…or so (I wasn’t counting but for the last few) but the correct optic mount for the U.S. Rifle, Caliber 30, M1, also known as the Garand Rifle, is now available for sale. We’re waiting to ship until next week, when I’m supposed to have the illustrated instructions ready, but the product is all ready to go. In addition to making bullets, I’ll be burning the oil all weekend editing images – we try to make the illustrations serve as a more or less stand-alone picture storybook, for them that gets their information better if it’s visual.
Pretty, methinks, though I may be slightly prejudiced.
Use any IER (Scout) scope, reflex or holographic sight. Pistol scopes may be used also, but need more eye relief and you’ll be mounting them as far forward as they’ll go. The scout scopes are a perfect match, as is the Aimpoint Micro, Comp, et al, which also allow co witnessing.
If the rifle is good with its iron sights, it’s just as good, only faster and in a far wider range of lighting conditions, with a good optic, even a good 1x optic.
There has been a general assumption that a dot sight is a close quarters sight. That is true, in the same sense that iron sights are for close quarters, except of course that the dot sight is a vastly superior system. The dot sight still has its advantages on the longer shots, out to your iron sight maximum range. More in-depth info on electronic sights here.
That’s the T1 on the new UltiMAK M12. Now you can punch more holes, in more things, faster, under more lighting conditions, with more confidence.
The weight of the mount body, clamps and screws is 6.16 ounces. The walnut handguard with retainer clip, that the mount replaces, weighs about 2.24 ounces, so the net installed weight is 3.92 ounces. Your figure may vary depending on your handguard. The mount clamps to a tapered barrel, so just like our M8 mount for the M-14, it needs a recoil lug to prevent the mount “falling off the taper”. The M1 has that rear barrel band right there, pinned to the barrel, hence the M12’s front clamp has been extended a few thousandths beyond the front of the mount body, to engage the barrel band. It uses two discreet clamping positions, like all our mounts, so there is never an issue with minor variations in barrel profiles. In this case, as with our M6 for the 30 Carbine, it is cantilevered for some distance behind the rear clamp.
Mention this post in checkout at UltiMAK and you’ll get a 10% early adopters, The-View-From-North-Central-Idaho discount. Good through Jan, 2011 – see update below. Then send the difference to the Second Amendment Foundation.
You saw it here first (unless you were on the UltiMAK site within the last 24 hours). This is the numero uno press release, right nghyaw!
{shameless self promotion = “off”}
Update, Jan 11, 2011; I posted this before we’d had a chance at a meeting to determine price. We’re changing the price to $185.00. No on-line orders have been charged as yet, so all orders will be automatically charged at the lower price, and those who mentioned, or mention, this post will receive the discount from the lower price. Discount offer good through January, 2011. Any walk-ins that occured before this notice, let us know and we’ll refund the balance. Thanks, everyone, for the big response!
I’ve been as busy as a cat on a hot tin roof yesterday and today.
Yesterday Ry, Barron, and I went out to the Boomershoot site to do some tests. We got back into town and had lunch about 2:30. Barron came back to my place to wait for his wife, Janelle, to pick him up. They stayed until almost 11:30 as we discussed Boomershoot, all the worlds problems and how to solved them (the answers are “glitter”, “guns”, and “explosives”).
Today I went to an USPSA match and then scrambled with the Boomershoot 2010 participants having minor problems signing up for Boomershoot 2011. Some people take sign up very seriously.
Anyway, I have not had time to report on the test results from yesterday beyond a short Tweet.
(Outdoor Channel) with Michael Bane will have their Boomershoot show January 4th and 6th at 3:00 AM ET and January 5th, 3:30 PM, 7:00 PM, and 9:00 PM ET. This was with the video they took last April at Boomershoot 2010.
I don’t have cable and if someone would be able to record that and get it to me I would very much appreciate it.
I’ve asked about 100 people to do this already so before you send me a 1 GByte email or put the effort into burning a DVD check with me to make sure it’s not already taken care of.
Last night I told daughter Kim, “You are going to be on national television this week.”
She glared at me.
I continued, “He spend a lot of time talking to you.”
“Did we get a copy to review first?”
“Nope.”
The glare hardened.
I think it will turn out okay. But I’m glad I’m going to be 300 miles away when it shows.
I have version 3.0 of the chalk dispenser system sitting in my living room now.
The small boxes marked “RED CHALK” conveniently fit into the 3” opening on the top. They sent us some empty boxes to put the Boomerite in. The Boomerite will go in first and be exposed to gun fire through the 1.5” hole in the front.
This version also has 1/4” armor plate on the face. This should withstand the bullet impacts much better.
