Milsurp After Hours

Our Sunday chat group goes shooting all the time....except me. I always give my excuse for the week...and have been doing so for a long time. So.. today... I made the effort to take the thirty minute ride and was determined to wait in line if the range was busy. But.... no line. The rifle range had only one guy on it. The pistol range was full up though. No pistol shooting for me today...although I brought one.

I brought two rifles I haven't fired in years. The French Mass Model 1936 and a Russian Tula SKS. I picked them partly because I knew they were gentle on the shoulder and since I hadn't been in a while I needed to have a ease back into it experience and no sore shoulder possibilities.

Well.... first rounds were in the black from both rifles but not in the center of the bullseye. However, even with my less than clear sight viewing eyes, I tightened things up after finding how far down I needed to bury the front sight to hit the black. As the guy on the Forged in Fire says every week when testing a new blade....."it will Keeeeiiillllll" ...or at least ruin a zombies day.

The first target shown was the first effort with a few rounds from both rifles in it.

Both rifles have bayonets with them. The French rifle stores it's frog sticker under the barrel reversed and out of sight. I didn't shoot with bayonets extended though. Just pulled out for photos.

Well done Robert, see how easy it is............

Nice going Robert, maybe you'll get out a bit more often now.
Coincidentally I was shooting my pals Mas 36 last Saturday while she was pulling RCO duty. This one has been interfered with, possibly someones idea of sporterising maybe, but it's still a cracking little shooter. I do like the the sight picture on the Mas, it suits my dodgy blinkers.
Joe

Yep... modified a bit, Joe. I'd imagine in the UK the authorities would just as soon you leave off the hide away bayonet anyway. And... like you, the peep sight does aid the aim for me too over the often in other weapons notch rear sight. I do think the hooded front sight as issued is a plus as well, at least for me. Odd how the peep looks as it lifts if you adjust to longer ranges...which your photos show. I'll post a few photos of mine in standard issue configuration.

And , yes Joe, I need to go to the range more often if only to lighten my ammo stash.

My SKS is a 1961 Chinese factory 26. Put a scope on mine using the Red Star housing, and it
came to me with the pistol grip on it. Can't use stripper clips because of the scope, even though I have
a couple hundred of the good BXN strippers I got from a guy in Slovakia (ebay). Took off the
original 10 round mag and bought the 20 round mag, like the ones they sell on ebay and say its a
10 round... ... But still had to load 1 round at a time.....
Then bought a 30 round removable mag (photo), but it didn't feed very well. Went to plastic 20 round
removable mags which work well. Need to go shooting........ but.....
I have about 2" of snow at my house and where I shoot is UP in the woods, am guessing it has
about a foot of snow up there......
So I wait........



.

Twenty round mags in M16's were what we had in Vietnam, as you know Vern. I think we loaded them at 18 rounds so they would feed more reliably by not fully compressing the magazine spring. However, as one thing and another of the FO team every time there was any shooting I suspect you, like me, were on a radio calling for a fire mission and not shooting bullets. I didn't fire a whole magazine of bullets the whole time I was in Vietnam.

When there was a Lt., me, and an RTO, there were a few times I played infantry.
And I didn't ever fire my rifle while still in the arty unit.
The first time I fired an M-16 was in combat, not in basic, not in AIT, not in "Shake-n-Bake" school,
not even at the 9th Div. Reliable Academy, when first in-country.
I bet not many guys can say that..... or would even want to....

.

What did you shoot in basic Vern ?

As regards stripper clips Robert would you happen to have any spare Mas ones I could purchase ?
Joe

I'll send you a few for free, Joe. I'm surprised I brought any of them home. Don't know why I put them in my shooting bag instead of tossing them. I'll mail you the four I brought home when I mail Duncan something that I ordered for him in the next week.

Thank you Robert that's very kind of you.
Joe