Rifle for Sale

Geez. Where do I start.

Okay, I hit Bass Pro Shops today. They finally put one in Miami. Honest to God, I felt like falling on my face and licking the floor. I saw bass boats. Compound bows. Entire families wearing camo. It was like America's Embassy in the foreign yankee nation of Miami. Hallowed soil. I get along with everyone here just fine, but damn, it's a sensation, being in a store that could have been magically transported here from Dallas or Nashville or some other normal place.

I got myself two 525-round boxes of .22 ammunition, cheap. I thought they had Federal, but it turns out they sell Remington. Whatever. I'm sure it's fine. I picked up a soft case for the K31 for ten bucks. Got me some Breakfree. Extra Shoot-N-Cs. Bass Pro Shops makes its own line of reactive targets, but it looks like the price is exactly the same as Birchwood-Casey, so screw that. I picked up some Super Blue for the rifle, and I believe that completed my shopping for the day.

I hit the range and got out the K31. I wondered whether I should try to sight it in at a short distance, or do the manly thing and start at 50 yards. After hitting the paper precisely ONCE during the first round of shooting, I moved to 25 yards and sighted her in. Here is the target. You can see what happened as I adjusted the scope.

I moved back to 50 and kept fiddling with it, and you can see the results. I believe this is 14 shots. As I fiddled, they crept toward a final destination. Eventually, they just went through the same hole over and over. It's pretty clear that the rifle and I can both shoot. It's just a matter of getting it together and becoming consistent.

After that, I went to 100 yards. For some reason the gun shot higher. I will never understand ballistics. I realize the target below looks awful, but you have to realize, I was shooting a few rounds, adjusting the scope, and shooting again. And I really adjusted it a lot. During the day I moved the rings, twiddled the windage and elevation, rotated the scope in the rings, and tightened the ring bases, which were very loose. Wonder whose fault THAT was. What you have here is a bunch of groups shot under different conditions.

I had a few flyers due to slippage and problems getting myself aligned with the scope. And I fired one shot accidentally, while pawing at the trigger. And not all of those holes are mine. Damn weekend shooters.

At one point, I realized the rings were making the ejected shells fall back into the receiver, so I had to move everything. And I never got the eye relief quite right. At the end of the day, the scope was poking me in the nose on occasion. I guess I need to move everything forward half an inch, but I have to be careful about keeping the ejection path clear.

it's very obvious that once I get it where I want it, I'll be able to put all my shots in a 2" ring at 100 yards, all day. Using a crappy plywood rest that slides around, on an uncomfortable bench. As far as I'm concerned, that is satisfactory. I am very pleased. I think once I actually learn how to shoot, that ring should shrink down closer to one inch.

The kick is pretty vigorous. That's a nice way to put it. It seems a bit more punishing than the PSL. Not sure.

Speaking of the PSL, I guess it's time to sell it. It will never do what this baby is doing. Frankly, I like the beat-up Russian scope on the PSL better, except for the lower magnification, so if the gun were any good, I would expect better performance than I'm getting. I guess I could get a more powerful scope for it and see if that's the problem.

I think the guy next to me is in the same boat I'm in. He had a gorgeous AR-15 with a new scope, and he insisted on starting at a hundred yards. Afterward he revealed that he had missed the paper entirely. He said he was pretty sure he hit the target belonging to the guy on the other side of him. I said maybe he made the other guy look good.

Remember me saying it would be fun outshooting people with expensive guns? Well, it just happened. But it wasn't THAT much fun. He seemed like an okay guy, and I, too, missed the paper on the first try.

I saved as much brass as I could, even though Swiss brass is supposed to be a bitch to reload. The guy who was next to me before the AR-15 guy shot a .45, and I horked up a big pile of his brass, too.

It was a gorgeous day for shooting. Hot, but not humid. Very bright. Breezy, but not too much. And I really needed this. Maybe I'll manage to get out there again this week.

I highly recommend the K31. It will bruise you up pretty good, but at least you can trust the damn thing. Unlike the deceitful Romak, which made me feel hopeless. A photo of the K31 will eventually appear below this paragraph.

The guy who let me shoot his Tommy gun was at the range today, and I hollered at him. He said he was on the way to the car to get his own K31. Wish I could have stayed longer.

I have got to get out of this town. It has been fun, but I have to get out of Miami before it collapses into a black hole of liberal sewage. Maybe later in the year, when the real housing crash comes and people are in bread lines, I'll shop for a place up the coast. Hope it doesn't come to that. I will never understand how so many lending professionals got so stupid so fast.