Venturing Crew 1150

When Judi, Phil, Ian and I went to the gun show this month I bought my first service rifle - a Colt match competition grade AR-15. We took it to Big Mac with us this past weekend and got to shoot it for the first time. Man, what a lot of fun! I let everyone else have some rifle time with it too, and everyone loved it. Especially the girls. Sorry - young ladies.

Can’t wait till we start working with the Fairfax Rod and Gun Club in a few weeks.

I forgot to mention my experience. On the Ski Trip, night skiing Saturday, some of the adults got me to ski down a double black diamond - and I’m barely a Green skiier! On the map, the night slope only crossed the hill of death. But when you get there, you have to actually go DOWN the hill of death a few hundred yards to pick up the green slope again.

Seems like everyone knew this fact but me, till I got there! Talk about scared. But surprisingly I made it down without falling - at least on the hill of death. I actually did fall when the slope transitioned to the green. I cut up the hill too much and came to a complete and sudden stop. Then I started going downhill backward! I couldn’t stop, so I dropped.

Needless to say once I got back to the Lodge after the hill of death, I called it a night. I figured I survived my first black slope intact, so why temp fate or Murphy.

Sue bought her first pistol last night. Its a cute little Walther P22. Its funny ironic that my wife is now a gun owner, considering she never wanted them in the house for the longest time.

The other interesting thing we discovered is that she is left eye dominant, which means that she now has to learn all over again. Hey, if it means more range time for me too, I’m all for it.

Ashleigh came out to the range with us Saturday morning. She is a pretty good shot. Needs to work on wrist control though - but given I think this was her first time with a handgun, not bad. Either that or the slide needs to be looked at. The Taurus will still occasionally unlock the slide when a magazine is inserted. I’ll probably have it looked at once NRA class is over next week.

from the shop! Phil and I put 200 rounds through it last night, plus 20 rounds of JHP and no jams.

On another positive note, I got word back from the Fairfax Rod & Gun Club, and they are working to see what they can do about providing range access to us as a group. They also said that lining up mentors for the different shooting disciplines should not be a problem - as long as they can work out the range details. So, good news on that front.

With just over 50 rounds, my new Taurus is in the shop with an ejector lever problem. They say it could just be a bur (factory machining defect), which they can probably fix. If not, its back to Taurus to be fixed. Either way, its a factory defect, which will be fixed. The timing is just bad, since I need a handgun in two weeks for NRA class. Looks like Sue will have to buy one and I’ll have to borrow it.

Well, I bought my first handgun. Mike and I went to Gilbert’s today, and after testing their rental model, I bought a Taurus 24/7 in 9mm.

By the way, the range at Gilbert’s was better ventilated today, so my previous observations were probably due to a bad equipment day.

I took Sue to Gilbert’s yesterday evening, somewhat against her better judgement :). But she shot both a Sig .40 and a Springfield 9mm. The .40 was a bit much for her wrist (recovering from a bad break last year), but I think she liked the 9mm - even though that was a bit much for her too. But it could have been because we shot the .40 first and set her wrist off. We’ll have to go back in a few days and try again.

Gilbert’s is a fairly nice range. The folks in the store were very friendly and knowledgeable (sp?). Their range prices were comperable to Shooter’s Paradise (although if you are not a memeber you have to pay an $8 monthly membership fee). They had a wide selection of firearms, more that Shooter’s Paradise, and comparable costs - although I admit I did not do a thurough comparison. Full members get a discount on most purchases, which in the long run adds up to a nice savings. The only drawbacks are the range itself did not appeare to be as well ventilated as Shooter’s Paradise, and I don’t think you can shoot rifles there. But again, I was not paying that close attention so maybe they do.

This is my personal blog space relating to the Crew. You can read my general Scouting Blog here if you want.

Mike and I went shooting today. Mike to test a Glock, me to test a SIG. Mike did not like the Glock, and Phil and I liked the SIG best out of all the pistols we tested.

We shot 9mm SIG226, a short barrel Springfield Auto (don’t remember the model), the Glock 17, Mike’s S&W 40, and an AR-15 - just for fun. I wish they had a SIG 229 though.

But I think I’m gonna get the 229, even though I have not fired it. The 226 was wonderful, and the smaller size of the 229 (based on testing the Springfield) will be better for our youth’s smaller hands.

Tony