Single Shot Exemption

When I was in Palmdale, CA on a business trip in 2010, I stopped by the Santa Fe Gun Galleria and spotted a rather uncommon S&W Model 68-2 in the consignment case. Figuring I'd never get a chance to see another one, I bought it and had it shipped to my FFL in Virginia for transfer when I got home. I enjoyed it and used it in a few NRA Distinguished Revolver matches. It has, however, been quite a while since I last shot it.

A couple years ago (and a couple years after I bought it), I was contacted by Santa Fe Gun Galleria asking whether I'd be amenable to selling the gun back to the son of the gentleman who sold it. I agreed...and then never heard from Santa Fe Gun Galleria again (nor from the son).

But I took to pondering: how could such a transaction take place? The Model 68-2 is not on the California DOJ Roster of Handguns Approved For Sale, and the gun has been taken out of California, so there was no way I knew of that would allow the gun to return to California (perhaps that is a "benefit" of the DOJ roster, at least in the eyes of the decidedly anti-rights California legislature). 

Researching it a little more today, however, reveals something called the "Single Shot/Single Action Exemption", wherein if a handgun can be made into a single-shot pistol (i.e. magazine well blocked, and barrel six inches or longer), then it can be imported into the state regardless of whether the gun is on the Roster. For revolvers, the gun be single-action-only (i.e. cocking the hammer and releasing the hammer must be two separate actions); in double-action revolvers, this means the double-action sear must be removed. In the case of this particular 68-2, whose single-action notch has been filed off (making the gun double-action only), it would mean that the "neutered" hammer assembly would need to be replaced with an unmolested hammer assembly, whose double-action sear is not present. That would allow the gun to be imported back into California, and once there it could be converted back into its original condition.

Too bad I haven't heard from either Santa Fe Gun Galleria or the son of the original owner in many years to make such a transaction.

ADDENDUM: California's AB 1964 was signed into law on July 14, 2014, which ends the Single Shot Exemption in 2015, so this will no longer be possible. Bummer. Hooray for more silly gun laws.

No Recoil

Up there on my list of pet peeves when it comes to gunwriters: claiming that some mouse-gun or smaller caliber thing has "no recoil". B.S. - the physics of shooting dictates that there WILL be recoil. Not as much as something bigger, of course, but even an air rifle will have recoil. For instance: Cornered Cat has a entry on the latest Glock 42, single-stack .380, and she claims it has "no recoil". Right. I suppose I will simply have to roll my eyes when such claims are parroted by the gunwriters.

Projects

I have a number of projects going in my mind for my hardware, and I want to collect them all here before i forget.

Backup Airgun: now that I'm getting more serious about International 10m Air Pistol, I want to build up my Crosman 1377C into a 'backup' 10m air gun. As it is right now, it appears to be accurate enough, though the sights are crude, and the fact that I can wiggle the breech with my fingers disturbs me. Also, the potential to get my hand pinched while pumping it is always present, so I want a forearm that will mitigate that somehow. Finally, the grip and trigger aren't quite up to snuff, so thise should be addressed.

I could purchase another IZH-46M, or I could purchase something more high-end and make my 'Izzy' into the backup gun, but I like the idea of modding the 1377. Making a set of grips for it, for example, sounds like a good way to get into grip-making.

National Match Rifle: My current rifle is close to being suitable, in my mind, but it needs a few things:

1) free-floated, 1:8 or 1:7-twist heavy barrel. Currently, the barrel is not free-floated, and it is 1:9.

2) National Match rear sight. The A2 rear sight is functional, but the hooded aperture of the NM sights would be better.

3) proper stock weight. Currently using a bunch of .44-cal bullets. Battle-rattle, indeed.

S&W Model 52: I want to get a BME dustcover mount, and a set of Karl Nill match grips, and then it will be 'the' companion to my Model 41. Similarly...

1911 Wadgun: I want to get a Nill Grip for it to complete the 'set', though I've heard a lot of shooters prefer the slab-grips. I suppose I'll simply try it, and if it's a no-go, someone else will want to try match grips on a 1911.

