Wherein I should have just let it be...

This morning, while I was half reading, half looking out the window to catch the squirrel on its morning laps across the backyard, I looked down at the painted black G22 I was going to use to dispatch aforementioned rodent, and began the thought that I wished it was camouflaged.

Which made me laugh out loud because I realized that I had come full circle.

What I've referred to as the git-r-done paint job on the G22 was actually what made me buy it. Technically. The Git-r-done model was discontinued, which caused my local dealer to knock $100 off of it. Without that redneck reduction, I wouldn't have bought it, and I wouldn't have had the chance to grow to love my stupid space gun so much that I want another. But that came later. At first, I was a little embarrassed of my woodland wabbit whacker.

I tolerated it for a long time, but eventually the siren's song of the rattle can won out. Having started my Gunnyship a bit more tacticool than I might care to admit, it got a flat black spray job. Except I was too cool to wait, so one half is done properly to a matte finish, and the other half was done too fast and is glossy. It was fine like this, because it only saw the range, but in Kentucky, it can, and has been, pushed into the more official duty of critter cranium cavitator, and in that task, a broken pattern is easier to hide than a big black block.

I'll look for a way to remove the paint and see if I can return it to its former underappreciated skin (maybe profuse apology will work), but if I can't make that happen, I just may get more serious about that ol' razzle dazzle...

Low profile plinker

zomg I'm going to post about guns!

My mother in law has complained that some varmits of the furry persuasion are causing problems with her small garden, and preventing her from planting a larger one.

The only method for vermin extermination which is 99% free of collateral damage (there are some very beautiful birds in the same area) is a manually applied high velocity lead lobotomy. Lead-on! Apply directly to the forehead!

A pellet gun was the first choice, and after some research I found the Crosman Phantom was the best choice for sub-$100 high velocity air guns. If anything, it was a little overpowered for what I was going to use it, but I figured it would get use in more official small game capacities. It was inexpensive, but not super necessary, so I wasn't totally convinced that it was the right way to go. Then I happened upon a post about Aguila Colibris.

After some memory refreshing research on subsonic .22 rounds, I rekindled my interest in these interesting options for a .22. Obviously, the underpowered cartridges wouldn't cycle the actions of semi-auto .22s, but there were other options. Like lever .22s and .22 revolvers.

I've always liked the idea of kit guns. Carrying around a small revolver in .22 for minor pest extermination, and being able to open it up and swap in a .22 shotshell, aforementioned Colibri, CB short, or whatever else. The ability to quickly switch ammo is gone on the lever gun, so that was a count against it, but a boltie or a break-action would be easy enough.

Actually, since we're talking about .22 revolvers, didn't I want a Ruger Single Six type gun? (You can see how quickly this got out of hand.) Being unemployed, there are a few low-cost but functional alternatives (Still being unemployed, these low cost options are still more than the Crossman Phantom.) Plus the single cartridge feed system (feed gate) might be a little fiddly to swap out a single round or keep track of what flavor of .22 is in what spot in the cylinder.

But...

After reading some more reviews and comparisons of the Super Colibris, I found many people saying the Super Colibris were quieter out of rifles than their 1000 fps airguns. If this holds up, I could have most of the things I want for the cost of one box of Super Colibris ($5).

Aguila advises for both the Colibris and the Super Colibris that they not be fired from a rifle for fear of the bullet not making it out of the barrel (ostensibly, the reason for the release of the Super Colibris which came later). Many people reported no problem with the Super Colibris through rifles, so I'm willing to give it a cautious try.

But this means I'll be using one of my existing .22 rifles, which is less than optimal, because both are semi-auto, and there can be some inconsistencies in velocity depending on when the pressure drops during the recoil operation. To be honest, this problem only seems to lead to problems at longer distances (which I don't need yet), but it didn't stop me from rekindling an old idea I had for a slide lock like on the old suppressed spy guns.

A slide lock prevents the recoil operation from taking place, and turns a semi-auto into a single shot in order to prevent gas (and noise) from escaping through the chamber when it opens to load the next round, while eliminating the mechanical noise of the reciprocation of the bolt/slide.

At this point, I'm pretty far off the beaten path, but the challenge of being unemployed seems to be fueling this thought process. If I was still well paid, I would have just bought the Phantom immediately and missed this whole tangent! BOOO-RING!

There are some options for slide locks on 10/22s, but that gun doesn't have much character. Plus, who wants to pay for someone else's product when you can make a something custom yer damn self! I've got a soft spot for that stupid space gun anyway. And while I'm in a fabricating mood, I should figure out a simple way to make a solid trigger bar.

