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Antonio
Posts: 2,986 Senior Member
Last rifle range trip
Antonio
Posts: 2,986 Senior Member
Took the morning off with a couple of pals for a last visit to the rifle range before moving to Spain next weekend and leaving my guns entombed in a long-time storage, safe from the claws of the gun-grabbing commies in power 
Grabbed the last boxes of ammo I have and a selected few rifles since most are already embalmed. Day was cold & humid with some passing fog and a little drizzle now and then, but most of the time view was OK up to 350 yards; placed a few metal discs of 6, 8 and 12" at assorted distances from 75 up to 350 but since no one remebered to bring a can of bright spray paint it was rather hard to see them with such low light.
Heated up with the Mauser rifles, alternating between a "Salesman's example" 1908 rebarreled to .308 (But keeping the original military looks) and a "rode hard and stored wet" but still very accurate Peruvian Mauser 1909 in 7.65. Ammo was all old surplus: 1959 FN 7.62 NATO and assorted late '60s FN 7.65 FMJ:
One of my pals was switching between a left-handed .308 Zastava with a nice Leupold scope and his own Mauser 1909; the other one was shooting a .308 CZ 557 also with a Leupold scope that hits like a laser. For these old war horses it wasn't an issue to engage targets at the available distances playing a little with the front sight height picture.
At the same range with better overcast light and no wind we've been able to consistently hit bright orange-painted 14" discs up to 700 meters with these rifles (Same positions and the same surplus ammo) using the iron sights.
Then we changed to the M-1 Garands. Mine is a local Air Force-rechambered to .308 WWII-production Springfield that retains its original looks and works perfectly even with the cheapest steel-cased Chinese crap, and the other one is an original WWII still in 30-06. He was using '50s Lake City ball ammo and I was using '70s Portuguese-made FNM FMJ. No problems in hitting the 350 yards disc when the fog cleared enough to allow us to see it:
My other friend also squeezed a few rounds with mine and said "I have to get one of these!"; it was his 1st. time with one but learned instantly how to properly load the clips and fed them into the rifle without "enjoying" the dreaded "Garand thumb".
He also tested a .223 CZ 527 American but like other owners of that same model, had a hard time trying to keep it inside the target at 100 yards even with a bipod and stock rest, and loaded with assorted 55gr. FMJ ammo (Aguila, Winchester and Federal). Seems like if you don't reload your own taylored ammo for it (Quite hard to do it here since components aren't imported) you'll end up quite frustrated with its performance. I also tested a few rounds and results were truly dissapointing, with a shotgun-style pattern rather than a group.
For 3 hours with a few lulls to raise fallen discs and wait for the fog to clear we blasted away over 150 rounds each. Finally it was almost time to return home so left the best for a final moment of clean, decent fun with the......errr.....M-1 Carbine
and a few boxes of surplus .30 ammo (Some even dated 1945!) :
Rock & Roll baby.....Rock & Roll!!!:
GREAT closing act; they also had a blast squirting a few bursts of .30. and I cracked the rest at the closest steel discs.
Now a final trip to the .22LR rifle range this Saturday to burn my remaining rimfire ammo and that's all folks!
Grabbed the last boxes of ammo I have and a selected few rifles since most are already embalmed. Day was cold & humid with some passing fog and a little drizzle now and then, but most of the time view was OK up to 350 yards; placed a few metal discs of 6, 8 and 12" at assorted distances from 75 up to 350 but since no one remebered to bring a can of bright spray paint it was rather hard to see them with such low light.
Heated up with the Mauser rifles, alternating between a "Salesman's example" 1908 rebarreled to .308 (But keeping the original military looks) and a "rode hard and stored wet" but still very accurate Peruvian Mauser 1909 in 7.65. Ammo was all old surplus: 1959 FN 7.62 NATO and assorted late '60s FN 7.65 FMJ:
One of my pals was switching between a left-handed .308 Zastava with a nice Leupold scope and his own Mauser 1909; the other one was shooting a .308 CZ 557 also with a Leupold scope that hits like a laser. For these old war horses it wasn't an issue to engage targets at the available distances playing a little with the front sight height picture.
At the same range with better overcast light and no wind we've been able to consistently hit bright orange-painted 14" discs up to 700 meters with these rifles (Same positions and the same surplus ammo) using the iron sights.
