Northcoast Blogmeet Report, pt 1

So I heard that 2 of my favorite bloggers were going to meet up, and that this meet would be only 6 hours away... I couldn't NOT go! It's JayG and Breda!

First off, the weather all weekend was flat out perfect. I dragged My Buddy the Gun Enthusiast along because he had a cell phone and a GPS device. Without those, this trip would have been MUCH harder. As we travelled north the trees changed from green to fall like. They went full blown autumn 2 days later on the trip back.

Arrival Friday meant we HAD to check the local library. Well, after walking up to the door and finding it posted "No Guns" we had to retreat to the truck, disarm, then approach the building again. Inside was the worlds most dangerous librarian. And no hobos. Probably because MBtGE and I looked like Jules and Vincent leaving a coffee shop, and the local tramps made themselves scarce.

The hobo known as Snotty showed 5 minutes after we left. Shame. We had plans for him.

Oh, Breda is cuter and shorter in real life. And it's a pretty library she works in.

I had never seen Lake Erie, so we killed time looking at it after checking in with Breda. It looks like the Chesapeake, a little.

I'd put up with the winters to retire to a house adjacent to this park. It's lovely.

The evening was steaks and beer and the Willoughby Brewing Company. Their One-Hopper IPA was not impressive, but their regular Lost Nation Pale Ale was well done and the Mad Cow Milk Stout was very good. It was here that I met JayG and Mike. Jay is Jay, and despite my earlier insinuation, Mike was not a ball of rage, but, actually, a really nice guy.

Here is before the steaks arrive...

The next day, noon, saw us going over to Heath and Amanda's place 50 miles away. Their family had the land where a shoot could be held. (Oh, an aside, Heath parents look like older siblings more than they look like a previous generation. Must be something in the water in Ohio.) And they were WONDERFUL hosts.

I wish I had brought my notepad, I am horrible with names. I am lucky I remembered Heath and Amanda's. I apologize if I skipped over you, as there were MANY more people than I expected. But definitely, Newbius was there:

And CueBall, who brought a COOL Star 38 Super... that I didn't get a chance to shoot...

There was a gunstore guy there named Van, and a buddy of his, as well as his lovely little daughter (who thought me a bit weird...) Van brought some cool guns along, too...

Heath works at a place that distributes bottled water, so he was able to secure some great reactive targets. Here is the range before action commenced:

And after:

One of the biggest benefits of a blogmeet is you get to try new guns. Here is a single shot pistol that shoots .45-70. I don't think you can hunt deer with a rifle in Ohio, but a .45-70 pistol would get the job done. (that might be Mad Saint Jack with the bandana below? There is another newbie blogger somewhere at the shoot, too.)

I think this is Mike, with an action shot on the .45-70, showing a burst 5 gallon water jug:

The top of one of the jugs landed behind the shooters when hit by that big pistol.

And that's about it for my pistol range pictures. But not the end of my pistol range report. I got to try that .45-70 too. It does have a kick, and Saucy Trollop will probably want to get one. You know what else has a surprising kick? Breda's Bersa Thunder. I was shocked that a .380 could feel that snappy! It was a treat to finally familiarize myself with the famous Bersa. I'm glad I didn't get one for myself. Not because of the recoil difference between it and my gentler Colt Pocket Hammerless, but because there are a lot of parts and levers and thingies on the right hand side of the pistol. Right at the place I put the thumb of my support hand. I just know that thumb would interfere with the works and cause a jam in time.

JayG brought the Snubbie From Hell. It has significant recoil with .357 loads but it wasn't as painful as all the build up. Breda handled it just fine. In fact she shot me with it. Really. Well... she was standing next to me when shooting and a shaving of the bullet was thrown to her left and hit me in the neck. Probably curled off the arris of the barrel at the cylinder gap. First aid was helpful tweezers to remove the fragment and then just ignore the bleeding as if it were a shaving cut. But that was a first for me, an actually injury from a bullet! And Breda 'did' it with JayG's gun. I feel kinda honored that such famous people and things would slightly injure me accidentally in such a way. But this is a prime example of why you where (correction: WEAR! Sheesh. I went to college!) eye protection. If that fragment had hit a bare eye... That would have been a bad scene.

What else? Van also brought 3 HK pistols. The famous one. USP. The mall ninja holy grail. A service size, a compact, and a tactical version. The triggers did feel VERY nice on them. I'll give HK that. A very comfortable set of pistols. I'm glad I got the opportunity. The fit and finish and action was reminiscent of a Swiss watch.

Newbius had an XDm and a Walther PPK. Luckily he warned me not to bunch up the meat of my shooting hand too high, so I didn't get bit by the Walther. I had never shot an XDm. It felt no different than a regular XD.

Jay had his Colt Gold Cup 1911 there. That feels... different... from any other .45 I've shot. Nicer almost. Definitely good. Dammit! Now I covet.

The reactive water target were a hoot. But the 5 gallon ones were a bit big. No challenge to hit them. Not for pistols at 7 yards nor rifle at 100. I was serious about the difference. When a 9mm or a .38 &c, hits a milkjug full of water it leaks from 2 holes. When a .357 hits a milkjug full of water it explodes. Same with projectiles going at rifle speeds. Newbius taught me a trick. When an empty milkjug is resting on the mud, if you shoot it near the bottom the dirt and mud splash sends it flying.

We went through a PHENOMENAL amount of ammo. MBtGE probably did 1000 rounds alone.

Tomorrow, the rifle portion!