Tom

I like the "run what you brung" aspect and you don't need anything too fancy to do okay. The guy I was talking to shot a factory Ruger 77/22 with a scope and said he shot it well enough to qualify AA. The rimfire was 25-100m ranges The high power was 100-500m ranges. From what I was told most guys shoot something around a .308. He said even a .243 does well except at 500m, it doesn't have enough energy left to knock over the 50lb target. I think my Swiss k31, Ruger Mark III, and maybe my 10/22 would get me started.

My local range had an "expo" last weekend with all 8 of their ranges open and were demonstrating the various shooting sports and letting people shoot similar courses. They had a simplified IDPA setup, an ICORE revolver setup, 5-stand, trap and skeet, black powder, cowboy action shooting to name a few. Silhouette shooting really caught my eye, they have events for rimfire and high-power out to 500m. It looks like a lot of fun and I enjoy precision shooting. Anyone participated in it?

The Mossberg 464 SPX lever action zombie gun is coming from the same folks that give us the 702 plinkster .22 with a muzzle brake from a .50bmg and the 500 Chainsaw. We should not be surprised.

I read rumors of a "bad batch" right around the time I bought mine.

The receiver looks a bit like a Tikka

I bought 1000 Wolf primers, I don't know if they are the same as Tula, but I've had a 2-3% FTF rate after I fixed a primer seating issue I had previously.

If you're going to cut down trees the only proper tool is a Mossberg "Chainsaw"!

The ammo is priced the same as any other commercial ammo. In fact the surplus is match grade and a bargain at only about $0.59/rd. Its just not as cheap as Russian surplus. It is hard to find at a local store. Easy to find online and easy to reload.

Corrosive ammo is okay; you just need to clean soon after shooting.

Are you a bad shot?

FN FAL, you can even get it with wood furniture.

Why not an SKS? (and a mini 30!)

It feels more like "Trick my Truck" with guns.

That show is terrible! It offends me as a gun enthusiast and a fabricator/machinist/engineer. What a bunch of hacks doing stuff "that's never been done before" but a little googling shows it to be nothing new.

Tom Knapp could shoot 200 launched at the same time before they hit the ground...LOL I haven't shot many, maybe 60 in a day.

I didn't really notice anything different about the sound. I'd been shooting my .40, he was shooting .45 and 9mm as was the guy in the lane on the other side of me.

The guy shooting next to me had one. I admired it, which usually results in someone handing their pistol to me "try it!". (nice folks at my local outdoor range) I only shot one magazine's worth so this is only an initial impression. It really is a different pistol than what you'd expect. It weighs nothing and it almost entirely plastic so it feels like an airsoft gun. The recoil is similar to a .22WMR but packs much more punch. The ergonomics were good but the texture on the grip is really sharp. According to the owner ammo is not as expensive as you'd think, about $23/50, which is what you'd pay for premium handgun ammo. Not a cheap plinker though. info: http://www.fnhusa.com/le/products/firearms/model.asp?fid=FNF003&gid=FNG001&mid=FNM0004 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_Five-seven http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5.7x28mm

What about a Ruger LCR in .357? Those things are tiny and light. Ruger SR40c is small-ish. Glock 27 is small. The problem with semi-autos is physics come into play and they can only be so small and still function.

http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/nwongarts.html

I had a similar situation at the local indoor range when the clerk couldn't clearly communicate that a lone person couldn't rent a gun and shoot. You either need 2 people in your party or need to bring 1 gun, then you can rent all you want. All he could tell me is "I can't let you shoot alone". We had a circular conversation, and I thought he meant me personally couldn't shoot, until he finally explained insurance purposes and suicide... The local range is small, 4 lanes, but it's kept up well and a lot of cops practice there. Their hours suck, 9-5 m-f, 8-12 Saturday. Luckily we have good weather around here and a really nice outdoor range.

you're a partial maniac, your thumb is only following your commands

Volquartsen parts are popular at rimfirecentral.com I shimmed the trigger/pin to get the play out and polished the sear and hammer. The trigger is pretty good now but would be nicer with less post-travel. The MKIII isn't that bad to put back together, I think the problem is the parts fitting together aren't intuitive. I usually have to install the sear/bar/spring a couple of times before I get it right. I also have the drop the plunger for the safety detent on the floor at least 3 times It's certainly no Glock but if you are mechanical and enjoy the challenge you can do it.

I bought some "Wipe-Out" on a suggestion from another forum and so far I'm impressed. Wipe out is foaming cleaner that you let soak at least 1 hour but can sit overnight according to the instructions. It claims "no ammonia". An interesting part of the instruction is specifically "no need for a brush" and "do not use oil after using Wipe-Out". So here's a picture of what it took to clean the bore of my 7.5x55 K31 with 60 rounds down the barrel. 20 were from a month ago, 40 from a session the day before. The top 4 were after an overnight soak. I then soaked the bore again for 60 mins and ended up with the bottom three. The patches are all I used, no brush.

I tried it out with H380 for .22-250 which is not much of a challenge because it meters perfectly through a regular powder measure. I've played with Varget, which is tough to meter in a regular powder measure because it's stick/extruded. It metered it flawlessly in the 15 or so throws I tried. An interesting feature is it allows .1gr over, at .2gr over it beeps and displays "OVER". You have to manually reset an "OVER" message. The downside is it's slow. In the time it takes to meter 40 gr on the fast setting I can easily seat the bullet and measure cartridge length with a few seconds to spare. I think it's still faster than throwing a short charge and manually trickling up but much slower than using a regular powder measure. Think of it as an auto trickler, because that's really what it is.