The Laughing Wolf

Life Is Good

Yes, there are pesky things like bills, jobs, money worries, and all that stuff out there, waiting to ambush me. Yet, I must say life is good. I am sitting here eating my Scot Porridge Oats, drinking my tea, slightly sore, and improbably happy.

The computer situation is resolved, and it and I are glad to have things back better than ever. It did most of the work yesterday whilst I went and played hooky. I spent 6-7 hours on the range yesterday, came home, had a good stout, watched Angel, and went to bed. A wonderful day, a good start to the next, what more could a person ask?

I arrived at the range later than planned, as I had to make a stop at my favorite local gun shop before heading out. I needed some additional supplies for the trip: cleaning equipment and ammo. They are good, but opening early is not their forte.

The range I am using for the FN work is located in a beautiful spot up in the ridges with lots of birds and critters around it. The largest drawback to it is that while it is not all that far in terms of straight-line distance, there is no direct route to it. It can take 1-2 hours to reach it. It has no hygiene facilities, which requires some planning, but does have a good covered shelter and a not-too-bad bench and table arrangement. Supposedly the rifle range is set for 100 and 200 yards, but the more I use it the more I want to measure it.

Set-up did not take too long, and for the first part of the day I used the 100-yard portion of the range. The main purpose of the day was to lap the barrel of the FN. Lapping is a process of accelerating the break-in of the barrel so that it will shoot more accurately. Lapping can be done several ways, but based on the recommendation of a regular at a Tavern I frequent, I decided to do something different.

This person, who knows a thing or three about weapons, had recommended a Firelap System to break in the barrel. I called the people at Arizona Ammunition about it, and after discussing the rifle, the condition of the barrel, and some other factors, they recommended that I not go with the Firelap system but with David Tubb’s Final Finish system for barrel polishing.

This consists of 50 rounds of ammunition, broken into five groups. Each group of ten rounds has a different abrasive factor, so that they sand/polish the barrel as you fire them. You fire them in a particular order, and between each group of ten you clean the barrel – very thoroughly.

They even recommend a different way of cleaning than standard. Normally, you use a brush and patches specifically designed for the caliber of gun you are cleaning. In this case, they recommended getting a brush one size smaller, and putting a patch over it. They said that this worked better, and I am inclined to think they are right after trying it.

Now, me being me, I could not help but modify this as I went. I cleaned their way until things looked clean, then switched to a proper size brush, cleaned, and then re-did the smaller brush and patches. Using this method, while time consuming, resulted in some serious cleaning.

Upon completing the system and cleaning the gun once again, I fired a group of good ammunition and found that my groupings had indeed improved. That out of the way, I proceeded to continue the process by firing 100 rounds of full-metal-jacket military ammo. After policing the brass (you can’t re-use the polish ammo, by the way), I cleaned the still hot barrel yet again.

Then, I stopped and had lunch, consisting of the remaining smoked pork shoulder from the Iron Chef battle, a chunk of wonderful cheese from Switzerland called Vacherin-Fribourgeos (if I am reading the clerk’s writing correctly) and water. A good ale or some wine would have been even better with this, as I ate in the woods on an absolutely gorgeous day, but they are contraindicated while at a range.

After lunch, I fired another hundred rounds of the cheap cartridges, cleaned again, and then got down to serious business. Since this is still early in the process, sighting-in the system continues. I set up a standard silhouette target at 200 yards, and then put 5.5-inch Birchwood Casey Shoot N C targets on the head and the center of the X-ring. I then started firing 10 rounds at a time of Black Hills 168-grain boat-tail hollow points at the targets. I used the first 20 rounds (10 at each small target) to adjust the telescopic sight. I then put up new small targets and fired 20 rounds for effect. The first 10 were not that good: I had three rounds miss into the 9 ring of the large target. That said, I did get five of the remaining seven rounds into the 9 and 10 rings of the smaller target. The 10 head shots did a similar grouping.

For fun, I hung or stood up full bottles of water and pop in different sizes, and shot them at 200 yards. If you hit them, even the smallest ones, you do know it.

Provided that this really was at 200 yards, it is not bad for a new rifle and a triggerman who has not done serious long shooting in more than 20 years. If the range is not 200 yards, then both the rifle and I are in trouble.

There is plenty still to do. I need to finish sighting in the scope and put several hundred more rounds downrange. I need to get into better shape and get serious about the shooting. As for the rifle, a better scope would not, hurt but as noted before a good one will cost more than I paid for the rifle. The trigger needs a bit of work, and that will be easy and inexpensive. There are some other things I need to get for it, but they will come with time.

Nor did I spend all my time on the rifle range. Once I had finished with it for the day, I went over to the pistol side of the range and practiced with a pistol I had been able to take up for the day. Unlike the good indoor range I use most of the time, the outdoor range has no restrictions on rapid fire, double-taps, and the like. Need a lot of work there too, but it was fun and a great way to relax at the end of the day.

All-in-all, an outstanding day that was only improved by coming home and discovering that everything on the computer but the hard drive had indeed ended up in the trash – finally. It was then only the work of minutes to recover the files I needed, and to delete all those that I did not. Hmmmmmm. Wish there was some way to get the computer to do all the paying work while I play…

More on the FN as it happens. Enjoy your day.

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