A bunch of us piled into the big green Suburban on the morning of Saturday, May 19th,
to head up to Camp Stasa. High on the agenda for this weekend was a continued function
test of Nick’s new Carbonlite rifle, and the Level One qualification of a new person.
The weather was perfect, and the bugs were in plentiful abundance. It’s that time of year to add bug juice to our repertoire of gear. You might wish to consider combining your camouflage efforts with your anti-bug defense. Face veils, long sleeves, and even gloves will keep you hidden not only from the enemy’s prying eyes, but will shield you from the countless bugs that would like to extract gallons of your blood.
Even when it’s only sort of warm outside, we need to be aware of our hydration needs.
We were joined by Clint, from the 8th Division, and his son Ryan, 14, and daughter Brittany, 15.
We did a quick gear check for thew new person, Curtis, to qualify. everything was in good order.
We started the two mile walk, almost on time. Everyone finished within the allotted 40 minutes. Brittany almost finished ahead of everyone, until a certain Macomb County Brigade Commander took it as a matter of personal honor, and sprinted his way ahead.
Curtis, who was the only person technically being timed, came in around 31 minutes.
We think we should time everyone on these walks, just for fun. Let us know….they might evolve into two-mile runs pretty soon…..
Then
some shooting...Curtis was shooting his AK hunter variant, and Nick was still working on
his new 3.9 pound composite .223. We warned Curtis ahead of time that nobody, nobody,
nobody, had ever qualified with an AK variant. Several people have qualified with an SKS,
but no version of the AK…(Note to smug AK owners who are reading this, thinking,
"Hey, MY AK could do it easily." We would love to see this…)
None of that discouraged Curtis, who set out to qualify anyway.
Nick also was working out some extraction issues with his new flyweight rifle. Either he should shoot better ammo, or maybe look at strengthening his extractor spring. Hopefully, there will be a review elsewhere in this issue, or next month at the latest.
Well, Curtis didn't get it this time. He was very pleased with my Bushmaster AR15, so maybe we have another .223 convert in the works. Anyway, he will bring another rifle next time, maybe an SKS, which seems to be a more accurate rifle. This kind of "keep-trying-till-you-get-it attitude is great to see.
We also had some younger shooters out there that weekend. I was impressed with the safe and effective way they each handled their rifles. Yes, a .22 will knock down a bowling pin at 100 yards, lots of times if these youngsters are the ones pulling the trigger.
If these kids are the future, then it looks bright, indeed.
See you next time.
-Lee
