Last weekend, I trekked forth to Secret Location, CO for my annual stress relief and psychological battery-recharging called Blogorado.
Nothing eases my burdens quite so well as hanging out with my gunnie tribe, turning expensive ammunition into smoke and noise, eating great food and drinking even better beer, and telling outrageous truths and plausible lies around a crackling fire at night.
Plus, my puppy Shine R. Bock got to tag along, and shamelessly mooched scritches and food from everybody in attendance the entire weekend. Aside from an unfortunate incident with a chicken whose little alligator beak overload his Rhode Island Red ass, my Shetland Pony pup was a well-behaved citizen for a 6-month-old puppy with a PhD in frolicking.
He even earned a few scritches and scraps from the introverted cat lady, which is no small feat.
And once again, I proved to AEPilot Jim that my Squick Threshold is far higher than his.
You’d think after the kilted lap dance, he’d know better.
Jim brought his newest acquisition to the range, the Soviet version of the Garand, the Kovrov SVT 40. He had a bunch of us shoot it, comparing it head-to-head with the Garand.
General consensus: the “clank” of the Iron Curtain will never equal the “ping” of freedom, but the SVT is a surprisingly easy rifle to shoot. Light-shooting, with very little muzzle-rise, most of us shot faster strings with the SVT than with the Garand. Not as accurate as the Garand, but then again, we were using the Garand’s peep vs the SVT’s tiny, Mosin-style sights.
Still, it ran like a top, and is a rifle that anyone with a minimum of gun knowledge could pick up and use effectively, which I suspect was a primary design consideration for a conscript army.
I got to put a few magazines through Tamara’s Walther PPX before the torture test ended with firing pin issues, with north of 1,800 rounds before being cleaned. That gun had a carbon footprint bigger than Al Gore’s, and still ran like a top.
I like how this gun shoots. I may have to get one for my very own.
For that matter, I really dug her Walther CCP, although it seems that I had the same grip issues she had: namely, that my support thumb tends to ride on the slide release, causing the slide not to lock open after the last round. Still, my girlfriend has smaller hands, and I have a feeling she may dig the CCP if I can pry my officer’s 1911 out of her hands long enough to try it.
We had enough guns and ammo to arm your average third-world revolution, including a couple of full-auto Thompsons, a full-auto AK47, and a 1919 Browning machine gun chambered in 8×57 Mauser, all courtesy of FarmDad’s buddy Hal.
Of course, I took the opportunity to run a few sticks through Hal’s 1928 Thompson, which is about as much fun as it’s legal to have with your clothes on.
Did a fair bit of wing shooting, too, and thoroughly stunk up the range with my performance. A few of my fellow Blogoradoans asked for shotgunning tutorials, and amazingly enough, after I gave a few primers on proper shotgunning form, I started shooting somewhat close to my standards.
Funny how, when you lecture a few people on fundamentals, you tend to pay more attention to those fundamentals yourself, and your shooting improves as a result. Anyhoo, I got to put a few rounds through the newly restored and customized Joe Speer 870, and now she looks as sweet as she shoots. Look for an upcoming blog post on that particular gun.
I also got to run a few mags through Daniel’s AR15 pistol. Pretty neat, compact little setup, that. I think the Dragon Head muzzle brake adds the perfect whimsical touch, don’t you?
Of course, the best part of Blogorado is the people who attend. Without them, it’s just a range trip.
Overall, it was a great time among dear friends, time I sorely needed. Thanks much to the FarmFam for hosting us. It’s the highlight of my year.