Demons from the past...at the Gunshow!

  I've got a 03-A3 that I am trying to sort out.  First match, it spit up the ejector, then the rear sight fell apart.  At Perry 2007 it shot well in spots but with the worst second stage trigger I have ever pulled.  You could feel every tool mark on the cocking sear.  Third place in the 2007 Texas Championships.  2008 Perry in just about the same shape.  I fixed the front sight with a wide blade when the CMP said they were legal, then Gaby and Crawford did the trigger before the Texas Garand/Spingfield/Carbine/Vintage Championship.  Second place by a point to Tryce.  I ordered a "C" stock from the CMP and started waiting.

  So, Alan Wilson decides he's missing out on big fun and wants an 03-A3 to shoot in these matches.  The CMP is long out of rifles.  He's looking at one at Collectors firearms in Houston for 700.00.  Plus tax.  Plus shipping. Plus the FFL fee.

   At the Tyler gunshow and a Smith Corona Rock Island rebuilt-and-never-shot is laid out on a table.  Muzzle still blued.  Rear sight has positive clicks and sloid detents.  It gauges 1 1/2 at the muzzle and 1 in the throat.  700.00.  That's a good deal, though it's a shocker to anyone who bought these for 175.00 a few years ago.

  I get Alan on the phone and get a tentative go-ahead.  The dealer cuts the price to 650.00 and I'm standing in the crowd aiming at an overhead lighting fixture when I realize I am holding on to a C stock.  An original C stock.  (A "C" stock has a pistol grip.)  Holy gun smoke.  I write a check as fast as I can without melting the pen or setting the paper on fire.

  This is a hell of a rifle, needs only a wide front post.  It's such a good rifle that I had to calm myself down and make sure I called Allan to tell him what a worthless fool he was, but with wonderful gun-buying friends.  My rifle will never be as good as this one! 

  1943 barrel.  It been parked in storage since WWII.  Now it's going to live among Texans, friends and shoot competition.  Until Obama outlaws it, then we will turn it in to be crushed.

Daily Deercam: Two bucks.

  The little bent-horn buck across the creek.

  A year and a half buck on the lake side.  Notice how small his antlers are in relation to his ears.  An adult whitetail is about 13 inches across at the ears.  His horns look nine or ten inches wide.  Eight points.  Good genetics.

  Neither of these bucks are shootable.  Or they shouldn't be shot. Much better horns next year and REALLY good antlers in two years.

Donuts at 600 yards.

  This is how it ought to look.  A 196 with a lot of Xs and just a little wind drift to 9:00.

   The bottom photo is yesterdays 600 yard target plot.  22 shots in 22 minutes, the first two being fired and scored as sighters.  AR-15 shooting 80 grain Sierra Matchkings over 24.2 grains of Varget powder.

  I shoot a prone single-loaded shot at 600, hold the trigger back and follow through until the target is pulled into the pits and I see the dust swirling behind it.  Then I plot the PREVIOUS shot, drop a bullet in the open bolt and look in the spotting scope to see (if the target is up) the current shot and mirage, close the bolt, get sight alignment, break the shot, follow through until the target goes down and the dust swirls, plot the shot I just looked at, et, et.

  I'm only plotting a shot when the target is IN the pits being marked and I am always remembering and plotting the previous shot.

  This plot shows hits jumping from side to side all the way across the target even though the wind was close to zero.  Look at hits 5 and 6.   There is a donut of tens all the way around the X ring.  I think this is an ammunition problem.  It is shooting anywhere but in the middle.  Its either the bullets themselves or the bullet seating depth in the brass case.

  The S1 and S2 are the two sighting shots.  S1 was a 10 at 2:00 and S2 was a 9 way out at 4:00.  Shot 1 for score was a 9 at 3:00.  Shot 2 was an 8 on the other side of the target at 9:00.  My hold isn't that bad.

  Every shot has a "call" as to where you think it ought to be on the target, depending on how the sights looked when the rifle went off.  For example, I would fire and think : "That's a little 12:00".  Few of these hits were on call.

  The TOP photo is the same rifle and load the way it ought to look.

  

Popped!

  We went to the movies to see Apaloosa and came home to that ginger-lemoney smell.

Night Bloomer ready to pop.

  This afternoon when I came in from Panola range.  You can see them loosen up when they are getting ready to go.  Like this.

Every Day a Novel

  The Kid couldn't be pried out of his house this morning at 6:00am to go the the Panola County Gun Club Championship so I went alone....well, me and his stuff, already loaded.  

  It's 72 miles from my driveway to the 200 yardline at the range.  Takes about 1:15 drive time, two cinnamon rolls and a cup of coffee from the Filipinos at Shipleys Donuts.  The girls were reading periodicals this morning.  

