After talking guns with my brothers-in-law last night, I got the itch to go out and do some shooting.  A quick check with Irish Woman confirmed that we had no real plans for this afternoon, so off to range I went.

Knob Creek is still doing a brisk business in selling range time, ammunition, and firearms.  There was no wait for a shooting position on the main firing line today, but there weren’t any tables that were empty for long.  As I signed into the range, I noticed that they had brass cased 5.56 FMJ from several manufacturers priced at anywhere from $1.00 to $1.50 a round, and brass case 7.62×39 FMJ for about $1.50 a round*.  They also had a lot of .22 LR and other calibers available, but are still limiting purchases to 100 rounds of each caliber per customer per day.  (They won’t fall for the “I’ll have 100 rounds of .223 and 100 rounds of 5.56, please” trick.)

Conditions were pretty close to perfect.  Warm, but not hot enough to sweat, with a slight breeze going from right to left on the range.  The range wasn’t dry as a bone, but neither was it a swamp from all the rain has hit us over the past few days.

I started off zero-ing the Mojo MicroClick sights put on the Mosin-Nagant, and practicing with the Timney trigger.  Yes, I put $200 worth of sights and trigger into a rifle that I paid $76 for, but until Savage starts putting out a rifle that fires the 7.62x54r bullet, I’m going to make the 91/30 the best rifle I can.

I chased zero for a while, but got decent groups at 100 yards.  The shots that are at the center of the target are from my last couple of three round groups.

1934 Mosin Nagant 1891/30, Mojo MicroClick Sights, Timney Trigger, 147 grain Bulgarian Light Ball FMJ, 100 yards

Next I zeroed the AR-15 carbine.  I recently purchased a used Trijicon reflex, and this was my first experience shooting a reflex-type sight.  I must say, I’m hooked.  The ease of shooting with it is amazing.  One thought, though:  The 4.5 MOA dot on the reflex sight was pretty much as big as the center of the target at 100 yards.  I started out adjusting the sight so that the dot was just over the top of the front sight blade on the iron sights, which got me on paper (I need to put a riser under the rear sight on the iron sights.  I have the front sight cranked up all the way, and I still have to use a six o’clock sight picture with them).  Adjusting the reflex sight was pretty easy once I fired a few familiarization rounds.  Point of aim was point of impact at 100 yards.

Federal 55 grain FMJ, York Arms lower with PSA lower parts kit, CMMG 18 inch upper, Trijicon Reflex sight, 100 yards

I finished up putting a few magazines of TulAmmo FMJ through my CZ-82.  I didn’t put up a pistol target this time, so I was just plinking at some soda bottles someone else had left on the 25 yard berm.  I was connecting with the aimed-at bottle about half the time, but I was close enough to move it with kicked-up dirt on the other shots.  I love that little pistol.

I’m still not Dead Eye Dick with either the Mosin or the AR, but I’m improving, at least in the “sit on the firing line and punch holes in paper” type of shooting.  Either one is shooting minute of varmint or deer at 100 yards, and now that ammunition isn’t rare and outrageously expensive, I can justify more trips to the range.  Hopefully with practice I’ll be punching out center target every time.

And let’s be honest, when your view looks like this, it’s never a bad day.

Knob Creek main firing line, also known as “My Happy Place”

*edited to correct price.  After reading the original text, which had a much lower cost per round, I realized that KCR was selling 20 round boxes, not 50 round boxes, which of course brought up the cost per round.

Here are some images from mine.

Honey? Have you seen my bass boat?

It’s a bad day for the Maytag repairman

Ready on the left?

Ready on the right?

The only two tracers I got on film all day.

These are a few of my favorite things…

Girlie Bear and I got up and out early this morning, and arrived at Knob Creek just as the first round of shooting was beginning at 9.  We put a pistol target out at about 20 yards and a rifle target out at about 75.  The gentleman next to us was testing out a Mossberg MVP, and had a case of store brand soda  for plinking.  He saw that I was teaching Girlie Bear, and gave us a six-pack to shoot up.  Mental note – next time bring cans of cheap soda to the range.

