Shooting – Page 20 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Lucky Gunner Shoot – Day One

After arriving into the Knoxville area around 1AM last night,Â and not being totally sure of what kind of event Lucky Gunner had in store for us, I arrived to the event this morning not knowing quite what to expect. Turns out Lucky Gunner got us into an invitational machine gun shoot event known as Bullet Fest, and I think it worked quite well. I quite enjoyed myself for the first day, getting to shoot a wide variety of machine guns. As far as entertainment events, there were World War II and Civil War re-enactors present, and some of them brought fun toys like a half track all decked out in machine guns, and two World War II era tanks shooting live ammunition. You can tell this type of event is basically an excuse for rich guys to bring out their favorite toys. The organizer was getting frustrated with one of the tanks turned loose on the range, and wanted to get him out of there, but he was having a good old time. I guess if you own a tank, there’s not much opportunity to drive around a ranges smashing cars and shooting live ammunition, so you get as much in as you can. The Knox County Sheriff’s department also brought their UH-1 “Huey” helicopter and landed it in a parking spot for the amusement of spectators. That was pretty neat too, though I’m probably not the only one who is disappointing they didn’t rake downrange with machine gun fire from the helo. Turns out they only use the Huey for search and rescue.

Anyway, back to the important stuff, machine guns. What did I shoot?

M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle, or BAR. Anyone who’s a World War II history buff knows of this weapon. I had figured being a 30-06 full auto, it would be murderous to shoot, but given the gun’s weight, the recoil is quite manageable. I have a lot of respect for the guys that slugged these things around Europe. At 22 pounds, I’d hate to be that guy.
M1919 Browning Machine Gun, .30 caliber. This is a water cooled model, and runs about 40 grand if you want one for yourself. Before I shot it, a round cooked off in the chamber indicating the water reservoir was empty. I had heard you can piss in the water reservoir in a pinch, but happily, a jug was handy. I was supposed to limit myself on ammo, but got a bit carried away. They had to tap me on the shoulder to get me to stop. I feel bad about that. But damn, it was a lot of fun.
MP40 9mm submachine gun, predecessor to the MP5, of World War II vintage on the German side. I would have believed this gun was firing blanks. It’s highly controllable with very little recoil or muzzle climb.
M3 submachine gun, .45ACP. Much like its German counterpart, highly controllable and tame. A joy to shoot.
M14 battle rifle, 7.62x51mm NATO. This is a gun that should never be used except on semi-auto. Full auto fire is brutal and essentially spray and pray. An AK-47 is considerably more controllable.
HK91 battle rifle. More controllable than the M14, but still pretty brutal on full auto.
AK-47, the real thing. More controllable than I would have thought. The cyclic rate is slow enough the muzzle has time to come back down under its own weight. You don’t have to fight it as much as I would have thought.
M16A1. You would think from firing an AR that the M16 would be relatively tame. It’s quite controllable, but it definitely pushes back a bit more than you would think.

Tomorrow Kriss is going to let us demo some of their new toys. They have representatives that have flown all the way from Switzerland. I didn’t even know they were a Swiss company, but it looks like they are. The Kriss is Swiss technology.

I thank Lucky Gunner for generously supplying us with ammunition and putting all this together. It’s not every day when beautiful women come up, hand you a menu of ammunition that’s available, and bring you whatever you want to the firing line.

Off to the Lucky Gunner Shoot

I’m on my way to head down to Knoxville for the Lucky Gunner Memorial Day shooty shindig. Unfortunately, because the drive takes 10 hours, I won’t be able to make it to any of the Friday pre-events.

I’m taking two ARs, my Glock 19, and Kel-Tec P-3AT. I’ll have to stop before entering the People’s Republic of Maryland since it is the only state along the way where my carry permit is not valid. We’re really going to have to fix that at some point.

Colin’s Dad Hates “Modern Sporting Rifles”

I was amused to see Andrew Goddard, who’s father of Colin, the Brady Campaign’s newest rising star, post this over on a public forum in Facebook:

Andrew Goddard on the Modern Sporting Rifle

For the record, I don’t really like MSR either. When I go to practice, or more rarely these days with my schedule, to shoot a competition, I take my rifle. I don’t feel the need to call it more than that, or to justify my use for it.

