Even in Miami

I had a wonderful day at the range. I wasn't going to go, but I changed my mind, and I'm glad I did. I shot the Romak III today, and I ended up shooting a little better than last time (at least at 100 yards). I still don't think the gun is the problem. Maybe I'm wrong. But while I'm still not shooting it well, it tightened up at the longer distance.

Here are the first 20 rounds, from 50 yards. I used my corrosive Russian super-duper sniper ammunition.

Not great. Second 20:

This group is a bit polluted from the previous group, because one of my black stickers fell off and exposed older shots. But still, it seems more centered.

Third 20. Pay no attention to the high shot. My scope needs to be worked on. I adjusted it upward to bring the bullets to the POA, but it was at its limit, and it slipped back after the first shot:

I moved to 100 yards, and I was pretty pleased with my improvement. The pattern is smaller than last time, with a lot more shots in the center area. I was aiming at the black dot above the target, since I could not sight the scope in.

Here's the final bunch. One of the shots in the middle is not mine. I'll explain.

Sometimes I popped a few right on top of each other, which makes me suspect that the gun is okay and I'm the problem. My guess is that I need to smooth out my trigger pull and make it consistent. I have no problems keeping the scope on target. At 100 yards, it dances in an area representing around half an inch on the target. I am having no problems at all holding it steady.

Someone else fired three shots. That was the gentleman who owned this gorgeous work of art:

That's an Auto Ordnance Tommy gun in .45 caliber. I first became aware of the owner as he was arriving at his post. A Filipino-looking guy next to me was shooting some sort of AK, and the Tommy gun's owner was speaking slowly to him in English: "Do NOT vote for Hillary." I suppose he was around 80 years of age. He spotted my pink range bag and said, "Nice bag." I told him it was free. I complimented him on the gun, and he invited me to shoot it. Later on I took him up on the offer.

The Tommy gun is really sweet. I could not feel the recoil at all. He had a target set up at 25 yards, and I propped the gun up on my elbows and took three or four shots. The sights are odd; it's impossible to tell exactly where you're aiming. But I took my best guess and popped every shot into the 4-inch bullseye with almost no effort. I couldn't even feel the recoil. It was like shooting a squirt gun. Wonderful. I let him try the Romak, which is how I ended up with a few peculiarly situated holes in my target.

Turned out he was a homebrewer, and I gave him tips on where to get crap online for all-grain beer. I really enjoyed talking to him. He said he was a reloader, and he pays around $2.50/box for .45 ammunition. Damn, can that be true?

I don't know if the Romak is worth a crap or not. I plan to get a K31, so I guess we'll know soon enough. Seems like I didn't get as much trigger slap with this ammunition. I don't know why that should be the case, but my finger isn't as numb this time.

I read that all you have to do to deal with corrosive ammunition is to run a swab through your barrel, soaked in 3:1 water:ammonia solution, so that's what I did. Now I'm going to ream it out with the boresnake.

Hope I can get this gun working. And man, do I want a Tommy gun.

It's great running into sane Americans at the range. Miami is full of idiots who can't wait to vote for Obama. Sometimes I forget that there are people around who still have have common sense. I overheard this guy talking about IMI (Israeli Military Industries), the outfit that makes the Desert Eagle. He said, enthusiastically, that the Jews weren't going to let themselves be gassed any more. Who on the increasingly anti-Semitic left would say a thing like that, with that much glee? Nobody.

I noticed that virtually everyone shooting rifles was awful. I was shooting, what? Six minutes of angle? Still, I stood out. It's amazing how many people don't even realize you're not supposed to jerk a trigger.

Fun day; progress made. I will learn how to shoot if it kills me.

Now I have an aged steak to cook.