ON A WALK AROUND THE POND...



THE STORM HAS PASSED--

The top photo is looking east toward my township road.  The lower photo is a view toward the west and my little place in the woods.

THIS SNOW IS GETTING PESKY--

These two images were shot late this morning and are identical; except, the upper one was shot at a shutter speed of 1/8th of a second and the lower one was shot at 1/400th of of a second.  The slower shutter speed recorded the falling snow flakes in vertical streaks while the faster shutter speed effectively stopped the motion of the falling flakes thus rendering them more sharply.

Additionally, the slower shutter speed left more light into the camera during that exposure so the aperture had to be reduced to prevent over exposure  It was at f/32 for this shot.

Conversely, at the higher shutter speed substantially less light was allowed into the camera so the aperture had to be enlarged to compensate.  It was at f/4.5 for this shot. 

The view is toward the pine woods on the east side of my pond and was recorded with a 70-200 mm zoom lens at full focal length (while both the camera and the photographer were hiding under a large, golf umbrella on our upper deck.)

Nice images can be obtained by shooting from the comfort of indoors through a window pane but usually some sharpness is lost because the window glass is usually inferior in quality to the camera's lens.

The automatic mode of your digital camera will make very nice pictures indeed, but fiddling with the manual settings will help you expand the creative use of your camera.

BACKYARD SCIENCE--
in .380 caliber

On November 13th we told you about our new pistol; a Sig P238.

Recently we added a new recoil spring and the backwoods science continues as we try to achieve 100 per cent reliability with this attractive little handgun.

Earlier we were experiencing serious damage to the spent casings of fired bullets. It is beginning to appear the new spring may have solved that problem but it will require several hundred more flawless rounds before I am confident this gun can be depended on.

Along the way I became curious about the energy of this little bullet and in our earlier story we discussed what it did to jugs full of water. Remember, it penetrated a 6” jug, penetrated the second jug full of water and hit the back of the inside of the second jug with sufficient force to bulge, but not break, that jug’s back skin.

Recently we tested our self defense loads of Speer, 90 grain, Gold Dot hollow points against a ½ gallon milk jug full of frozen water.

In the photo at right you can see the result of the .380 caliber bullet hitting our test jug at a range of 25 feet. The force of impact split the jug vertically but the bullet did not exit the back of the jug.

Then, we performed surgery on the jug in the kitchen sink. (Our outdoor laboratory was 25 degrees on the day of the test.)

The ice surrounding the entry hole was pulverized; almost like fine powder. The rest of the ice surrounding the bullet’s path was like shattered crystals.

The pulverized (white colored) and shattered ice are visible in both close up photos and we found the spent bullet 3 ¼ inches into the 4” thick jug.

In the lower photo you see the spent bullet, fully mushroomed with only one petal of the mushroomed shape separated from the bullet’s mass. This usually is evidence of a very well engineered projectile.

Note also how the lead remained fused to the copper cladding of the spent round.

Concluding:  The hollow point round is simply an effective part of a team.

I carry a handgun purely as a tool. I refuse to be a defenseless victim.

The handgun is like the spare tire in my vehicle or the fire extinguishers in my home. You pray you never need them, but, if you do, you may be very glad the correct tool for the emergency was at hand and you knew how to use it.

AND NOW—
   the rest of the story...

In handgun practice sessions with my square dancing friends—all concealed carry license holders—one safe amusement has been enjoyed; it the result of some marginal marksmanship.

My homemade, wooden target frame one shooting-practice day slowly disintegrated as slightly errant rounds chewed portions of the frame into splinters until it finally and slowly toppled to the ground.

Unbeknown to me, the embarrassed shooters conspired to create a surprise replacement frame as a present for my then upcoming birthday and assigned that task to the engineer of our group, Mark Meinzer.

Meanwhile, I constructed a replacement frame of my own from scraps of treated lumber which was soon put to use in our next shooting session.