Mr. Goddard’s problem is that “military assault weapon” is just as much of a finessed public relations term as “modern sporting rifle.” Sure, there are military assault rifles, but I don’t own one of those because my rifle does not fire like a machine gun, and neither does anyone else’s who hasn’t shelled out five figures and $200 for their federal stamp of approval. Both terms are inventions of PR flacks and marketing types looking to manipulate public opinion in their favor.

But before I agree with Andrew Goddard a bit too much, I will note that the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s latest data shows that 51% of “MSR”owners hold a membership at a shooting club, and 89% consider target shooting to be their primary reason for owning one. So I’m not sure, even if it’s a finessed PR and marketing term, why it is inherently inaccurate. Andrew Goddard clearly has some things to learn about what types if firearms are most prominent in modern target shooting sports.

This sort of destroys our opponents’ mental images of AR-15 owners hunkered down in bunkers waiting for the blue helmeted UN stormtroopers to follow the directions written on the back of all the road signs straight into their hideout. I really do believe that’s what they think people own an AR-15 for. They don’t think this. Or this. Definitely not this. (h/t to Robert for the pics.) They let their fear and ignorance get in the way of sound judgement on the matter.

Regulating Air Guns in California

Regulating out of existence, that is. This is not only a bad bill, it’s a dangerous bill. Air guns are not toys and should not look like toys, but that appears to be what this bill would do. My opinion is the manufacturers should just pull out of California if this passes.

I have no idea why anyone would choose to live in that state.

Free Targets

From Lucky Gunner, via SayUncle who notes: “I guess the Osama one might be a hit, if you practice going for the left eye socket. I see an e-postal match for that.”

Boomershoot Fireball

Looks like Ry Jones made quite a fireball at this year’s Boomershoot. One of these days I need to make it out there.

Positive AK Story

Not something you see every day in the media. Even a lot of shooter would deride the Kalashnikov as a gun for target shooting, but it’ll shoot better than the average shooter is capable of. I have never been a particularly good shot with an AK, but I’ve seen people who can consistently ring an 8 inch plate at two hundred yards with one. It’s a cheap gun to own (though, they’ve gotten a LOT more expensive than when I got mine, though they’ve also gotten better) and a cheap gun to shoot. They seem to be a gun a lot of people buy because it’s politically incorrect, but later sell because they don’t shoot it much. I’ve held on to mine.

Memorial Day Weekend Blogger Shoot

The folks at Lucky Gunner are sponsoring a Memorial Day blogger shoot, and it looks like a pretty good time. How could you not love this:

You will get to shootÂ free ammo through a bunch of cool,Â Class III (including full-auto) weapons (and your own weapons as well).

You don’t have to ask me twice. I may not have a job in May, but I’ll be going even if I have to beg for gas money. That’s not all they are planning though. So if you’re a blogger, I would consider pre-registering. It looks like a good time.

More on PGC Public Range Regulations

Bitter got the Pennsylvania Game Commission on the phone and asked them some questions about the new permit requirement for public shooting ranges in Pennsylvania. I think a lot of people will object to the fact that only $200,000 of $11,000,000 in Pittman-Robertson funds goes to range maintenance. This is especially true when you consider handguns make up more than half of PR funds, and very few handguns are used for hunting.

In effect, the whole of the shooting community is subsidizing hunting. This will no doubt be a controversial statement, but I think that shooters should accept this state of affairs. Until this past year, hunting numbers had been in decline, while hunting license fees have been relatively stable, and not kept up with inflation. This means in real terms, state wildlife management budgets have shrunk. Increasing budgets for shooting ranges would mean decreasing budgets to support hunting programs, or raising hunting license fees, which will only serve to drive more people out of the sport.

A lot of people are going to argue that the baby is sick, probably isn’t going to make it to shore, and we’d be far better off just throwing it off the life boat preemptively, so that we can use the supplies for the rest of us. The problem is, hunting is a critical part of this fight, and we’re going to be far weaker politically if we toss that baby over. We have hunting numbers on the upswing. Perhaps that will continue. Time will tell.

PGC To Charge for Public Range Use

Looks like the Game Commission is looking to require either a valid PA hunting license, or a range permit to be able to use PGC ranges throughout the state. Considering that PGC is funded with hunting license fees, and these ranges are maintained solely by the PGC, I think this is a fair move. Anyone who’s frequented Pennsylvania ranges knows they are crowded and poorly maintained. This strikes me as a fair way to manage the resource, provided the fees for the range permits are funneled into maintaining the ranges. Looks like there will be provisions for taking guests and kids too, without them also needing a range permit.