April 19th and the Varmint Cong

Every year on April 19th, I try to get out and shoot a little in honor of our ancestors who stood their ground and fired the “shot heard round the world” at Concord Bridge on this date in 1775.  This year, although I attended and instructed at an Appleseed event on the 19th, I did not shoot.  So when I got home, I decided I ought to at least shoot my air rifle.

A couple of years ago I bought a Gamo air rifle with the intention of using it for pest control.  The gophers in our backyard have outdone themselves digging a massive network of tunnels and holes.  They got wise to the gopher traps I put out last year, and are just out of control.

The gophers are industrious and brazen.

This is no Anschutz Olympic-class rifle, but it was not exactly cheap (around $300) so I expected at least reasonable accuracy.  I’d say that it shot like a Girl Scout throwing rocks, but that would be unfair to the Girl Scouts.  It was *terrible*!  It couldn’t put two pellets within a foot of each other at a range of about 35 feet or so.

I complained to the company, but all I got was some lame advice about “breaking it in”.  After a full tin of pellets with no improvement, I renewed my complaints, and they sent me a new scope (the rifle has no iron sights, and came with a scope).  

The Gamo rifle with pellets and binoculars.

Yesterday I finally had time to set up the target again and see how it shot.  It was *much* better!   After a number of shots at the center square of an Appleseed Drill target, I starting shooting at the other squares to fine-tune it.  The top left square convinced me it was zeroed in, as this is the closest range I am likely to shoot it.

The target as it appears from our deck.  I placed it between the bird feeders as that is a gopher hotspot and I wanted it zeroed at that range.

The target after zeroing. 

After I was satisfied with the zero, I continued on with my daily activities.  As usual, I saw the little pests outside my window, peeking up out of the many holes they have dug in our backyard.  The gopher traps I put out last year may be useless, but now it was time for some long-distance pest control.

The Varmint Cong

Who are the gopher’s allies?  The harmless squirrel, and the friendly rabbit.

After a couple of misses at a much longer distance (I thought I’d have to aim high), I finally zapped one of the little boogers.  Later on I got a second one.  There are many more, and they’ll probably breed faster than I can shoot them.  But at least now I won’t have to get out the C4 and det cord.  🙂

Idaho Centennial Trail Part I - Caching Water in the Desert

When Teresa and I came to Idaho on our honeymoon in 2011, we already knew we wanted to move to this part of the country when we retired - we just didn't know exactly where.  We rented a car and drove much of the length of the state, starting in Sandpoint and winding up in Boise.   For the next few years (whenever possible) we took an anniversary trip to Idaho in October to explore and look for our future home site.  We finally bought property in 2017, started building in 2018, and moved here in January 2019.  We have had five years now to settle in to our "forever home", and I have had many interesting adventures exploring this beautiful state.  

On that very first trip in 2011, we bought an "Idaho Atlas and Gazetteer" to help guide our travels.  On one of the pages, I saw a little red dotted line labeled "Idaho Centennial Trail".  Intrigued, I began turning pages, following the trail from map to map, finally realizing that it went the entire length of the state, almost a thousand miles north to south.  From that moment I knew that someday I had to hike that trail!

Information was sketchy and a bit hard to find, and what I did find often seemed out-of-date.  The fact was, relatively few people had ever hiked the trail at that time.  It was more of an idea - a "route" more than an actual trail.  There was a website, and some trail reports, and a very outdated book, but that was about it. 

The Idaho Centennial Trail

I bought a lot of maps and a lot of guidebooks about hiking and backpacking in Idaho, and have had some really great backpacking and camping trips in Idaho's seemingly endless wild backcountry.  But the Idaho Centennial Trail (ICT for short) was always on my mind.  It is an ambitious project to try to hike the whole thing in one season, and for one reason and another, the time never seemed right for me to start.

Fast-forward to 2024.  I finally came to realize that through-hiking the entire trail in one season is just unrealistic for me.  I decided that the more realistic approach for me is to "section hike" the trail, which means doing shorter, independent trips, but keeping track of the starting and stopping points, so that eventually I will have hiked the entire trail.  This is actually a common approach with longer trails such as the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail, etc.  I suspect most people who take this approach do it because they are limited by the time they can take off of work, etc.  For me the limitation is simply physical - I am no longer capable of walking the daily distances required to complete it one season. 

