It Was a Good Sunday

After Mass on Sunday morning, we headed to the grocery store to pick up a few odds and ends for the week ahead, not the least of which were a few more Virginia craft beers. An inventory of my beer fridge had revealed a shortage of beers for Virginia Craft Beer Month. For now, the grocery store selection will do. Then we headed out for the annual Knights of Columbus family picnic at a local park.

I opted out having any beer at the picnic, as I was planning to get my gun back from the gunsmith in the afternoon, and knew I would want to hit the range to test it out. (My non-drinking decision was made easier by the selection of factory beers I saw being offered.) You know it's going to be a fun afternoon when you are approached by a priest who says "I hear you are a big fan of beer." (Quick, think, this could be a trick question.) Father and I proceeded to have an enjoyable conversation about local breweries, as well as his experiences drinking beer overseas.)

After the picnic, I met up with my armorer friend, and returned home to grab my gear for the range. With a bit of dry firing, I could clearly feel the difference in the trigger pull. I hadn't really noticed how mushy the trigger had gotten. Even the easy, single action trigger pull felt noticeably more solid. Thirty-thousand (plus) rounds without a spring replacement might just be a tad excessive!

As I began shooting, the effect of new springs was obvious, and the trigger felt solid. My first quick 10 rounds from seven yards were nearly all touching. After that I spent time shooting from various distances, shooting not quite at match pace, but certainly not all that slow either. (Even in practice I don't have the patience for slow, aimed shots.) I didn't do any movement, but did shoot a lot of controlled pairs from a draw.

It was a fun afternoon, but it was obvious I was under no match pressure:

5 shots, 10 yards, Strong Hand Only

7 shots, 10 yards, Weak Hand Only

Those are the hits I need to make when I'm shooting a Classifier stage at a match. I felt much more in control of the trigger press with the new mainspring. And I saw no light primer strikes like I've been experiencing recently at matches again and again. I'm looking forward to getting some more range time before the next match. A big thanks to Mark at Immortal Arms for a quick turn around on the work too.

Good shooting aside, a quick trip to the range is a great way to spend an hour on a Sunday afternoon. The sun was low enough that the bay was in the shade, which made an already pleasant day even nicer. But all good things come to an end give way to other good things, and after cleaning up at home, it was finally time to enjoy that Virginian beer. Parkway Brewing Get Bent Mountain IPA was my pre-dinner choice. But that's a story for another post.