Gun-a-Day 49: More Marlin 1895M (“Let Him Roar Again …”)

The wisdom of C.S. Lewis provided guidance today as I decided to run a few more rounds through “The Beast” (my Marlin 1895M in .450Marlin). In The Problem of Pain, Lewis warns against a washed-out, weakened view of the power of Nature and the natural order as God has established Her in Creation and as She will be One Day when He redeems Her from the Fall in order to fulfill Her purposes in Eternity, and he uses the king of beasts as one example to paint his metaphoric picture of “the glory that will be revealed“:

But if there is a rudimentary Leonine self, to that also God can give a ‘body’ as it pleases Him … richly Leonine in the sense that it also expresses whatever energy and splendour and exulting power dwelled within the visible lion on this earth…. I think the lion, when he has ceased to be dangerous [as a part of New Heavenly/New Earthly ecosystem], will still be awful…. There will still be something like the shaking of a golden mane: and often the good Duke will say, ‘Let him roar again.‘

That made very good sense to me in regards to the Marlin 1895M, too. This gun can fill a person with awe, even when it is carefully managed. I decided to unleash the Beast and let him roar a few more rounds’ worth. At this stage in my shooting experience, 50 yards was too far for me to place a hit (it turns out … after missing with two shots from there), so I ended up at the 25-yard shooting station and moved in a bit for the last shot (on the Pepsi bottle– that video did not survive the editing process … live and learn).

I’d only planned on two shots but ended up sending six. Once I got started, it was hard to stop. I am very impressed with the quality of the trigger system on this rifle. It’s not feather-light, but I find no creep of any kind. It’s either cocked, or the hammer has fallen, and the thunder has rolled. There is as little “in-between” as in any other gun I’ve ever fired.

The cartridges were all Hornady. The last two rounds were ballistic-tipped Critical Defense rounds. I’d hoped to dig the slugs (the flat-tops weigh in at 350-grains each) out of the backstop, but they all buried deep after making a milk jug and a Pepsi bottle turn into short-lived mini-cyclones.

I hadn’t noticed that the cases for the CD’s are slightly shorter than the older, interlock slug-headed shells. Not that it seemed to make any difference; just a point of information I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t been doing the Gun-a-Day thing.

The editing and uploading of the slow motion video recordings is still a work in progress. There’s a steeper learning curve than some of the other iPhone apps I’ve been using, but I’m gonna stick with my standard approach to such things: stubborn-ugly persistence. Hope to have them posted soon. Now posted below!

For now, Shot o’the Day is another “stand in” picture– an “after” of a Pepsi bottle which caught my eye at least as much for the appearance of heat-melted edges as for the banana-peeled effect of the explosive hit.

I think I’m seeing that right. It may just be stretching, but it looks for all the world like the plastic was melted as well as ripped and exploded.

It would have been nice to have some slow motion images of the plastic cap falling to the ground at least a full second or two after the bottle was hit. How high must it have gone to take that long to come down?!

In the interests of full disclosure, it should be noted that the addition of the recoil pad on this rifle (unlike the Savage 29B) is not just decorative nor merely used to increase the length of pull.

No, it’s on there to keep my right arm attached to my right shoulder when I fire it, and I’m not ashamed to admit it! I didn’t even bring it home in the first place without putting on that pad.

Yes, six shots was fun, for sure, but I am definitely feeling it in my collar bone tonight.

Here’s the video of the work done on a water-filled milk jug. It runs a bit long, but I got interested in the way the water spray floated across the frame from left to right, and then I heard the birds. Before and after, the same bird or birds are singing the same happy little song, seemingly undisturbed and unconcerned about whatever might have happened to make “that big, loud noise.”

Nature does not fear guns.

I say again: Nature does not fear guns.

So, the 1895M faithfully and effectively answered an impromptu call to action and receives recognition for a job well done. Now, all that’s left is a good cleaning before being laid to rest back in storage under lock and key.

The Beast is not dead, only sleeping. Here’s to the day when I’ll get to let him roar again.

Gun-a-Day 48: Marlin 1895M Rifle (.450 Marlin, Lever Action)

This one was quick and ugly. The Beast has been hibernating in its cage for many months, but there was no hesitation when the latches flipped open.

I was booked for an out-of-town appointment for the evening, so I had hustle home from the office, prep the targets, set up the camera, find a spot 10-12 yards from the backstop, take my aim and fire away.