Speaking of the G22, that sucker is SO getting a suppressor. The only question is; will I chop the barrel down to keep the end of the suppressor where the current barrel ends? Hmm... Thinking about it now, that would mean I couldn't keep the front sight on it, and I don't have nearly as much fun shooting with a red dot or scope. But it does look even more spacey with the front sight off... Oh the possibilities...

Wait, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, gardens... Did I mention there's a Savage .22/410 at the local gun shop? Didn't think I'd ever get to see one of those up close. That thing tickles the neat-o part of my brain.

Hahaha! I started this post with the title "Low profile plinker" and by the end of the post I had a tricked out space gun!

Walther G22's 10 minute, 10 cent DIY Trigger Job 2

I was dry-firing the G22, and found that after the trigger break, there was so much overtravel with the tightened trigger, that I was tilting the rifle to the right on my follow through (I shoot left handed). When I slowed down, I could just barely hit the break without too much overtravel or tilt, but the heaviness of the trigger made it hard. The G22 needed a trigger stop.

After looking at the problem for a while, I figured the easiest way to get results was to get a short wood screw behind the trigger.


This trigger stop only works on G22s that have already had the 5 minute, 5 cent trigger job. The trigger break on a stock G22 is too far back to be able to use the trigger stop. Tighten it up to somewhere around here, and you should be good to go.

It was a little fiddly to get the hole started inside the trigger guard, but I did it. I wound up using a small drill bit, and turning it between my fingers.

It was slow going, but without a longer bit, attaching it to a drill would have made me approach the hole from a much steeper angle, and I wanted the hole as straight through as possible. I used the seam in the plastic body to find the center, and switched from right side to left when hand drilling (finger drilling?) the hole. Just make sure you don't go too deep, and start the hole at an angle.

Once it was deep enough to get the wood screw started, I screwed it in a little bit at an angle, just to get it started.


Then pushed the screw straight.


Then finished screwing it in straight with the screwdriver at an oblique angle.





Obviously, it took a little bit of time to adjust it properly. Taking it apart, turning the screw a quarter turn, putting it back together, testing, then doing it over again. Once you're pretty close, you can use needle nose pliers to make eighth turns while it's completely assembled.




When I was done, I had to leave a couple millimeters of overtravel because even through the trigger was tighter, the break was still mushy. Make sure you don't set the screw so far out that when you hit the screw there is a fraction of a second of hesitation before the hammer drops. Set your screw a bit past that, so you can pull straight through for a predictable break, but not so much that overtravel causes noticeable movement in your follow through.

When I was done, I could get somewhat clean trigger breaks, with no additional movement after the hammer drops. In fact, with this addition, I daresay the G22 trigger qualifies as "acceptable."

Not bad for a few minutes work and a screw I found in a jar.

I will of course, update this post if I find any problems with this modification. If you do this, and find issues, please let me know.

Return of the Space Gun

I got my G22 back from S&W yesterday, and was pleased to find they returned it with a Walther rifle case. The sheet that came with it indicated they had repaired more than what I had expected.
Tight chamber: The reason I sent it in, I'm glad they agreed with my assessment.
Missing springs: Missing springs? What springs would be-- ooohhhh.... the magazine disconnect that I accidentally lost by accident, and not on purpose.
Replace trigger bar: Uh, ok. The trigger bar worked fine, but hey, I'm not going to complain.
Repair broken handle: Handle? ... Where is the handle? The closest thing to a handle I can think of is the raised rail mounted in front of the rear sight, but that's just part of the plastic body. It certainly wasn't broken when I sent it out, but hey, not going to complain...
Replace bolt: They replaced the entire bolt, and left it right-handed even though the original was lefty. Not a big deal, but I didn't see any issues with the original bolt. Not complaining.
Replace ejector: The ejector is a piece of metal. When I sent it out, aside from being caked with a thin layer of stubborn carbon that refused to be removed, it was still a piece of metal. Not complaining.
Tested with CCI STD VEL: Cool.

I immediately took it apart and inspected the parts that had apparently been replaced. The mag disconnect was, indeed, the replaced "missing springs." I quickly re-lost that part, by accident and not on purpose. What? That spring is tiny, and shoots out when you open it up! I removed the bolt and switched it from right handed to left. I couldn't find the original 5 cent trigger job, so I cut up the box it arrived in, and made another. The trigger tightened up nicely, just as it did before.

I lubed, cleaned, and reassembled it for some dry-firing, and found that after the trigger break, there was so much overtravel with the newly tightened trigger, that I was canting the rifle to the right on my follow through (shooting left handed, remember). When I slowed down, I could just barely hit the break without too much overtravel or cant, but the heaviness of the trigger made it hard. I needed a trigger stop.

