Scores held up in Garand, 1903 and Vintage Military.

Hatfull of CMP medals.

I missed the second day of shooting because of Justin and Kim Utley's wedding. Shot all the matches on Saturday. Long slog. Looks like I ended up with the top scores in Garand, Vintage and Springfield 1903 Bolt Rifle. Got gold CMP medals for shooting top national scores with all four rifles, but Ron Leraas shot a 365 with his M1 Carbine and beat my 360.
I've won the Garand twice now and the Vintage four or five times. Never won the Springfield1903 Championship before. Been second with an M1 Carbine several times but only for a Silver Medal score. Fun matches. The National Match Director Rick Crawford, Dave Wilson and Alan Wilson ran the matches and Terrell Rifle and Pistol Club hosted them. Much fun.

IBM M1 Carbine ran well. I just shot a couple of sevens. Stayed in the aiming black all the way with the Garand for a 290. Shot better than that with my Swiss K31 but ruined the score by crossfiring next door for a 281. Shot a medium 282 with the 1903A3 Springfield. Garand had quit feeding but started right back when I tightened the loose gas plug.

Texas State Rifle Association Garand Championship.

Emily and Mitchell Hogg with Em's Carbine. She just let her brother (SFA) lean in.


Dad and sons on the end of the 100 yard Range at Terrell Rifle and Pistol Club.


Jeff Lin and his Garand.


David Keys lines up his 1903A3.


I didn't get many shots of the line. Usually it was full but I was in it. This is the last relay of Saturday.


Em Hogg with her CMP North Store Carbine.


Katy Foster from SHSU.


Rusty Hogg with his Garand.


Gregg Foster with a 1903A3.


One of the young fellows with a Garand that planted a shiner under his eye. I'm sure his thumb got him. You have to put your cheekbone on the back of your thumb and ride the recoil. Any separation and it comes back and whacks you. Usually a fingertip will get your lip!

Still shooting today, though I have to be at the Justin and Kim Utley's wedding so I can't go shoot. Nice crowd of folks with a lot of old wooden-stocked rifles. It delayed us with rain early but then got better. We waited it out in the big members building while watching radar and satelite images on phones and ipads. It's a great life.
Rick ran the match. David Wilson called the lines. Alan Wilson cooked some pretty good five buck range burgers. Karl Schultz helped sort out sacks of Greek HXP ammo from the CMP.
I finished the day in the lead for Garand, Springfield and Vintage. We'll see if any of those scores hold up. Much better shooting conditions today, cooler and drier with more light.

Update: After all the carbine work I shot the best M1 Carbine score I had ever shot...but it wasn't enough. Too many in the white. Shot a 360 but a 365 won. Ron Leraas is the Carbine King! My little IBM goes back in the cabinet for another year. Garand and the 1903A3 are clean, K31 in the rack. Probably hunt deer with them in a month.

M1 Carbine work.

10/22 with Yankee Hill Suppressor. (Too much suppressor.) Titan Barrel. Serial number in the first 9000.


Three holes high and left are from starting with the muzzle brake on. I took it off and shot the last two of five in the top of the 10-ring. The next five round mag is scattered vertically in the black.


USGI Muzzle Brake. Easy on and off, but it moved the zero considerably. Didn't seem to make a huge difference in the recoil.

Started off prone with a cold barrel at 100 yards. I put the muzzle brake on. It moved the zero up and to the left by about a foot at 100. The group was terrific, just in the wrong place. I removed the brake and the last two shot went back where the zero was, in the top of the 10-ring.

Shot a little suppressed 10/22. Wolf Match Target. It shoots well and you can see them flip downrange in the scope. Just can't get a Ruger magazine to feed reliably. The bullets stick in the mag and keep the rotating center from feeding.

Shot my k22 pistol 30 rounds just for fun. It's fun.

Daily Deer Cam

Mom.



Fawn 1.


Fawn 2.


Bigfoot!

Cams both pointing at scrape sites...but no scrapes yet. They just see a little coon and fawn traffic. Got to be close...

Smith and Wesson and Wesson.