Two shots did about as much cut tree trunk damage as any hundred of the .17s …

I can’t claim to have any practical need or sensible use for a man-portable quasi-cannon, but the Marlin 1895M lever action rifle chambered in .450 Marlin is as close as I ever need to come to owning a portable cannon, and this one is mine.

Here’s a calm and peaceful– bucolic, even– “before” picture of my water-filled targets as a stand-in for the slow motion video I’m trying to get edited and uploaded. They do NOT look like this “after” …

Almost every time this rifle crosses my mind, the possibility of selling or trading it also occurs to me. The raw, shocking, brute force of the recoil is very intimidating, and even out in the woods and pastures it can shake windows and sound more like field artillery than a sporting carbine.

I can get myself wondering if it’s worth messing with.

Yes, those are some of the things I think about when I think about it, and I do know that if trading or selling ever became a necessity, this would be the easiest to let go.

But.

When I’m actually holding this hunk of finely finished hardwood and satiny black steel and when I shoulder it and take easy aim with it and when I pull the smooth, light trigger and when the thunder-stick-to-end-all-thunder-sticks shoves me back at the cheek and collar-bone and when something downrange jumps or jerks or peels open or explodes in a mist of vaporized liquid, then all I can do is smile and laugh and give it a friendly look and a good, solid shake with an energetic, enthusiastic, approving grunt or adrenaline-buzzing, stress-busting shouts.

And then all I can think about is how much I like this gun and how glad I am to own it, and … how much I like to hear the Beast roar.

Speaking of which, here are two slow-motion videos of The Gun-a-Day Great Pepsi Bottle Massacree, circa “ought’leven.” In the first, there’s a fascinating “first one left standing” effect. The bullet was going so fast and hit so hard that the neck and cap disappeared, and the rest of the bottle barely moved. I like the “wait for it” sound effects at the end, too. The lever action cycles, and we’re ready for shot number two …

The “first is made last” in video two, and the “narrative” documented is so much more than could have been planned or arranged. Many things happen, and the slow motion timing makes it possible to track fluttering debris, wood chip “snow fall,” water mist and run-off (complete with sounds of running gurgles and falling “raindrops,” and, maybe best of all, the “dance of the dead” Pepsi bottle which was flipped back with just enough water in the bottom to act as a counter-weight, bringing it back to stand up again on the flat surface of the old railroad tie. One of those happy, wonderful serendipities of life caught on video …

These clips were made with my iPhone 4’s regular video editing tools and the Nexvio app, “Slowmo.” Yes, a bit of stubborn-ugly goes a long way! Tried to use iMovie to put these two clips together as one, but something wasn’t right. More to learn!

Gun-a-Day 41: Seeing a Sweet 16 w/My G19C

On a whim, I decided to make it a one magazine day — plus one in the chamber. With 16 shots to spend, I set up a sheet of Birchwood-Casey paper and my time-lapse rig and went to work from my increasingly well-worn and cartridge-covered position out beyond the 20-foot line.

I keep forgetting to pause longer between shots to allow more time for the camera, but I liked the results just fine even though they went off pretty quickly. But the pictures do show that my first two shots shared part of the same hole, and I’m very glad to see that the practice IS producing improvement.

By actual width, the total spread is smaller than the 9-ring and all shots are 8s or better. The LaserMax light was plain to see today, so those old batteries are still cookin’ after all.

I may have to watch this video a few times to get the most out of the sight of one of my best ever center-of-center shots. That is definitely shot o’the day, and it may rank as shot o’the week and/or month …

This practice session was fun, fast and fulfilling. Just the right way to wrap up my Glock week and turn my attention to another “thunder-stick.”

For what it’s worth, this is the first post that I’ve developed and completed using only my iPhone and the WordPress app. The video upload didn’t take for some reason, so I grabbed the URL from my YouTube channel (onegunadayguy) and sent the whole post out into the digi-world.

Gun-a-Day 40: The Fearsome Glock’L’Max is Spotted in Broad Daylight

I guess 40 consecutive days of shooting is some kind of milestone, and I feel very blessed to have gotten this far into this project. Here’s to the hope for at least 325 more days’ worth. Dei gratia & Dei volente

My goal today was to test the laser in the light of day (albeit in a mostly shady spot), and the mission produced good intel. The first magazine was emptied with laser targeting, but when I reloaded I couldn’t relocate the red beam and spent the last 15 rounds with regular sighting. This loss of signal could be (probably is?) a function of old batteries about to go out after an impressively long tour of duty, or the sun could have just been too bright for my eyes (not as good as they used to be) to distinguish the red dot and black target field from the red light … or both.

