The story in length: I got away from home Friday morning about 7, drove up to see my parents for a while and then headed to my buddy's gun shop (Bruce McArthur, Flint & Frizzen Gun Shop, 8735 Dixie Highway, Clarkston, MI 248-625-3333) where we loaded the rest of his stuff in the Suburban. Boy did we load ammo in the Suburban, a little over loaded maybe. We got on the way about 10 with a 4 hour drive to come, from north of Detroit to near Traverse City. We were invited to use his range by Richard Davis (Second Chance Body Armor).
We arrived at the range to find several other shooters on the line blasting away with various pistols, rifles, submachine guns and machineguns. We unloaded the ammo, machinegun mounts and the rest of the stuff that we would not be needing to carry back and forth into the shed that Richard has for our use there. [The shed was built for us when we were running the "Machine Gun Tower" during the
Second Chance Combat Shoots]. "Hey, Bruce, the tires are round."
There were a lot of interesting guns being fired, several Stens, a Bren gun, a MG34, a MG42, 2 or 3 Browning 1919-A4's, a Browning 1917 watercooled and a few Thompsons of various models. I did not take time to list the different rifles and pistols being fired.
I got out my "new" Yugo M-48 Mauser in 8 m/m and shot up a .50 can ammo. The rifle sure is a sweet shooter, and seemed to be quite accurate. However the ammo I was using was/is very dirty. It took a long time to get the bore clean. After shooting the Mauser, I did some belt fed work with the 1917 Browning (converted to 8m/m) and made a lot of steam. A 250 round belt will make steam if fired in a long burst and a second belt will make a
lot of steam. Add water time almost. I took a break from shooting and loaded a couple of Sterling magazines (the easiest submachinegun magazines ever to load) and pretty easy to unload too. If the Submachinegun Gods ever wanted to present me with any subgun produced with a supply of parts and magazines, I'd take a Sterling.
All too soon it was time to close down the shooting for the day and head back to the cabins and fix supper. The steak fry did not come off because the guy who was going to bring steaks decided that the cost would be too much, so he brought hamburger instead.
Our 3 English friends that have been coming to the fall shoot for a few years brought a goodly supply of bottled and canned beers for us to try. While we cooked, the others got to sample but I did not miss out on many.
Saturday was a perfect day for shooting, sunny, not too hot with a nice breeze. The range was hot by 9 and more ammo was being sent down range. We now had a MG-74 and a RPK set up. The 74 more complex than the RPK but with a better butt stock if it were to be fired from the shoulder. Both the guns functioned fine, the RPK only uses metal belts while the 74 will use metal belts or linked ammo. We just did not have the correct links because it did not like the M-60 linked ammo.
I got out the two Norinco 1911A1's (well, since I carry one of them every day I guess that I can not say I got them out) and went thru a .50 can of mixed ammo, FMJ, JHP, RNL, and SWC with a bunch of different makers magazines, USGI, Shooting Star, Springfield Armory and "who know's" 10 and 11 rounders. I never had a bobble, misfire or failure to feed with either pistol. Am I happy?
We also got to shoot a prototype gas operated semiauto rifle chambered for the .50BMG round. A very nice rifle to shoot, less recoil (even with the odd looking muzzle brake) than I had expected. We got to make some suggestions on how to improve the barrel replacement and take down options. If the price is not way beyond my means I'd like to get one when they hit the market.
All in all Saturday was a good day on the range. Lots of the ammo I hauled up was going down range so I would have empty ammo containers to bring home.
We were going to have a real barbecue for that night but someone forgot to dig the fire pit or have the pit dug.
We were going to fill the pit with hard wood logs, burn them down to coals, season the pork shoulder, wrap it in wet burlap, toss the pork on the coals and cover it all with dirt and let the meat cook. It did not happen.
Supper was what we could find at the local restaurants and then back to the cabins to sample the various Michigan beers we brought with us. There are any number of micro-breweries in the state that produce some really great beers.
Sunday was rainy for part of the morning but it soon cleared and was muggy. That did not stop the shooting however. Nothing new appeared on the range so I can't report on anything different. By 1, people were starting to pack up their guns and gear and get ready to head home. Bruce and I left a lot of the ammo we had left in the main building on the range, in fact we had forgotten how much ammo we had stored there to begin with. I really did not need to have carried that much ammo up with me. Oh well, better to have it and not need it than sit there for a day or two with nothing to shoot.
Thus endeth the shoot report.
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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"
[This message has been edited by Jim V (edited September 12, 2000).]