Shot both pistols today. Wolf Match target. Much fun, all at 25 yards bullseye, one-handed. The S&W has a much better trigger than the Dan Wesson. The Dan is a very chunky pistol with an oversized grip. Might shoot better with another stock.

Really enjoying the K22. Found out that the stag stocks that Dad had on his were really Franite! I can find them on Ebay. Have a target set of grips coming for it.

IBM Carbine

IBM, jacket and mags.


Five shots prone, 100 yards, slingless off the mat.



Last five shots sitting at 100, no sling.

Thought I would shoot it cold, just like in a match so I rolled out the mat, set up the scope and put on my jacket.

I didn't use the sling. Started with Remington Express Rifle, the best-shooting ammo so far.

First six shots all over the target face. Inside the seven ring. Nothing in the black. Everything broke down the middle. Hmmm. I switched to Aguilla and shot a 10 round rapid prone and then a ten round rapid sitting. Both groups in the 2 oclock area but improving. An 89 and an 90X3. I clicked one left and came down a notch to shoot two five shot strings. One 5-sting sitting and one 5-string prone. I really wasn't seeing very well but it held the black all the way. Maybe it likes to be shot hot.

Shooting S&W.

Soon as I got home I responded to a Make Offer counteroffer on a pair of correct but beat S&W diamond target grips for the pistol. The pistol is pretty beat, so it should be a fine match. Pistol shoots great. A little sticky on extraction but that comes with the territory.

Shot very well at 25 yards with a standard six-oclock hold on an NRA Bullseye pistol repair center. Group was up at 10 oclock. Clicked over and down and it moved to the center. Sat down and shot off a rest and put it in the X-ring with a little judicious clicking. Wolf Match Target. Shot 100 rounds with the K22 and a S&W single shot target model.

Guy down the line was firing a 9mm semiauto copy of a Suomi submachine gun. Heavy thing. I fired it offhand five rounds at my pistol target and was in at seven oclock with a five inch group. Interesting gun. I guess. Heavier than a Garand. Nice long barrel to push those 9mms. I went down and spotted for him with binocs at 100 yards. Looked to me like the 9mms were really moving.

Dad's single shot S&W target pistol, (brought back from India in WWII), doesn't have adjustable sights. Odd. Shoots a little 3:00 with Wolf Match Target. Wonder what grips that thing takes? Why, I guess I should take them off and look!

Ought to list the Dan Wesson .22 and the Ruger .357 Security Six on Gunbroker now with no reserve and move them out.

Dad's old pistol.

Yankee gun. Smith and Wesson K22 from Vermont.

Somewhere in the late 50s or early 60s Dad bought a Smith and Wesson K22 revolver. I remember it had stag grips and a nickel finish. He always talked about what a great shooter it was but I didn't shoot it much. Just too heavy for me back then as a gradeschooler going through the BB rifle stage. When I was in high school I had my own Ruger Mk1 which I still have in my Bullseye pistol box. When I was in college I didn't have a firearm with me. Dad died in '76 and it was stolen from the lakehouse in the late 70s or early 80s. I hope it has a happy home somewhere.

I've been watching K22s go by on Gunbroker for a couple of years. If you have 700.00 you can buy one, rfn, with box, but I had time and was looking for a better deal. A couple weeks back one was listed by a seller in Vermont. He said it had some wear and rust but looked good inside. He speculated that it had been in storage for a long time. I got in at the 355.00 level but was out-autobid. Out of curiosity I went looking for the upper limit of the autobid and ended up buying the pistol.

I shopped for the best deal among the local gunshops to have it shipped down. 25.00 was the low bid, 40 bucks the high. I sent the FFL license from the 25.00 shop, (Mac's, downtown across from the jail) and sent the money order. Came in a couple day ago. Its rough, lots of use, doesn't look like its had a day of storage in 50 years but seems to be OK inside. You would think a gun seller would wipe a firearm off before listing it, just for the photos sake but it arrived with gunk, adhesive, dirt, et all over it. I gave it the Hoppes treatment and tomorrow I'll have a chance to shoot it on the range.

