[John in AR]

My wife wanted to go to Branson so I took Monday off work, left early on Friday and we spent a long weekend there. (I don't like to post "gonna be out of town" stuff ahead of time, only after the fact.) Didn't do anything grandiose, just shopping, eating out & general driving around looking at things, but she enjoyed getting out. Our sons are both currently in that general area, and they met us for sunday dinner on father's day, which I suspect was my wife's real reason for wanting to go in the first place. Got back early enough for me to spend some time doing minor chores around the house yesterday; now, have to play catch-up at work.

In the process of getting new contracts (monitoring, inspections, etc) in place with 730 of our customers, to help smooth things out for prospective buyers of the business, on top of it also being our busiest month of the year anyway. We do annual fire alarm testing for several school districts, and state law now mandates that all that school fire alarm testing be done and reports filed by June 30; so when the schools won't let you do testing until after the students are gone on summer break, it means that June is largely tied up with school fire-alarm testing, making it far & away our busiest month even without the contract craziness we're doing at the same time. Five-page contracts for ~730 customers, filled out, sent out to the customers for their signatures, (literally thousands of dollars in postage alone with the pre-stamped return envelopes we included), answering phone calls about the contract from seemingly half of those customers (mostly on my cell to keep some of the burden off of our office manager), receiving the contracts back, scanning them into the computer and emailing copies to our broker to document for prospective buyers that we have them on hand. So far, all are sent out, 120 are back, scanned in and emailed out, probably 80-100 more are back but yet to be scanned, and another 20-30 that are back but have to be re-done due to signatures in the wrong place, etc.

I miss when I used to work 50-hour work weeks, but it'll be worth it in the long run. The longer this drags out, the more attractive the idea of moving to either Quintana Roo or Belize looks.

 

[John in AR]

Thinking about selling off two of the three M&P 9mm's I have. There's a standard, a compact, and a CORE with extended barrel; all with manual safeties. One of my sons edc's a full-size M&P 9 now, so I told him to decide which one he'd like to have, and I'd sell the others. Waiting to hear back from him now. I'd recommend the compact, but I'll let him decide.

 

[Garand]

I just loaded on a Canadian web site this morning my 1926 Winchester M94. I bought 2 last year to see which one works better with cast lead. One does, the one that doesn't is being sold. Yesterday I expected my wife to be out all day so I decided to put together a 3 gun belt for a match next month. Since our AR's are prohibited from leaving the house, I'm putting a belt together for my M1 Carbine. Well just as I had everything spread out all over the family room, guess who comes home. It took me about 3 hours to get the kit setup the way I wanted it, she who must be obeyed was happy after I cleaned up the mess. The rest of the week was the usual Wednesday pistol practice and prepping brass.

 

[BigEd]

Well Tuesday I had a pretty good if somewhat short range day.

The as I call it Calvin and Hobbes Range finally reopened last week Friday and I went there with a gun shop acquaintance who'd never been out there.

Not much really changed except the mega sized bullet trap more useful for an indoor range is gone for good thankfully.
No true pistol distance range for beginners or mouse guns.
Hours now Standard 8:00am to 4:30pn.

One thing I really love down in that hollow is the new benches for people to wait their turn on are rubber dipped expanded metal. Can see right through incase there's a snake underneath.😁

Got one rifle of mine sigted in for squirrel season. Will return for some off hand practice with it.

Sorry didn't take any pics this time out.

 

[John in AR]

Been debating whether to sell my mossberg 500 for a while, and out of the blue one of my brothers told me Sunday that he recently tried to buy a 12-gauge pump at Academy that ended up being out of stock; so it worked out for both of us. He hasn't picked it up yet, but basically one more gun sold. I believe this makes number 20 now.

Found it used with no fore end for $110 at a gunshow in either 1991 or 92, added the Pachmayr fore end, replaced the damaged plastic safety slide with a slightly larger home-made aluminum one, and added the sidesaddle:

It's been a fine gun and was my only 12 gauge until probably 7-8 years ago when I picked up a 930 at a family member's recommendation. While I think everyone should own one good shotgun, I shoot mine very little, and figure there's not much point in keeping both.

 

[Garand]

I used a Mossberg M500ATPSP 6 shot, pump shot gun for 3 gun matches from '86 until about 2008, excellent gun it never failed me. Thought I could replace it with a Winchester M1897, I was wrong so a few years later I bought a Mossberg M590A1 (w/o the bayonet). It was a good choice. Just finished packing the SUV, leaving tomorrow and am shooting a 4 day Cowboy match plus long range. No wi fi will be available so you won't hear from me during the weekend.

