Me & couple of friends had planned on going plinking today, but had to cancel due to weather. There was storm coming in from the coast, and where we go shooting is closer to the coast.... but it was a total dud, at least where I was at. No storm where I live in Greater Portland Metro, and barely rained closer to the coast.
Yesterday, Oregon Governor Kate Brown announced yet another two week plan to fight Covid 19. Main point was limited capacity inside stores, restaurant can accommodate deliveries & takeouts only, limits on social gathering, etc., etc.
While our plinking session was cancelled, I wanted to test out the new all-terrain tires I just bought + I wanted to sight-in the red dot sight I robbed from the Micro Roni Glock stock, so I headed up the mountain by myself again.
It didn't rain much, but got some fog. Some sign of snow on the ground at the higher elevation. I didn't realize it got cold enough to snow up here already.
Tires I bought were the Toyo Open Country All-Terrain. I've been getting around just fine with the street tires on my 2013 Ford Edge, but couple of people been telling me I should get something tougher for probably couple of years now. While old tires were still okay, with some meteorologists predicting cold winter for the Pacific Northwest, also having witnessed countless Covid 19 related backorders & backlogs, I decided to just pull the trigger on the tires now(no pun intended).
Driving under highway speeds, I didn't detect any difference in the ride compared to the set of street tires I had before. At 60+ mph, I did notice little rougher ride, but not that bad. Just noticeable. Pretty sure I got lower miles-per-gallon, but I wasn't watching it the whole time, so I don't have conclusive data on that(nobody cares, sorry). Anywho, tires are good. I like these Toyo's. My first Toyo tires & these "Open Country" all-terrains have 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake logos, which means lot of times, they get a pass when winter tires or traction devices are required.
So this is my Remington 870 Tactical with Burris Fastfire 3 red dot on it(on AR-F3 riser/mount). This shotgun was my first long gun, not counting POS rimfire rifle called Remington 597 I'd like to forget about. This Tactical model came with XS sights(rear ghost ring), picatinny rail up top & breacher choke, which really sold it to this tacticool fanboy.
Rear stock you see on there is Blackhawk Knoxx recoil reducing stock. It works really well, it makes 12-Gauge feel like a .30 caliber rifle or something, but it had this "cheek slap" problem. As term suggests, it feels like a slap on your cheek-weld when aiming down stock sights. As suspected, with the taller red dot, slapping is history.
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| An old pic of the breacher choke. |
Stock picatinny rail makes optics a plug & play. :D
People before me left some blown up pumpkins close by, so I used them first to get close while sighting-in. Aiming down the sight for the second shot, I notice the "red dot" in the sight is gone! :( It was loose battery cover. I tightened it down. I shot it ten more times & it held okay, but man, I was nervous if this little guy was going to hold together with recoil from 12-Gauge shotgun, so it had me worried little bit. It remains to be seen if the "zero" will hold, or battery cap will stay tight.
I was in for a quickie, and was done within minutes. Didn't even setup a proper target. Just laid this flattened cardboard box on the backstop & shot those pumpkin carcasses I found left behind. Used a birdshot on pumpkins to get close, then once on this cardboard. Big holes you see are five rounds of slugs. I used the old UPS label on there to tighten it down. :p
It started raining after those eleven shots, so I called it a morning(only 7:55am lol). Stay safe everyone & social distance responsibly, like me! :D