There are now many more trail reports, YouTube videos, a really excellent guidebook put out last year by people who have hiked the entire trail, and even a Facebook group dedicated to the trail.  These resources have made it much more accessible, so it is becoming a more popular trail for people to undertake.

Wild West Trail (Includes the ICT)

The Hiker's Guide - Idaho Centennial Trail

Facebook Group - Idaho Centennial Trail Updates and Information

After finally reaching the conclusion that I was going to section hike the trail, I decided that I would start right away.  The first part of the trail goes 100 miles through the Bruneau Desert in southern Idaho, and that portion needs to be completed before it gets too hot.  Since I had already had several blocks of time marked out on my calendar for camping or backpacking through the summer, this determined where my first destination would be - the desert portion of the ICT. 

The past several weeks have been spent in a flurry of planning and packing getting ready for the hike. I spent nearly a week (31 March - 4 April)  Jeep camping in the Bruneau Desert placing water caches along the route.   It was an interesting experience with some unexpected twists.

As far as I know, nearly everyone who hikes this section of the trail places water caches in advance, as there are long waterless stretches that would make it impractical to carry enough to last the whole way.  There are some water sources along the trail, but they are either  unattractive (e.g. cattle tanks) or very difficult to reach (e.g. the Bruneau River, which flows through a very deep canyon with limited access).  I decided that I would rely on none of these sources, and would cache enough bottled water to take me through the entire hike.  I decided to place the caches about every ten miles or so, as that is as far as I feel comfortable planning to walk in one day.  Perhaps I'll find I can go further, but I decided to be conservative (at least I hope that's conservative, and not ambitious/delusional!)

I left early Easter morning for the 600-mile drive to the trailhead near Murphy Hot Springs, on the Idaho-Nevada border.   

Idaho is a Big State (we have two time zones, lol!)

By the time I got to Hammett, Idaho, I had had enough driving for one day.  Since this is the endpoint of the desert section, I decided to go ahead and camp, and to travel the trail from north to south, placing the caches in reverse order from the northbound direction I plan to hike.  I made my way to just inside public land (managed by the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, or BLM), and set up camp at what I called "Desert One".   Although I set up a tarp just in case, the threatened rain never materialized and I spent a peaceful night on my Army cot out under the stars.

"Desert One"

A beautiful sunset.

The next morning I set out southward towards the first planned cache location.  I should mention that the trail in this section is almost entirely on two-track roads - Jeep trails, really. I had selected locations based on a map recon using "OnX Backcountry", my chosen GPS solution.  In an effort to reduce the weight of my pack, I have been re-evaluating gear and looking for lighter weight solutions.  In the past, I've carried a Garmin GPSMap 66i, my iPhone, a SteriPen for water purification, a Petzl headlamp, and my hearing aids in a recharger case.  Keeping these devices charged up for extended trips were a GoalZero Venture 35 battery pack and a GoalZero solar panel to keep the battery pack charged.  All this stuff weighed *way* too much.

I now have the maps on the iPhone (which has an internal GPS and which I was taking to use as my camera anyway), a LifeStraw for water purification (if needed), a 4 oz. Garmin Messenger for satellite messaging and SOS if needed, and am leaving the hearing aids in the car (they're useless in the wind, and in any case I'll be by myself).  I have never had to charge the headlamp while on a trip, and I carry an extra battery anyway.  The Garmin Messenger battery is supposed to last 28 days with tracking turned on to ten-minute intervals.  So now the only device I actually have to charge is the iPhone.  

I've determined that one day's walking with everything turned off except for the map will take about 20% of the battery charge.  So I will take a battery pack, but this time it is a "Patriot Power Cell CX" from 4Patriots.  It holds about 1.3 charges for the iPhone 15, so with consistent consumption/conservation I should be fine for the planned 9-10 day trip.  This battery pack has a built-in solar panel, so by hanging it on the outside of my pack I should be able to keep even more of a charge on the battery.  I'll be watching this closely to make sure I don't run out.   Just in case, I also have a compass and paper maps with the route and caches marked, as well as a physical printout of the cache descriptions and locations (after all, I am an Eagle Scout - "Be Prepared").

Back to the first day in the desert:  I drove south through the Brown's Creek drainage, which was beautiful green grassland that didn't feel much like desert (at least not this time of year).  I pulled up out of that drainage, and shortly afterwards I placed my first cache (actually cache #7 northbound).