TOZ-35: In recent practice I've done pretty well with it, and I think I'm finding my groove now, but I'm still wondering if a set of Rink Formgriffe grips would be 'better' for me than the big, beefy OEM grips.

S&W Model 629-5, 6": I just can't seem to settle on a grip for this thing. My latest trend is to use Pachmayr grips on my N-frame beltguns (a 629-5 4", a 625-6 4" Mountain Gun, and a 610-3 3-7/8"), which currently look good and feel good. I think a Pachmayr Presentation grip will be the ticket, however. Speaking of which, the springs are mis-matched on the 6" 629-5, as well as the 625-6. Those will need to be addressed.

Ruger Redhawk: I finally shot the thing for the first time yesterday, and found Paul's loads to be pretty mild...so mild that I'm considering using the gun in revolver-only Bullseye competitions (so...just the Mid-Atlantic Revolver Regional Championship, then). To that end, a scope mount and a T-grip might be appropriate.

So that's a lot on my plate just in terms of hardware, and there's more that I haven't written here, but I think the next year or so will be pretty busy in terms of projects.

Kinda Sorta Tactical Game

The Kinda Sorta Tactical Game has been running now since December, 2011, and I've managed to participate in nearly all of them. I'm a professed pure-target sportsman and thus only dabble in the other disciplines, so it doesn't really come as a surprise that I am routinely in the bottom half of the standings at these 'holster games'. But I have a lot of fun stretching my legs, and it's an interesting way to see how the pure-target disciplines translate and influence the others.

I'm also the only person to routinely use a revolver in these games; most of the world has moved on, but I like to show how [in]effective a revolver can be in a sport (and world) dominated by double-stack semi-auto pistols. For instance, the latest edition of the KSTG featured limited-availability targets that really challenged me and my equipment - some targets would only be available for a short time, which for semi-auto guys would be pushing the limit; for me, it meant that I would be guaranteed to be points-down.

But I had fun with it, anyways.

5 Year Plan

So it's been 5 years since I last updated this blog - I'm not even sure what I used this blog for anymore...probably something to do with guns.

Anyways.

Let's see...what have I done in those five years...

I managed to make NRA Conventional Pistol "Master" in both Indoor and Outdoor Bullseye. I've even made "High Master" for Indoor. I've embraced semi-automatic pistols: I've known for a long time that I shoot far better with bottom-feeders than with wheelguns, but my goal was to make Master with wheelguns -- and I did that in 2011 - first with Indoor by completing the 2010-2011 MPL season with an overall 95%+, and then in outdoor by shooting a Master-level 2700 score, and then shooting a barely-Master-level .22 aggregate and cutting my losses and retiring after the .22 aggregate. By then, most of the shooting goals I had set out for myself had been achieved: make Master, earn the Distinguished Revolver badge, earn the Distinguished Pistol Shot badge (my last "hard leg" was at the New Jersey State Pistol Championships, which I attended for the sole purpose of shooting the EIC match -- my 2700 score was terrible, and my DR score was lackluster, but I rocked it in the EIC match, taking highest non-Distinguished and second overall), and I even won a match outright (Mid-Atlantic Revolver Regional Championship at AAF&G - a match I wasn't even planning on shooting, but attended because Brent O. wanted to borrow my .22 revolver). I did also win the Capital 1800 match at HH&A that Fall (and that's a story by itself).

After that, I figured I was "done" and was transitioning to bicycle racing. Indeed, in 2012, I shot very little at all, only participating in the Metro Pistol League out of habit, and shooting the later matches in the year since there were no bike races then - the Walt Wise Memorial Police-L match at HH&A in September, which I won, and the Capital 1800 match again at HH&A, which I also won (again).

In 2013, I figured it was going to be another 'blah' year for me and Bullseye - I had a new goal, not at all related to shooting: earn enough upgrade points to upgrade from USACycling Cat 4 to USAC Cat 3. Doing this meant I'd have to do consistently well in races to earn points, and to do that I needed to be pretty fit (and also race savvy). To do that, I basically had to ride all the time - my singular focus was on bicycling, and so shooting fell by the wayside. I did actually attend a 2700 match during the Summer, but only because there weren't any races scheduled that day. I did find the time to practice-up for the match, and I was able to take 2nd overall and 1st Master, and I did it with my new-to-me 1911 wadgun (yes, I finally jumped on the bandwagon).

