To Start Off the New Year Right

I've been wanting to go shooting for couple of weeks now.  Unfortunately, it's been raining every weekend.  About a week ago, I drove up to the mountains to test out the PIAA LED headlight bulbs.  Some complained of not getting enough light out of these LED bulbs when used in projector beam headlights(like my Ford Edge).  Since it's lit up everywhere in town, I wanted to drive into middle nowhere in the woods, see if my bulbs were working okay.  Short answer:  Yes.

I also took couple of handguns up there?  I figured, after testing the headlights, I can target practice with my Glock & .45 USP.

Heck no, man.  It was so frigging creepy up there in pitch black, I wasn't even getting out of the vehicle(p*ssy, yes).  Anywho, it was either heavy rain or heavy fog anyway.  Since it was projected to rain again next weekend, I asked few guys if they wanted to go shooting on the New Years day.  Couple of guys said "yes".

My buddy who's always late couldn't make it, but thanks to Google Map GPS I used, it got me lost not once, but twice.  I ran way late, had to drive up to the meeting spot where we are all familiar with & kill bit of time before they met me there.  It was going to be in the 30's all day up here in the mountains, even found these weird frozen puddles with ring pattern like a ripple effect.

Here come the guys, now we are headed up in the woods.

We are getting close to the top now.  Not a good place to drive off the road amirite.

One of the guys bought a FN Five seveN.  Second guy in my circle to buy one.  It is a interesting gun.  In the smaller cases behind it are the S&W 44 Magnum & .50 Cal Desert Eagle.  Go figure.  FN case's pretty sweet though eh?

Perhaps I should have taken a shot of it before I blew it up with my AR.  Canary Melon.  I picked it up at Walmart for $3 & change the night before?  Full size melon, bright yellow.  Great biodegradable target.  After you blow it up, you can keep on shooting the small pieces.  No cleanup.  lol

My new patch on my 5.11 Rush 12 backpack is the "Made in Oregon" sign patch.  Very nice local touch & official 5.11 product.

I know I look bigger..... I was wearing two extra layers on top.  Ignore that guy in shorts in the next picture.  I'm 50% sure he's related bigfoot.

All in all, it was a fun day, pretty relaxing day with couple of buds.  I also shot my TCR22(10/22 clone by Thompson Center), and everything was dialed in.  Fun & relaxing when all your guns on-target.  :D  Both rifles were relatively unchanged from my October post(pic).

Bada Bing Bada Boom: New Plinking Spot Discovered + New Parts Installed on New Rifles

Proud owner of Thompson Center TCR22

So late September, I finally had to do it.  I've wanted AR-15 forever, and had been seeing Smith & Wesson M&P Sport II, also Ruger AR556 for $499, for most of the year.  That's like $500 for one of my dream rifles.  Of course, we all know the cost to own a rifle easily doubles after you buy ammo & optics.  More on this later, but I take this AR shooting with my friends & what do you know, my POS Remington 597 rifle jams just about every magazine.  I just bought this new AR, but just as I was getting enthusiastic about .22 plinking, I was absolutely done with Remington 597.  

To make the matter worse, I had recently ran into two defective Remington 597 magazines.  One set came from gunmagwarehouse.com  I left a one-star review, but they actually censored it(kept the five-star review for Ruger SR22 mag).  I like Amazon, because their review system itself is honest.  There are people/companies that abuse it, but it will not hide the negative reviews.  Integrity of the Amazon review system earns our trust.  Companies like gunmagwarehouse.com, I'm not going to pretend to understand their intent behind hiding one-star reviews, but censorship leads to rigged review system & rigged review makes me doubt their honesty.  Initially, I thought I found new favorite place to buy magazines from.  I've bought around ten magazines since then, not one from gunmagwarehouse.  Enough ranting.

Today, I found this awesome spot to shoot...... but it's filled with garbage!(I know, another rant lol)  I set it up anyway, this was a great space.

