New Shooter Day 3 and a Field Trip

Yesterday, Saturday that is, I picked up my nephew for another round of shooting class. Once again the young fella is doing OK. He cleared the swinging target 5 for 5. Round II he went 6 for 5. When he started falling off on the swingers we took a little break and tried a some paper targets at a little longer range of 25 yards. He did OK but does need to work on this some more. We discussed holding the rifle steady and using his elbows on his knees to create a solid platform, we covered breathing, you know, take a breath and let it half out and fire. For the next session we might start with 1 round of swingers and then transition to the paper and back to swingers of even some stationary clay targets with give a nice visual confirmation of a hit. we cut this session short so we could take a trip to a gun store. When we arrived I was flabbergasted. The gun shop, Great Guns, is next to a large outdoor retailer call Rogers Lures. It seems Rogers was sponsoring the Grand National Waterfowl Calling Competition. The parking was spilling over into the grass lots next door. The sounds of the competitors and shoppers trying out the bevy of calls for sale filled the air. Flocks of the latest decoys were placed all around us. Vendors lined the edges of the parking lot. Needless to say the gun shop was filled. The gunslingers behind the counter however, did treat my nephew with courtesy and listened to him. We then made our way to Rogers to check out the sale there. Decoys of geese and ducks abounded. I guess the price was right as I saw many dozens carried out the front door. The cases of shotgun shells could have filled a couple of semi trailers. Camouflage clothing abounded, all on sale course. We looked and walked and talked and gawked. We had a good time especially since we just started out to see the gun store.

New Shooter range day II

Back from the second range day with my nephew. Things went very well with the little guy hitting his first 5 targets with 6 shots. On the second round he cleared the swingers with the required 5 shots. After that little start up, I broke out the .410 shotgun. This is a big jump in felt recoil but he did great with it. I set out some stationary clay targets at 25 feet and he dusted all but 2 on the first shot. He was a little shaken by that round and didn't connect at all with the next set of swinging targets using the Chipmunk .22. So, we took a break and found out he really likes orange cream soda. After sitting in the shade a while we went back to the .22 rifle and he cleared the set with no problems. Of course he the asked if I had brought any pistols. Did I bring pistols? What do you think? I loaded up 3 mags for the Ruger MKII, 2 mags for the S&W 422, a cylinders worth in the Ruger Single Six. Threw out some plastic bottles and few tin items and he went to town. Later we were looking at the damage done and I commented that I had a pocket pistol( Taurus PT22 ) I wanted to shoot. Of course had to try this one out, about 3 mags worth. The temperature was about a hundred by then so we cleaned up the mess, packed the small guns and I broke out the SIG 1911. This is the first time I have shot this brand new gun. I shot 3 mags at semi rapid fire at 7 yards. The group would easily pass the Missouri concealed carry test. I can't wait to put some good lube in this and give it a real test later. I dug some of the slugs out to show him and he had to take them home as well as a spent .410 hull. And a bottleof A&W orange cream soda to show his folks.

The shootin, The heat, The Harley

We finally got some rain. After a couple of weeks in the high nineties and low 100's it's a nice break.

I plan on taking my nephew out shooting this afternoon. Hopefully we won't sweat like we did last week. I think I lost 5 ponds that morning. The wife may also come along. She wants to get her CCW. She's working on .22's for now. I have suggested that she get someone else to coach her. 'Nuff said about that.

I have begun rebuilding my Harley. Last summer the rear cylinder base gasket gave out and I didn't have the funds to make the repairs. Thinking about it I recalled I had a big bore kit left over from my shop that I closed. I started tearing the motor down and that's as far as it got. No money will do that for ya. So it sat. And sat. And sat. My wife came to me a couple months ago and said she wanted to go riding. Riding? The f'n bike is tore down. She handed me a credit card and said "get it fixed". Now, I loathe credit cards but in this situation, Hell Yeah! Off to the machine shop I went. The cases got opened up to accept the larger cylinders that will increase displacement to 88 inches. I also wanted the crank rebuilt, balanced and trued. This is when the problem was revealed. The crank had one bad shaft and with this style of factory crank the machine shop couldn't repair and it would have to be sent out, more time, money, yada, yada, yada. Any way, I now have Truett and Osbourne Tourqemonster fly wheels with S&S pins in the case. I had the heads worked on too. They opened up the intake valve to 1.60 inches, milled .045 inches off the heads and intalled heavy duty springs with titanium retainers. I am installing a very nice cam from Andrews with a 550 lift. With the Thunder header I run, I should get 100-115 horse power out of this motor. It'll be very smooth with the heavy flywheels in it. A polished aluminum six speed transmission will put the power to the ground. I am adding a 31 tooth transmission pulley to bring the final ratio closer to 1:1. I need to get it all wrapped up soon so I can break in the motor and take a 3 day trip over Memorial Day weekend.

The carcass

The project The transmission
My wife is ready to ride and I can hardly wait to twist the wick on this thang.

New shooter. A kid at that.

Earlier this year my nephew asked me to teach him to hunt. I suggested that I teach him to shoot before the hunting began. As you can tell by my lack of postings I have been very busy. I finally got the opportunity last weekend to to take the little guy to one of my shooting places.
I took an Oregon Arms "Chipmunk" .22 for him and a few .22 pistols for me later.
The Chipmunk was a Christmas present to my son when he was five. He took very good care of this little rifle. 19 years later it looks brand new.


This little gun is 31.5 inches long and is a single shot bolt action with peep sights. It only weighs something like 3 pounds.

I took a resettable swinging target for him to shoot at. First things first, we went over the safety rules of handling firearms. He like the part about keeping your booger hook off the trigger.Then came a lesson on how to use the sights. He must have been listening as his first three shots were on the money. The fourth grazed the plate and the fifth connected solidly. To hit the reset plate took two shots. This first grade kid has never had any experience with guns and took to it like a duck to water. After a few round with the iron plates , we set up a target board at double the distance(25 feet) I asked him to shoot one time at each of the five orange spots. Five shots later he had 3 targets with a hole in them and the others had very close holes. We kept up with the plates and orange spots for a while then took a break for some root beer. His grandmother called and wanted to take some pictures of him shooting so we extended the break and I took the opportunity to shoot a couple of the pistols, a Ruger MK II with a 5.5 inch bull barrel and 4inch Smith and Wesson 422. All I can say is once the pistols came out my nephew forgot all about the rifle. When Granny showed up he was making plastic root beer bottles dance all around using the Ruger. Granny was very excited about that. Later she put a few round down range and did pretty good herself. We all had a great time and will soon do it again. I'll have to bring some different targets to keep things interesting for him.