It promptly suffered its first wounds and shuddered as bullets smashed their way through the top of its framework, about 10 inches above the hanging target’s bull’s-eye.

The guilty culprit was my lady Sue. Her humorous humiliation was repeated later that day when the frame once again shuddered from the impact of a passing bullet; this one launched by our mutual friend Roberta Karger.

You can see the advertisements of their less than stellar marksmanship emblazoned on the frame (above) with black, magic marker.

Days later, my birthday present arrived. It was Mark’s terrific creation with PVC pipe, copper wire suspended clip hangers for the targets, and fishing sinkers as counterweights. And, it sported a target cavity of nearly 3 feet clearance—ample room for less than precisely aimed shots to pass through the frame without damage.

Soon another shooting day arrived; this one involving just Mark and me, so I promptly deployed Mark's marvelous, articulated frame to help celebrate our noisy afternoon in the woods.

Yup, you guessed it. It wasn’t long until white plastic was flying about and not one, but two target clips had suffered destruction.

Mark smiled quietly, as he does easily, and noted his design was no match for his 9 mm powered handgun.
________________________
Please stop by Saturday as this series of handgun stories concludes with another peek at the continued testing of my Sig P238 pistol.

MY LITTLE GLOCKS--

Two Glock pistols, a G-19 and a G-26, both 9 mm in caliber, have been my defensive handguns for many years. They are noted for their accuracy, and utter reliability straight from the factory. (That’s the G-26 pictured above.)

But, like a fine wine that improves with age, my Glocks are undergoing a gentle metamorphosis.

This began a few weeks ago when my friend Gary Mishey, a newly minted Glock armorer, recommended I install a Ghost trigger connector to lighten and smooth out Glock’s arguably clunky, stock version.

We started this process on my little G-26.

And it works.

The metamorphosis also involves night sights, a new slide release lever and a plug to keep dust and debris out of the cavity behind the grip.

The new trigger connector lowers the weight of pressure necessary to press the trigger and smoothes the process through staging and release of the firing pin, thus minimizing muzzle movement induced by trigger motion—thereby improving accuracy.

The night sights glow in the dark (picture below) and dramatically ease target acquisition in low-light conditions. During daylight their function remains normal.

The stock slide release lever was a flat piece of metal that was difficult to actuate. The new version has a raised and smoothed triangular shape that makes releasing the slide over a newly loaded magazine a breeze.

The butt plug simply disappears into the bottom of the grip and adds to the gun’s symmetry while quietly performing its cleanliness chore.

Prior to the installation of the new trigger connector I fired a test or control target of 10 rounds, shot from a bench rest at 25 feet and achieved a group of hits largely centered on the bulls-eye with a maximum spread of 3 inches.

My first test target with the new connector produced a similarly accurate group but reduced the group size to a 2 ½ inch spread.

Another test target several days later but under identical conditions brought the group size down to 1 ½ inches.  (Pictured Thursday)

That approaches target shooting marksmanship (at least from my 70 year old eyes) from Glock’s smallest model with a barrel just a bit over 2 inches long measuring from the end of the chamber to the muzzle.

This is the rear AmeriGlo Classic night sight on my Glock 26. Because of shallow depth of focus and angle of view the front sight is not visible. In use the front sight looks like one of the single rear sights and would be centered precisely between the rear two to achieve target accuracy. They cost $89 and are guaranteed 10 years.

By then I’ll likely need something a bit bigger and brighter.

Gary's web site is here:  http://www.garysglockworks.com/home

This is a test target shot after the installation of a new trigger connector in my Glock 26.  That is a 1 ½ inch group of ten, 9 mm rounds fired from a rest at 25 feet.  We will tell you the story of my gun’s metamorphosis Saturday.

Bullets used in this test were Winchester white box, 115 grain, full metal jacket.  These are round nose bullets thus making the ragged holes in the target--compared to the test target published recently with the story on the Sig P238.  Those also were Winchester range ammo but those bullets have a flat nose which accounts for the very neat perforation of that target.