Get my gear out.  Nobody would go with me today, so I'm solo.  I've brought out my two new rifles:  Smith & Wesson M&P Sport II + Thompson Center TCR22.  Both looks very different than when I first got it.

I had quick detach scope mount on the TCR22 with Redfield Revenge scope initially(pictured below).  Just something I had laying around.  I didn't care for the overly tactical look.

This is the picture of the stock Sport II rifle.   

I had these Magpul furniture put on it:

Unfortunately, I ordered wrong vertical grip for the "SL" handguard.  It fit, but it would move?  In these pictures, it has the correct M-LOK system vertical grip(also Magpul brand).

On TCR22, I installed Leupold Rifleman rings from amazon on it.  "High" version with 1" rings.

Got my cardboard box with paper targets + red Allen brand ball target..... Trash everywhere.  :(

I'm getting interested in these self-healing targets.  I destroyed one couple of weeks ago, so I have replacement coming from Amazon(took 12 days before they even shipped it!), but meanwhile, I got this one from Walmart for $10.  It held up okay to .223 & .22LR.

I really like my new .22 rifle.  TCR22 is a Ruger 10/22 clone & I was very nervous with the purchase.  I actually went to my local gun shop teetering between this & Ruger 10/22 package with Weaver scope on it.  I think 10/22 was $270 on sale.  TCR22 was $320, but it came with $50 mail-in rebate(received this rebate in mail in less than two weeks).  No scope, but it has bright fiber optics front sight, picatinny rail for optics, threaded barrel & Magpul stock.  Basically everything I wanted in a 10/22, but 10/22 almost never come with that much goodies.  At least not in this price range.  

TCR22 was a bargain for $320($270 after rebate).......  If it worked like a real 10/22.  I've taking it out shooting twice now & so far, so good.  It has yet to have any kind of malfunction & parts feels very high quality.  Extra Ruger 10/22 magazines I bought felt very high quality compared to Remington 597 magazines, and they seem to work with TCR22 in perfect harmony.  Almost all my shooting friends has 10/22 & I was getting so much **** over Remington 597, largest producer of jam, even more than the Smucker's.  

Again, I was pretty nervous to take a chance on Thompson Center TCR22, but I am so relieved.  Guys will finally get off my back about it!  lol

TCR22 & Ruger 10/22 magazines

Leupold Rifleman Scope Rings + Redfield Revenge(2~7x, this scope's been discontinued by the manufacturer)

EOTech 512.A65, Magpul stock, grip, vertical grip, SL handguard

Dirt wasn't for effect.  I knocked it over by accident.  :(

I do wonder how effective magnifiers are on something like this?  Accuracy?  I might do that down the line.  For now, it's an affordable plinking rifle.  I have about $500 in the rifle, $130 in parts & $350 for the EOTech red dot, so about $1,000.  A lot less than what I have in the Bushmaster MOE 308.  Ammo's lot cheaper, too.  :D

Got to Shoot 5.56 & Desert Eagle for the First Time

This was late September.  Earlier in the month, I went plinking by myself & I actually ran into a mountain lion!  It looked like a miniature lion.  Surreal encounter with something like that in the woods of Oregon.  I had a loaded Glock 19 in waistband until I was done. lol  This time, I had three of my buddies in convoy of three vehicles.  :D

One of the guys brought this thing.  It's...... BEAUTIFUL AMIRITE.  I can't believe he actually shot them!  Place was crawling with other shooters & hunters, so we were forced to find a new spot to shoot.  Luckily, while it's small, we found one within 15 minute drive or so.

Dude who brought the Christmas bullets also brought the S&W .44 Magnum he recently bought + the brand new Desert Eagle he's yet to shoot.  Some people have everything......

Mark of reliability.  My Glock 19 has perfect operational record..... 