Climbing out of the Brown's Creek drainage, looking north.  The Sawtooth Mountains are visible in the distance.

  

My method of caching is somewhat different from what I have seen others do.  I've seen photos (and also actually run across other people's caches) that are just plastic jugs of water placed right out in the open, sometimes with orange plastic tape or some other kind of marker.   I was just not comfortable with this.  Although everybody I have heard or read from says they have never had a problem, I couldn't see just leaving it out in the open. So my caches are buried.  Each cache consists of two one-gallon bottles of water, buried in a hole just deep enough that they can stand upright and have the tops covered with a thin layer of soil for insulation and concealment. I looked at a lot of different kinds of bottled water, and ended up selecting "Great Value" water from Walmart.  I liked these because the plastic seemed tougher than many others, and also because they have carrying handles attached.

Two gallons of water, next to the hole in which they will be buried.

I put them in a scent-free white trash bag to keep them clean and perhaps reduce the chance they might be disturbed. 

Each cache is marked with orange utility flags on either side of the trail.

Once I had selected the specific location for the cache, I would dig a hole, bury the water, and then place markers to help me find it again.  I started with orange utility flags on either side of the trail, and then put some orange plastic tape on a bush or fencepost nearby for longer-range visibility.  Then I would pace off from these markers to the actual (unmarked) location of the cache, so-and-so many paces at such-and-such a compass bearing.  After that I'd refine the GPS marker to be more exact, and then write a description of the location including any landmarks (fencepost, road intersection, trail marker, etc.).  I think that they are safe, and that I'll be able to find them with no trouble.  I like that they are out of the sun, and they might even be cold!

I continued south, placing caches and taking time out for some sightseeing.  (I will save the descriptions of some of the cool things I saw for the actual trip blog).  I got three more caches (#6, #5, and #4) placed that day, and then I made camp for the night.

"Desert Two"

I have a pretty well-established routine setup for Jeep camping.  Depending on the weather, I use either the Roadhouse Tarp or the Slumber Shack Tent for a roof.  In this case it was another beautiful clear night under the stars.

Sunrise at "Desert Two", looking south towards the Jarbidge Mountains in Nevada.

On Wednesday, I woke up to a beautiful desert sunrise, had a leisurely breakfast, and then packed up to drive south placing caches 1-3.  My plan had originally been to turn around and drive back north when I was finished, following the same route northbound, fixing the locations of the caches firmly in my visual memory as they would appear to me as I approached them on foot.  But several stretches of the trail in this area were so bad, so rough, with with so many sharp rocks, that I decided it was not necessary to subject my Jeep to the abuse.  I would drive north on the gravel roads to Hammett, and from there drive home.  But there was a fly in the ointment...

Somewhere in the course of this day, I realized that I had forgotten a crucial step.  In another attempt to reduce the weight of my pack, I had divided my ten days' worth of food into two five-day packages, and planned to cache one of these at the location I expect to reach at the end of day 4 (cache #4).  This would give me a one-day food buffer in case of the unexpected, but reduce the weight of my pack considerably. My backpacking menu is about a 2500-calorie per day menu, and weighs almost exactly 2 pounds per day, so this meant ten pounds I wouldn't be carrying for those 4 days.

But for some reason I just forgot to do this.  So now I had to backtrack to cache #4 and bury the food.  I headed north from Murphy Hot Springs on Three Creek and Clover Three Creek Roads, and turned west at Indian Hot Springs Road.  This very quickly became "Indian Hot Springs sort-of-kind-of-road-but-really-just-dried-mud-with tracks-in-that-general-direction".   Several miles of the access road in this area had obviously been a quagmire up until recently, and now it was a mostly-dried up maze of vehicle tracks that ranged back and forth where people had tried to find the dryest ground.  Despite my best efforts to stay on smooth firm ground, these dried-up wheel ruts would periodically grab my tires and force me to follow them until I could get out again.  It reminded me of the slot cars I had as a boy.

I finally got back on the main north-south trail and reached the area of the cache, but while looking at the GPS to see how close I was, I took my eyes off the road at exactly the wrong moment, and disaster struck before I could react.

I had managed to slide up against a sharp lava rock that damaged the sidewalls of both my right tires.  The rear one was shredded beyond hope, and the front was losing air fast.   Once I got the Jeep stabilized (rear wheel replaced by the spare, and the weight off of the front tire so it wouldn't break the bead and could still hold air), I had time to think about how the heck I was going to get out of there.