 

[John in AR]

Took another gun in to put on consignment; this one a P-64 in 9x18 caliber.

 

[Terry G]

I've stated my opinion of the P-64. The only C&R gun I sent back.

 

[John in AR]

I've stated my opinion of the P-64. The only C&R gun I sent back.

You didn't like the 15-pound DA trigger pull, followed by a 15-ounce SA pull? 😎

 

[Terry G]

You didn't like the 15-pound DA trigger pull, followed by a 15-ounce SA pull? 😎

Actually I double tapped inadvertently a few times. That and the fact that it didn't recoil, it kicked like hell. The sights were impossible for me. I actually bought two P-64's figuring that I would keep one and sell the other. Both were brand new. They LOOKED great. Not only was I not going to keep one I was not going to sell one to anyone I knew. AIM took both back and gave me a full refund.

 

[BigEd]

Today I got out both the Tomahawk and the Cut-more and touched up the edges a bit.
The later for a big heavy blade is pretty much shaving sharp. I say pretty much because anything that big and heavy I don't wanna drag across my skin very much if it's that sharp.

 

[John in AR]

Put two more guns out on consignment; the marlin papoose and the rossi circuit judge 45/410 revolving carbine. They're both fine guns, but it still leaves me with two .45LC long guns and four .22LR long guns; more than necessary by a long shot.

Also got rid of two guns outright. The .44 magnum 16" levergun (to a family member) and gave my only muzzle-loader to one of our technicians along with a couple hundred 209 primers to go with it. I kept most of the 209's to use in the .45LC revolvers with modified cartridge cases and wax bullets.

 

[John in AR]

One more gun gone; gave one of my sons my M&P9 compact. His two carry gun options have been a full-size MP9 and a Kahr CM9, and the MP9 Compact will make a better compromise of attributes imo. Since he lives in a more populated area than we do, he's been carrying the full size M&P, which is kind of a pain even for us oafs.

Still have an MP9 full size and a ported MP9 C.O.R.E. version; will probably put those out on consignment eventually.

Also been tweaking my .300bk pistol. It's historically been good, but when switching to a new ammunition recently it started having functional issues. Not too unexpected and not ragging on the gun too much - with that short a gas system, on that short a barrel, it's just more vulnerable to any changes or influences. It has run well with the 110-grain VMAX that I've mostly carried in it and with various fmj stuff as well, but I came across a can of 130-grain Hog Hammer SCHP stuff when looking for something for someone else, and decided to switch to it from the VMAX. When trying it out along with some Fiocchi fmj stuff, it started having issues with both of them that even varying the adjustable gas block didn't solve.

Took a while (and some picking of other people's brains) to figure it out, but a heavier buffer 'seems' to have fixed it. Only tested it with a few rounds last night, but seems much better. With luck I'll get some more rounds through it this weekend to verify. Worst case, I go back to the VMAX and save the Hog Hammer for animal use, where reliability isn't as critical.

 

[John in AR]

Just got told by the LGS owner that my P-64 sold. Crazy prices in crazy times also. I bought it in 2006 for $229 iirc; sold it today for $389 with the same three magazines, so ~70% profit. That's only just enough to barely keep up with inflation, but substantially better than most of the guns (or cars, or whatever) that I've sold after owning.

I looked at some old posts to see exactly when it was that I'd bought it, and saw the price of the ammo back then:

I impulse-bought a P-64 yesterday at a gunshow, mainly due to price, the fact that it uses the same ammo as my son's Bulgy Mak, and yet is smaller than a Walther PP.

...Ran a couple mags of Sliver Bear HP thru this one when I got it home; thing kicks hard for a small gun, but that's to be expected of a pocket-size blowback gun in this caliber. I paid $5.45/50 for 9mm Mak Silver Bear HP's last time I bought a case...

I checked my spreadsheet to be sure, but Silver Bear's 115 JHP stuff left the little P64 at 1,004 fps average. That's awfully good for factory ammo in a gun the size of a PPK.

Factory-new 115-grain, 1005-fps, jacketed hollowpoint ammo for $109 per thousand. "The good old days", I guess...

 

[John in AR]

One more gun sold. An unfired SKS that iirc I paid $130 for. Instead of putting it on consignment, I sold it outright to the LGS owner for $450. Makes 24 guns sold in the last year or year & a half; plus still have three guns and one .22 conversion kit out on consignment, and one of my brothers wants to buy my mossberg 500 next time he comes to visit.

