Tag: recreational shooting

Blogshoot!

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OK, let’s schedule this thing for Sunday, January 10, 2016.  The venue will once again be the Elzy Pearson Public Shooting Range outside of Casa Grande, AZ, just South of I-8, just West of I-10.  Range opens about 7AM – roughly dawn.  Getting there early means getting a shooting bench.

The range has three areas with shooting benches and sun shades. There is a 100 yard range, a 300 yard range, and a 25 yard range. There’s also a bigass rock outcropping on the side of the mountain about 600 yards downrange if you want something to bounce bullets off of. The city of Casa Grande has seen fit to equip the range with a Porta-pottie, but there still isn’t any running water. Everyone needs to bring lots of fluids, if nothing else. Oh, and sunscreen. It may be cool, but the UV count is still high.

The range is unattended. We are expected to behave ourselves and clean up afterward. The site is posted “Absolutely No Explosives,” so no Tannerite on site, and no exploding targets of any kind. Sorry. They don’t like .50BMG at the range, but I’ve seen people shooting them there and so far as I know, no one has complained.

The same cannot be said for Tannerite.

Full auto, on the other hand, is A-OK. (Just have your paperwork. The police range is about 400 yards away, and they have come to inspect paperwork.)

There are concrete shooting benches, but no chairs. Bring your own. The shooting area is fenced, so no vehicles downrange. If your stuff is heavy, bring a cart that’ll fit through a 3′ man-gate. (I have one of those.)

The range HAS NO TARGET STANDS. Bring something to put your targets on. The ground is about as hard as concrete, so the cheap-ass wire frames you’re supposed to stick in the ground? Uh-uh. My stand is made of 2″ PVC pipe and 2×2 lumber. Other people just bring big cardboard boxes they set on the ground, or their own target stands that just sit on the surface. Whatever works for you.  I’ll also be bringing some steel targets that can stand up to .300 Win Mag.

Oh, NO GLASS.

Bear in mind, this is a public range. Other people not associated with this shoot will be there, too, and recently a negligent discharge at that range resulted in a 14 year-old girl being shot through the chest. She’ll survive, but just damn.

We’ve been doing this since about 2010, so c’mon out and have a good time.  Please leave a comment if you think you can attend.

30 Days Until the Rendezvous

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The Tenth Annual Gun Blogger Rendezvous, that is.  Here’s some videos from previous iterations of the event:

GBR IX:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxDgFU03j8k?rel=0&controls=0]

GBR VI:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyzabsdKkQM?rel=0&controls=0]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzyHWQZYzxk?rel=0&controls=0]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvm7oFct97Y?rel=0&controls=0]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3Iz7vqMruc?rel=0&controls=0]
GBR V:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNRm0PTSH40?rel=0&controls=0&w=640&h=480]
GBR IV:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLZm5MXynsI?rel=0&controls=0]
Oddly, there’s not a lot of footage of us eating, drinking and talking back at the hotel!

But here’s some of the stuff that you could take home from the Rendezvous last year:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPUxmaCZOYM?rel=0&controls=0]
You’ve still got time to register and make your reservations! Get a move on!

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Update

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So, if you’re coming to the Rendezvous, and you own anything chambered in .45-70, you might want to bring it.  Special Interest Arms is bringing their Gardner Gun and some other interesting stuff as well:

Not planning to run it (the Gardner Gun) for hours at a time, just burst, so no need to deal with water for it.

Going to need help getting it into the hotel after the range for the show and tell too.
Some one needs to follow with a camera, the looks on tourist faces as we wheel a Gardner Gun along the casino floor should be priceless!

I’m also planning to bring the 300 BLK Trecenti again and the new 9mm Novem bolt action. If you want to find out just how good your 9mm suppressor is bring it and the ability to put it on 1/2-28 threads. Eliminating the action noise really lets the suppressor work.

Probably bring the AK-47 FA and suppressed FA 9mm AR-15 too. Might even drag out my old .303B deer rifle for the long range targets.

I will try to get Brian to come out again and bring his De Lisle and other suppressors to demonstrate too. He’s been in the NFA game for decades and has a lot of interesting stories if you can get him to take time for a real interview. Hint, ask him about how you get a demo letter for a post-sample Mini-Gun.

And Anthony Welsch of LuckyGunner.com is bringing 1,500 rounds of cowboy .45-70 ammo:

I heard back from our purchasing folks today. It sounds like getting some 45-70 in bulk quantities shouldn’t be a problem so I’ll plan to ship 1,500 rounds or so west with the rest of the ammunition orders.

I’ll talk with hotel management and ask if they have any special requests for getting the Gardner inside. If some open carried AR’s at a Chipotle can create national news I can’t imagine what a Gardner on a casino floor would do!

Me either!