The offending rock.

The rear tire was toast.

The front tire was also ruined.

I had plenty of food, water, and fuel, and I'd thought I was well-prepared for emergencies: high lift jack, tire repair kit, large can of Fit-a-Flat foam, Smittybilt air compressor, and spare tire.  But you can't really fix a torn sidewall.  The tear in the front tire was only about an inch long and it was holding air (albeit leaking very fast), and I had four rubber plugs in my repair kit, so I thought maybe I could use them to plug the hole, then use the can of Fix-a-Flat after that.  Perhaps that might have held air long enough for me to get out.  If that didn't work, I figured I could load up my backpack and hike out, leaving my Jeep in place.  But I *really* didn't want to do that.

I had a Garmin Messenger with SOS, but this was not life-threatening and didn't seem to warrant pushing the SOS key. I also learned you can text 911, but it didn't seem to me like a "911" emergency.  Then it occurred to me that I had already arranged for a "trail angel" to drive me to the trailhead next month, and I had his number in my phone already.  I messaged him via the Garmin and asked if he could find a commercial tire service that would respond.

He immediately expressed a willingness to come out there himself to help, which was a huge relief and immediately made me feel better.  He then worked the problem, and was able to find a tire service (Commercial Tire in Grandview, mobile 208-598-5993) who were able and willing to respond.  Less than 24 hours after I had ruined my tires, Aaron from Commercial Tire was onsite with his contact truck and some used loaner tires, and had me fixed and on my way with a usable spare less than an hour after he arrived.

So I spent an extra night in the desert (I was a bit preoccupied, and do not have a photo of "Desert Three", nor of the tire damage in situ, lol).  But I learned some valuable lessons. I even learned (from the shuttle driver while getting new tires) that there is such a thing as a sidewall repair kit!  It is for emergency repairs only, but could get you out of the backcountry and to someplace where you can get a more permanent solution.  

 

After becoming mobile again, I drove the half-mile or so to cache #4 and buried the food package.  This is secured in OpSaks to seal in the food odor and UrSacks to keep the critters out.  I then made my way out of the desert and placed my last water cache in a convenient location for the last night out, which will leave me a short hike into Hammett where my Jeep will be parked.  I ended up camping one night longer than planned, which subjected me to a ferocious thunderstorm. I'd been trying to "thread the needle" and catch the few days of good weather, and it would have worked if I'd kept my eyes on the road, lol.

I drove back to Coeur d'Alene the same way, as usual enjoying the breathtaking scenery in this beautiful state.   I look forward to going back next month for my first-ever extended hike in desert terrain, and my first section-hike on the Idaho Centennial Trail.

Mood:  Happy

Music:  Silence

"Placeholder Entry" - What the heck?

Last year I didn't do a very good job keeping up this blog, despite my best intentions.  I had undertaken several exciting new endeavors, was living life to the fullest, and really wanted to write about it all.  But I kept running out of time to write vs. time to actually do things!

Because I wanted the entries to be in chronological order and somewhat contemporaneous with the actual events I was describing, and Blogger does not let you assign a date for an entry but simply uses the date on which you first publish it, I started making what I called "Placeholder Entries", intending to come back and write them later.  

Unfortunately, I never came back around to flesh out several of those entries, so they are still lurking out there, empty of actual content.

I'm going to leave them there and hope I can get back to writing them at some point, and meanwhile I am going to do my best to keep up writing about at least *some* of the more significant events and thoughts I have on an ongoing basis.  

I'm still very busy, and will still prioritize doing things over writing about them, but at least now there is an explanation in place.   🙂

Aiming a Rifle - Where to Focus Your Eye?

I recently noticed a discrepancy in some of my shooting references that took me down a historical rabbit hole and provided an interesting glimpse into the history of marksmanship instruction.  Before I get into detail, some context:

For many years I have been an avid rifle shooter and volunteer marksmanship instructor.  I am an instructor for Project Appleseed, and also a certified instructor for both the National Rifle Association and the Civilian Marksmanship Program. Project Appleseed is where I spend my volunteer time, both because I believe the instruction is of superior quality and also because of its focus on American colonial-era history and our mission to reignite the spirit of the American Revolution.  I am an avid student of history, especially military history and historical military firearms.  I like to collect the reference books and manuals that go along with the vintage military rifles I collect and shoot, and these were the source of the observation that inspired this little voyage of discovery.