Next two I was planning to put out on consignment were the only two M&P's I have left (one full size and one C.O.R.E. ported-barrel model) I gave my compact to my son). But the LGS is crazy top-heavy with 9mm pistols (along with AR's and AK's as well) right now, so I'm going to wait until the shelves clear out a little before putting them out.

 

[Terry G]

I went to one of the State ranges with my best Friend. He was visiting from Illinois and can't seem to find a range to fire his new Bushmaster AR-15. My home range is limited to 100 yards and I wanted to do some 200 yard shooting. He had bought a Red Dot and wanted to zero it in a 100 yards. We set up a 3/4 size silhouette with one of those sticky four inch bulls eye target. From a rest he fired three shots. We had to walk down range to check (we were the only ones using any of the ranges) and couldn't find a hole anywhere. He set up again and I had spotted with my binoculars and saw the first shot hit a good two feet to the right of the target. I've seen some sights that were off initially, but WOW! Well we got that sighted in and moved to the 200 yard range. I started off with my old Colt SP-1 and it was on but the wind picked up some and I noticed both our 5.56 MM rounds were drifting some. Good hits, but the wind makes a difference on 55 grain ammunition. I hauled out one of my Garand's and we took turns using it. The groups were better than the AR-15's were doing and I have to say from zero to 200 yards a man sized target is easy pickings. We tried my SKS Paratrooper and I'll just say it's easy to hit the target SOMEWHERE.. I would call it Minute of Man. .The handguns got a workout too. The little Browning .22 redeemed itself after a 100 round break in. No malfunctions, good tight groups, and fun! It still wont let the slide forward on a loaded magazine using the slide release however. C75b, Glock 21, CZ82, Hellcat, Taurus G2c, Taurus G3, S&W .22 Compact, and Taurus TX22 all got a workout and my Friend bought me Supper, so a good day.

 

[John in AR]

...I started off with my old Colt SP-1 and it was on but the wind picked up some and I noticed both our 5.56 MM rounds were drifting some. Good hits, but the wind makes a difference on 55 grain ammunition. I hauled out one of my Garand's and we took turns using it. The groups were better than the AR-15's were doing and I have to say from zero to 200 yards a man sized target is easy pickings...

I still prefer an AR, but no way around the fact that small, light bullets are more affected by wind (and brush, and bones, and other things) more than bigger, heavier bullets are.

 

[John in AR]

Halle-friggin-leuia; finally got the pins/rods out of my foot today. Should (maybe) be able to put a shoe on it tomorrow for the first time in nearly six weeks, depending on how much the swelling goes down overnight. Still have one more final follow-up with the podiatrist in a few weeks, but very glad for the progress.

 

[Terry G]

I don't believe this. I have to see a Podiatrist on 9/2 for possible surgery on my left foot. Small toe growing something that is painful. It was removed twice and grew back. Middle toe possible hammer toe. It's the result of an accident I had in 1986 and NOW it's coming back to bite me.

 

[John in AR]

I don't believe this. I have to see a Podiatrist on 9/2 for possible surgery on my left foot. Small toe growing something that is painful. It was removed twice and grew back. Middle toe possible hammer toe. It's the result of an accident I had in 1986 and NOW it's coming back to bite me.

Good luck with that. This has been my first interaction with a podiatrist and it's gone fairly well. Mine's been a pretty much life-long thing that I've just put off fixing; hammertoes on both feet. The doctor said it's sometimes hereditary and sometimes caused (or exacerbated) by wearing too-small shoes when young. One of my brothers had it & had his fixed a long time ago. He's the brother closest to me in age (we're the youngest two of six) and when we grew up we did often go longer without new shoes that we probably should have; so in our case it's likely a combination of heredity and the 'too-small shoe' thing, since our older brothers don't have it. Either way, it got somewhat worse over the last few years and turned into something I figured it was time to get fixed.

Was finally able to put a shoe on it this morning, but since the swelling isn't completely down, it's without a sock. Regardless, very glad to have the first one done. Will probably be another month or two before the insurance company will authorize the other one.

Now have a long list of chores to catch up on. Have a new IR illuminator to add to the back yard, as the area is bigger than the built-in illuminator on the cameras can adequately light up at night. Have garage lights to install upstairs, a lot of work in the yard and things at our building in town to do; all of which have been on hold since I've been gimped for over a month.