I doubt Richard will want to run 1,500 rounds through his $24,500 floor sample.  I doubt Anthony wants to ship any ammo HOME, so bring your Trapdoor Springfields, Marlin 1895’s and other guns!

6.5 Gibbs?

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Anybody out there own or shoot the 6.5mm Gibbs?  It’s the 6.5-06 carried to its maximum case capacity.  I’ve been doing research into the various 6.5 wildcats and this one in particular has piqued my interest.

photo 100_0288.jpg
That’s a .270 on the left, 6.5 Gibbs on the right.
Ballistically, it’s supposed to push 140 grain bullets to 3100-3200 fps out of 24″ barrel, and the B.C. of the very good 140gr projectiles runs from about .580 to .612.

And it fits in a standard “long” action.

OK, Who Ordered the Gale?

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I got to the range this morning right at 0700. The gate was open and there was no one else there. It was also still pretty dark. I got my truck unloaded and started setting up my steel when reader Mike C. and his lovely wife E. showed up, followed by reader Brad all the way from Sierra Vista. The wind was blowing hard enough that I didn’t bother to put up my regular target stand, but after about 8AM the wind dropped off and it was, while still cool, fairly pleasant.

Mike C. also brought some steel, so with our various firearms (M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, .458 SOCOM AR, PS90 carbine, a .300BK AR and a .300BK Handi-Rifle, various and sundry handguns) we rang steel for a while. Finally the wind dropped off enough that we decided to set up our target stands.

It was a trick.

A bit after 0900, reader DC and a friend showed up, followed by Primeval Papa. And somebody turned on the wind machine. Nothing that wasn’t steel remained standing.

That’s not to say the firing line wasn’t full – it was. There were a lot of hardy people out this morning to throw lead downrange, but by 10AM I was pretty much done. I shot until the next cease-fire, packed up my stuff and was off the range by 11:00.

So, the Central Arizona Blogshoot had seven attendees, two of us actually bloggers.

Sorry, but I don’t think anyone took pictures. When we weren’t shooting, we were trying to keep our hands warm.

Blogshoot!

KevinLeave a comment

Just a reminder to my Arizona readers that there’ll be a shoot in Casa Grande next Saturday, 1/24 at the Elsy Pearson Public Shooting Range in Casa Grande beginning at 0700 and running until we get tired and go home. 

Same as last year, the range opens at 7:00AM. There are no rangemasters. There are no chairs – bring something to sit on. The firing line is covered and there are concrete shooting benches, however.


The city has porta-potties out there on a permanent basis, so we don’t have to rent our own (but bring your own TP just in case.)

The rules are pretty simple:


No explosives, no .50BMG rifles, no tracers, no incendiaries, clean up after yourself, don’t be a dick.

The rifle range is 300 yards deep with the first berm at 200.  The mountains that form the ultimate backstop are another 300 yards out and farther.  The ground there is reinforced concrete disguised as sun-baked clay. Forget about any target stand that needs to stick into the ground, it ain’t happenin’ short of bringing a sledgehammer. Steel and targets that don’t need taping are best, but if you bring something frangible be prepared to clean it up after it’s blown to pieces. And the benches are funky-shaped. Regular camping chairs are marginal, stools and folding chairs are better. I bring a folding chair, a target stand made of 2″ PVC pipe, and my 1″ thick AR500 plate steel swingers. I also have some .22 rimfire rated rolling targets made of steel, and some polymer self-sealing targets.  I think I still have a case of bowling pins, and some clay pigeons.

It appears turnout will be light – I’ve gotten five confirmed replies so far, and a couple of maybes.

I recommend you bring:  water or other non-alcoholic beverages (no alcohol on the range), sunscreen, ear and eye protection.  Ladies, don’t wear anything low-cut or open-necked.  Yes, I’m sure it looks lovely, but you don’t want to catch hot brass down in there.  OPTIONAL:  Something to shoot with, and something to shoot AT.  If you’re a reader or a non-gun blogger interested in coming to a off-the-cuff funshoot, please come on down!  I imagine most of us will be bringing multiple firearms and lots of ammo, but if you don’t, well, I’m willing to let people shoot my stuff (with my ammo), and I’m willing to let them shoot at my targets.

If you’re coming, please let us know in comments.

UPDATE:  Looks like seven or eight of us so far.

Esoteric Gun Pr0n

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The 480 Achilles.  Quote from the link:

The 480 Achilles is the product of 5 slightly warped minds, Lewis Ballard, Aaron Bittner, John Killebrew, Doug Mann and me, Jim Taylor.  The project was a collaborative effort upon which we pooled our brains.  The puddle which resulted from this pooling may have been shallow but at least it was slippery.

photo achilles_right.jpg
photo 480-Achilles.jpg