Range day Friday….good and bad.

So my younger brother brought my nephew to see me from Illinois, and we spent the afternoon at the range shooting rimfire.

He (nephew) has his maternal grandfathers Remington 511 “ScoreMaster” which I cleaned and lubed when it was given to him about a year ago (the thing hadn’t had more than 100 rounds through it, and, aside from petrified gun oil and dust was, actually, in perfect condition) Has a tiny thin 4X scope on it, but in bright sunny conditions that works very well.

We called my other brother and my Dad for a range day. All had fun. 3 generations on a range. This is why we win. There is no equivalent “(Anti) range day” that can compete.

We poked a few holes in paper at 25, then 50, yards, rang the gongs at 50 yards. Then knocked over bowling pins at 50 yards (nephew really likes that).

His dad (my youngest brother) put a few hundred rounds through the Marlin lever action ,22 model 1897. I think I am gonna get him one for Christmas, if I can find one. Or a 39M.

Nephew liked the Savage bolt gun too, but not as much as grandad’s rifle.

Of course, everyone likes the Non-Ruger 10-22 in Red/White/Blue. 2 lb trigger, Big 4-10 X 60 scope, What’s not to like?

Dad shot his 9mm pistol, and we all shot his recently-found Springfield .22 single shot (no model number that I can find). It has extraction issues, but I am sure I can fix that. Clean, no rust, good trigger. Likely old as shit as there is no serial number that I can find.

I did put 25 rounds through the Para LDA with the new Kimber spring (the original Para spring is, of course, not available, and is now at  over twice the recommended round count for replacement…., and Remington (who says they will honor the lifetime warranty) doesn’t have parts and is no help…The Kimber coaxial spring fits (with a bit of filing) and appears to work just fine.

That was all good…

The disappointment:

The Sig 1911 that I had bought?

Not so good.

I had cleaned it of the factory goo lube and lubed it. Swabbed the barrel of same goo. Reassembled… Just hadn’t gotten to the range.

Today was the day. Pulled it out of the box….Middle bro was waiting his turn to shoot it…..

Went to load a mag.:

Odd: the cartridges won’t go into the mag?

Lets try the other mag:

Same thing? WTF?

Middle bro is looking at me like I am a window licking special needs kid (the ones they make wear a helmet).

I hand him the mag and some .45 ACP.

He can’t seem to load ’em either. (he, while he has his moments, isn’t stupid…or retarded). Yes, I know some folks find that term offensive….Deal with it.

Hands mag back to me….

I look at base of mag….

odd, it is stamped “9mm”.

Well, that might could be the issue….I suppose even Sig can make a mistake…..

He offers me a Wilson Combat 8 rounder for .45 from his pistol…. I load 2 (first time firing). Begin to insert the mag in the magwell….

I stop for a minute and look closely at the barrel.

It too says “9MM”.

Strange….I
thought I had purchased a .45.

Paper work (still in box) says .45?

I WAS tempted to shoot it..we had a shitload of 9 there.

But I didn’t. Put it away

Got back from the range. Called Gander Mountain where I had ordered it..

They “don’t take guns back”.

Usually.

Explained the issue.

Surprisingly for a big box corporate store, once they had looked up the order, they asked me to bring the pistol back.

Took a while, 4 managers to do different overrides, but they have now ordered the correct model and it will be here on Wed.

When I bought it, I had checked the serial number to make sure it matched the box and paperwork, but I didn’t check the barrel for caliber. I had ordered a .45 and (foolishly) thought that was what had come.  My bad, I guess.

Kind of a bummer, but I do have to say that the Gander Mountain staff handled it well. Treated me well. Apologized over and over.

It isn’t that you made a mistake, it is how you fix the mistake that counts.

So that was the afternoon

2 thoughts on “Range day Friday….good and bad.

  1. At least you got to shoot 'something'… 🙂 And smart to NOT fire the 9… You would have been screwed…

Comments are closed.