While this piece of **** Remington 597 .22LR rifle does not.  This rifle jammed every 2, 3 rounds when new(defective magazine).  With newer mags, it was going really good.  It started jamming really bad one day, so I cleaned it.  Lubed it.  Next time we took it shooting, it was fine.  This day, it jammed just about every mag.  Sad!  Remington is very bad!

Thankfully, Smith & Wesson M&P Sport II I had just bought was perfect.  Love this thing!

Chinese SKS(very first firearm I ever fired!)

S&W .44 Magnum

Pretty sure this is Mossberg 500

.50 AE Desert Eagle is something else.  When you are standing close to the guy shooting one of these, you feel it as though the guy's shooting a rifle!  Big case next to the 9mm:

Biodegradable Targets

Don't ask......

Late Night Online Shopping...... #MLB

Do you ever buy something online, late at night?

Answer for me is yes.  In this case, not just one, but two!  I'm a NBA refugee.  I won't bore you with the details, but I just got fed up with the usually B.S. surrounding the NBA.  Mostly the inconsistent officiating & those "super" teams(or "stacked" teams).  

So I went back to my first love, the sports I barely knew:  Baseball.  Already had a favorite team, though I never followed them(because "diehard" Blazer fan).  I only collected basketball cards as a kid, but when I saw this cool baseball card art in the Beckett price guide magazine, I bought the card & also picked the Braves as my team:

Fast forward to 2015, 2016-ish:  I'm slowly pulling out of NBA.  I get MLB.TV & I start watching Braves play.  I also like the Cardinals(was my first favorite MLB team) & my American League team, the Red Sox.  Without further ado, my late night shopping prize #1:

This is the game model baseball bat autographed by Brave's super hot rookie Ronald Acuña Jr.  One of the coolest thing I've ever bought.  I've always been skeptical of "game used" or autographed  sports memorabilia, but MLB has this authentication method, which I really trust.  This autographed bat was $262 on sale, and I wasn't nervous spending the money.  I really like this player & I know the autograph is real.

Tamper-proof authentication hologram.  You can go to MLB site & type the numbers in to prove its authenticity.  The Fanatic hologram sticker above, I had heck of time finding the authentication page: Fanatics Authentication

From their authentication page.

Idea for item #2 stems from a baseball movie I was recently encouraged to see.  The Sandlot.  In it Babe Ruth autographed baseball makes appearance & I'm not gonna lie, I started wanting one.  

Unfortunately, they are really expensive, but that's not even the worst part.  From little research I've done online, many Babe Ruth autographs are fake.  Babe's been dead forever, so authentication on his autograph, at least by my impression are crap.  So I went with another home run king:  Hank Aaron.  He may be no Babe Ruth, but here's a guy who is a historical figure in the sports of baseball, very well respected.......... and he also happens to be a Brave! 

This one was $360.  A fraction of the cost of Babe Ruth autographed baseballs which may, may not be authentic.  Also has tamper-proof hologram sticker which makes its authenticity verifiable online.

I've yet to put it in the case, but here's the stock photo of the one it shipped with.  I'm very happy with the MLB, Fanatics(operator of the online MLB shop) & these sweet items, but there was one weird thing.  After placing the order, I get a email & voicemail left simultaneously from a guy who claims to be handling my Fanatics account, and wants me to call him at 954-507-6928.  He says he has good news for me, also wants to make sure I get the best deals.  For me it sounded like, worst case scenario, a scam, best case scenario, an attempt at an upsell.  

Bottom line, I'm the kind of person who doesn't want sales calls from a business I just bought stuff from.  My idea of "good news" is I paid for something I wanted, make sure my toys arrive safely.  

I ended up just emailing him back asking if I really had to call him to get the order processed.  Answer was sort of "not exactly", so I just left it at that.  Just a heads up.

If you are baseball fan, I strongly recommend these memorabilia.  There are so many cool game used items, or autographs on the MLB Shop/Fanatics online, and they are for real!