12/11/08

I really like that Space Gun! Oh sure, the fifteen-round clips didn’t feed without the sleeves, and they wouldn’t fit the gun with them, but with the ten-rounders, oh man! Ok, one ten-round clip misfed a few times but I think it is the one I had loaded with Hornady TAP hollow points before and therefore it hasn’t been used as much as the others. Oh, speaking of Hornady TAPs, yeah, the Space Gun doesn’t really like hollow point ammo. It might warm to them eventually but I think for now I'm just going to continue to use ball ammo in that gun. Ok, so here’s how the evening went. I left work around 1645 h and went straight to the gun range. I think I called John to see what his schedule looked like and was told he wasn’t going to be able to join me. I got to the range and parked. As soon as I opened the door I was hit in the face with the smell of rotten fish! When I looked down I saw that the sewer clean out was open and flowing up into the parking lot right between my car and the next. I tiptoed through it, got the Space Gun from the hatch, and went inside. Cutie Patootie was there! She got me signed in and got a target and eye protection for me. I also bought two boxes of Hornady TAP ammo to supplement the supply I already had. I went into the range and loaded one of the fifteen-round clips with some ball ammo I'd brought with me. I popped that clip in and racked the action. It fed the first bullet just fine. “Cool,” I thought. Then again, knowing me, I might have said it out loud. I'm a little crazy that way. I sent the target down range and took aim. Pop! I fired it and went to pull the trigger for the second shot. Nothing. I took a look and, sure enough, the second round had “stove piped.” I cleared the misfeed and racked another into the chamber. Pop! Then nothing. Another “stove pipe.” I think it might have successfully fired a pair or three shots every few attempts, but most were “stove pipe” jams. I went ahead and fired all fifteen rounds through the clip, with several reloads of course, and then moved on to the second fifteen-rounder. I didn’t have high hopes for it and wasn’t disappointed. Well, I was disappointed that it worked just like the other, as in, not very well at all, but not disappointed in my prediction. Anyhoo, I fired fifteen through that clip eventually and moved on to the ten round clips. Since I'd only brought fifty rounds with me, I could only load two on the ten-round clips. These fired just fine. In fact, these are the clips that make me say, “I really like this Space Gun!” When I have spent all of my ball ammo, which by the way is what I happen to be calling range ammo today for some reason, I loaded my little storage case thingy with the Hornady TAP rounds. They came twenty-five to a box instead of twenty! I decided to try a clip of them in the Space Gun. This was when I found out that it doesn’t really like hollow point ammo. The first round wouldn’t load into the chamber easily. Once it was in however, the gun fired acceptably. I think it only misfed once and that was just a case of not stripping the bullet from the clip. Now, like I said before, this may have been a new clip that hadn’t been loaded and stripped enough yet. We’ll see. I fired nine rounds into the throat of the target then took aim at the little dude in the upper left corner. Ok, so I'm not the “dead eye” I have been claiming to be. I missed him by about half an inch to the left. But that was probably the equivalent of a… well, really long distance shot. I make no apologies for that miss, thank you very much. With the gun unhappy shoosting expensive ammo, and not having any more cheap ammo, I packed up and left the line. I bought another fifty rounds of ball ammo, knowing that I'd probably return to the range this evening to test the fifteen-round clips again. I talked to Cutie Patootie for a while and looked at a few guns. Eventually I took my leave and headed for the shop. It was butt-assed butt-butt cold! I took one of the sleeves for the fifteen-round clips to the grinder and trimmed it to fit the Space Gun’s handle. I slid the sleeve back on the clip and gave it a test. It didn’t quite fit. I ground it a bit more and tried again. This time it fit and was pretty stable. I loaded five rounds into it and manually cycled them through. It worked fine. I did this a few more times and then moved on to the other clip’s sleeve. I manually cycled five rounds through a few times with this clip and was satisfied for the time being. I won’t know until I actually fire the thing though. I loaded both of them full of fifteen rounds apiece and filled two of the ten-round clips. With all the new ball ammo loaded, I went ahead and loaded ten Hornady TAP rounds into the third ten-round clip. On a hunch, since it didn’t like to load as easily as the others, I tried to manually cycle these rounds. The first one wouldn’t strip from the clip, just like at the range. Now, I had a one in three chance of grabbing the exact same clip I had tried at the range so it is possible that it is still that one clip’s fault, but I’m just going to plan to use cheap ball ammo in the Space Gun for a while. I stripped that clip of ammo and put those rounds back in the storage case. I packed everything back up and headed for the house. I texted John and gave him a quick report of the things I'd discovered that evening. I stopped at McDonald’s for a couple of their Chik-Fil-A style chicken sammiches. I really like those things. At home I left the Space Gun and clips in the car but brought in the Hornady ammo. I filled the Baby Eagle’s clips full of that stuff and then wasted the rest of the evening in front of the TV. This morning I had to be here at 0700 h to set up for a Bored Meeting. Yeah, I'm babysitting that right now. I brought the BE with me so I can shoost it at the range tonight while I'm testing the Space Gun’s functionality. Hopefully I'll run enough rounds through the clips that they will all become nice and reliable. We’ll see. Well, I think I've gassed on long enough for one day. I'm out of here.