I've got daddy duty this weekend, so while my daughter was gone to a cross-country meet, I went with a friend of mine (retired Army) out shooting. The difference between he and I is that he's actually USED a rifle (if you get my meaning). We both needed to comfirm zeros on our rifles (both Bushmasters), and I wanted to put some rounds thru my .40 Glocks. Stopped by the gun store first and had the armorer install extended slide stop and mag release on my Glock. My bud has a friend with a farm and some acreage and a makeshift range on it nearby. So we went down, measured and set up some zero targets.
My friend was having a hard time finding a zero (mostly because he wasn't making a solid bed to shoot from), so he took a break and I confirmed my zero; it was off but corrected pretty easy.
Then we started having ammo problems. I've never seen anything like it. His rifle starts jamming and won't feed regardless of what we try. Then I find a shell casing on the ground. I wish I'd taken a pic, cause I've shot THOUSANDS of rounds of 5.56 and never seen anything like this - the shell casing was sheared off about .25 inch from the base...so I got to thinking about where the rest of the casing was....sure enough, it was still inside the chamber (which is why rounds wouldn't feed)...You really had to look close to see it, because you could see all the way thru the barrel...can't get it out so that rifle's done for the day.
Then, mine jams with a live round about halfway in the chamber (I think I tried to shoot some of his rounds that the casings may have been bent), and we don't have a cleaning rod with us, so we shoot our pistols a little while (either my sights are off or I can't shoot worth a crap anymore) and stop by the gunshop on the way back to have the gunsmith take a look. He takes a cleaning rod and punches my round out - no problem. But he can't get the broken casing out of the other upper without an extraction tool, which he didn't have with him, so that upper will have to be fixed later this week. NEVER seen that happen before...
I'm going to clean my rifle, make sure it feeds with new ammo, then take the upper off and drop those spare rounds we tried into the barrel by hand and see if any of them are bent (and trash them). I have never ever had a feed problem. Not sure if it was his ammo or mine, but all of it was Federal factory. I THINK what's happened is that some casings have gotten bent when mass loading mags, and I'm going to have to go thru every round one at time to see if they are bent or not. That's gonna take a few days - only way to find out is to drop one at a time in a clean chamber and see if it binds.
Oh, one other thing. The guys that own the property show up. Classic rednecks. Now, I don't shoot with people I don't know, and my friend and I are both big on gun safety. This guy pulls out a .45 caliber automatic (i don't even know the brand); he wants to sell it. So I ask him if I could see it, and of course, he POINTS IT AT ME when handing it too me - WHOA there buddy point that thing somewhere else please! First thing I try to do is open the slide to see if it's loaded (I won't hand a weapon to someone unless i clear it first) and can't do it - hand it back, and of course he POINTS IT AT ME AGAIN when he opens the slide - and of course a bullet ejects- jeez I was pissed. He NEVER BOTHERED to mention it was chambered. Not a good day all around...
My friend was having a hard time finding a zero (mostly because he wasn't making a solid bed to shoot from), so he took a break and I confirmed my zero; it was off but corrected pretty easy.
Then we started having ammo problems. I've never seen anything like it. His rifle starts jamming and won't feed regardless of what we try. Then I find a shell casing on the ground. I wish I'd taken a pic, cause I've shot THOUSANDS of rounds of 5.56 and never seen anything like this - the shell casing was sheared off about .25 inch from the base...so I got to thinking about where the rest of the casing was....sure enough, it was still inside the chamber (which is why rounds wouldn't feed)...You really had to look close to see it, because you could see all the way thru the barrel...can't get it out so that rifle's done for the day.
Then, mine jams with a live round about halfway in the chamber (I think I tried to shoot some of his rounds that the casings may have been bent), and we don't have a cleaning rod with us, so we shoot our pistols a little while (either my sights are off or I can't shoot worth a crap anymore) and stop by the gunshop on the way back to have the gunsmith take a look. He takes a cleaning rod and punches my round out - no problem. But he can't get the broken casing out of the other upper without an extraction tool, which he didn't have with him, so that upper will have to be fixed later this week. NEVER seen that happen before...
I'm going to clean my rifle, make sure it feeds with new ammo, then take the upper off and drop those spare rounds we tried into the barrel by hand and see if any of them are bent (and trash them). I have never ever had a feed problem. Not sure if it was his ammo or mine, but all of it was Federal factory. I THINK what's happened is that some casings have gotten bent when mass loading mags, and I'm going to have to go thru every round one at time to see if they are bent or not. That's gonna take a few days - only way to find out is to drop one at a time in a clean chamber and see if it binds.
Oh, one other thing. The guys that own the property show up. Classic rednecks. Now, I don't shoot with people I don't know, and my friend and I are both big on gun safety. This guy pulls out a .45 caliber automatic (i don't even know the brand); he wants to sell it. So I ask him if I could see it, and of course, he POINTS IT AT ME when handing it too me - WHOA there buddy point that thing somewhere else please! First thing I try to do is open the slide to see if it's loaded (I won't hand a weapon to someone unless i clear it first) and can't do it - hand it back, and of course he POINTS IT AT ME AGAIN when he opens the slide - and of course a bullet ejects- jeez I was pissed. He NEVER BOTHERED to mention it was chambered. Not a good day all around...
