The Floor is not for Storage

Today is a big day. I’ve been organizing my gun stuff.

When you have one gun, organization is pretty simple. You put the gun in your pocket or your nightstand, and you put the ammunition in a drawer along with a simple cleaning kit. When you have a fair number of guns, it’s different. I suppose I have 6 different types of .22 ammunition. I have at least two types of .17 HMR ammunition. I have multiple versions of ammunition for a bunch of calibers. I have brass, bullets, primers, and powder for a bunch of calibers. My cleaning kit is pretty big, and I have a separate box of chemicals and Boresnakes. Then there are my targets, gadgets, parts, and papers.

It’s a mess.

Speaking of targets, I made a practice of buying Caldwell Orange Peel second-quality targets whenever they turned up for sale, so I have a pretty decent supply on hand. In retrospect, this wasn’t the best move I could have made.

I bought 8″ circular targets with white circular grids on them. I don’t need an 8″ target most of the time. For me, a 4″ target will usually do the job. For a pistol at 60 feet, a 6″ target would be fine. By buying 8″ targets, I risked wasting a lot of paper.

I learned I could economize by shooting at several different places on each target. By doing this, you can turn each target into at least 5 targets.

My system works, but I have started buying targets with 4 4-inch bullseyes on them. It’s somewhat more elegant, and it still saves money.

Today I located all the boxes I could find which had gun-related things in them. I still have a bunch of boxes I haven’t unpacked since leaving Miami. There are things I just don’t need to have unpacked, so for the most part, leaving the boxes as they are makes sense. Today I dug into the boxes that actually needed to be emptied and organized. I found Russian sniper ammo, loose pistol shells, owner’s manuals, bits of a chronograph, a green laser, and plenty of other things.

I rooted around online, trying to come up with a way to store these things. I can use little cardboard boxes, but cardboard falls apart eventually, and certain bugs like to live in it. I finalled decided to try transparent plastic boxes from Home Depot. They cost a little over a dollar each, and each box will hold a good deal of ammunition.

This left me with papers to deal with. My solution is a see-through file box from Office Depot. It will give me a place to put all my manuals. The ones I still have, I mean.

Gun cleaning items…I still have no solution. I have a wheeled toolbox I used to use for range trips when I was a land-deprived surburbanite who could not shoot in his own yard. Maybe I can throw everything in that.

A lot of people use steel ammo boxes for ammo storage. They cost a lot, they’re heavy, and they’re too big for most of my calibers. I would rather spend $20 than $200.

I got my Desert Eagle out and shot it this weekend. It was a Chinese fire drill. About half of the shells refused to extract, and the rest hit me in the face, leaving cuts and bruises.

I think this demonstrates a fundamental difference between men and women. With the possible exception of ballet, there is no hobby women will take up which causes them to be injured repeatedly. Only a man will continue firing a gun that flings hot shells into his forehead. Women can’t enjoy that kind of thing.

I did what I usually do when I have a problem. My first response should be prayer, but I tend to go to Google first. I learned some things about the Desert Eagle.

First, it has a terrible extractor spring. It’s not even a real spring. It’s a tiny red piece of “polymer” (plastic to you and me) that sits under the extractor. It looks like a miniature Jujube. Magnum Research sold thousands of these guns and didn’t tell buyers the Jujubes fell apart upon being exposed to oil and solvents.

Good thing no one ever puts oils or solvents on firearms!

My extractor Jujube is apparently dead. I have not opened the bolt up completely, but there is no tension at all on the extractor, which is the reason I still have some skin on my forehead. I ordered two new extractor springs, and I also ordered an AR15 spring. I read that AR15 springs, which are steel, fit the Desert Eagle just fine.

Second thing I learned: the Desert Eagle has an adjustable trigger.

Did this thing come with a manual? If so, I should punch myself for not reading it.

Or I could just hold the Desert Eagle in front of me and fire a shot.

I have always criticized the Desert Eagle’s trigger. It felt like I was trying to close rusty scissors on a piece of sandpaper. When I found out there was a simple screw for trigger adjustment, I adjusted the trigger, and now it seems almost pleasant. Wish I had known about this sooner.

I can’t shoot the gun until my springs get here. I hope it functions.

Magnum Research always blamed the end user for being battered with shells. They said it was caused by “limp-wristing,” which means holding the gun like Barack Obama. Not so. I held it very firmly yesterday and still got pummeled. I’m wondering if the extractor problem could have had anything to do with it.

I plan to keep researching the problem. There may be some way to fix the gun so I don’t have to wear a face shield.

I’m not impressed with the gun’s engineering. I have some pretty old guns, and they work just fine. I don’t have to open them up and insert new plastic Jujubes every hundred rounds. Running properly for many years without repairs is normal. You can make excuses for Magnum Research, but the truth is, they blew it.

Why haven’t I been shooting the gun over the years? Simple. The rounds cost me a dollar each. The other day, I started to feel bad about owning a beautiful firearm I did not use, so I looked around online for ammo. While the mainstream stuff has increased to maybe $1.35 per round, a reputable company called Precision One makes it considerably cheaper, so that’s what I ordered. It’s probably great ammunition when you shoot it in a firearm that works.

I have dies for .50 AE, so I am looking into reloading. It appears that there are two types of bullets: the 80¢ kind and the 32¢ kind. There is no point in reloading using 80¢ bullets. It would cost as much as factory ammo. A company called Berry’s makes the cheaper bullets. I may pick some up when the box I ordered runs dry.

If I can get my shooting stuff organized, maybe there is hope for the rest of my possessions. I am still working on the workshop. I’m about to put my dry saw on wheels. That will help. Things are already much better than they were a month ago.

Right now, there are a bunch of piles of ammunition, parts, and so on littering my floor. I’m happy about it, though, because it’s the beginning of the end of a tiresome problem.

I’m going to try to shoot more. I’m thinking of buying a couple of steel gongs.

When I finish fabricating the saw stand, I’ll post photos. I think it will be amazing, especially to people familiar with the dubious quality of most of my metal work.