Either way, the record now includes another 25×25 and “7’s or Better” session, and I got to try out a new set-up with the camera. I like the proximity very much, but the target hits are mostly too hard to see in the shade from the morning light. The new particle board target back worked well enough that I’ll use it every day until there’s not enough left to hold the paper.

I’m glad the time lapse caught some of the flying debris. Those cedar trunks are getting chewed up pretty heavily, but they are doing good work with no pass-throughs.

Shot o’the Day is of the gear I use to make time lapse videos with my iPhone 4.

First and foremost: the app is iTimeLapse, and if I can make it work with only user-image issues and edit-errors left over after just a couple of tries, then it can be used to good effect by almost anyone.

Also important is The Glif. My web-biz partner came across this at kickstarter.com while it was still in design/development/pre-production, and we got our orders in “on the ground floor.” We both like the simplicity and versatility, and I’ve used it like crazy with the tripod screw mount.

Lately, my stand-of-choice is this mini UltraPod rig that I got from an Eddie Bauer outlet store years ago. The position-control is very, very adaptable, and the lock-down is solid. It balances well and supports/distributes weight well.

The top section of this slide-on iPhone cover by Great Shield allows me to use the Glif and helps me pretend that I’m “protecting” my little “golden Apple-item” from possible debris and fragment damage– at least over most of the phone’s surface. The lower section doesn’t quite fit the Glif, and I don’t want to stress/stretch that little gadget out of shape.

All told, this set up costs about $35 today (that’s less than I spent), and it’s about as crucial to the Gun-a-Day blog as the guns and ammo themselves.

Gun-a-Day 29: TO3-78, .22LR, knee-rested seated position, Simmons 4×32 scope with Butler Creek flip-up lens covers

Well, if this wasn’t the first time I’ve ever tried elbow-to-knee, seated shooting, I’d be more disappointed with my results, but I’m going to have to accept 47 out of 50 on target and just be happy that my 3rd or 4th shot (according to the time-lapse below) was centered, and there were a couple of nice key-holed pairs in the session as well.

In addition to this, the position experiment also led to a significant discovery. That is, I do NOT like seated shooting. Yes, okay. I need to lose at least 25 pounds, and maybe I’d be much more comfortable. I’m working on it. Promise. In the meantime, I had a hard time holding on target, and I had a hard time avoiding a recurring problem with the oxygen-debt shakes.

Knee-rested shooting is not for me. My days as a little league baseball catcher caught up with me long ago, and my congenitally-twisted vertebrae don’t take too kindly to long stretches of sitting as still as possible in one position. Those issues and the weight concern all add up to my not planning to try that set-up again any time soon. The results weren’t bad-bad, but they weren’t that good, and it wasn’t very comfortable. All good stuff to know. 

The shots went downrange much more quickly today. The action is either loosening up a bit, or I’m getting more familiar with it, or both. Both is probably right. I had to keep reminding myself to take an extra second for the sake of the time-lapse effect.

Then again, it appears that 3 shots didn’t even make the cardboard at all, so I must have been rushing a bit too much. Also good to try and good to learn. The pictures tell the story. Here they are …

So what are the positives today? At least two things stand out: Ammo & Accessories.

Well, I finished off the last of the Federal Round Nose .22LR’s yesterday, so I was curious to see how my buddy TOZ would like the coppered hollow-points. Also Federals, but I recalled as I was cleaning guns last night that I’d had a feed ramp problem with this rifle when I first tried it out. The owner of my favorite gunshop in the area stood by our trade deal and smithed it up a bit to make it more like a ramp and less like a brick wall. I haven’t had any serious feed issues since, and I was glad to see that the hollow-points chambered just fine. That’s a very, very good thing, ’cause I’ve got about six boxes of hollow-points left which I’ve stockpiled on and off during the “Great Ammo Shortage of ’09 & ’10. They’re great in the Brownings, and they work just as well in this Russki-rifle.

Also: I do not like the sling currently on this gun. It’s a Remington with .410 and/or large caliber holders, so it’s not meant for a .22, and I only have it on as a “short-term, temporary” thing, but it’s funny how that kind of stop-gap can end up lasting for years? Not this time, though. Once summer hits, I’ll definitely be looking through my spare parts bins for a good, “permanent” replacement.