Then we changed to the M-1 Garands. Mine is a local Air Force-rechambered to .308 WWII-production Springfield that retains its original looks and works perfectly even with the cheapest steel-cased Chinese crap, and the other one is an original WWII still in 30-06. He was using '50s Lake City ball ammo and I was using '70s Portuguese-made FNM FMJ. No problems in hitting the 350 yards disc when the fog cleared enough to allow us to see it:
My other friend also squeezed a few rounds with mine and said "I have to get one of these!"; it was his 1st. time with one but learned instantly how to properly load the clips and fed them into the rifle without "enjoying" the dreaded "Garand thumb".
He also tested a .223 CZ 527 American but like other owners of that same model, had a hard time trying to keep it inside the target at 100 yards even with a bipod and stock rest, and loaded with assorted 55gr. FMJ ammo (Aguila, Winchester and Federal). Seems like if you don't reload your own taylored ammo for it (Quite hard to do it here since components aren't imported) you'll end up quite frustrated with its performance. I also tested a few rounds and results were truly dissapointing, with a shotgun-style pattern rather than a group.
For 3 hours with a few lulls to raise fallen discs and wait for the fog to clear we blasted away over 150 rounds each. Finally it was almost time to return home so left the best for a final moment of clean, decent fun with the......errr.....M-1 Carbine
and a few boxes of surplus .30 ammo (Some even dated 1945!) :Rock & Roll baby.....Rock & Roll!!!:
GREAT closing act; they also had a blast squirting a few bursts of .30. and I cracked the rest at the closest steel discs.
Now a final trip to the .22LR rifle range this Saturday to burn my remaining rimfire ammo and that's all folks!
Replies
Safe travels Antonio, stay in touch when you can
It’s a °IIIII° thing 😎
Yes Enzo, but fees, club memberships and licenses with ownership justifications are mandatory.
Seem to be tougher than ours with CCW almost banned, restrictions in number of guns to own, mandatory State-approved safe to store them, etc. Also will have to check if my migratory status as a registered foreigner husband and parent of Spaniards allows me to get firearms or I'll have to wait a year living there for my "automatic" citizenship to have the right to legally own them. Might have to settle with airguns for a while.
Hunting is BIG in Spain and in fact have a friend that owns a "Montería" (farm/state-allowed private game reserve) close to the Portuguese border and with preys that range from rabbits to assorted deer and wild hogs, along with doves, partridges, ducks, etc.
Also relatively lots of shooting ranges, gun stores, reloading, black powder guns, air guns, etc. but EVERYTHING needs a permit and until we are properly set with the girls in school and jobs, won't be able to afford spending money in other than basics like rent, transportation, food, etc. Hope in a year if we end up staying there I can begin looking for at least a nice used European rimfire rifle to begin with, like a BRNO N°1, a Krico Stutzen or a MAS45, and a shooting club membership to get the proper buying and ownership permits.
Laws are tougher in Italy, Germany and France regarding magazine-fed semiauto rifles, handguns and such, and far worse in the UK where centerfire semiautos and handguns other than muzzleloading black powder replicas are strictly banned, and ownership licenses are quite hard to get and keep. Other countries such as Luxembourg, Switzerland, Belgium and Czech Republic seem to be friendlier to gun owners, but most won't allow CCW.
Might be AWOL for a while, only reading maybe. Will try to keep you guys updated and probably a little "We're here!" post in the Clubhouse subforum as soon as I can. At least there's a very good warbird museum in Madrid and will try to nest inside the Heinkel He-111 bomber's dorsal gunner position until removed by public force. Of course a gun stores tour is mandatory, so might have some post material there too.
Good luck on the move.
And of course literally last round wouldn't make it easy and cracked venting all the gas in my face. Fortunately I was wearing glasses:
Rigt above the rim. Winchester's performance has gone down, while Federal was working OK.
Now to clean the 3 guns prior to long term storage.
I.W.F.W.I.L
Good luck with your search pal, but watch out for the checkered-pattern floor tyles and the big boulders.
It’s a °IIIII° thing 😎
Hope so Enzo; at least shooting will eventually be the "easiest" pastime to recover. Saltwater activities and music might take a while though.
Will post anything worthwhile in the Clubhouse forum when possible.
It’s a °IIIII° thing 😎