After looking at the problem for a while, I figured the easiest way to get results was to insert a short wood screw behind the trigger. It was a little fiddly to get the hole started inside the trigger guard, but I did it. I wound up using a small drill bit, and turning it between my fingers. It was slow going, but without a longer bit, attaching it to anything would have made me approach the hole from a much steeper angle, and I wanted the hole as straight through as possible. I used the seam in the plastic body to get my center, and switched from right side to left when hand drilling (finger drilling?) the hole. Once it was deep enough to get the wood screw started, I screwed it in a little bit at an angle, and pushed the screw straight, then finished screwing it in straight with the screwdriver at an oblique angle. The result was a few millimeters of overtravel (had to leave enough to get past the squishy break), and no canting on the follow through. Beautiful. I'll soon have a full post up on this with lots of pictures. I'll call it the 10 cent trigger job :)

Can't wait to shoot it.


There's something about the G22...

Razzle Dazzle Space Gun

Even though the Space Gun is not yet back from S&W, I couldn't help but draw up some possibilities.

1


2


3


4


5


6


7


I'm partial to number 5.


thought I was kidding, did ya?

Walther G22 KABOOM!

OR
The funny-looking woodland camo Phoenix burned down again, rose again, burned down again, then got sent to Walther.

With the Walther G22 Space Gun's triumphant return, I was eager to pick a good zero, and test the specialty ammo I had. But first, I had to find a fix for the stop-gap replacement pin I had used in the previous post.

I finally found a use for harbor freight's tools, and used a micro philips screwdriver as a replacement hammer spring guide rod pin, and needed only insert it, and bend it a few times before it snapped off helplessly. Eager to relinquish the task for which it was created, but never really good at, for a job that it excelled at; being metal and cylindrical. It fit perfectly, and with a little filing, it was quite flush.

While I had the guts lying in front of me, I carefully examined the hammer and sear to see if I could safely do something, anything, to make the trigger even slightly better. The topology of the mating points were such that unless I really tried to fuck the angles up, I probably wasn't going to destroy my recently fixed gun. Probably. So I removed as little as possible, and kept stopping to check the mating of the two parts. Deepened the angle of the sear slightly because the two parts practically hooked on to each other, and shortened the depth of the hammer catch point, since the sear had quite a long way to travel before letting go. I was so coy with the parts and the filing, I didn't think I had done much, but upon reassembly, the trigger was definitely better. Not by much, but better.

I reassembled and went to the range with a sampling of different ammo, and a twinkle in my eye. I was making things work, and getting things done.

At the range, the Space Gun was reminding me why I liked it so much. After running an initial few magazines to test function, I started playing with the different sight settings. The rear sight has a rotating set of blades numbered 1-6, with different heights. I was finding the best sight for the short distances I expected the space gun might be asked to perform as a trunk .22 rifle. I settled on the highest sight blade, 6, and set about discovering where the point of impact was at different ranges, and estimating the approximate size of one of the many wild cotton tails I saw on a daily basis.

I set the target to 21 feet, shot three rounds, and wrote on my notepad, Sight 6 21' 2" low. The trigger was definitely better. I marked the three hits, rotated the target plate, set it back to 35 feet, and

what the fuck? ouch. my face feels weird. what the fuck? what just? did i just? did the space gun just? fuck it's smoking all over the place! top cover is popped up. ow, damnit. shit! my face is numb!

I staggered back, pumping adrenaline, fear, and sweat. I felt the left side of my face, it was numb and tingling. I rubbed my hand down my cheek and neck, and checked it for blood, there was none. Did I just Kaboom? I looked at the space gun. Smoke escaped lazily from every edge of the housing around the action. Did the space gun just explode? Still a little dazed, I returned to my lane.

I blew the extra smoke away, and cautiously inspected the chamber. The Winchester .22lr was not completely in the chamber, and the part the was outside, was bulged to twice its diameter, and had a hole in the brass on the ejection side. I just had an out of chamber ignition. I looked at the paper plate targets I leaned against the left side of the range station, and saw a hole was punched in them. I looked at the back of the small stack of paper plates, and saw a dent. Whatever went in had not come out. I pulled the plates apart, and found the piece of brass casing that had blown out of the chamber, luckily, in a safe direction. I tried to remove the brass, and found it to be stuck.

What caused it to go off before the round was properly chambered? Why had the disconnect failed, and released the hammer early? Could it have been a slamfire? I was frustrated with the gun I had given a second chance, and until recently, had been enjoying. I was mad that it was a bullpup, and put the explosion right next to my face. I couldn't have put it together wrong, I saw no mechanical way I could have made this happen. Maybe I was wrong. Either way, I was pissed off at the space gun for letting me down. I wouldn't be able to trust it again. I'd have to sell it for parts.

Goddamnit.