  I made a nice video that is sitting in the imovie editor and had a satisfying time with the folks on the range and my rifle.  About 40 folks signed up.  I shot a 193X3 offhand, which included a 95 on the first string and a 98 on the second.  Betsy the AR-15 was really shooting.  Light was overcast and perfect and I appreciated the comfortable weather for human beings outside in Texas.  Most of the year here, the weather is perfect.

  199X7 sitting rapid, 195X5 prone rapid at 300 and then spoiled a nice score with a 190X1 at 600.  I shot a perfect donut around the X ring, mostly tens but with a few nines and a couple of strange eights hanging out.  The bullets would go anywhere but in the center.  I'm going to try them seated OUT a little further but I am starting to think about changing to a different batch of 80 grain Sierras.  The 80s come in 500 count boxes and the troubles started about when I started this box, come to think of it.

  Finished at 777X16.  Mike Carter won the club championship for the third or fourth time with a 788X32 shooting his match rifle.

  Katye Foster shot a 775, her personal best, and cleaned one string at 200 sitting rapid.  The first time she has ever cleaned a 200 rapid.  She's getting better, quickly.  So much better so quickly that I made sure she was on my team for the State Service Rifle Championship later this month.

Breda's Family Photos

  I thought I had something like this around.  Here's dad, me and my older brother.  I've got binoculars and a sidearm in one, cowboy shirts on in another, (though I remember calling it my Davy Crockett shirt) and a full cowboy getup, including horse, in the last.  I've got a gun and knife on along with the hat, chaps and horse.

  My older brother was killed with the 173rd Abn in Vietnam and dad has been gone since 1976.

  This feels like ten lifetimes ago, though in many ways they are with me still.

Update:  Sure had a good time running these images through the photo editor and retouching them.  Printed a couple for my daughter, who looks a lot like her uncle.

  Real men.  We certainly are living in a different country now.

Now I'm Embarrassed.

  I took the Standard Products M1 Carbine out of the correct, historical (and like new) stock that it is in and put it into a Boyd's stock that I bought at Camp Perry and refinished.  It's really tight in there, including tight where the barrel leaves the stock.  Not so with the original, in fact, it flops around.  

  I bet it shoots better this way, huh?

  Anyone ever heard of a trigger job for an M1 Carbine?  Dang thing must be 14 lbs the way it is.  Gotta be a way to improve it.

  I keep reading about these carbines that shoot a 3 inch group at 100 yards.  Like to borrow one for a match.  Of course, this is the only Carbine match I shoot all year.

Panola County Club Championship

 The Panola County Gun Club Championship is this weekend.  It's an 80 shot regional Match course of fire.  Lunch afterwards.  We usually have a big crowd because of the reputation of the club and the shooters there.  Weather forecast calls for clear skies and temp in the 80s.

  I'm going to shoot my AR and seat the Long Range 80 grain Sierras a little deeper.  That ought to clean up the 600 yard scores.

1903-A3 Front Sight

  It helped.  High enough so that I could get the rear peep sight up the ladder.  Wide enough to make a sight picture.  I think it's .o72.  The standard sights, especially worn ones, look like a toothpick at the end of the barrel.   I ordered it off the internet but Louis Lamarouex is making them.  I think you can find him through the Temple Club.  Easy install.  15 bucks.

  Did I mention that I won the Vintage Rifle Championship for the third time?  Well, I won the Vintage Rifle Championship for the third time.  With a 284X4.  The Swiss K31 strikes again with Swiss GP11 ammo.

  I also noticed that my carbine score from 2006 was the same score Don Tryce won with this year.  360X4.  And I got beat by a point in 2006.

Daily Deercam

  Hadn't looked at the cams since last week.  The 24th I think.  Two photos on the memory card from across the creek.  Both of me.  Today.  Couple hundred on old reliable who is still performing at Mars Lander level.  No bucks, though I saw the beginnings of a scrape at one point.

  Lotta mosquitos in the bottom.

  Same doe and fawns.  The fawns are getting big.  Two coons.  Two dogs.  Squirrels.  Crows.

TSRA M1 Carbine Championship

   Video up at the Blackfork6 Channel.  Andrew Trampus did the video work so it's a different oeuvre.  The TSRA M1 Carbine Championship was five sighting shots from any position and then 10 shots prone slow fire, 10 shots prone rapid fire, 10 shots sitting rapid fire and 10 shots standing slow fire at 100 yards.  400 points possible score.  Don Tryce won with a 360X4.  He always brags about his carbine being a National Match and it shows.  He repeated as champ.  I shot a 350 and was lucky to get those points.  My Standard Products shoots all over the target.  Katie Foster and her dad Gregg shot the same carbine which shot the next two high scores after Don's.  I think they shot 353 and 357.  That's a good-shooting carbine.  They just bought it this year from the CMP.  

  I've got four or five carbines but they had been re-arsenaled  and stored since 1953 when I bought them so this was the only one I shot.  Maybe I ought to try another one and retire this rifle.  

  I did kill a deer with it last year.  And a raccoon last month.  I shot Remington UMC.