Pick a WWII Weapon

You’re about to be shipped off for the war and inexplicably you get a choice of what weapon you are issued

Pick one

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Rapid Fire Sitting at Small Arms Firing School, Viale Range Camp Perry

The rapid fire string of the 2014 SAFS M16 EIC match at Camp Perry’s Viale Range

 

York Riflemen 2014 Fall Garand Match

I took a trip across the river to York Riflemen, one of my favorite places to shoot, for their fall Garand Match.

It was raining  when I pulled in but by the time we headed to the pits the ran stopped and by the off hand string of the first relay it was in the mid 60’s with the sun was shining. There were only enough shooters for two relays so we “scored in the pits”.  I had never done  this before. This initially gave me some anxiety but, after some advice from my fellow shooters, it turned out to be not so hard. Run the target down, score paste, and run it up like normal. Then Grab your clipboard and write down the shooters score,  with any luck before your shooter takes their next shot.

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After a round in the pits it was my turn to shoot.  The weather had significantly improved by the time I was all strapped in for slow prone. I am happy to report that I beat my personal best entirely due to off hand. I had been in a bit of a slump with the Garand the past few matches, especially on off hand. I had an “ah ha” moment while dry firing this week. I was not leaning back nor to the right (away from the line) as much as I had been  Note in first picture there is way too much space between my side and my support arm.

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In this match, with the position I had practiced, I was able to get my support arm tighter against my side. This gave me a more stable position. While I still have some other things to work on I think this was good breakthrough.

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This old picture that has been floating around the internet for some time gives a good visual of what I’m talking about. Why he is barefoot I don’t know, GTB recommends you wear a sturdy pair of boots when shooting.

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It was a great match and I am glad I made it out. I’ll be back for thier spring Garand Match in April and plan to stay for their spring NRA match.

Slow Prone:

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Thanks to Adam for the picture.

Your Favorite WWI Bolt Action

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Leveraging the Laws of Thermodynamics to Remove a Stuck Barrel Nut

I picked up a nice free float rail from ALG defense, so I needed to take the barrel off of my Palmetto State Armory (PSA) mock dissipator. Sounds easy right? Well not so much. Using my improvised upper clamshell and multi-tool I couldn’t even budge it. I managed to lift my workbench slightly off of floor in the process. This was pretty impressive as my workbench is a couple hundred pounds and screwed to studs in two walls.

The front sight was canted so I knew it was probably over torqued but it was worse than I expected.

After a few more tries and a can of liquid wrench, I gave up and ordered a torque bar and a heavy long handled PRI barrel wrench.

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http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-tools-supplies/rifle-tools/barrel-tools/ar-15-m16-308-ar-barrel-extension-torque-tools-prod27452.aspx

http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-tools-supplies/rifle-tools/wrenches/ar-15-m16-ar-10-barrel-nut-wrench-prod27412.aspx

Even with the new tools ,the barrel nut wouldn’t budge. Before I broke out the saw I thought I’d give a trick I read about a try. Science suggests steel (the barrel nut) contracts less than aluminum (the receiver) when frozen. So I tossed the whole upper in the freezer overnight with the jäger and my wife’s homemade Popsicles.

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Luckily that was just enough to break the nut free and was able to move on to installing my ALG rail, which was much easier.

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If I were to do it again I would have ordered the more expensive geissele reaction rod as it has nice flats built into it. The flats would make it a little easier to work with.

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