Archive for January, 2008
It’s been a while…
The last month has been quite busy and I’ve simply not taken the time to post anything. We’ve had plenty of guests and other activities to keep us busy. I did manage a trip to the range when a family stopped in with us for the week. When the lady found out I pack a pistol she almost had a conniption fit. “Aren’t you SCARED? That’s SO DANGEROUS!!!” After some discussion and explanation I finally convinced her to come up to the gun club with us. So we packed up the van and both families and headed up to the range. It was a great day, we had the place to ourselves. I broke out the Crosman 1377 and the East German scoped kids’ air rifle. One thing at a time, starting with a lecture on safety and proper gun handling. Well, things went well. The oldest girl hit well right off with the Crosman. I was impressed. We were shooting up close with only a couple pumps or so and she was hitting the quarter sized bullseye fairly frequently. The son didn’t do that well. The younger daughter did OK and we even got both dad and mom to shoot. Dad had spent some time in the army and did OK. Mom finally got over her nerves and gave it a try.
Then we moved on to the rifle. The stock’s been cut off for kids which makes proper stock weld and such nearly impossible for an adult, but we still had fun. They did better with the scope than with the open sights. Everyone got a chance to try off hand, sitting braced against a stump and prone. The mom only shot off hand and the dad shot offhand and prone.
Then I broke out the PPPPPP. 
That’s the one that started the whole exercise when the mom found out about it. Ammo’s scarce and expensive but I gave everyone who wanted to try a chance to fire two rounds. Two rounds of 38 spl may not seem like much, but down here it’s a big deal. Again, the older girl shot well. Even with the lousy sights she managed a fairly tight group (can you call two rounds “a group”?) near the center of the target. The younger girl managed to group both her shots just a half inch or two apart – on the top edge of the target paper. I’m not sure what she was using for a sight picture but at least she was consistent! The son again showed less aptitude with the short gun. I don’t recall that the father shot the 38, but the mother did. It took some talking and teasing but she finally consented. One round and I couldn’t see where she hit (I’m guessing she under shot the target). She was “happy” with her shot, she’d shot a “real gun” and that was plenty. But some more joking around and she finally tried the second shot – and nailed the target near the center that time.
I don’t think I made shooters out of the family, but I know I DID give them a different perspective on firearms. And the older girl had a REAL blast – posting pictures of herself shooting the Crosman on her facebook profile upon her return home. Sometimes all it takes is a bit of patience and careful instruction to turn a hostile audience into a more accepting one. Later that afternoon we went up to some thermal springs with them. There they ran into some folks they knew from “back home”. And the formerly hostile to firearms mom told her friends about her trip to the range and “he was very insistent on safety and we had a good time.”
Also this year I’ve started messing around with airguns more. The ‘net is full of modifications for the old Crosman 1377. It was an eye opener to me when I started seeing all the things folks are doing with them. My concern was to find a good rear sight to replace the cheesy plastic hunk of junk that comes on them from the factory. WOW! They offer steel breeches, modified valves, metallic pistons, fancy grips, rifle stocks (tubular, skeleton, thumb hole, ambidextrous, you name it), muzzle brakes, barrel bands, extended probe bolts and who knows what all else. It would be easy to drop several hundred dollars to “trick out” the old Crosman. Well, I ain’t got that kind of money so I won’t be doing it, but perhaps I can pick up a couple of parts while up north and make the Crosman a bit more user friendly.
Also, I got out the old Daisy 120 rifle that’s been quietly rusting in the closet. One of the kids lost the rear action screw years ago and also the rear sight disintegrated. Plastic is NOT a good choice for making certain parts of firearms (or ANY parts for the most part). Rummaging around in the parts bins I found a nut and bolt that would work and the action is now once more fixed in the stock. The chinese “Dremel” came out with a cut off wheel and the screw stud for the rear sight came right off. Then an old Daisy 880 I picked up for parts at a (rare) Colombian yard sale got stripped down. The pumping mechanism is mostly absent. The barrel is a rifled brass tube held inside the sheet metal barrel shroud via the front sight and a clamp on power plant. Hmmm…. I wonder if I could set that up to free float with a metal breech on the Crosman? Time will tell… in the meantime I pulled the rear sight off and measured it up against the 120. Two wide to fit in the groove. Out comes the chinese “Dremel” again with the cutoff wheel. The sight gets stuck in the little vise I finally picked up and work commences… after grooving one side and starting on the other the battery ran down. 
Out comes the hacksaw – it hangs up on the tough steel and narrow kerf from the “Dremel” After some maneuvering around the little ears finally got removed and the edges filed down smooth. Thank God for access to a vise to hold it still for filing. The old 880 sight is now almost affixed to the 120 via a cannibalized screw from the 880. It’s not quite right but shows some promise – now to find a screw that will work, or I’ll just have to tap the hole out to a larger size – if I can find a larger sized screw.
Well, I’ve rambled enough for today. I’d better get busy and get some things done ’round the office and house. I put out some notices that I’m looking for Crosman “parts guns” on a couple of forums. It’d be cool if I could find a couple to play with and bring back with me next month. I’m officially intrigued with the whole Crosman 22XX and 13XX series of pistols.
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