Among the fundamentals of rifle shooting that we teach in Project Appleseed are the "Six Steps of Firing the Shot". Step four is "focus", by which we mean to focus the eye on the front sight, and focus the mind on keeping the front sight on the target.  This principle of focusing on the front sight is consistent with every other modern firearms training reference that I have, insofar as they even mention the concept of where to focus (several, notably the NRA, do not mention it at all).

Each participant in a Project Appleseed rifle clinic receives a copy of this “Guidebook to Rifle Marksmanship”.  It is the best concise reference I have ever seen.

“Focus your eye on the front sight…”

I recently acquired a copy of the U.S. Army Small Arms Firing Manual of 1913.  My copy includes changes 1-20, so it was current as of 15 March, 1918.   This would have been the training received by the soldiers of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) who fought in World War I. 

This manual is very small, with tiny print! It was probably intended to fit in the shirt pocket of the uniform of that period.

I was quite surprised to read the guidance in this manual which instructed the soldier to focus on the target, and not on the front sight: 

“The eye can be focused accurately upon objects at but one distance at a time; all other objects in the field of view will appear more or less blurred…”

“Whatever sight is used, the eye must be focused on the bull’s-eye, or mark, and not on the front or rear sight.”

The Soldier’s Handbook for the U.S. Rifle, Model of 1917 gives the same guidance: 

This is both a manual for the rifle and also a scorebook.  This soldier had many scores recorded in the scorebook section, but only two of the pages were properly filled out with dates: September 2, 1918 and October 15, 1918. I cannot read the names of the Army camps, but they are different from each other.

“Always focus your eyes on the target, never on the sights.”

“Focus the eyes on the target only.”

This led me to consult some WWII-era references, including Field Manual 23-5, U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, M1 (30 July 1943).   It contains the opposite advice, consistent with modern instruction, to focus the eye on the front sight.  FM 23-7, U.S. Carbine, Caliber .30, M1 and M1A1 (23 April, 1944) contains the identical verbiage.

This manual is also pocket-sized, with tiny print.

“…in aiming, the rifleman’s eye should first be focused on the target, in order to ascertain that he is firing on his own target. His eye is then focused on the top of the front sight…”

My copy of FM 23-9, M16A1 and M16A2 Rifle Marksmanship (July 1989) emphasizes the point repeatedly across two pages and several paragraphs.  This is not the most current version of the field manual, but it is one of the last versions before the Army began to emphasize optics over iron sights. The principle of focusing the eye on the front sight is clearly well-established as the correct approach to precise aiming.

“…the eye must be focused on the tip of the front sight post…”

So: sometime between WWI and WWII, this crucial aspect of marksmanship training was fundamentally changed.  The questions now in my mind were: how and when did this change occur, and why?  I consulted a number of other references in my library, and was quite surprised at how little I was able to find on the subject.  

The first book I consulted was "Rifles and Rifle Shooting" by Major Charles Askins.  He was one of the most prolific and authoritative gun writers of his day, and this book went through several editions and printings between 1912 and 1932.  But although it contains a wealth of information and advice, I was unable to find a single reference as to where the eye should focus while aiming. Similarly, ".22 Caliber Rifle Shooting" by C.S. Landis (1932) went into excruciating detail about the various types of sights and their uses, but I couldn't find a single word about where the shooter should focus the eye.

Finally, I consulted Captain Edward Crossman's "Military and Sporting Rifle Shooting" (1932), and hit the jackpot!  In fact, it contains so much information, in so much technical detail, that it was challenging to sort through it and find the simple facts I was looking for. I think it answers the “why?” and points towards the “how and when”.

The chapter on "Aiming" had nothing to say about where to focus, so I was initially disappointed.  But there is another chapter towards the end of the book entitled "The Rifleman's Eyes".  It goes into great detail about the nature of the eye and vision, the effects of light, different colored glasses, optical aids to shooting (e.g. diopters), and quite a discussion about the effects of aging and different types and degrees of visual acuity.  He includes a lot of detail from a study conducted by the War Department in which they had men with normal vision shoot while wearing glasses that artificially impaired their vision, and measured the effects on their shooting scores.  The objective was to determine what level of visual acuity should be required in order for a man to be eligible to serve in the Army and be able to shoot effectively.   The pages in which Crossman describes this study are included below.  While somewhat dense, they make for fascinating reading:

“Some 23 years ago…officers of the Army Medical Corps…conducted a test…to determine whether a sharp image of front sight, or a sharp image of target was necessary for good rifle shooting.”