Ry plans to be back in Idaho on Saturday and we will visit the Boomershoot site to do our tests. The weather forecast on Saturday is for a low of -1 F and a high of 15 F. We had a blizzard last night and today and it put down several inches of snow. This may complicate things some. I’m not sure we will be able to drive all the way out to the Taj Mahal to mix the Boomerite. I may have to walk or snowshoe in, mix it up, and carry it back while Ry preps the target at the shooting berm.
Our favorite chalk dispenser designers and builders have shipped version 3.0 to our bunker in North Central Idaho. It hasn’t arrived yet but they created a video of its construction:
Assuming the weather cooperates I should be able to test it sometime late this week.
Ry has his own video of this but I took video with my Windows Phone 7 and wanted to say a few things about the results of these tests separate from other tests on his video. First the video:
We have been doing tests of steel chalk dispensers with mixed results. The chalk goes up into the air nicely but the dispensers have not had a very long life. Ry decided to test adding the chalk directly to our seven inch square cardboard box targets. The chalk was positioned in one of three different ways:
Behind the Boomerite
On top of the Boomerite
In front of the Boomerite
The second configuration was the most visually pleasing but for a normal target this means the top half of the target is inert as far as the shooter is concerned. They only have the bottom half of the target available for detonation. But what we could do is use this in a hybrid target. We use a steel plate with a hold in it like the existing “chalk dispenser” targets with one of these cardboard box targets a foot or so behind the steel plate. We would not have to confine ourselves to very small Boomerite charges to prevent damage to the steel and we could put a lot more chalk on top of the target. It would be a little more work to set up the targets, get the alignment just right, etc. But the steel construction part would be a lot easier and would guarantee the steel targets would be reusable.
I met Rose through Oleg (who met her through Mike and Laurel last Spring) who got her into modeling. She’d told Oleg she wanted to learn more about shooting, so he got her and me talking. It took a while, but we got to the range this Monday. It was cold, with several inches of snow on the ground, but we managed to get in a couple hours of trigger time.
We went through the safety rules, loading and unloading, manipulating the controls on a Ruger Mark II and a Daewoo DP-51 9 mm, stance, grip, sight picture, trigger control, some thoughts on anticipation (flinching), and follow-through.
Rose explained that since she is a boxer, she knows all about flinching and that it would not be a problem. When you’re looking at getting punched in the face, you learn self control or it’s over quickly. Good. Shooting is very much a mental exercise. I said that flinching is a problem for everyone, even experienced competitive shooters, and that I’ve seen a new shooter hit the ground halfway to a 10 yard target because of anticipation.
Well, her first ten rounds from the 22 auto all hit the 12″ square target, with one right in the center, from about 10 yards. Pretty good for someone who’d only fired a pistol once, more than ten years ago. It doesn’t always happen that way. Usually we don’t even look at the first target, concentrating more on stance, grip and muzzle control.
She was pretty happy afterward, having hit all the 14 ounce vegetable cans with the 9 mm pistol. We finished up with an UltiMAK equipped M1 30 Carbine, so she got introduced to the laser transmission hologram (this one had an Old Bushnell Holosight that we’d used for many years of testing at UltiMAK).
Those vegetable cans didn’t stand a chance.
It was a pretty brief run-through, and Rose was visibly shivering from the cold, but she done good. Though it is good practice in general, one would be well advised to treat her, especially, with respect.
I failed to tell her that she could be doing about as well at two and a half times the distance, with some more coaching and practice. 25 yards is the minimum distance in the pistol bays at the Kenmore Shooting Range, where I took my instructor training. They teach beginners there too, and do well with it by all accounts.
Our favorite chalk dispenser designers and builders have done some more tests. Here is the video:
In behind the scenes email it appears we will get a Version 3 unit for test with Boomerite by New Years Day. I plan to cut the charge in half, down to 100 grams, and see if that gives us sufficient lift for the chalk.
I also plan to modify the first unit by removing the containment box in the back and just put a specially constructed (chalk inside the target) 7” target a few inches behind the metal plate with the hole in it. I think this will work just as well and will only be a slightly more work in the field and much simpler to construct.
We used 200 grams of Boomerite in each test. By volume this one cup, which was the same amount used the designers in their first tests. They later increased the amount to a soda can full with still no structural failures. We put 500 grams of chalk dust on top of the Boomerite.
In this first pictures you can see the chalk dust on top of the Boomerite. The zip lock bag of Boomerite is just visible in the front hole.
Ry will probably have video to share in a day or three but in the picture below you can see the dispenser was moved a couple feet by the blast. The dispenser appeared to be undamaged.
