Your tales of woe and laughter with guns.

[Caimlas]

Tale of woe?

I spent the better part of an afternoon trying to sight in my CZ452 Lux w/ a scope. First, some background: I seem to be much more accurate with iron sights, provided I can see the target - I've got poor eye sight.

Also, I can never remember which way to turn the nobs while sighting something in. L means point-of-impact moves left, or the scope moves left (meaning the POI moves right)? Very frustrating.

I started sighting it in at 25 paces with standard, cheap ammo (Remington Game Load, I think). Everything went fine, and I was hitting the center of brass tops of 12 gauge hulls within a half dozen shots or so. I was quite pleased with the results. I moved the hulls out to 50 yards to similar results.

Then I pulled out the ($8/50) CCI CB shorts I'd purchased for the purpose of a silent takedown on yard rodents, and started shooting at 25 yards, realizing the POI would be slightly different and using a 4" diameter "shoot and see" target . Well, I missed the target. I tried again and again, thinking it must be me - I couldn't figure out where the rounds were impacting. I went up, looked around... nothing - oh, except for a mess of dirt in front of the target. So, I readjust the sights the requisite number of clicks, and try again... ok, I was on target now, try again. Where'd the bullet go?

Repeat for at least an hour and a half, during the course of time I went back to the 'cheap' ammo, resetting the scope to have the same POI at 50 yards as the irons (co-witness rings) because I'd adjusted the sights entirely too much due to what initially seemed like the scope/POI of the ammo being off by several inches - but what in fact turned out to be about a 4" variance at 25 yards in the quality of the ammo.

Turns out CB shorts are horrendously inaccurate, FYI.

 

[Caimlas]

Tale of laughter?

I was having a difficult time sighting in my AR for 200 yards w/ irons, as my vision is quite blurry at that range, and there was a lot of wind out where I was sighting in/living at the time (rarely a day w/ under 20mph winds, often gusting to 40mph). So I asked a recent acquaintance of mine, who was/is reportedly a Marine with 8 years of service under his belt (a Corporal), to give me a hand. He had enough knowledge of the Corps and various protocols for this civilian to accept his story at face value. Marines are supposed to be riflemen first, right?

So, I shoot first, 10 rounds, and thankfully, the 18" target @ 200 yards demonstrated all 10 within the 6" center area of the target. I was relieved - just happy to hit paper. The previous day's winds had most likely been throwing the POI, as this day's winds were negligible (under 10mph), probably.

Then the Marine took the bench. He handled the rifle awkwardly, and didn't even bother to use the sling. He shot, and only 2 of the 10 rounds impacted the target - one high 3 o'clock, the other low 7 o'clock.

Now, he very well might have been a Marine, but it seems incredible to me that a Marine of that kind of longevity and rank would not be likely to be out-shot by someone who, at best, has 30/20 vision and hasn't even owned a rifle for half the length of time the Marine was in service. He made some general excuses about not being familiar with the rifle (uh, what? It's a 16" carbine with iron sights - what's to not be unfamiliar with?) and not having shot in a couple years (this, despite him being an active "gun nut" in that he was always acquiring new guns, and was, at the time, employed as a Sheriff's deputy).

 

[Caimlas]

chriske - love the story, re: Strong Freddy! It reminds me of the stories my grandfather used to tell. Thanks.

Another woe: traveling a couple hours away to a weekend shoot, and when I got there, I could not find my magazines for my AR15 anywhere. They'd been left on the kitchen counter in a carrier! Arggg. Thankfully, I borrowed a magazine for the weekend from someone else.

Another laugh: the first time I shot full auto (glock 19 w/ broomhandle and shoulder stock). I laughed hard after the first burst with glee - damn that was fun!

Laughter, at my expense: I was pretty new to shooting, and had only previously shot .22 rifles and my then-new AR15. I went out with a buddy and a gun shop commando he knew, who also happened to have a handful of nice equipment - FAL, G3, etc. etc. At the time, I'd adopted an improper shooting stance; due to my flexibility, I would 'squat', resting my upper arms on my knees. For a .22 and my AR, it was/is a quick, sturdy way to hold the rifle (better than kneeling because it was faster and for me, just as sturdy). It was early spring, and there were still a couple inches of wet snow on the ground.

