LongShot_34 and I got a chance to run to the range today.
He has an eclectic collection of very interesting and historically significant rifles that I have not had the chance to shoot in the past. His weapons are very well kept, but shooters, not safe queens. They look like what they are, tools with a very specific purpose.
I like that, because I tend to be hard on equipment, and I wouldn't want to damage anything that was just intended as eye candy!
First off, the M1 Garand. I have seen and handled these, but never gotten a chance to shoot one. (My collecting interests are non existent. If I don't regularly shoot them, I don't keep them or buy them. That doesn't mean that I don't find them fascinating, just that I don't need to own them.)
The Garand is very interesting, especially when that clip pops out the top! With his help I avoided M1 thumb. I'm not an open sight guy, so just being on paper made me happy. I could easily understand why it was such a devastating weapon in WW2, and why it was called the greatest battle implement ever devised. We had a stoppage, and he easily tore it down on the line and repaired it.
Romanian PSL. Although these look like a Dragunov, they don't have any interchangeable parts. There are purists who believe that the Dragunov is superior, and others who swear by the PSL.
http://www.dragunov.net/romanian_psl.html
Very interesting. Crude by todays sniper rifle standards, they are obviously meant to be easily maintained under field conditions, and inexpensively built. That said, we were shooting old surplus ammo, and it took some work to get it on the paper. Ergonomics are less than desirable, pull is VERY short for my 6'3" frame, and I was constantly worried that the scope was going to bite me, enhanced by the fact that the scope has an extended rubber shroud that touched my forehead. I never came close to the actual metal of the scope, so it was mostly in my head.
I'd like to shoot this rifle more, learn how to appropriately adjust the scope, and use some better ammo. I think it could be reasonably accurate, but it does have a thin barrel which I suspect was heating up and causing some consistency issues.
I've saved the rarest for last.
http://www.johnsonautomatics.com/History.htm
I had the opportunity to shoot his Johnson Model1941! I never actually expected to see one, much less have a chance to fire one! There were somewhere around 30,000 made, and far fewer than half probably still exist. This rifle was a competitor to the Garand, and the Marines actually wanted to adopt it, even though it was somewhat more complex to field strip. In trials it was found to be more accurate, but like many things military, the Garand won the war!
The Johnson used a bolt very much like the AR 15 system. It has a recoiling barrel, and was noticeably less abusive to shoot than the Garand. His rifle has been sporterized, as many of the remaining rifles have been, and has a scope rail, though I used open sights. I got it on paper, but as I said, I am NOT an open sight shooter, so I has happy with being on the target paper.
We also shot his Grendel, my Grendel, my Beowulf.
I did a fair run of velocity testing from my 28" barreled Grendel, and we compared some of those loads from his 20" barrel.
The only thing of great significance was that both AA 123 Scenar ammo and Hornady 123 AMAX ammo had about equivalent velocities from both barrels and the drop was almost exactly the same at 15-17 FPS per inch of barrel.
I would like to thank LongShot_34 who took time away from his young family on a holiday to give me the chance to shoot his rifles, and gain some more experience in historical firearms.
He has an eclectic collection of very interesting and historically significant rifles that I have not had the chance to shoot in the past. His weapons are very well kept, but shooters, not safe queens. They look like what they are, tools with a very specific purpose.
I like that, because I tend to be hard on equipment, and I wouldn't want to damage anything that was just intended as eye candy!
First off, the M1 Garand. I have seen and handled these, but never gotten a chance to shoot one. (My collecting interests are non existent. If I don't regularly shoot them, I don't keep them or buy them. That doesn't mean that I don't find them fascinating, just that I don't need to own them.)
The Garand is very interesting, especially when that clip pops out the top! With his help I avoided M1 thumb. I'm not an open sight guy, so just being on paper made me happy. I could easily understand why it was such a devastating weapon in WW2, and why it was called the greatest battle implement ever devised. We had a stoppage, and he easily tore it down on the line and repaired it.
Romanian PSL. Although these look like a Dragunov, they don't have any interchangeable parts. There are purists who believe that the Dragunov is superior, and others who swear by the PSL.
http://www.dragunov.net/romanian_psl.html
Very interesting. Crude by todays sniper rifle standards, they are obviously meant to be easily maintained under field conditions, and inexpensively built. That said, we were shooting old surplus ammo, and it took some work to get it on the paper. Ergonomics are less than desirable, pull is VERY short for my 6'3" frame, and I was constantly worried that the scope was going to bite me, enhanced by the fact that the scope has an extended rubber shroud that touched my forehead. I never came close to the actual metal of the scope, so it was mostly in my head.
I'd like to shoot this rifle more, learn how to appropriately adjust the scope, and use some better ammo. I think it could be reasonably accurate, but it does have a thin barrel which I suspect was heating up and causing some consistency issues.
I've saved the rarest for last.
http://www.johnsonautomatics.com/History.htm
I had the opportunity to shoot his Johnson Model1941! I never actually expected to see one, much less have a chance to fire one! There were somewhere around 30,000 made, and far fewer than half probably still exist. This rifle was a competitor to the Garand, and the Marines actually wanted to adopt it, even though it was somewhat more complex to field strip. In trials it was found to be more accurate, but like many things military, the Garand won the war!
The Johnson used a bolt very much like the AR 15 system. It has a recoiling barrel, and was noticeably less abusive to shoot than the Garand. His rifle has been sporterized, as many of the remaining rifles have been, and has a scope rail, though I used open sights. I got it on paper, but as I said, I am NOT an open sight shooter, so I has happy with being on the target paper.
We also shot his Grendel, my Grendel, my Beowulf.
I did a fair run of velocity testing from my 28" barreled Grendel, and we compared some of those loads from his 20" barrel.
The only thing of great significance was that both AA 123 Scenar ammo and Hornady 123 AMAX ammo had about equivalent velocities from both barrels and the drop was almost exactly the same at 15-17 FPS per inch of barrel.
I would like to thank LongShot_34 who took time away from his young family on a holiday to give me the chance to shoot his rifles, and gain some more experience in historical firearms.
You seek escape from pain. We seek the achievement of happiness. You exist for the sake of avoiding punishment. We exist for the sake of earning rewards. Threats will not make us function; fear is not our incentive. It is not death that we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live. - John Galt
