11/12/13

Happy Sequential Day… or sum such mathematical geekery.  Get it?  “Sum” such?  Mathematical… oh never mind.  So I was reading about “The Big Bang Theory” on Rumorpædia the other day.  The tiny-headed comedienne/musician/actress that played Raj’s equally shy girlfriend Lucy is named Kate Micucci.  She apparently has a one woman comedy/musical show somewhere in Los Angeles called “Playin’ with Micucci.”  Say it out loud and think along the lines of “Hugh Jass,” “Mike Hunt,” or “Oliver Closehoff.”  I have been giggling about that for three days now and had to share.  So, back to the story of the weekend.  Sunday morning I decided I was going to go shoot the Tavor, henceforth to be known as the Hebrew Hammer!  I looked up the opening time for the range at Winchester and it said noon.  Then, whilst sitting on the throne, I flipped through the latest Bloodbath & Beyond catalog.  Of course now that I'm in the 5.56x45 world, I can shop for stuff in the AR-15 section… for a few things like magazines for instance.  When I got to the page with the flip-up “iron” sights for ARs, I thought, “Hey!  Since the optic I used to use on the Saiga 12 is now on the Hebrew Hammer, and the Saiga 12 didn’t fit in the cabinet [with the optic mounted], I wonder if a set of flip-up sights would work and fit [in the cabinet].”  My thinking was that I'd mount the flip-up rear sight on the short rail section, mounted where the rear Saiga sight used to be, then get one of those clamp-on shotgun barrel-mount rail thingies to mount the front flip-up sight… y’know, on the barrel.  Since I had a couple hours before the range opened, or so I thought, I fingered I'd waste them at Bloodbath & Beyond kitting out the Saiga 12 with “iron” sights.  I packed up the two guns and headed out.  At the store, I went back to the same guy who had talked me into the Hebrew Hammer in the first place and began telling him what I wanted.  His look of confusion at the description of the gun suggested he was lost.  I said, “Shall I go get it?”  He indicated that would be the best way to finger this out so I went to the car.  I got the Saiga and went back in to the counter.  Of course it gathered a bit of a crowd, being all bad ass and shit.  I showed him my idea and we went to another counter.  He pulled out a rear flip-up and mounted it.  I shouldered the weapon and saw that the sight was at a pretty good height.  I said I thought it would work if we could mount the front on the barrel somehow.  The clamp-on rail thingy he had was too short but I knew they had risers in the catalog section at least.  Sales dude went to help another customer while I went to the catalog desk.  I picked out a 1” riser and bought it then we tested the alignment of the two rails.  They appear to be spot on.  Sales dude helped me carry my bits to the front counter, stopping to grab another couple STANAG magazines for me along the way.  I mumbled something about ammo and he showed me the loaded ammo cans “full” of 420 rounds… with free ammo can!  I grabbed two of them.  So, with the ammo, my total was… well, a hell of a lot.  He suggested that I use Locktite on the threads when I install those sights for good and helped me to the car with all the stuff.  We shook hands and I left.  Since it was still early, or so I thought, I decided I'd go to the shop and install the sights.  I stopped at an auto parts store and bought a bottle of red Locktite.  I installed the sights and had a whip round the shop simulating battle.  I think the sights are going to work just fine.  I flipped them down and put the gun back in the case.  It was now after noon so I locked up and headed to the range.  About halfway there, I realized I could have taken the tritium night sight front post off of the Hebrew Hammer and out it on the front post of the Saiga 12’s new sight… or so I thought.  I decided against going back and went to shoot.  Remember how I'd looked up the opening time for the range?  Yeah, it wasn’t noon, it was nine.  I could have gone straight to the range and Bloodbath & Beyond later.  Oh well, live and learn.  I got in line for the rifle range and waited.  Yeah, they were both full again.  When my time came, I went in and put up a target.  I loaded all sixty rounds I'd bought Friday into the two magazines I'd brought with me, and sent the target to the end of the range.  I popped off three rounds and brought it back in.  I was high and to the right.  I adjusted the optic and sent the target out again.  I fired three more and brought it in.  I was centered pretty well but now low.  I adjusted and sent it out a third time.  Three rounds and I pulled it back in again.  I was pretty well centered… but my spread was nothing to brag about.  At least with 7.62x39 the holes are big enough that a wide spread might still be touching each other… not so with 5.56x45 holes.  I sent it out again and emptied the magazine.  I brought the target in finally and had a look.  I put up a fresh target and sent it out.  I unloaded the whole thirty rounds into this target and brought it in.  I was all over the map!  They were all within “center mass” were I shooting people, but I am not the expert marksman I'd like to be.  Hell, I'm probably not even “broad-side-of-a-barns-man” in acceptable military accuracy.  Suffices to say, at 25 yards I can hit center mass on a person but zombies will have to get closer before I can drop them with single head-shots.  Granted, I was shooting from the standing position with a brand new gun… in fact, I blame this all on me, not the gun.  I'm sure once it is broken in, it will drive nails at that distance… just not with me behind the trigger, probably.  So, with all my ammo burned up, I swept my brass, threw out the targets, and packed up to leave.  I went to the counter and asked what I owed.  “You had a ‘Free Range Session’ card didn’t you?” he asked.  I told him I did yesterday but that I'd left it at home.  He waved me off and sent me on my way!  I was amazed and quite pleased.  I guess only using about fifteen minutes of my hour helped as well.  From there I went back to the shop to see about swapping those front sights.  The short version of that story is… I can't swap those sights.  I'll try to ‘splain.  AR-15 front sight posts screw into their bases and are retained by a little spring-loaded detent.  The tritium night sights have to always point the tritium window towards the rear sight so the post has to spin independent to the threaded portion screwed into the base.  This upper portion, with the tritium post, also had indentations for the detent.  The base on the Hebrew Hammer’s tritium post was too thick so the flip-up’s detent didn’t engage on the spinny post’s indentations.  I swapped them back and went home.  Oh, as an aside, all the lights in the shop came on full brightness when I fired them up, unlike when we installed them and they required quite a bit of warm-up.  So I was happy about that at least.  At home, after I cleaned the Hebrew Hammer, I decided to try and fit the tritium sight I'd bought for the Saiga 12 before it went into the Kushnapup stock.  I tried it but had the same problem.  The sight post would not lock into position facing the rear sight.  I was bummed, but I'll get over it.  So, that about wraps things up for the weekend report.  I'll have something to say tomorrow, I'm sure.