Soooo...

I tried that stance with the G3. Oops. On the first shot, I got bowled over like a corner pin in a bowling match which slowly falls. My center of balance was disrupted just enough that I got rocked back on my heels and stayed there for an instant as my arms splayed upwards/forwards to try and regain my balance (I dropped/threw the rifle forward somewhat in the process). I then landed heavily on my butt. Due to the 20mph wind and 30ish F weather, I had one cold arse for the rest of the afternoon!

At least the round went through the target where I'd intended it to.

 

[longdayjake]

funny

I went hunting coyotes really early in the morning with a buddy of mine and I have always wanted to kill something with my garand so it went with us. Anyway, I work evenings so I am used to sleeping in. So, we take our time to sneak through the brush and climb to the top of a little hill to get a good view of the valley below. We are huffing and puffing by the time we get there so gladly we sit down to take a rest. I get my calls out and load a clip into the rifle and then go to turn off the safety. Well, apparently the safety and the trigger are not the same thing on my garand even though I was sure at 5:30 am that it was. So after I shoot a round to the bottom of the valley, we stand back up, go back to the truck, and drive to another spot.

 

[Pigspitter]

Laughter: I was out at the range with a buddy and I was putting some rounds through his AKM clone. Well after a while of getting familiar with the rifle, I decided to see what a quick mag dump would be like accuracy wise. So I pound the 30rd mag out lightning fast and on about the 29th round i hear this ping-SNAP-thud sound. I look around and notice a six inch metal spike sticking right out of the head of the target I was shooting at and was squarely planted in the board. Turns out the mag dump had jostled the cleaning rod completely out of the rifle and the barrel managed to whip it right in front of a bullet and the thing got cut clean in half. Now how the end of it managed to travel 20 yards and stick into a wood stake is beyond me.....I'm just glad it went forward and not back.

 

[Green Lantern]

Well, it wasn't all that long ago when I learned an important lesson:

See, Dad bought be a .410 shotgun years ago (a blued Mossberg pump), and I kept it at the house when I left. Later on (when he entered one of his "sober" periods) I got it and took it with me. I noticed there was some rust on the barrel.

So, eventually I get some some "BullFrog Rust Remover" to deal with that problem...

Can we see where this is going? Yes, friends, that day I learned that blueing **IS** "rust!"

Well, after the "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!?!" phase died down and I learned what happened...I learned how to do a cold blue!

 

[machinisttx]

My tale of laughter and woe involves the same gun, purchased today(pics below). It's a very nice little S&W 31-1 chambered for .32 S&W long. On my way home from buying it, I stopped in at the local gun shop to see if they had any ammo. He did...at nearly $35 a box(50 rounds) . After the robbery, I came home with the little J frame and ammo, then went 300 yards to my uncle's to do some test firing. Well....it's a dandy little shooter, but I giggle when it goes off. It's a really puny sound, and a "what possessed me to buy this thing" giggle is the result. I made up my mind that it was going to be trading material for something I actually had a use for.

Anyway, after I took my wife for a ride around the pasture on the 4 wheeler I showed the little gun to her. She claimed it immediately as her own. I guess it has to stay now.

 

[gbran]

So there I was, just jumped out of my Jeep to draw down on a huge covey of mountain quail, so close, it had to be an impossible to miss, but miss I did. I drew a bead after chambering a round in my Mossy pump, and ...... click.

Miss fire. Dang.

Moral of the story, don't carry Wintergreen Lifesavers in your coat pocket with 12 ga shotshells cuz they are about the same size and will chamber just fine, but won't do much more than "click."

 

[A-190]

Got more than a few but will start with this one.
During my OKARNG time we were at Fort Smith for our two weeks,. We were assigned to guard the compound that had the Mariel boat life people in it (anyone remember that one) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariel_boatlift
Well we were not allowed to have ammo on us as they were afraid one of the mariels might get hurt.
Several of us were coming of guard tower and were shook down by the OIC. One of the guys was found with a clip of 5.56 which cause all sort of a ruckus, as you can imagine.
No other guards were allowed up with a BOLT for their 16. Hell of a way to run a prison huh???