I see Why the Viet Cong Loved the AK-47

I had my first negligent discharge today.

Actually, that’s not true, and there is more than one reason.

First, I shot my house once when I was a teenager. So what happened today was actually my first possibly negligent discharge since becoming an adult.

Second, I knew the gun was likely to go off at the wrong time, so I held it aimed at the ground while I was fooling with it.

Negligence is the absence of due care, and I did take measures to prevent problems before the discharge, but I didn’t fire the gun intentionally, so it’s not like it was a normal discharge.

Should I call it an accidental discharge?

I was shooting my Thompson/Center Venture in .204 Ruger, and I was having a hard time getting the bolt to close. This gun has not been fired much, and it’s very tight. I noticed that the natural thing to do was to put my ring finger and pinky inside the trigger guard while trying to shut the bolt. It was hard to remember not to do this. I came up with a safety strategy, in case I touched the trigger at the wrong time. When I had trouble with the bolt, I aimed the gun at the ground. I got so frustrated trying to close it, I forgot about the trigger for a fraction of a second, and the gun reminded me.

According to web sources, accidental discharges take place when you pull the trigger on purpose at the wrong time, and negligent discharges take place when you fail to observe one of the 4 safety rules. It looks like I had a negligent discharge.

I love the .204. It’s a wonderful rifle, but I have to figure out what’s going on with the bolt.

The safety won’t function unless the gun is cocked, and you have to run the bolt to cock the gun, so you can’t just engage the safety and then close the bolt.

I guess the answer is to sit on the couch and operate the bolt a thousand times to loosen it up. And maybe there is something in there that could use some filing.

The Venture was the second gun I shot today. The first was my new CORE15, which is an AR15 with a 16″ barrel. The AR shooting went very badly.

I bought this thing last week, and I got a moderately priced scope with it. I also bought Norma Tactical .55-grain ammunition to get me started. This is the ammunition I used today. I knew it probably wasn’t fantastic, but I assumed it would be good for maybe 2 MOA. Today, I would say I shot more like 5 MOA. I had no idea where the shots were going to land. Things seemed to get better after the first 40 shots or so. Maybe it took a few rounds to wear the new off the bore. After that, things improved, but only up to a point.

Now I don’t know whether the problem is the ammunition or the gun. Frustrating. I’ll have to see if there is ammunition other people do well with.

The trigger is great. I would be very surprised to learn that the barrel can’t beat 5 MOA. I’m pretty sure I can do better with a .22 and Mini-mags, so the AR15 has no excuse.

I wonder if Fiocchi cartridges with V-Max bullets would help. In the .204, they appear to be extremely accurate, although I’m not positive, because every time I start to get the .204 working, something bad happens, and I have to quit. Last time, the ridiculous battery that operates the scope died. This time, it started raining. From what I’ve seen, though, it appears one-hole accuracy is easy at 60 yards. Actually, I was shooting at 58 yards. I wanted to shoot at 50, but there was shade at 58.

I don’t know if .204 is inherently more accurate than .223. I haven’t been able to find good information. I do know my Venture is guaranteed to produce 1 MOA 3-shot groups at 100 yards, and my AR15 isn’t.

It’s somewhat amazing that you can buy a relatively cheap .204 rifle with a guarantee like that and an adjustable match trigger and then shoot it well with cheap factory ammunition, but that’s how it is.

If .223 is not inherently less accurate, then I ought to get 1 MOA with the AR15 and Fiocchi ammo, unless the rifle itself fails to get the best out of cartridges. If .223 is less accurate across the board, the manufacturer can point to that and claim not to be at fault, but if .223 is not less accurate, then T/C is just plain shaming the folks who made my AR, which cost twice as much and still came with a mil-spec trigger.

As luck would have it, I have a crate of V-Max .223 ammo on the way. It got stuck in a UPS hub in Oregon for two solid days, and now it’s in Salt Lake City. I need to try it as soon as it gets here.

I also need a shooting table. I thought I didn’t, but I do. I thought my folding Home Depot table was actually better than a dedicated shooting bench, but today I learned I can move the aim point of my scope down about an inch must by resting my left hand lightly on the table. I had not seen that before. I got very good accuracy with my .17 HMR using the same table, but maybe that was luck.

I have to take the flex out of the table or get a new bench. I guess I could put a piece of plywood or something on the table under the gun. That would be somewhat aggravating. More stuff to carry. I could preload the table somehow, but again, more stuff to carry.

If the table is flexing when I put my hand on it, it may also be bouncing when the gun fires. For all I know, that could move my point of impact.

The flexing didn’t bother the .204 at all, and it’s heavier than the .223. I don’t really know what’s going on. Flexing can’t be a good thing, though.

Should I just be a man and spend for a prefab table? Arggh.

My rest is not great. It doesn’t have enough vertical travel. Maybe I should get a big bag instead. I’ve never used a front bag, though.

I wish things had gone more smoothly today, but they did not, so tomorrow I’ll just have to adapt. Hopefully, I’ll master the .204’s bolt. I can’t wait for the V-Max .223 to show up.