Well, I still needed to test the different ammo in a rifle, so I was going to put the worthless space gun in the trunk, and retrieve the 10/22. As I left the firing line, I explained to the employees what happened, and one wanted to take a look at it. He offered to push a rod through the barrel to push the shell loose, and I accepted. After removing the shell, he examined it, and declared it a crushfire. I had never heard of a "crushfire" before. He explained; the shell did not have a mark from the firing pin, and the bulging was too deep. The bolt stripped the round, began to chamber it, and the brass was weak, and crushed under the force of the bolt, igniting the primer, and setting off the round before it was chambered. It was a fluke. He checked the chamber and surrounding parts for cracks, and said it would probably be OK to shoot again.

The brass was weak! It wasn't the space gun, it was what I had been feeding it! This wasn't the gun's fault, it was the ammo! How could I have been so mad at the gun, it didn't do anything wrong! It didn't fail! It was a fluke!

Relieved and optimistic, I returned to the range, loaded two mags of a different brand of ammo, moved the rifle away from my face, and cautiously fired downrange. The familiar Pat! rang out. I squeezed the trigger again. Pat! Again! Pat! I put my face against the rifle, and aimed at my target. Pat! Pat! Pat! Alright! I finished the two mags, and figured I'd run two more through just to be sure before returning to my task. I loaded the third mag, put the target at 50 feet, set the rear sight to 6, and practiced my offhand 6 o'clock hold.

Squeeeeze... Pat! Squeeeeze... Pat! Squeeeeze... Pat! Squeeeeze... Pat!

Goddamnit. Not again.

I was more prepared for it this time. I was able to discern the shot before the POP, and knew I had just crushfired with different ammo than before. The left side of my face was numb again, and I checked it for blood; there was none. I pulled the bolt back, and it happily ejected the crushfired round, almost identical to the last. It was the gun. There could be no mistaking that now.

Fuck you, space gun.

After my anger subsided, I remembered reading about how some G22s had tight chambers, and how they wouldn't feed ammo that was slightly out of spec. I never had a problem with Federal, but the cheap stuff would frequently jam, and need to have the bolt pushed closed. That, combined with a dirty chamber, probably caused the jamming and the crushfiring. I thought about sending it in when I heard about it, but the federal stuff worked just fine, and it didn't seem legitimate to complain to Walther that out-of-spec ammo sometimes jammed on chambering, and that they needed to fix it free of charge. But now, I wouldn't be able to run through a box of 500 without worrying about crushfires and Kabooms. The space gun would be going back to Walther to get a few extra thousandths of an inch in the chamber.

I know Walther is owned by Smith and Wesson, but I wonder if their repair policy is as good. I guess I'm going to find out soon.

I guess I still like the space gun. It's fun to shoot, and an interesting addition to the fold. I actually want to embrace the weirdness, and give it a razzle dazzle camo job, because I love that stuff. Would be one hell of a head-turner.

On to the next adventure...

The Space Gun rises from the ashes like a funny-looking woodland camo phoenix!

The Walther G22 "space gun" (Bzzow! Bzzow!) has been out of commission for a while.

One day at the range, it just stopped working. The hammer refused to release, and the trigger pulled into nothingness. A "simple" (heh) field strip revealed no obvious malfunction, and I was reluctant to take out the screwdriver and detail strip the G22, because just a basic strip has two springs that are so happy to see you, they jump right out of the gun and fly in a direction determined by the electromagnetic resonance of chocolate pudding divided by the viscosity of grape soda multiplied by the square root of a jelly donut. (I'm hungry.)

So, the Space Gun sat in its case.

Last night I was reviewing and retooling the contents of the BOB in my car, and realized it made sense to have some .22lr ammo in it. After a careful selection process (15 Aguila subsonic, 15 Aguila SSS, 15 CB shorts, and 55 CCI mini mags), I realized the ammo would be of little use without a .22 that lived in the car. Then I recalled the Space Gun, and decided it was worth the hassle.

I took it down to the primary action, and cautiously unscrewed the four screws holding the two pieces of the action together, and ever-so-carefully parted the halves.

The result was surprisingly simple.

Simple like Rube Goldberg, not simple like simple. But hey, it's a bullpup.

I immediately identified the problem. The guide rod the hammer return spring was around was attached to the hammer by a roll pin. The roll pin proved not to be up to the task, and sheered right in the middle, leaving the spring extended, and the hammer unmotivated to move forward.



I did a quick search for a similarly dimensioned object that could substitute, but came up empty. I pushed the left over bits of the roll pin in, and realized there was more there than I thought. So as a stop-gap, I pushed the remainders of the pin inward on the hammer spring guide rod, and it seemed to cooperate. I pushed a pin through the gap just for piece of mind, really, and closed it up.

