GBR-IV, Post 2 UPDATE

UPDATED TO ADD PHOTOS
We'll see if I can get through this post with fewer typos...

Friday, the first full day of the Gun Blogger's Rendezvous, started off with 25 of us descending on one of the many restaurants in the complex (Circus Circus, the Silver legacy, and I'm not sure what else) for breakfast.

Breakfast buffet.

Bacon. Mmmmm, bacon...

Sorry, got distracted...

Then we all trooped out to the Washoe County Regional Shooting Facility, for a day of sun in the fun in the sun. Fortunately, the firing line was under cover. Mrs. Drang decided not to do any shooting, but had taken her spinning wheel. Alas, a part seems to have disappeared from the wheel, so it was useless. Couldn't find the missing part--we assume it has become a cat toy, hopefully we'll find it when we get home.

The view downrange. There is a 40-position high-power range just off to the right, looks like a GI-style range.

Got a lot of shooting in, myself. Mrs. Drang's new Kel-Tec PF9 seems to shoot low, although, since I was mostly shooting bargain ammo, that might have been the problem--I did put one magazine of Magtech hollow points through it, and they seemed to do better. Also, despite being so small and light, it does not, in fact, kick too badly.

Speaking of Kel-Tec, a couple of folks tried out my Sub2000 carbine in 9mm. This is a handy little thing that folds in half; I added the KT picatinney rail, and, since that sits out at the front of the fore-end, a Yankee Hill Machine rail extension, so I could hang a folding vertical fore-grip as well as a light to it. All in all, like I said, a handy little home defense and/or "trunk" gun.

Did better with her Firestar .40; since they run a cold range (i.e., no "shooting from the draw"), and it was pretty darned crowded, I did not spend a lot of time trying out the holster that one of the guys from the Washington State Hometown Forum on AR15.com made for her. We watched the whole proces, which seemed to disconcert him, at first, but it was a good thing we did: He's about as tall as I am, and had never made a holster for a 5'1" woman before, so there was a lot of fitting and adjusting to be done. The process took about three hours instead of his more usual one.

Also (finally!) fired the AR15 I put together, and it did fine. It's a flat-top upper, so I added a Magpul back-up rear sight, and also mounted a Sightmark holo sight. The Sightmark is really an "air-soft" sighting system, but I was (frankly) being cheap. I was astonished to find that the Magpul rear sight in conjunction with the standard front sight was close enough to "right on target" to need no adjustments--at least when you shoot like me.


The holo-sight was way off, though, a little low and on the next target to the right, that it needed about 100 clicks to bring it in. Mrs. Drang was trying to get some pictures, and was afraid she was going to use up the batteries waiting while I adjusted...

Also got to fire the Para-Ordnance .45 that I am winning is being raffled off tonight. And a Smith & Wesson Model 25. (Kevin's I think...)

A 1911 with sights I can see! How novel!

Back to the hotel--Mrs. Drang ate lunch while I took a shower--then we mosied back to the Silver Legacy hospitality suite for Show and Tell. Lots of neat toys got shown off.

Then to Gecko's Smokin' BBQ for dinner; it being her birthday, Mrs. Drang kinda splurged, but we both skipped desert.

OTOH, back in the hospitality suite, we opened a bottle of Icicle Ridge Asian Pear desert wine, to go with the Viking Cheese we brought. (Viking Cheese is from the Washington State University School of Agriculture Creamery, home of the justly-famous "Cougar Gold" cheddar. Viking is a semi-soft white cheese with basil. Mmmmm...)

Someone asked "gun lawyer" Alan Gura, of Heller Decision fame, to "give a little talk" about upcoming cases such as the review of Nordyke, and "the Chicago Case." That was at about 8:15-ish, and he allowed as how, since we were a pretty knowledgable group, he would shorten his usual talk to 20 minutes or so and then we could ask him a few questions...

(I know that others were blogging about this as it went on, so I won't try and review it from memory.) (Being cheap again, I decided not to pay the Silver Legacy for use of their wi-fi. I assume those who were paying for a room got it free.)

One thing that came up was "People want to help, how can they?" Apparently some folks have tried to send Alan money, and he has refused it. He suggested making donations to the Second Amendment Foundation.

He also denied the rumors that he owns no guns, but he wouldn't go into any details, which makes sense to me, as he wants to avoid making "The Cause" about him instead of, well, The Cause.

Alan having said that he would just give a brief talk, I think he was a bit relieved when Silver Legacy staff came in at 11:00 PM and ran us off so they could clean up...

This morning is Steel Challenge Shooting, which I have decided to skip, as doing so allowed me to sleep in and spend the morning with Mrs. Drang, something we don't get to do enough. Back to the Silver Legacy this afternoon to meet with Rachel from the NRA, and Bill from NSSF.

And now I need more coffee... (Decaf: yuck!)