Call me Lord of the Scope Rings

I am so tired of Hurricane Ike. Apart from the pain it has caused in the Caribbean, it managed to take a path that has kept it nearly the same distance from me for several days. Today the sky is sort of a light grey, and we’re getting lots of annoying wind gusts. By tomorrow morning, we should finally be free from the hurricane influence. And not a moment too soon.

I’m glad it’s getting weak. I hope it finds its way to a nice piece of empty jungle. Let Gaia take it in the face; it’s her storm, anyway.

I got splendid news RE the .17 HMR rifle. My scope rings should be here on Thursday. If that happens, Friday is RANGE DAY. I can’t wait to shoot again. I haven’t been to the range in maybe a month. It’s killing me. And this will be a special day, because for the first time, I’ll be shooting a rifle in which I have total confidence. Will I shoot badly? Maybe. But at least I’ll know what’s causing all the problems.

I decided to get Weaver extra-high rings with levers on them. The levers tighten the rings onto the bases. I chose these over the ones will little knobs that come off. Why? A commenter at Midway said the knobs have a tendency to get away from you. So if you take one off while you’re outdoors, you risk losing it in grass or whatever. The levers don’t look all that great, but at least they won’t fall off.

I have a feeling Weaver won’t sell you a new knob. That’s another consideration.

I also ordered Pachmayrs for the Smith & Wesson 27-2. Jim recommended them. He has been a tremendous help. The wooden grips that come with the gun are very comfortable, for about three shots. After that, you notice that your middle finger is completely filling the space between the grip and the trigger guard. After a while, you get tired of having the steel hammered backward into your flesh. Bad design. Jim recommended the smaller version of the Gripper grip, but I decided to try the big version first, because it has a closed backstrap. It’s supposed to cushion the recoil better, and I don’t like really small grips. My 686 Plus has a tiny grip, and it feels weird.

My dad still hasn’t collected on his Father’s Day gift, which was a concealed carry course. I’ll have to drag him to the class. He wants to go, but he keeps forgetting. He keeps talking about M1 rifles. It would be funny if we started shooting together.

I ordered some Eezox, on recommendations from readers. I might as well mention something which is sure to start a fight. I looked at some rust preventative tests online. Eezox wasn’t the top performer. One product that fared very well is Outers Metal Seal. It’s not easy to find. Break-Free CLP also did very well.

I’m hoping Eezox or something like it will put a halt to the rust on the exposed areas of my ammunition press.

Geez, I still have to take about a hundred .357 rounds apart and try to figure out what’s wrong with them. I tried to shoot some at the range, and they sort of fell out of the barrel, instead of flying true.

I still can’t get the ManCamp boys to go to the range.

While I was at ManCamp on Sunday, Val produced an interesting item. He thought it was some kind of deer rifle. It came from an abandoned house. It was a bolt-action gun with a huge bore. I looked at the bore and wondered what kind of rifle looked like that. Something was wrong. Sure enough, near the breech, I found some very rusty stamping: “.410 Bore.” It’s a single-shot, bolt-action shotgun. Crazy. Someone carved a date into the butt. Something-something-38. I managed to read the word “Stevens” through the crud.

Strange gun. But it was free, so who cares?

I can’t even guess what a gun like that is for.

Let me know when UPS gets here. I am itching to shoot.