The accessory on this rifle that I do like very much is the pair of Butler Creek flip-up lens covers I installed last year. Wal*Mart and a couple of shops I stop in once in a while all had a number of sizes on clearance, so I just grabbed up anything that looked close to my optics and put them on whatever fit. I wouldn’t have worried about this scope at all, but the covers were exactly right for them, so on they went. I’ve tried “bikini” covers elastic band-connected slip-overs and a number of other things, but these flip-ups are the only thing I ever want to use on anything I currently own. They work, and they are so convenient– completely no-hassle– and efficient. Being a person who might tend to be able to lose just about anything at any time from a pocket or range bag, I’m completely sold on these “always attached” gizmos. They get Gun-a-Day’s highest recommendation.

That and a buck-fifty won’t get anyone a latte-mocha-vente-whatever, but it is my endorsement nonetheless, worthless or otherwise. Good on ya, Butler Creek!

Now, the time has come for shot o’the day, and it’s a sad little fella. In the interests of full-disclosure integrity, I need to point out that I don’t know for sure that this is one of the three that missed today’s board, but I offer it as a representative example of shots that string low (at least 4 or 5 shots have missed the target backboard altogether in the last 2 or 3 days. This is, I guess, one of ’em. The little copperhead ended up in the short railroad tie section that I have been using to “guard” my iPhone 4 while getting the time-lapse shots. Sure glad that old chunk of wood was sitting there!

I found it while looking for slugs and fragments in the backstop, and now it’s safely stored away in the bullet-bucket with all kinds of company in all kinds of sizes and, now, shapes.

We had gorgeous, pre-Spring weather, and I felt very blessed to have this excuse (along with the deadfall clearing, tree-felling, and trail-building I did) to be out in it, having fun with my time, my tools, and my little tract of land. God grace is great (and amazing).

Gun-a-Day 28: TO3-78, .22LR, 4×32 Simmons scope, prone position at 50 yards

Lay-flat shooting is new for me, and it gave the perfect excuse for another session spent with this little Russian beauty. I’m not sure exactly why I haven’t done much of it (other than the need to think through what I might use for a ground mat and how to avoid getting myself and my gear all grungy, but I was happy to realize that this rifle and this breezy-cool, sunny-sky-warm day was the perfect combination for a Gun-a-Day exercise. At first, I found some unexpected challenges with “shouldering” the rifle from flat out on my stomach. I must have very pronounced collarbones or something, because I couldn’t find a spot for the wooden butt-plate to stabilize without it bothering me. I probably didn’t have a quality hold on the gun, but that is another good reason for continued practice. Maybe an elbows-to-knees seated position would be a good mission for tomorrow. Just about any excuse will do to keep me operating this piece of equipment.

That relatively small discomfort in no way minimized my enjoyment of another opportunity to test this gun and to be tested by it. I was getting tired and a bit stiff by the end. My admiration is deep and wide for battlefield soldiers who have had to ignore such aches and pains while fighting for their lives and my/our freedom. Respect.

My fascination and infatuation with this rifle continue to deepen with every multi-magazine target session. The time-lapse video shows that my first three shots were a nice little group, and the rest of the shots were spread a bit, but the overall results were very encouraging for a first-time, ground-pounding lead-toss. Today’s session was also about learning more about doing time-lapse photography. I positioned my iPhone closer than ever on the Owle Bubo rig, and the results are much more satisfying than the previous attempts. So far, there has been no problem of any kind with debris or bullet deflection. I don’t yet have the confidence to put it this close with anything but .22-caliber rounds in play.

I need to take a moment in the middle of all this to express my gratitude to God for His blessing in my life and on my family. We are so, so grateful for the privilege of owning this property. We’ve worked very hard, and some people have much more to show after 25+ years, but we love our little wedge of acreage, and we feel God’s mercy, favor, and kindness every day we are here.

Like no other place we’ve ever been, our home and woods and meadow and pond and gardens provide such a sense of peace and satisfaction that we have an almost unlimited source of inspiration each day for living out the wisdom of Psalm 92:2, which advocates the practicality and propriety of “declaring His love in the morning and His faithfulness at night.” What a humbling, exciting, fulfilling thing it is to be the undeserving recipients of God’s overflowing generosity.

Shot o’the day is, once again, the one that got away. Down below the 5 o’clock spot, a single, small hole is left from the shot which went downrange just as my throat caught in mid-swallow and caused me to shift my position to head off a cough. I’d let a bit too much creep into the trigger, and I said, “Oh, that’s not good,” as soon as the firing pin did its duty. It’s disappointing to not reach my goal of three straight “50 out of 50” days, but I should just be glad it’s on the board at all. All of this has me in a bit of a dilemma– caught between two ideas which both make good sense to me. The first is that I should never do anything to mess this system up by messing with the optics or anything else. If it is this accurate, I should leave well enough alone. The second idea is very compelling, though. I’m really wondering what 3-9×40 glass would make possible on this rifle. I’m beginning to think that similar accuracy at 100 yards is very possible, and my eyes just aren’t clear enough to see the center ring from that distance on just 4x magnification. I’m not going to rush into anything, but there’s a chance that a few days of Gun-a-Day work, later in the year, may be spent sighting in a different scope. It already sounds like great gun-fun.