The second test was essentially the same as the first. The only intentional difference was that the Boomerite wasn’t poked partially through the front and rear holes. This time the dispenser was moved several feet and there was some obvious damage:
I set it up for a third test and expected it would probably “cut loose” this time. The movement was about the same and the fractures widened. Notice the bottom of the containment area is starting to bulge and the middle “rib” is bulging out the back too.
In terms of a long lasting target this has some problems. But it survived three uses which is as much as it really needs for the Boomershoot main event. We should consider cutting the Boomershoot charge in half because I think the ejection of the chalk will be sufficient with a much smaller charge.
On the drive back to my home in Moscow we pondered why the difference between their tests and ours. We had pretty much decided that it was because of the chalk dust on top of the explosives because we just couldn’t imagine Boomerite being that much different than Tannerite. But I replayed the video from the California tests and they used chalk too. So the only other variable that I can think of are the temperature and the Boomerite. Our temperature was about 24 F with the first test done while the metal was probably significantly above that because it had been in the warm vehicle. By the time of the second and third tests the metal was probably close to ambient temperature. Could that temperature change made the metal brittle and weaker?
Son-in-law John and I went to the Paul Bunyan (Pullayup Washington) USPSA match yesterday. It rained all Saturday night and continued to rain throughout the match. This made for some deep water in places, difficult to tape targets (clear plastic bags are put over the targets to help keep them dry), and soggy score sheets and shooters. We call it “Liquid Sunshine” and have a good time anyway.
On Friday my officemate (Priyanka), my boss (Sajib) , and I were talking about weekend plans and I told them I was going to attend this match with John, my son-in-law, who is in the army. Priyanka, exclaimed, “Oh! I’ll bet he is really good!” I tried to explain that actually I was quite a bit better at this sport than John. I’m not sure either one of them really believed me. So this is for them: I came in second in Limited Class with 90.43% match percentage while John came in fourth with 47.70%.
What this basically means (it’s not quite this simple but it’s close enough) is that for a given level of accuracy, on the average, I can shoot the same course of fire in about one half the time as John. Or expressed another way, for a given speed, on the average, I can shoot about twice as accurate as John. Why is that? The answer is I have practiced a lot more than John and for pistol shooting I have had better training. I also have better equipment than John but that is not even close to the dominate factor.
This was the first time I had shot a match at this range and they had more high round count stages than what we usually do at the Lewiston Pistol Club in Idaho where I usually shoot. High round count stages are fun. You not only get more trigger time but you get to “run and gun” too. It’s not particularly realistic for defensive shooting (the last statistic I read was that the average gun fight was over in 2.4 seconds) but generally people think they are more fun. Having fun means you are likely to shoot more. And even if on the first two and a half seconds of your average USPSA match relates to reality you end up practicing a lot more than if you only shot matches that were composed of stages that lasted less than two and a half seconds.
The stage was 12 targets spread over a fairly large distance with barricades to go around to get to the last targets. It’s a little hard to see in the still picture and you have to watch for it in the video but there is a rope between the barrels as a fault line so you can’t get too close to the targets.
Stage 2 (In The Rain) had targets on opposite sides of the bay with barricades which made it difficult to avoid a lot of moving. Plus there were targets in moderately difficult to reach positions.
Shooting while on the move helped for some of the targets but others required full stops.
Stage 3 (Get Off Santa’s Back) was a little different. It is composed of three strings of fire. One is “freestyle”, one is “strong hand only”, and one is “weak hand only”. Although it is difficult to see in the video there are four paper targets. Two on each side of the hardcover (steel painted red) target. The paper targets are overlapping and it is difficult to see where the lower target ends and the upper target begins. The requirement was that for each string you put one bullet into each target. There were penalties for misses, extra shots, and extra hits on any given target. I got all my hits with no penalties in a total of 13.38 seconds. Nearly everyone else had a better time but my accuracy was much better. This earned me a stage percentage of 86.40%.
Some other people were not as fortunate and one person had so many penalties that they zeroed the stage.
Stage 4 (1 Tuesday #2) required moving backward! The shooter began with their hands on either side of the opening in the barricade. There are four (only two are standing in the still photo) steel targets to be shot through the opening then you had to back up to shoot two targets on either side around and through the barrels for a minimum of 12 shots. I thought I had hit the last steel and started to move on, noticed it didn’t fall, and had to return to finish it off. It took me 8.06 seconds and I got all ‘A’ hits on the paper. This earned me a 69.27% stage percentage and last place for limited.
Son-in-law John, for the first time ever, beat me on this stage. He did it with all ‘A’ hits in 8.05 seconds. Just 1/100th of a second better than me.
