ALL OVER trying to make me a happy camper.
The last time I sent it to Nevada, the master smith called my cell and was talking to me FROM the test range while he worked on it. He was keeping me informed step by step on what they were doing (and why) and asking me pertinent questions about ammo I’d be using, so they could test it with that specifically, before sending it back to me.

The day before yesterday, I happened upon a GREAT deal for ammo.
This Match stuff for $240 bucks.


The "WCC" on the headstamp is "Western Cartridge Company", which is "Olin"...that's Winchester. Good stuff.
I decided to hit the range close to where I work after I clocked out yesterday. After unexpectedly working super late, a couple hours later their range was crawling with people. Bummer.
I decided to head home...and I was in a grump.
About halfway home, I decided to skip the turn to my house and try another range where I have a membership.
I had the place entirely to myself.
I spent over an hour in sweet solitude getting reacquainted with the Rock and shooting Match ammo at the only targets I had (since I hadn't brought a stand for this range)... Clays that I happened to have in the back of my van...and a bunch of lemons that someone else had tossed all over the berm and apparently missed.
Me and my little Rock made LEMONADE!!
I'm a happy camper.

Springfield

This was my Merry Birthmas present to myself.
Since the gun store where I work is a Springfield dealer, I'm considered a Springfield employee and I can use their ProStaff Program for a big discount (as in "below" wholesale!).

So far, I've got about 300 rounds through it, and can't wait to send more. It's difficult since I work past dark and the weekends are jam-packed with errands and such... but I go to the range whenever I can.

MiniMe bought me some targets for my birthday, and the very first shots I fired were at the targets she gave me... here's the first mag:

Then I stapled up a zombie target. Holy crap, those are fun.
First shot with the Springfield at the zombie...
BOOM! Head Shot!

It's incredibly fun to hit them.
But somewhere in the zombie melee, I inadvertently clipped off the girl's thumb;

Well...if you ask me, she should be thanking me. I mean really... bringing an ax to a zombie fight? Come on.
Weighing the pros and cons of missing a thumb or becoming undead...I did that chick a favor.

That's what you get.

Sunscreen? Check.
Sunglasses? Check.
Loose cover shirt? Check.
More sunscreen? Check.
Shoot for five hours? Check.

Mistaken Identity

Just so happens, I'm not the only one of my shootin' peeps who happens to own MidwayUSA's "Shooter Competition Bag".
It looks like this:

I decided I was gonna solve the potential problem of "mix ups", at least from my end.
None of the guys will get confused and pick up MY bag now.
First pink primers...now this;

Now, I know you're probably saying "Well, maybe the bags won't get mixed up... but what about the brass bag?"
Got that covered, too.

A Good Day To Burn Powder

*BONUS EDIT*
I was invited to go shooting by the guy who bought a GSG and let me shoot it first...remember that?
Anyhow, I said, "well, the forecast is calling for rain..."
The reply was, "Are you afraid your candy ass is gonna melt?!!?
I thought, "Oh, it's ON now!" but knew if I didn't do well, I would never live it down. Seriously. :P
So we met at a range that had some sort of qualifications going on for the cops...and decided to try a different range. My range. At least I was on "home turf". HA.
So here's a pic in lieu of an ARR (I took the left, he took the right);


OH, and by the way...there were 2 tight groups between our two plates and one on top of the right side. These were done by this fellow playing "chase the bullet", and the one between our 2 plates was done with him shooting my S&W22.