But again there was not much shooting for me during the Spring and Summer. I branched out and attended a handful of run'n'gun matches - the Kinda Sorta Tactical Game, some USPSA-rules matches, and even a couple NRA Action Pistol matches. I still use revolvers for those (even though I've jumped on the autoloader bandwagon in Bullseye), and I'm currently seeing the fruits of my labor, having shot Bullseye for years and years and having excellent accuracy and competition mentality because of it.

In the Fall of 2013, I again competed in the Walt Wise match (again winning), and also the Capital 1800 (3rd win in a row). I also started to get interested in International-style shooting (after being told in 2012 and again in 2013 after winning the Walt Wise matches that I should be competing in those disciplines while I still can) - I attended my fourth and fifth ever International Air Pistol matches in October and November, and even shot a Free Pistol match in October.

So now I have some new goals: to improve in air pistol and free pistol shooting, to compete in International pistol shooting, and to one day represent the United States in a shooting match.

Range/Bullseye Report

Maybe it isn't such a good idea to practice so hard on League Night--I tire out my arm and my eyes by, essentially, shooting the equivalent of 7 relays before the official one. It's like playing seven scrimmage soccer games right before the real game on the same day--not a good idea. Maybe next time (i.e. next-next Monday--no MPL for Memorial Day) I'll just get to the range only an hour to half-an-hour early to warm up and nothing else...a couple rounds of rapid-fire, a round or two of slow-fire, nothing more.

Oh well.

Before MPL even started I put nearly 500 rounds downrange with my two revolvers. Decided I was doing better with my newly-acquired 17-8, so I chose that one to shoot tonight.

Slow-fire was...well, maybe a little disappointing. I still shot a 165, my second-best score, but I would've liked to have done better. I used my usual 3-shot strings--since I'm using open-sights, I'm not as concerned with being exactly the same between every shot...it gets tiring, and I don't feel comfortable setting up, shooting, and breaking down after every shot. My muscles seem happier to set up, shoot, shoot, shoot, break-down. 3 shots is about the maximum I can do before fatigue really sets in, but for those three shots it's easier to just keep the muscles going like they were instead of having to set-up every time.

Anyways. Timed-fire was even more disappointing, with at 179. A respectable score, sure, but 9-points below what I scored last week, and I put let far too many shots hit outside of the black--somewhat surprising, since in practice I was getting only about 3 or 4 outside of the black. Perhaps it had something to do with my tiring myself out before the match tonight.

Rapid-fire was OK today--176, 1 better than last week but still 10 points behind my best (186).

Overall, I secured 520 out of 600 points tonight, a 20-point gain (all due to a much better slow-fire) over last week, which earned me a 286 handicap score. Not bad...not top-4, but not bad. Next time (June 2nd) we're against the Navy Team, which should be easy, what with the Navy Team's personnel problems and lower-general scorers (last week they got a 1133, the week before they did a 1130-something, and the week before that they did 1140-something; my team regularly and easily scores in the mid 1150's)

My 3-week average dropped, however, to 256. Which means that next match, if I continue to do this well, I should have a much better handicap score.

Well, first things first. Next weekend there's no MPL match due to Memorial Day, and the weekend after that I'll be doing the Tahoe thing, so we'll see how this goes...

Range Report

this box of ammo is proving somewhat unreliable...a couple FTFires that would fire on the second try, a couple that wouldn't fire at all...not good for the timed- and rapid-fire, where I won't have time to "try it again". Tomorrow, I'll burn off this box and hopefully the next one will be better.

Couldn't rein in my hands today--rapid fire, I was still putting a few outside the black, some wildly-so. Still on-paper, but just barely.

I'll fix it tomorrow. Hopefully.

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On a side note, I'm getting all of these automated "happy birthday" messages from the various gun-forums I frequent. Must be my...oh wait, it is.

I'm 25 today.