Stage 5 (I Wanna YoYo) was four banks of six steel plates. Two banks of plates could be shot from each of two shooting boxes. You were required to change boxes between shooting banks. Hence you had run back and forth between the boxes. Ability to shoot on the move is of nearly no advantage for this stage.
On my first run there was a range equipment failure about two thirds of the way through the stage when one of the plates fell without me shooting it. This required a reshoot and I did much worse the second time through but I still took second place in Limited with stage percentage of 71.91% after knocking down all 24 plates, and running back and forth, in 39.09 seconds.
Stage 6 (Six A’Clock) was the last stage. It was composed of three strings of fire with three sets of targets. The first set was a single target which you were required to put six rounds into. The second set was two targets and you were were required to put three rounds into each target. The third set was three targets and two no-shoot targets and you were required to put two rounds each into the “shoot” targets and you were penalized if you hit the no-shoot targets, had misses, or fired more than the specified number of rounds. I won this stage with a total time of 10.38 seconds for the 18 rounds. Nearly everyone else in my division had better times but I had much better hits. I scored 81 out of the possible 90 points with no penalties and the next best shooter only scored 75 points and had 20 points in penalties.
I have a problem with more than three rounds on a single target. I can shoot faster than I can count and have to slow my shooting to match my ability to count. When confronted with this situation, and it works out for the stage design, I will load only six (or ‘N’) rounds in the gun. Then I just shoot until the gun runs dry. That is what I did in this case. I didn’t get the individual times or the splits between shots while at the match but I went through the video frame by frame on the first target and found that from the muzzle flash of the first shot to the muzzle flash of the last shot it took 1.17 seconds. This is an average of 0.234 seconds between the five shots. This was at a distance of about 30 feet. IIRC I had five “A” hits and one “C” hit.
It turns out that I accidently used a bad magazine (it needs a new follower) and it didn’t hold the slide open on the last shot. This caused me to drop the hammer on an empty chamber and I was somewhat surprised that the gun was empty. No matter—Sometimes a little surprise is a good thing.
I keep thinking Brady Campaign supporters must require frequent trips to Sears for their special needs with these sort of videos being put on the web.
Bulk Ammo is a sponsor here and sent me the following:
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I wouldn’t want to be within a mile in any direction of this gun when it was fired. That many volts ready to dump that many amps in so few microseconds is scary stuff even without a Mach 7 projectile with a range of 100 miles.
Here is video via my video camera glasses of stages at a USPSA match I shot last Sunday. The individual stage results are here. The overall (combined) results are here. I came in second.
I would like to suggest this is part of the reason the Brady Campaign and others don’t want us to have guns—we have too much fun.
Update:
Here is stage winner, Adam, shooting “Door What?”:
Update2: Here is the second place shooter on this stage, Don, shooting “Door What?” Notice that he is limping a little bit? He is due for a total knee replacement the first of next month. He scheduled it immediately after the monthly USPSA match and maximally distance from the monthly Steel Challenge match. We’ll see if he makes it to the next match with his new knee…
John Lennon’s son, Sean, says he really enjoys shooting guns. He also says he doesn’t people should be armed. But that might change—his girlfriend is from Georgia and “Lennon was invited down to the shooting range so that the family could see if their daughter’s new squeeze was ‘a straight shooter’.”
The more familiar he becomes with guns the more likely he is to realize his feelings toward them really are because of the misuse of the gun by a mentally disturbed individual rather than the possession of firearms by ordinary people.
Taking a new shooter to the range is an important part of winning. This example is just another small step to driving the anti-gun activists into political extinction.
Kim took most of the pictures while Sarah, Matt, and Caleb built the snow castle wall and I prepped the chalk dispensing target:
The final snow castle wall just prior to destruction:
The road flares are to ignite the four gallons of gasoline located high on the left side of the wall, on top of (and behind) the 6 pounds of Boomerite.
The snow, gasoline, and dirt went flying when the Boomerite detonated:
I expected the ground to be bare beneath the explosion but that was not quite the case. Apparently the explosives were too high above the ground to clear it of snow:
Next time we should put the explosives much lower to give the snow more lift.
Today the new PR guy, Iain Harrison, at Crimson Trace sent me an email and a draft news release about their new product–the LG-492 Laserguard for SIG’s compact 238:
Iain also said, “I shot it for beta testing on Saturday & it should be released for sale on the 27th,”
Crimson Trace makes a quality product. I have one on my Gun Blog 45 and my Ruger Mark II (Crimson Trace gave that to me for my performance in a shoot house competition at the Gun Blogger Summer Camp at Blackwater.a couple years ago). I don’t have a laser on my carry gun but whenever I have a new shooter to take to the range I find the laser to be a great teaching aid.