“If…the essential condition being a clear image of the sights…it will follow as a corollary that the present standards of vision are unnecessarily high.”

(Some details of the testing)

“…we are forced to the conclusion that a clear image of the bull’s-eye, or object aimed at, is not necessary to good shooting.”

“Upon well-defined optical principles the marksman with normal vision will not be able to distinctly see the bull’s-eye and focus his front and rear sight at the same time…a blurred target and a sharply-defined front sight…is…invariably chosen by riflemen…”

“Conclusions: 1. That a perfectly sharp image of the target or bull’s-eye is not necessary for good shooting…”

The study and its conclusions were published as War Department Circular No. 5, January 25th, 1908.   (Historical Note: What was then the War Department is now the Department of the Army. There was no Department of Defense until after WWII). It is quite clear from this study that the Army knew at the time that bringing the target into clear focus was not necessary for good results.  It is also clear that the riflemen preferred to focus on the front sight, regardless of how they had been instructed.  Nonetheless, the War Department's 1913 Small Arms Firing Manual recommended focusing on the target.  Why?   

I do not have any earlier marksmanship manuals, nor any manuals or other training materials from the interwar years, so don't know for sure and I cannot answer the question definitively.  But having had a total of 28 years' service in the Army, I can venture an educated guess.  The Army is a very conservative (some would say "hidebound") organization, and the bureaucracy is often very resistant to change.  Ordnance in particular was very conservative, and even resisted the adoption of repeating rifles for decades on the grounds that soldiers would waste ammunition by firing too fast (!)  When the Army finally did adopt a repeating rifle, the first few models (1892, 1896, 1898, and 1903) included a magazine cutoff switch to permit single loading. Soldiers were instructed to fire single shot, and to conserve the rounds in the magazine for emergencies when rapid fire was necessary.  As a rule, things in the Army did not change rapidly!

It is apparent that Army doctrine at the time of the study was to focus the eye on the target when aiming.  It is easy for me to imagine that it took years to get the knowledge from this study (even though it had been produced and published by the War Department) to penetrate the bureaucracy and be translated into a change in training doctrine. That is most likely the explanation for the two-stage instruction to first focus on the target to ensure proper identification, then focus on the front sight for greater accuracy. I suspect this represents a compromise between those who thought it most important to keep the enemy in clear focus during battle and those striving for the most precise aim. One finding of the study was that even soldiers who were somewhat nearsighted could still get good shooting results by focusing on the front sight, despite the fact that they were unable to bring the target into clear focus. Because the study seems to have been motivated primarily by the desire to ensure that the vision requirements for enlistment did not unnecessarily restrict the pool of potential soldiers, the experiences recruiting and training the AEF in WWI may have finally pushed the Army to adopt the change.

There are many other interesting differences from our current marksmanship practices contained in these manuals (firing positions, breath control, training methods, etc), but this one just jumped out at me and I needed to dig in a little.  At our Project Appleseed shoot last weekend, one of the more experienced instructors told the students that if they focus on the target rather than the front sight, their shot group will be likely to expand and form a “shotgun” pattern around their aiming point.  He encouraged them to try it as an exercise to validate the need to focus on the front sight.  I think it will be interesting to try it, especially after reading this.

One final thought:  we notice that the majority of our students show up on the line with some sort of optics on their rifles - either a scope or a “red dot” type.  But if you really want to get to know your rifle and understand shooting fundamentals, take off the scope and learn to shoot with iron sights!

 

Mood: Happy

Music: Jäger & Schützenlieder (Folge 2)

Happy P7 Patent Day! The Heckler & Koch P7M8 at the Range

Happy P7 Patent Day!   Today is the day key elements of the unique mechanism of the Heckler & Koch P7 pistol were patented by Helmut Weldle:  

HK P7 Patent

Here is a detailed rundown of how the P7 works and why it is the best pistol ever made:

The HK P7 Pistol

This pistol has been a significant part of my life since I bought one as my first modern pistol and taught myself to shoot with it in 1982.  Seriously - most of my online userids are “hkp7fan”, my Appleseed instructor handle is “P7”, and my license plate has been “HK P7M8” for the last 14 years, in two countries and three states.  I love this pistol! So naturally I had to go to the range today and shoot it.

