Range Report

I went to the Bullet Stop last Sunday with my brother Big Mike and was pleased with the results. Even with allowances for my terrible eyesight and afternoon shakes, it was a good day.

Mike's Kimber .45

This is Mike's first effort with his Kimber .45. I advised him to quit shooting for the day, as he wasn't going to do any better than this. As it turned out, I was right -  but so what? If you're knee deep in brass you're bound to be having a good time.

Kimber .45

Big Mike's .45 Kimber. The trigger pull on the Kimber is the best I've seen on any stock firearm. It's a short pull with a very clean break.

Smith & Wesson Md. 586

This is my nightstand gun, the S&W md 586 in .357. I commonly shoot .38 special for practice, mainly due to the recoil of the .357 which is enough to break your wrist and loosen the fillings in your teeth. Note that the original grips have been replaced by Pachmayr grips. When I first bought this pistol at a gun show for $300, it had the original wooden grips on it. They looked good, but the gun was hard to hold on to and shooting .357 ammunition was difficult, as the pistol tended to shift in my hands every time I torched one off. At Big Mike's suggestion I bought a set of Pachmayr grips and found the pistol was much more comfortable to hold and the grips absorbed enough of the recoil to make shooting .357 ammo possible.

There's also the cost of shooting to consider, .357 ammo being a little harder to come by than .38 and being a damned sight more expensive. The first six shots of this group was fired single action, two handed grip at about 30 feet. The rest were shot double action, one handed at the same distance, which is why I'm happy with it.

.380 at 20 Feet

I shot this with Big Mike's .380 at about 20 feet. The sights on Mike's .380 are not adjustable and are hard to see, but I managed to turn in a good score with it. Good enough for 20 feet anyway. This is Mike's sock drawer gun, and he was trying to decide just what the best grip was for picking it up and putting one in the chamber.

Big Mike's .380

I suggested to Mike that since the pistol is double action, he should just put one in the chamber and uncock it. Mike declined for reasons best known to himself. The only trouble with leaving the chamber empty is that the slide on the pistol is difficult to get a good hold on. The combination of a small pistol with a strong recoil spring makes a person tend to grasp the entire slide in your secondary hand, which means there is a danger of a piece of the hand getting caught in the chamber as the slide drops. This would provide the end user with an unwanted distraction.

After shooting Mike and I went over to the Maumee Bay Brewing Company for an excellent lunch. All in all, a very good day.