A few dry fires later, I remembered how much the trigger sucked, and retrieved my "5 cent trigger job" from the closet, and tightened the trigger up. Hey wait, now that I've seen how bad the sear/hammer mating is, and I might be able to give this gun a proper trigger job... More on that later I suppose.

Silly me didn't bother to get measurements for the pin for replacement, so I'll probably have to open it back up again... Maybe I'll give the hammer/sear a bit more attention this time.

mah Berfdey

I took the occasion to spend a few hours at the range. The G22 seems to be getting better at digesting the cheapo remington golden bullet bulk box. I only had one FTE and one FTF. As usual the G22 loved the thunderbolt, but somehow I was shooting better groups with the cheap stuff.

The trigger seems to have stiffened up since the recent trigger mod, and I was shooting smaller groups as a result. The scope remains removed in favor of some more enjoyable iron sight practice. Though I feel I'm rather close to maxing out my iron sight ability with this gun, and expect the scope will be making a come back after this remission. The space gun seems to be capable of some pretty good accuracy. I still long for a 100 yard range with good conditions to really explore the accuracy of this enjoyable plinker.

Since it was my birthday, I decided to celebrate by bringing my baby along for some quality time. She has been sadly neglected with the cost of .45 lately, but there was no way I was talking myself out of some 1911 range time on my birthday! Oh boy did I miss shooting that gun. Crisp trigger breaks, quick resets, smooth controllable recoil, and (of course) a big boom! There's no one thing I love about that gun, it's just the perfect complete package. I shoot it so well, I surprise myself. Shooting tiny groups never gets old. The only thing I find lacking for quick, aimed fire is the mil-spec sights which are low and slick, but difficult to find in a hurry. I think I might be tempted to take a file to the rear sight and open it up a bit. I can't bring myself to replace them since the snag-resistant low profile of the sights was one of the selling points.

After returning home I relished a detail strip and cleaning of the 1911, and enjoyed its beautiful, brutal simplicity.

That night it was time for the birthday dinner of delicious sushi. My sister and her husband go to a sushi bar that serves lots of interesting rolls, so we usually go there. While I'm usually more of a nigiri kind of guy (because I enjoy the taste of fresh sushi), the interesting rolls they make there are too good to pass up. I also had about a bottle of Soju, which is surprisingly good with a lot of lemon. Family, friends, and all the sushi you can eat is the perfect way to enjoy a birthday. If I hadn't drank and ate so much I would have likely attempted to watch the entire Indiana Jones Box set I got as a gift. I suppose I'll have to leave it for another time.

Great birthday. Looking forward to the next one.

Walther G22's 5 minute, 5 cent DIY Trigger Job

Update: After you're done with this, check the new 10 minute, 10 cent trigger job

---

The Walther G22 has a terrible trigger, lots of take up, and a very mushy break. I saw it as an opportunity to practice my trigger control, and got pretty good with it. After a recent trip to the range I took it apart for cleaning, and decided to spend a bit trying to figure out a cheap, reliable, effective way to shorten the trigger pull. Previous attempts had been fruitless, but this time I actually figured something out.

Here's the problem with the G22's trigger;

The trigger bar is bent. I assume this is because it's easier to release the hammer when the right side has upward pressure, but since it's bent, and the break is hard, the bar bends under the pressure resulting in the most mush you can work into a trigger without actually trying to make a mushy trigger.

I had been focusing on thinking of a way to fashion a new straight trigger bar, but this time I thought about stopping the trigger bar from bending so much.

Enter cardboard;



To get the thickness of the cardboard right, keep rolling it up until there is significant drag on the trigger reset, then make it a bit thinner. The cardboard will be very snug because it'll be pushing downward on the trigger bar, but the horizontal motion of the bar isn't that affected.

Ideally, you would use something more solid like a small piece of wood with channels cut in it to hug the barrel profile, and the trigger bar.

At this point the trigger was much tighter, but after reassembly, I noticed it was even tighter. The break was still a little heavy, but now you knew where it was going to break and it was much easier to manage.

Here's the trigger breaking point before the cardboard;

Here it is, after;


I popped off to the range to put 100 rounds through it, and found no functional problems, and the tighter trigger made my groups noticeably smaller.

Not bad for a few minutes work and a bit of cardboard...

I will of course, update this post if I find any problems with this modification. If you do this, and find issues, please let me know.

Photo of the kids

click for larger size

My G22 is purely a fun gun. Every few mags it gets a failure to feed or a failure to eject, but I've been using the cheapest ammo I could buy for it so I can't really blame the rifle just yet. With the scope on it, it's fun to pop off to the indoor range a few miles from my place and spend an hour (or two) drawing dots all over one paper target and trying to get my groups as small as possible. The trigger is still bad, but I've learned tricks to shooting it well, plus it gives me plenty of practice on my trigger pull. I've seriously considered selling it and picking up a CZ 542 many times, but I feel more compelled to learn to love the gun I already have. It feeds shorts (one in a mag at a time) and the 20" barrel keeps the report to nearly nil on CCI CBs, so I'm happy for now. It does turn a lot of heads, especially at a pistol range.