412.00 for the pistol. 20 bucks for shipping. 25 for the FFL here. 457. I'm sure Dad had his for 50 bucks or less from Reynolds Gun Shop here in Tyler. He might have bought it at Mac's Guns, the same shop I had this one shipped to.

Update: I'm going to shoot it at a standard 25 yard pistol target, offhand, and see where the group is using Wolf Match Target .22 LR. Pretty quickly I'll know if the pistol will shoot a group or not, which cylinder holes fire the best and how the trigger breaks.

Update II: So many stocks for sale on Ebay that you would think there isn't a pistol with wood still on it left anywhere. Need a pair of old, beat-up diamond pattern target stocks for it, if it shoots.

Update III: for 50 bucks S&W will trace the pistol and see where it was originally sold.

A Carbine that shoots.

IBM in a Boyd reproduction stock. Held the black at 100 with anything I put in it.



Inland in a reproduction folding stock. These stocks shoot with less apparent recoil and much better trigger control and hand position because of the pistol grip.



This might be the rifle. IBM in a Boyd.

Last night while watching young millionaires completely screw up their jobs, (Redskins 13, Cowboys 7), I swapped out two M1 Carbines for two others. This morning i took them out to shoot.
Both of the new guns were IBMs rearsenaled in 1953 and in depot storage until I bought them a few years ago. I put the best barrel band in a new Boyd stock and put up three targets at 100 yards. One for the Inland in a folding stock, one for the IBM/Boyd and one for the last IBM which was in an SG cartouched wood. Looks like the IBM in the Boyd might shoot. It held the black with every ammunition I tried except some hot handloads that made an X-ring sized group in the 8-ring at 12 oclock. The receiver plate was loose. I tightened it and it still shot well. Maybe this is the gun.
Just need to get a box of the ammo I intend to shoot and shoot a match to see if it holds up. MIGHT try it in the folding stock. That's the easiest stock to shoot for some reason.
One complaint: Front sight is mushroomed along one edge. Army armorers.

Shooting Carbines.

Off a bench at 100 yard NRA targets.

1. The Winchester doesn't shoot well. The barrel flexes loosely up and down. Barrel band really doesn't hold it. Feed problems with the best shooting ammo X3. Doubled once.

2. Standard Products in a new stock never shot a good group and shoots low out the bottom at one setting and way high at the next sight setting. Hold center mass and you get a bad group with flyers.

3. Inland in a folding stock shot the best, but spits up its forearm every now and again. Quit shooting Lake City. Shot the most expensive buck-a-shot ammo in the X and Ten ring with a perfect six oclock hold for about six shots, then started wandering.

I'm beginning to think there is no such thing as a good shooting carbine. Had four selections of ammo. Nothing liked the LC much. The Remington is the best all around. Going to clean these guns and pull out the other two carbines and try them. I have an IBM and something, maybe another Inland.

Update: New forearm for the folding stock. Metal edge at the back is much longer. Shouldn't pop out.

Update II: Winchester going back into storage. Standard products coming out of it's new stock, going back into the old one and going into storage. Inland might hang around in the folding stock for a bit. Other two coming out. IBM and a something.

National Park Quarters.

Government has long since fubared coin design, just like everything else they have touched, but I'm kind of glad to see this. Saw a Yellowstone Quarter this morning when I got it in change for coffee at Brady's.

Just give me Indians and Buffalos, Liberty, Colombia and a few eagles and I would be happy.

Inland from the top below in a (reproduction), folding stock. Much easier to get hand position with this stock. Note the very early barrel band. The late barrel bands are supposed to be the best but this was my only Inland. All the folding stock carbines were Inlands.


Inland, Winchester and a Standard Products in a new stock. All of them rearsenaled in 1953 and stored until I bought them six years ago. You would think at least one of them would shoot.