A few minutes after we started shooting, the front desk announced to the range that a representative from Taurus was signing people up for the “Taurus Fan Club”.  Soon thereafter, a plethora of Taurus Judge tee shirts were seen on the firing line.  I abstained.

Girlie Bear continued her practice with the 10/22.  She’s still getting used to the new stock and sights on it, but was able to hit soda cans at 25 yards with some regularity.  She tried shooting the CZ-82, but didn’t care for it.  I think it’s more the recoil than anything else, but with practice she’ll learn to control it.

I put a few clips of M-2 ball through the Garand, and I’m still getting light strikes.  Last night I did a detail strip of the gun and paid a lot of attention to making sure there wasn’t cosmoline or any other gunk in the firing pin channel, but it apparently didn’t do any good.  I was still getting one or two light strikes per clip.  I’ll have to buy a new firing pin for her and see if that helps.

However, that gave me even more ammunition for the 03-A3.  It’s still sporterized, but I thought I’d see how it shot.  The action was smooth as butter, and the kick wasn’t as bad as I expected.  It kicked more than the Garand, but nothing near as bad as the Mosin.  I’m going to have to put a new scope on it so I can shoot with accuracy until I get the parts necessary to restore it to something approaching military configuration.  The scope that’s on it now wouldn’t give me a clear image of anything more than 25 yards away.

I also put a few shots down the barrel of the muzzleloader.  I still shoot my most accurately at 100 yards with that cheap little TC Omega, even better than I shoot with the Savage or the Garand.  I shot a 2 inch, 4 shot group at 100 yards with it, and that’s not too shabby for me.

After a couple of hours, the range started getting crowded and the temperature was north of 90 degrees, so we packed up and headed out.  After putting everything in the car, we took a turn through the gunshop.  It was wall to wall people.  The only time I’ve ever seen it more crowded was during the bi-yearly machine gun shoots.  If you’re looking for an AR-15 or Taurus pistol in the Louisville area, they’re all out at Knob Creek.  I also saw a KSG in the wild for the first time.  A bare bones KSG is going for about 8/10 of a house payment, so as much as I would like to have one, I’ll have to wait until they start showing up in the used market.  They also had another sporterized 03-A3, but in much better condition than mine, not drilled and tapped, and still with the original sights.  Of course, they wanted almost $600 for it.  Next to it was  an exquisite sporterized Enfield in .303, with a gorgeous carved hardwood stock and engraving on the gun itself, which was tagged “Do Not Rent” and priced at almost $1000.

The problem with the bridge out to Knob Creek seems to have been fixed.  A new concrete bridge is up and in full use.  Work continues, but you can use it to get across the creek without getting your tires wet.  Hopefully that means that this fall’s machine gun shoot and gun show will happen. The spring iteration was cancelled.

Overall, it was a great time.  Girlie Bear knows that if she wants to carry a gun during the deer season this fall, she’s going to have to practice a lot and get through the recoil barrier a bit.  I’m going to try to get good enough with the Garand that I can reliably hit targets out to 300 yards with open sights, assuming that I can still see a target that far out by the time I get that good.  We’re already making plans for the next trip.

Looks like there won’t be any pictures of Ma Deuce, Civil War cannon, and shopping at the best gun show I’ve ever been to this spring.  Knob Creek has announced that due to flooding and damage to the bridge to the range, they are canceling their spring machine gun shoot.

We’ve been getting a lot of rain here in IndiUcky, and the creek gets over their bridge every so often.  Basically, the Ohio River backs up into its tributaries when there’s a lot of rain in the area, and KCR’s bridge is only a couple of miles from where the creek empties into the river.  Apparently this time their bridge got damaged badly enough that they don’t want to plan on having it fixed by April.  When they open back up, I’ll go back out and get the straight skinny on what happened.

Hopefully they get this taken care of soon.  I want to go out and see how that new ’03 does and my Mosin is starting to feel unloved, and KCR is a small business.  Taking weeks or months off with no business and having such a large event cancelled can’t be good for their bottom line.