My AR type is a Stag lower with a Stag 2HL (lefty) upper on it. The mag is pinned, and requires a tool to remove (thank you California), but beggars can't be choosers. (I'm just happy to be able to own one in Ca! Take that Diane Frankenstein) Top loading it is not too hard, but keeps me from any sustained shooting (which I don't really do anyways), stripper clips would speed things up, but I really don't care. It was a bit of journey learning to shoot the AR. Looking up info on how to feed, bathe, and oil was just as important as finding out the proper way to shoot an AR. Shooting it at 3 liter bottles of soda from the 99 cent store is awesome. I less than three my AR.

My Nova tactical is an odd design. The receiver and stock are polymer and are reinforced in areas by metal, giving it a one-piece, sleek design. I think it's sexy, but I also think it's kind of weird for some reason. It has ghost ring sights for firing slugs, and has a button to keep from from feeding from the magazine on the pump in case you want to load a different shot through the ejection port. Holds 7+1 and field strips without tools. My go-to gun for home defense, loaded with 8 shells of 00 buck, cocked and locked. I got a great deal on it used from a semi-local shop, couldn't find a lick of wear on it, and it came with the mag extension (which Benelli apparently stopped shipping to the US for some reason). The polymer receiver and stock throw the balance off, making it a bit front heavy, but I prefer the light weight it give the gun. Barrel swaps out without tools. According to Josh, it cycles faster than other shotguns, but this is the only shotgun I've owned. (but he knows his poop so you can probably take his word on it. :) )

My bunny rabbit, Ava is probably around 3 years old, and was rescued from the Irvine animal shelter. From the day we brought her home and she immediately left her care to smell us, and wander around, we knew she was different. I did a lot of research on what to expect from a house rabbit, and Ava didn't much care for those expectations. She's extremely comfortable around people, doesn't seem to mind the furniture being moved around, and is more interested in getting into trouble when we're around than when we're away. Since we got her, she's gone from bunny to rabbit, and is bigger than most cats. She's more skittish about odd sounds and will grunt and thump to "warn" us that there's something odd nearby. It took her some time to get used to sneezing and people walking by outside our apartment, but once she got used to most of the sounds she doesn't even flinch. When we moved, I was afraid she'd be scared of the new place with new smells, sounds, and layout, but she acts as though nothing happened. She's rather independent, and will rarely approach us for more than a few seconds, but is more likely to find a place near us and lay down. She's always up to inspect things new to her area and is not shy about biting, licking, or pushing them over (or carrying them away, if they're small enough), so she's checking out the nova.

Range Report Part 2! This time it's personal

Eager to get my .22 back out to the range the next day, I went to Turners and (yet again) found them woefully lacking in ammo. So, I did what any self-respecting gunny would do; I went to Wal-mart!

When I got there, they only had some Remington Thunderbolt. Says high velocity; should be fine... As the woman rang up the 5 boxes of 50 ($0.0264 per round woot!) and I was enjoying the puny total that was being displayed, my attention turned to the gun accessories section. I asked her to put my purchase on hold, while I took a quick look. I checked if they had any bore snakes damn, and then allowed my eyes to drift across the small selection of goods. My eyes stopped on the rifle scopes. I couldn't.... Could I? It does have a 20 inch barrel... And it certainly has the mounts... But it's only a 50 foot range... Ah, what the hell. I grabbed a cheap BSA scope, and some cheap mounting rings. If I don't like it, I didn't spend too much on it. I can always upgrade. (I tried to find a picture of the scope, but couldn't without more details, I'm surprised to see that it has a very similar profile to the one in the picture.) I returned home and pulled my no-frills scope out of it's wrapping, and opened up the instruction book. X many clicks? Adjustable parallax? Battery compartment? Riboflavin? I just want to shoot the thing... Oh wait; it's a generic instruction book, my scope has none of those things! Nice.

I get the rings onto the weaver mount, and try to check that they're lined up. Hmmm... This one isn't fully seated on the weaver mount... Bugger. I reseat it, and try swapping the rings. Nope. Seems the weaver mount is wider in the front than to the rear. Hmmm... I seat them as best I can, and put the scope on. It's noticeably leaning to the left a few degrees. Well, as long as it's on solid, and it doesn't move, I should be able to adjust... Maybe I should have spent more than $6 on the mounting rings. :)

So now, I've got a silly looking gun, with a silly looking paint job, and an oversized scope mounted atop the whole package of nonsense! Oy. Oh well, it's cheap (and therefore fun!) to shoot!