My Heckler & Koch P7M8.   

The P7M8 is my EDC gun, as it has been for nearly 40 years. Cognoscenti may wonder how I could have bought it in 1982 when it has an IE (1984) date code. To be more precise, my first pistol was actually a P7 (PSP), purchased at the Hanau Rod & Gun Club. Right before I left Germany in 1985, I purchased the P7M8.  Shortly after I returned to the US I retired the P7 and the P7M8 became my EDC gun.

Today it was also time for the semi-annual rotation of my defensive ammunition.  Twice a year I go to the range with my carry guns and shoot the ammunition that’s been in them. The idea is to ensure that it goes “bang”, that the pistol functions as desired, and that I am able to hit the target reasonably accurately.  After I’ve shot the full-power defensive ammunition, I generally get in some additional shooting with less expensive practice ammo. Afterwards I clean the gun thoroughly, swap in fresh magazines to give the ones I’ve been carrying a rest, and load them with fresh defensive ammunition.

All set up to shoot and to record the results.

Appleseed large silhouette drill targets at 7 yards and a steel silhouette target at 15 yards.

These days I’m carrying Speer Gold Dot 124 gr. Jacketed Hollowpoint Law Enforcement Duty Ammunition.  I prefer to carry +P or even +P+, but unfortunately my last case ran out during the depth of the COVID ammo shortage, and standard pressure was all I could find  (I don’t like to think about the price I paid).  I prefer ammunition with “Law Enforcement” or “Duty” in the name rather than catchy marketing names like “Zombie Killer” or “Terminator”, because it would sound better if I ever had to use it for actual self-defense.  This may sound a bit flip but it is a very real consideration. If you are ever placed in the unenviable position of having to defend your actions to a judge and jury, anything that can reinforce their understanding that you are a solid, responsible citizen is important.

Speer Gold Dot - "The No. 1 Choice in Law Enforcement"

Today every round functioned perfectly, and I got in some very good practice.  I started off by shooting the carry ammo at a pair of Appleseed silhouette targets at seven yards.  My EDC load is 25 rounds:  Three eight-round magazines plus one in the chamber.  I fired six strings of 4 shots each, two at the first target and then two at the second target.  Out of a possible 20 points, my scores were: 13, 12, 12, 14, 19, 17.  Then I shot one round at the steel  silhouette target at 15 yards (hit).

The last eight rounds of carry ammunition.  Two strings of four rounds, two rounds on each target.

After this I fired ten rounds of practice ammunition at another pair of Appleseed silhouette targets, following the Appleseed pistol drill of two magazines (six and four), firing two shots on the left, then two on the right, alternating until all ten rounds had been fired.  My score for this was  39/50.  I would have practiced more and raised this score, but the light was fading and I had another pistol to shoot.  So this was it for the P7 today.  

Ten rounds of practice ammo, six on the left and four on the right, fired two rounds at a time, then switching between targets. 39/50 - not a very impressive score, but definitely "minute of bad guy".

I also brought along my travel gun (a Remington R51 9mm).  This is a $200 gun vs. the P7’s current ~$2,000 market value.  Hence “travel gun”, so that the P7 will never disappear from my checked baggage.

This one was quick.  My EDC load for this pistol is only 22 rounds, as the magazines only hold seven.  I fired the first magazine fairly deliberately to refamiliarize myself.  The first round failed to extract completely and thus jammed the pistol.  I believe this was because I limp-wristed it, preventing the recoil force from cycling the action completely.  After I cleared it and focused on a firm grip, it functioned perfectly.  After the first magazine, I fired the rest rapid fire, and achieved 100% hits on target (a steel silhouette target at 15 yards) with several of the hits at dead center mass.   By this time the light was fading fast, so there are no photos and this was the last shooting of the day.

After packing up and coming home, the next step was a good cleaning, followed by fresh ammunition in different magazines, and back into the holster for another six months of EDC.

"Never let the sun set on a dirty gun."

Time for a rendezvous with Jack Daniels - life is good in North Idaho!

My Christmas present from my awesome wife.

 

Mood: Happy

Music: Jäger & Schützenlieder, Folge 1