Fun Range Trip

The stepson and I went to the range Saturday for a little plinking fun. We took the 10/22, the new XD-45, the new Hi Point 9mm Carbine, and my Marlin 917vs. I had not taken that many guns out there in quite some time, as it tends to be a PITA. The range was surprisingly empty Saturday, so we were able to spread out comfortably and take up about 4 lanes of bench space with no worries. I, of course, would have consolidated had it gotten busy. We spent about 3 hours throwing lead downrange. Christian focused on the 10/22. He ended up shooting a whole box of Federal bulk with no problems. He also sent a couple clips through the XD and the Hi Point.

This was the first range trip for the XD, Hi Point, and the Marlin. I was pleased with all three. We shot at 30 yards all morning. The Hi Point is an ugly utilitarian weapon. It's beauty lies in it's functionality to be sure. There is nothing attractive aesthetically about this cheap carbine. It was purchased Friday night at Cheaper Than Dirt's retail store. After we figured out it was actually shooting a foot over the target, I was able to dial it in after about 20 rounds. What a crude exercise this was. The "rough" adjustment involves loosening the front post with a box wrench and sliding it up or down. I ended up moving it about an inch, and then dialed it in with the rear peep sight's screw adjustment. The sights are crude, but very serviceable. They provide a nice sight picture at just the right height. The gun's light plastic stock and giant bolt make it quite a recoil monster for it's cartridge. It actually started bothering me after about 150 rounds. I am not ashamed to admit that for whatever reason, I am quite sensitive to recoil. I don't know why that is, as I used to shoot high brass 12 gauge bird loads all day with no worries. I have not developed a flinch or anything, but it does get on my nerves after a few hours. At any rate the carbine functioned flawlessly through 200 rounds of WWB. It did smell quite bad for about the first 100 rounds or so. Probably just oil burning off. For $179 I am more than happy with this ugly little space gun. I managed to put 50+ rounds in about a 4" group freehand at 30 yards, which is about the limit of my eyes and skills.

I also put about 100 rounds through the XD. It functioned perfectly as well. I need some more practice to get back into the rhythm of shooting it. My "groups" were about 10" in size at 30 yards. That will improve with some more practice. I was routinely shooting 5" groups at this range with my previous XD before it was stolen.

The most fun of the day goes to the Marlin. After adjusting the scope, I was sniping thumbtacks at 30 yards easily. I can not wait to get this thing on the 100 yard range with a decent rest, to see what it can do. The scope is a bit eye relief sensitive at 14.5x, but not horribly so. I am happy with it so far. I only put one box of ammo through her, as I want to reserve the rest of my meager 17 HMR stockpile for longer range work. This stuff is fairly expensive.

Overall it was a great morning of shooting. I will post some detailed entries of each new gun in a few days for my "Guns That I Have" section.