I arrive at the range, and admit to feeling a little bit insecure about my silly looking gun with a $25 wally-world scope on top of it. The gentleman from last week is there with his wife, and I realize that I was there at the same time as before; Sunday morning. I look around, and realize that I recognize a few other people from last Sunday morning. Church? The gentleman recognizes me, and we talk briefly about the G22. I offer him a chance to shoot it, but he's just leaving (like last week). They must be getting in right at opening time. I'll have to get here early next week to let him shoot it. I grabbed some cheap targets, and a pen, and headed out to my lane.

I colored in the 1.5 inch X to make it more visible (like usual), and sent the target out to the end of the range. I put myself prone with my elbows on the naval-high bench, centered the crosshairs on the big black dot, and slowly squeezed the sloppy trigger. The shot was about 6 inches low. I was about to adjust, but I realized that I should probably put a few more shots downrange first to make sure I didn't just suck. I adjusted the scope, and shot until I was right on the spot. By now I was getting used to the trigger, it had a lot of take-up, and had a heavy portion at about 50% then got soft at about 65%, then broke at 75%. The trick was pulling hard enough to get past the 65% without pulling through to the break. I tossed up a fresh target with a few tiny target spots, and shot off the rest of the box of ammo.

Barring anyone shaking the bench, or my occasional inability to stop just past 65%, my shots were right on top of each other.

There's something cool about pulling a target, and seeing one .22 inch hole where three shots were placed. Something VERY cool.

After some nice shooting, some more people arrived, and with shots going off around me, I found it hard to keep the trigger controlled. But I took advantage of the time to focus.

About mid-way through my second box, someone the lane to my right started shooting off a .44 magnum. In an indoor range, you can feel that in your chest. I watched the flames shoot 7 inches out the sides of the large revolver, and smiled. I returned to my shooting after the 6 shots were spent, and heard one more shot. A long length of string came out of nowhere, and bunched up in the air for a second before falling to the ground in a small heap. Dude, that guy just shot the string off the target runner with a .44 magnum! The shooter swore up and down that the sights were off on his friend's gun, and after the string was replaced, and independent shooter verified that the gun was shooting about 6" high (at 20 feet!). Although their groups were all over the paper anyways, so I kind of figured it might have happened even if the sights hadn't been off...

Anyways, that ragged hole where 3 rounds of .22 entered is still fresh in my mind. Now I can't wait to get my scoped space gun out to some longer ranges to see what it can really do...

Range Report: Space Gun Fun

I went to Turners before the range so I could pick up a selection of .22 ammo to see if my new space gun preferred particular ammo. Unfortunately they were quite cleaned out (as they usually are), so I just picked up some CCI .22 LR JHP since I had read that they worked well in the G22.

I arrived about 30 minutes after the range had opened, so there weren't that many people there. When I showed up toting the Walther rifle case that came with the G22 I got some raised eyebrows from the employees there who had only seen me bring in pistols before.

"Got somethin' new?"
"Yep!"
"Walther? Got a G22 in there?"
"Yes sir!"
"I know a few people who have those. They love them. Great for plinking!"
"Yeah, it was kind of a hard sell. It's so impractical. But this particular model was discontinued so I got it at about $100 off."
"You mind me asking what model that is?"
"... Well, I'm a little embarrassed to admit..."
*opens case, revealing a Git-R-Done G22*
"Ha! For $100 off, I woulda picked up a pink one!... *pause* Well, maybe..."
"Yeah, I was thinking about giving it a paint job"
*At this point an older gentleman sitting on the bench got up, and walked over to take a peek*
"Hey, did you get that from Turners? I think I saw that one, I almost picked it up! Was that the one for (price)? Yeah, they had those in the corner for the longest time, and when I saw that one, I was this close to picking it up. Gotta love those .22s, you can go out for a day on $10, and you don't have to worry about any sore shoulders or ammo! Just great fun plinking all day!"
"Yeah, this is my first .22, so I'm looking forward to some cheap, fun plinking. You know, this is my first time out with it, so if you're interested in shooting it off a bit you're more than welcome."
"Oh, we're just leaving, but if I catch you again, I might take you up on that offer! *A woman walked in from the hallway to join the man* See, honey? This is what I was telling you about. No recoil, cheap to shoot, lots of fun!" *The man exits into the hallway*
The woman watches her husband disappear into the hallway, turns to us, and says flatly with a dry smile;
"The latest toy he's trying to convince me he needs."
*I smile broadly*

I smiled because it was exactly like a kid trying to convince his mom she should get the toy for him. Not so say she was in charge of him, but he was so much like a kid, excited about a new toy. When else can you see a late 50's Texan-looking guy in a cowboy hat truly excited about something?