On another note: if there is a person out in the big wide world who is more of a cheapskate shooter than I am, I would definitely like to meet him or her, because I’d like to learn a few tricks from them that I could put to use. Until then, though, there is no one in my circle of life who even comes close to operating on the shoe-string budget and scrap-management target-design “plan” that I follow, and I’d be glad to know if there are ways to cut the budget even more to the bone. I don’t even have the decency to be embarrassed by my fun-with-stickers target for the day.

As an example, I’m glad I finally realized that I don’t have to just throw away the target borders from the Shoot-n-C sheets. Not only can the unused pasters become target pieces on their own, it’s nice when they’re  surrounded by the yellow sheet-edge on a target sheet. I’m out of the 6-inch targets now, but I think these leftovers will do just fine for a while. After that, I might just start pulling out those plastic Pepsi bottles I’ve been saving up. The logo make a great little center ring …

There’s no risk of my work being mistaken for a professional endeavor, though, that’s for sure, but I am just as surely enjoying it all as great educational fun …

Gun-a-Day 22: Kimber Ultra RCP II, .45ACP, slide-top groove-rail sight, Episode VI (Return of the Wannabe-Dead-Eye)

The good news is that the total group is much more tightly bunched this time, and there’s even hit on that snobby little center-red dot (that’ll teach ‘im), and there are at least 11 shots on the target. I guess that means that there’s not any real bad news, but I sure would like to see all of the holes on the target sometime …

That 7 + 1 start was instructive. Having developed the habit of starting empty, I pulled the first slide after counting seven shots. As it dawned on me that a round was chambered, I realized that this could be a good idea in a competition (or, more significantly, threat-to-life) situation. If  I remember to pull the clip after 7, then there is no re-racking needed for the new magazine. The eighth round keeps the semi-auto action going. 

I “loves me” some target practice, and I got to wondering today about the Luvs diaper box I’ve been shooting at all week. I’ve just about used up all of the usefully-sized scrap and storage boxes around the house, so I set out to see how many days I could get from this one. Seemingly, it’s got a long history already? How many years has that thing “been in the family,” I wonder? Both of our daughters are in college, so if we bought in bulk and used the cube for storage (“FINANCES” is what is says on the flap), then it might be 15 or 16 years old … maybe we just got it from a store’s pitch pile for our last big move. That would still be almost eight.

Never let it be said that we don’t like being environmentally-conscious here at the Gun-a-Day Show. In addition to collecting about half a pound of spent lead after firing and photographing was done, this box still has puposes to serve. By the time this now-heavily-perforated container ends up as fire-starter down in the bonfire pit below the pond, it will have been “recycled” for multiple uses at least eight or nine times and will have lasted for a good 15 years or more. Not bad for a stretch of corrugated pulp and binding agents which may have started out in the first place being made from recovered materials.

Shot o’the Day 22: my “don’t try this at home, even though I’m no expert, so why should I have tried it or be presuming to tell anyone else not to” picture. I have not been satisfied with the time-lapse shots I’ve attempted so far, so, in the spirit of “No Try, Only Do-ism,” I chose to put my iPhone 4 just outside the line of fire and up-close-and-personal to the target. With a small section of railroad tie as a guard for the camera set-up, I pretended that everything would be fine and any deflections or shrapnel or wood chunks would not damage it as long as I wrapped a padded belt-bag around the smartphone’s body and left only the lens exposed. This “Bubo” rig by Owle for my iPhone 4 includes a macro lens for full depth of view pictures and video, and I want to learn how to use it to shoot better pictures at least as much as I want to learn how to use the Kimber to shoot better target groups.

As it turns out, everything was fine. There were lots of wood chunks flying though. If I’ve done things right, the video should also be embedded here. If not, then please just take my word that it wasn’t just a “Try.” I “Do’ed” it, but it didn’t turn out well enough to use … (looks like the video [really a time-lapsed string of photos] works).

Wow. So it turns out that my one center-hit was the first shot. That seems like a very good thing, but it also feels to me like that makes the rest of the shots a bit more disappointing … the “dead-eye” thing may be right, but the rest of the body may not be in sync …