SSN Vet
Member
I've had a couple informal outings with some guys I know from church, where we went out to a guys field and blasted clays for kicks and giggles and the last time out my one friend brought his teen age son Mike.
Well my buddy calls me up last week and say that Mike (who just got an appointment to the Air Force Academy and leaves for basic in June) turns 18 on Friday and mentioned that he wished we could put together another shoot.
I've just finished up two fun projects....a Saiga conversion and an AR kit build....so I suggest we do something a little bit different.
Well one of the guys I work with is in the USMC reserves and we've been talkin' about a range trip when things warm up (maybe August the way it's been goin' lately)
So, with last minute notice, the Lance Corporal agrees to come along and give us dubbers the 123 on how to run an AR the Marine way.
I tells dad that I'll take care of the guns and ammo. and he can spring for the pizza. But then Sat. afternoon as I'm packing up, I realize that I'm woefully short on ammo. And having been bogged down building a house addition for some time, my reloading bench is buried under 50 lbs. of junk.
So I set about digging out my stuff and my good wife reminds me that she's o.k. with me setting up shop in her finished basement office, now that we moved the day bed into the addition. So we huff my re-loading bench (desk actually) into the office and I get to organizing. By 2 a.m. (way past my bedtime) I've got a hundred rounds of .223 cranked out to supplement my meager reserves.
Let's just say I wasn't so bright eyed and bushy tailed on Sunday a.m., but I did manage to get both my four year old and myself to Sunday school on time.
We all rendezvous at my house at 11......pig out ..... I ran through a quick safety brief and range rules/etiquette, and we're off to the rod n' gun (just 3 miles down the road). As a last minute "surprise", my girls presented us with home made "targets".....mostly hearts and diamonds.
Let's just say it was a BLAST! Blue sky, sun shining, a balmy 45 degrees. Only one other friendly gent. on the rifle range. LC ran us through function checks, proper handling, shooting positions, etc.... And we thoroughly peppered our pink, red and purple "targets".
LC is very likely to be deployed to the sand box this year, and has never ran and AK before, so I made sure he put a few boxes through the Saiga and went over the field strip and function with him.
Let's just say that after almost three hours young Michael was grinning from ear to ear! and he and the LC hit it off nicely.
Dad and I shot the least, but we were smiling.
The action on my Del-Ton 16" upper, which had seemed very tight and somewhat rough, loosened up nicely after 100 rounds. No hiccups, burps or sputters.
As for who shot the best....well, who cares? He shoots better than he types, and manages to get by at both.
Well my buddy calls me up last week and say that Mike (who just got an appointment to the Air Force Academy and leaves for basic in June) turns 18 on Friday and mentioned that he wished we could put together another shoot.
I've just finished up two fun projects....a Saiga conversion and an AR kit build....so I suggest we do something a little bit different.
Well one of the guys I work with is in the USMC reserves and we've been talkin' about a range trip when things warm up (maybe August the way it's been goin' lately)
So, with last minute notice, the Lance Corporal agrees to come along and give us dubbers the 123 on how to run an AR the Marine way.
I tells dad that I'll take care of the guns and ammo. and he can spring for the pizza. But then Sat. afternoon as I'm packing up, I realize that I'm woefully short on ammo. And having been bogged down building a house addition for some time, my reloading bench is buried under 50 lbs. of junk.
So I set about digging out my stuff and my good wife reminds me that she's o.k. with me setting up shop in her finished basement office, now that we moved the day bed into the addition. So we huff my re-loading bench (desk actually) into the office and I get to organizing. By 2 a.m. (way past my bedtime) I've got a hundred rounds of .223 cranked out to supplement my meager reserves.
Let's just say I wasn't so bright eyed and bushy tailed on Sunday a.m., but I did manage to get both my four year old and myself to Sunday school on time.
We all rendezvous at my house at 11......pig out ..... I ran through a quick safety brief and range rules/etiquette, and we're off to the rod n' gun (just 3 miles down the road). As a last minute "surprise", my girls presented us with home made "targets".....mostly hearts and diamonds.
Let's just say it was a BLAST! Blue sky, sun shining, a balmy 45 degrees. Only one other friendly gent. on the rifle range. LC ran us through function checks, proper handling, shooting positions, etc.... And we thoroughly peppered our pink, red and purple "targets".
LC is very likely to be deployed to the sand box this year, and has never ran and AK before, so I made sure he put a few boxes through the Saiga and went over the field strip and function with him.
Let's just say that after almost three hours young Michael was grinning from ear to ear!
and he and the LC hit it off nicely.Dad and I shot the least, but we were smiling.
The action on my Del-Ton 16" upper, which had seemed very tight and somewhat rough, loosened up nicely after 100 rounds. No hiccups, burps or sputters.
As for who shot the best....well, who cares? He shoots better than he types, and manages to get by at both.
Last edited:
