12/16/08

Ok, so now I'll finish with the tale of the weekend. After making dinner plans with mom I went to the gun range to try out the “good” fifteen-round clip in the Space Gun. Cutie Patootie was there and she got me signed in. She sold me another box of Blazer 9mm ammo (by the way John, it seems to work fine for me) and a target. I went in and loaded up the clip. Ammo kept popping out. The lips needed some work so I walked back out to see if I could borrow a hammer. They had one and I gave the clip a couple whacks. I went back in and tried again. Do not forget to put your ear protection on/in before entering the lane. I realized the fans sounded louder than usual and just as I was putting them in, BANG!!!!!! Holy crap! That was loud! I got the plugs in before anyone else had a chance to shoot so I'm not ringing like I would have been a few seconds later. I reloaded the fifteen-rounder and gave it a try. Nope, it still either stove-pipes or double-feeds and jams. I unloaded it and moved on to shoosting the ten-round clips. They work fine. I even tried them both with Hornady TAP hollow points. Those fed fine after the first round. What I think I'll do is load nine TAPs with one ball on top as the manually loaded round. I think that’ll work. I won’t be as lethal on the first shot per clip but it’ll still get the job done. Actually, I could probably just load the first clip with one ball and try to remember to stop shoosting with one still in the chamber. We’ll see. When I'd blown through all the ammo I had, I packed up and left the range. I held back one ten-round clip so I could ask about a pouch for it. Some dude was talking to Cutie Patootie so I stood back and waited. She asked if I was done and I said, “Maybe.” I told her what I was looking for, the magazine pouch, and she started around the corner. I told her to not stop helping the other dude and it turns out he was just hanging out talking. She got the pouch for me, a single-clip job, and added it to my ticket. She asked if there was anything else and I said something about ammo for the Judge. Her eyes lit up, she likes Judges. She sold me a box of unjacketed lead ball ammo but they didn’t have any shotgun shells. I got another 100 rounds of 9mm as well. Back in the range, I pulled out the Judge and loaded it up with a couple 000 buckshot shells and three of the ball ammo. I blew a bunch of holes in the new target and reloaded, all ball ammo this time. When I'd fired several of those rounds, I loaded up a cylinder with that no-name reloaded ammo I'd bought at Winchester Gun Range last week. That stuff was dirty, nasty, smoky, awful shit. I'm glad to be rid of it. I burned through all of that and as I was putting the Judge away the guy in the next lane looked over. “Is that a Judge?” he asked. I smiled and confirmed that it was. He nodded appreciatively. I think I played with the Space Gun a little more and then packed it all up. I went back out and talked to Cutie Patootie a little more and paid up. Yikes! That was an expensive day at the range. From the range I went to the shop to clean the guns. I have decided to dedicate a drawer in the old, small tool box as the gun cleaning supply drawer. I found an old tee-shirt and cut one of the sleeves off and up into cleaning patches. I also bent a welding rod into a T-handle configuration to use as a ramrod for cleaning the Space Gun. I still need an actual cleaning rod if I want to run the wire brush down the barrel of the Space Gun but I'll burn that bridge when I come to it. So, with all the tools I'd need fabricated, I cleaned the Space Gun and the Judge. Since I hadn’t fired the Hebrew Hammer, I didn’t feel the need to clean it. Oh, I took it out and played with it a bit. I stripped it and inspected everything but I didn’t run a brush or pads through it. Once I had all the guns clean I started looking at the Space Gun’s stock to see where I would like the spare clip mounted. Remember, I bought that single magazine pouch thingy from Cutie Patootie? Anyhoo, I took a strap that John had donated for Shichi’s prop rod project and strapped the pouch to the butt of the Space Gun. It is right in the crotch of where the butt meets the connector hoozis going to the bottom of the grip. It holds there nice and stable. I like it. I practiced dropping the empty clip and loading the fresh one from the pouch a few times and deemed it satisfactory. Of course I still had no place to store the other working clip when transporting the weapon. I decided then to look at the third magazine again. I fiddled with it for a bit and by shoving a screwdriver into it I got the follower and spring to release and un-jam. I loaded it up and stripped the ammo manually a few times to see if it would jam again and it did not. The spring is very tight after about the eighth round so this one might not get more than nine loaded in it. We’ll see. I painted the bottom of the base red to differentiate it from the other two ten-round clips and put it aside. I packed everything up and went home. Mom and I went to Rockfish and then I eventually went to bed. Yesterday after work I stopped in at Cheaper Than Dirt Outdoor Adventures (yeah, so I'm a hypocrite, get over it) and bought a double clip pouch, twenty rounds of .45 Colt unjacketed lead hollow point ammo, and four boxes of .410 bore 000 buck shot shells. They are stocking the 000 shells now so I'm guessing the Judge is a pretty popular gun these days. They didn’t have the Werewolf ammo I wanted but I think these semi-wadcutter hollow points will fuck someone up royally were I to need to use them. I don’t regret the purchase. Back at the house, I took the single mag pouch off of the Space Gun and re-installed it along with the double. The single doesn’t have a cover so it will only be used for the first clip while transporting the weapon. It is on the left side of the gun and would interfere with my face if loaded anyway. The double pouch is on the right side of the gun and will hold the other two clips covered up and secured. It makes the stock a little fat at that location but the case still closes and zips up around everything. I like it. I put that away and restocked the ammo in the pistol bag. After putting the bag away, and making sure I can draw the Judge easily, I wasted the evening with my laptop and TV. Now I'm here at work and I think I’ll call it a rant.