TSRA Garand, Vintage, 1903 Springfield and Carbine matches coming up at Terrell Rifle and Pistol Club on the 25th and 26th of this month. I've shot the Carbine match four times and never had a good-shooting carbine. Seems hardly any of them will hold the black at 100 yards on a standard NRA 100 yard target. You get flyers, moving groups, odd shots. Very frustrating. When the CMP was really selling a lot of M1 Carbines, (out now) they published a little piece on how to accurize your M1 Carbine. Every one of the folks who followed their instructions said their carbines shot MUCH worse. Last year I borrowed a carbine the owner SWORE was a tack driver with LC ammunition. It shot all over the target face.

I'm going to tighten up all three and see if one is better than the others. All have new or USGI inspected barrels. Testing a couple of different ammos.

Killed a doetag with my Standard Products. It was in a really nice high-wood stock so I restocked it to carry hunting. Deer have a lot of aiming black so the shot wasn't any problem. Ten ring at 100 yards is about six inches. The black- nine, ten and X ring are about 10 inches. i want to stay in the black on prone-slow fire, 10 shots for a 90+ score at the match.

Tyler in 1955.

The old courthouse is still standing. The new one being finished. I didn't see ONE fat person, in fact, everyone looked as skinny as Paris Hilton.
Film by the Chamber of Commerce. Bet it was tough to find Mexican restaurants back then!

Koran Burning: I'm against it.

Unbelieveable publicity stunt by this guy in Florida. The General, the President, The Whitehouse spokesman, the Secretary of State. Everyone signed in. They are against it. I'm against it. It's a bad idea to disrespect even the disrespectable.

I'm an extreme critic of Islam. As a social liberal I cannot, WILL not tolerate its subjugation of women's rights, murderous policy towards gays, hate of the Jews, repression of Christianity and other faiths and their merging of church and state. I think Islam ought to be tolerated about like the KKK by modern society. It's a stupid, retrograde, 4th century, unreformed belief system. Look at the conditions in countries where it is practiced. You'll see the fruits of it's labor.

That said, I'm against burning any book, even the Koran. Everyone ought to read it instead. You can file it under fiction later. Muslims have the right to believe what they wish, however foolish.

From now ON however, I expect the same respect from Muslims. No burning Bibles or Korans. No rioting over cartoons. No more murders of Dutch film makers. If I was them I'd buckle up and get ready for "Piss Prophet." Recognize the right of other religions to practice freely....anywhere.

Welcome to the modern world.

Tactical dogging.

Back when she was a wee pup.

President Obama may not like his, ("They talk about me like I'm a dog.") but its common knowledge that a dog around the house is active home security system. As our Lucie works into the household mix she's getting more active. At night if she hears something suspiscious, usually about the same time I do, she starts making a low ruff/cough sound. Last night she alerted several times. I checked it out, once with flashlight and firearm. Glad to have another set of ears and eyes keeping the home safe.

And to the President: You wish.

Daily Deercams.

Two cams running with fresh batts and cards. Brought in one card that showed zero movies or photos....I thought the cam reader showed 300 plus. Should start showing some results soon. The pasture wasn't shredded this year. Really growing up. Conditions change all the time.
Tracks around but no rubs or scrapes obvious. Shouldn't be long as the days shorten and the air turns cooler. One camera dead in the flood when the damn broke.

Deer counting in Clarksville.

Dr. Sneed and the Kid leaning on the Bronco.


Gate-transiting Kid.


Off to count deer.

You just need an old bronco and a couple folks, though we had four. Drove the prescribed distances, scanned the prescribed areas and counted and qualifed deer. Also skunks, (2) and coons, (1) and an owl. Got to Clarksville just before sundown and started spotlight count as soon as we could see the first star. The state requires three of these to get Management tags.
Bonus points for an awesome display of the near-cosmos overhead. Milky way and no moon. 50+ deer.

Beating the bushes for a Johnson M1941.

Counting down the days until a rifle I have only glimpsed briefly and seen pictures of actually materializes and I get to hold one. There are rumors of one here or one there. I located someone I know close who actually HAS a very nice one, in storage. Several folks, including cousin Wallace have shot one or two. Gunshop and pawn shops recall Johnsons coming through now and then. They float by on Gunbroker at inflated prices being relisted time after time with few bids.
Well see sooner or later.