I am Furloughed on Fridays, so today took a run to the Camp Atterbury Shooting Range to fire my K98 Mauser, M-1 Carbine, and M-1 Garand, all for the first time from 50 yards. The weather was awesome and at 10am, there was only 3-4 other shooters on the range.
I knew the Mauser had a terribly corroded barrel. The rounds tumbled as expected and one hit and severed the metal rebar used to secure the target. This old WWII era rifle still has some kick in her.
Next came the M-1 Carbine. It fired smoothly, was enjoyable and had nice grouping.
Lastly was the big girl. The Garand had a huge kick tossing those 30.06 rounds downrange. I experienced a sore nose from my thumb hitting it from the strong recoil. My shoulder aches tonight and my elbow is raw from shifting on the table from all the recoils. There was nice grouping again. This was a bugger to load a new clip after it tossed out the empty. The spring could easily crush a thumb. I have whole new respect for our servicemen who had to fire and reload that thing in heated combat.
I knew the Mauser had a terribly corroded barrel. The rounds tumbled as expected and one hit and severed the metal rebar used to secure the target. This old WWII era rifle still has some kick in her.
Next came the M-1 Carbine. It fired smoothly, was enjoyable and had nice grouping.
Lastly was the big girl. The Garand had a huge kick tossing those 30.06 rounds downrange. I experienced a sore nose from my thumb hitting it from the strong recoil. My shoulder aches tonight and my elbow is raw from shifting on the table from all the recoils. There was nice grouping again. This was a bugger to load a new clip after it tossed out the empty. The spring could easily crush a thumb. I have whole new respect for our servicemen who had to fire and reload that thing in heated combat.
)... Yesterday was my first "Furlough Friday" too.
