OPERATION CUTER SHOOTER MARCH 2009
"Princess C" and "Miss Omega"
March 2009, Camp Stasa.
Yep, it rained. It rained, and rained, and rained some more. It rained so much that an entire flock of tough, battle-ready militia people were kept home by the inclement weather. Well, most of them stayed home. Weapon M, Billy The Kid, and Weaver were at the range, toughing it out under harsh conditions. Oh, and despite the downpour, a couple of twelve-year-old seventh grade girls also came out. And they shot, shot, and shot some more.
Yep. Twelve years old. Girls. In the rain and mud. They also hauled their gear in along the road via the "carrying" technique. The future may indeed be in some pretty tough, albeit somewhat petite, hands.
The girls just wanted to shoot. They put a good handful of rounds through a pair of 10/22s. These are guns that every American child under 17 or so should have. Period. Miss Omega also fired the Glock 9mm, and a "Jed Clampett Special" 12 gauge single-shot. Both of these young ladies also familiarized themselves with a Daewoo .223, long since banned from importation. It is heart warming to see some seventh grade girls taking an interest in shooting.
Miss Omega with the Jed Clampett gun, the Daewoo, and Weapon M coaching Princess C with the same Daewoo.
Another Glock picture.
After much round launching by these young girls, Billy The Kid and Weaver showed up and spent some valuable range time. BTK has been working out some issues with his DPMS .308, but we may have solved the problem by addressing a slight lubrication issue. There are also some cost issues relating to his rifle's magazines. Yep, they are a pretty penny, but when this thing is on, it will be dead on.
It was nice to be able to sit and discuss rifle maintenance and have someone break out and display their cleaning gear and go over their routine. Sometimes, this can be helpful for everyone involved, as we can determine what works better, what practices to discontinue or initiate, and things like that.
Weaver showed admirable determination by returning with his Mosin-Nagant 91/30, having added a nifty bipod. He did the walk in the mud, in the rain, in under 40 minutes, and worked on the shooting part.
That's how you juice up a 91/30!
Now, there may be some issues with this bipod providing some negative impact upon barrel harmonics, but he seemed to hit well. I am not sure if the bipod will remain or not, but it looks cool. In fact, I asked Weaver about the paint job, and this is his response:
In answer to your earlier
question Lee. The paint I used on the 91/30 was
RUST-OLEUM SPECIALTY CAMOUFLAGE Non-reflective surface The actual color is
"Army Green" according to the label. At ACO they had
probably 3 or 4 greens and 2 or 3 brown/beige colors. But seeing as
I only wanted to spend the money for one of them, I figured I'd pick the
moderate of the greens.
The Label claims:
Rust-Oleum Specialty Camouflage Spray provides a non-reflective, ultra-flat
finish for maximum hiding. Applies to metal, wood, plaster or masonry. Offers
long-lasting protection when applied on top of primer.
PRODUCT FEATURES:
Fast-drying
Indoor/Outdoor
Use leaves and twigs as stencils.
The cans are normal sized 12oz spray paint cans and feature pictures of trucks,
boats, and coolers that have been painted.
Cost $4.50
Paint seems to work well on everything I have thus far painted.
The best selling point of this product may be that it has a "ultra-flat
finish for maximum hiding"
Maximum hiding sounds good.
Here is something for newer folks to consider, a 91/30 still (as of March, 2009) costs less than $100, and with a few bucks' worth of paint, it will look pretty spiffy. I do not know how much the buttstock ammo carrier/sleeve costs, but it should not be that much. This 7.62X54R ammo should be kept on stripper clips, and special purpose ammo, such as AP or tracer rounds, can be kept in this ammo sleeve.
BTK watches Weaver shoot.
There was more shooting, but the girls wanted to go, and their feet were getting wet. I left BTK in charge of the range, and hopefully Weaver shot even better.
We had surveyed the range in preparation for April's Militia Field Day/Tax Blast/Tea Party on April 11th. Range detail will be on April 4th. Volunteers are needed for work, clean up, and backstop construction.
ALSO: WE NEED MORE BOWLING PINS, PLEASE. If anyone has a source for these, please contact webmaster@michiganmilitia.com as soon as you can. Thanks.
We will see you in April!!!