But enough people-watching...

Loaded the magazines, set rear sight to the lowest setting, set the target to the minimum distance, took aim unsupported, and fired off five shots. The trigger was sloppy in all aspects, and it seemed to be shooting high. 40 rounds later I had the sight set to 5 with a 6 o' clock point of aim, dead on at 50(?) feet, and the trigger seemed less sloppy. Once settled in I tried to get my groups as small as possible. I fired off the remaining rounds supported on my elbows on the naval-high tray/bench (while sticking my ass out like an idiot). My groups got smaller but not as small as I would have hoped. When my 100 rounds were used up, I had two 2nd stage failures to feed. The rounds were half in the barrel straight, slight pressure to the bolt put them fully into battery (odd failure to feed). After the failures I realized that people found they needed to clean out their G22s, because they came from the factory with some kind of odd grease, and when I switched it from righty to lefty, I didn't take the opportunity to oil it (dumb).

Not too bad, all things considered.

I returned to the counter and asked what kind of .22 they had; the employee recommended some Remington Cyclone because they were pretty hot, and helped cycling problems. While I wasn't too concerned about the failures, I was interested in getting something hotter into my gun.

50 rounds of Cyclone got me my best group; 9 in one inch, and one flyer put me at one and a half inches. Pretty damn good for me. I found the Cyclone seemed to shoot more accurately through my G22 (might have just been me, but I'll find out when I pick up more CCI). One failure to feed, same as before; my baby needs oil.

Plinking is a new experience for me, since this is my first .22, and I can honestly say that it is a helluva lot of fun. There's just something different about it. Not worrying about recoil, flinch, or the cost of rounds is just freeing. Not to mention the ability to make some great groups! It's different. In a good way. (A very good way)

I should like to pick up an inexpensive scope to free me from the blurry target, and really find out what kind of accuracy I can get out of my funky plinker.

I really look forward to bringing my space gun back to the range.

The space gun cometh...

Well, only 9 more days to go...
(guns; betcha can't buy just four!)


(cue Sci-Fi weapon sound) BZZZZOW! BZZZZOW, BZZZZOW!

Now Josh, before you get mad, you should know that there were extenuating circumstances...

102 of them...

I'd been keeping an eye on the G22 for a while, but couldn't see spending the money on something so bloody impractical. When I hit Turners yesterday, I checked out their lever guns (my latest fancy), then I noticed that they had a Kel-Tec SU-16CA. Somehow the guys on CalGuns are convinced that these were hard to find, and I was almost ready to pay a premium for it, but then I called up good old Ade's gun shop, and he told me that he had two new ones in stock, and for $100 less than Turners. Once I knew that I'd be able to find an SU-16CA, I was very relieved. I wasn't quite ready to buy a gun in the price range of the SU. I mean, I COULD buy it, but I would have prefered to prepare for the purchase.

I looked in the corner at where they kept the three G22s I'd been eyeballing for months. this time they were all laying out against the wall instead of crammed into the corner, and one of them had a red tag on it! Turns out that the G22 with woodland camo has been discontinued, and Turners through a brilliant marketing strategy (???) chopped $102 off of it. I could get the G22 easily.

Once I knew that I COULD, I tried to figure out if I SHOULD. Wanting a gun is one thing, but when it comes time to actually (fuck it, I'm going to say it) pull the trigger, you think more seriously about it. Which was particularly difficult in this instance, because this gun serves almost no purpose.

I mean, look at it. Should I ever need an expensive solution to engaging in close-quarters-combat with an elite force of varmints, I'd reach for the G22. Otherwise, it's purely for fun. Besides, my jaunts to the range lately have been lacking something. I wanted something to spice up my visits, and since I live so close to the (pistol calibers only) range, and so far from any wide open spaces I might shoot rifles at, I think the G22 presented itself at the right time. Even so, it still took me a while to convince myself to buy this completely impractical gun. Well, the bullpup design means I get the velocity of a 20" barrel without the extra space, and it can be switched from lefty to righty easily (important if you don't like bolts in the teeth!). The .22 round is useful only for varmits of various types, and killing paper. I guess it does have some points. (very few though)

As I was filling out the paperwork, (and being fingerprinted like a criminal) someone walked up and gestured toward the woodland camo'ed G22 on the counter between me and the clerk.
"Pickin' up a G22? Good choice. I've got one, and it's a lot of fun."
"Yeah... Kinda hard to rationalize though, right?"
"Oh yeah. But hey; fun's fun!"

Yeah. I guess fun is fun. This gun serves no practical purpose other than to go to the range and have fun killing paper. (maybe even with frikin' laz0rs!)

I'm happy with my purchase.