The world looked extra crisp and bright with my amber Wiley X eye protection on. These Anzi’s are old but barely used. Usually, I just grab a cheap pair of hardware store safety glasses from the truck dashboard, and these stay in the gun cabinet, but they were handy, and I was not going to risk another cartridge-failure flash in the eyes again.
Of course, it will come as no surprise to anyone that, true to the way normal life works most of the time, there were no blow-back issues of any kind today. In fact, there were no mis-feeds, jams, stove-pipes or chambering glitches of any kind today?
Coincidence? Surely not. Who knew?
I just found my new lucky charm!
That’d be helpful, maybe, if I actually believed in that kinda stuff.
🙂
Anyway, time was at a premium this morning, so I decided to limit the session to 25 shots. I also decided to stick with the 6-inch round Shoot-n-C as target and used only the center-dot targeting image on the reflex sight.
If I measured, the math might show that the shots are all within the dimensions of the 9-ring, and 21 or 22 of the hits are in 9s or better. With the non-magnifying sight.
Yes, this little Browning-branded, loss-leader, battery-powered, reflex optic is kinda like Sunset Boulevard‘s Norma Desmond. If it could talk, it might say today (finally!) in a melodramatic impression of Gloria Swanson’s voice: “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.“
Close-up is right. This is a group to be proud of. More importantly, it’s a group to be productive with. This is varmint-management accuracy here. The width of this group is comparable to a squirrel’s torso hunkered down on a tree trunk, so while I want to avoid any premature announcements of “Mission Accomplished,” I am definitely ready to say that this rifle and sight set-up is real-varmint ready.
As a matter of fact, there was a stray dog roaming the edge of the property while I was finishing up. If I’d known for sure that it didn’t belong to someone, there would have been a field test event right then and there. I’ll keep a close lookout. We’ve got coyote problem, and we’ve got a more serious, near-feral dog issue in our neck of the woods, and they are welcome on my land only if they’re ready to stop by long enough to be put down for a permanent stay.
Yes, the 25-round plan was the way to go today. If it turns out that this gun and these cartridges and the sighting system is repeatedly and dependably reliable after all, I may want to conserve as much of this ammo as possible.
Played out right, the 9000+ rounds I have left could potentially be a rest-of-my-lifetime supply.
As far as I know, it already is … Thank You, Lord, for my life this day, and, as Randy Stonehill sings, I “… celebrate this heartbeat / ’cause it just might be my last / every day is a gift from the Lord above / and they all go by so fast …” This one has almost slipped away already, so I’m extra grateful that I got to spend part of it out in the sun and the breeze and the pines and the empty cartridge cases.
Pretty much perfect.
Shot o’the Day is this pic of the MLR-1722’s breech from the magazine attachment opening. Good grief! it’s almost completely fouled, gunked and sludged with accrued smoke stain, gunpowder grit, cleaning solution residue and other unidentifiable ingredients comprising this sludgy mess.
Once again I’m a bit confused. There were no feed malfunctions today, and this pampered little rifle has never been anywhere close to being this dirty. Go figure, huh? I’m taking that under advisement and making a mental note.
Well, it won’t stay sloppy for long. I’ll give it a nice makeover session this week and put it back in its cozy cabinet for a while.
All better. Sleep tight. Good work. I’ll call for you again sometime soon, little buddy.
Gun-a-Day 