Yesterday we went to the shooting range. I made several videos of us shooting. I liked this one of Verna shooting her little Smith and Wesson 442 J-frame .38 caliber revolver because of the big muzzle flashes from such a small (but powerful) firearm.

If you’re not into free ammo for the old 9mm pistol, then you can ignore this post.

Free 9mm Ammo

M.D. Creekmore at The Survivalist Blog – a survival blog dedicated to helping others prepare for and survive disaster – with articles on bug out bag contents, survival knife choices and a wealth of other survival information is giving away a 1,000 round case of 9mm – 124 Grain FMJ (a $200 value – donated by LuckyGunner)! To enter, you just have to post about it on your blog. This is my entry. Visit The Survivalist Blog for the details.

We haven’t been to the target range in a while, what with the effort to build a home in Arizona and all. Today, I was rummaging through some old images from about a year ago. I found a video I made of Verna firing her S&W 686 357 magnum revolver. I was impressed by the muzzle flashes in the video, so I stopped it on one frame and made this image where the flash can be seen.

I wrote about muzzle blast in an article on our other (more political) weblog in February of 2008 that goes into a lot of detail about the auditory and non-auditory characteristics. Click on the image to enlarge.

This is Verna shooting one of the Smith and Wesson 686 357 magnum revolvers. I’m not sure which one this is, since we each have one, but I nicknamed mine “Jerry Lee” because of the “Great Balls of Fire” that surround the muzzle almost every shot.

I went into the archives and dug up some pictures we took at the range a couple of years ago. This one is a still frame from a video I was taking while Verna was firing her little .45 caliber compact Para Warthog pistol; the picture nicely shows the fiery gas plume that is generated as the pistol discharges the projectile toward the target downrange.

This gun is so small that I have trouble getting a hold on the short grip. It helps if I use the extended magazine where my pinky can get a grip. For a petite gun, it sure exhibits a full-blown plume and report. “Baby Boomer” seemed to be an appropriate designation for this little gun.

This is “Rosie the Riveter,” my rosewood-gripped S&W .38 special revolver. We were cleaning up after the weekly shoot today when I snapped this picture of her. Click image to enlarge.

We have a lot of fun when we go to the shooting range. Today, Verna was shooting at a silhouette target with her 20 gauge Remington 870. She gets such a kick out of demolishing the last hanging vestige of the target.