range report

i was able to get in about an hour of shooting at the range this evening, but it was a poor outing...first gun i shot was my used marlin lever gun...was excited to shoot it, but it was a disappointment...the action kept jamming, and i couldn't figure out if it was because of the reload ammo or if there is something wrong with the gun...next time, i'll take new factory ammo and try it...also, i was shooting 38special and not 357magnum, although that shouldn't matter...there was one jam that was so bad that i had to ask the range guys for some tools to pry out the round that was stuck in the magazine tube...if it still has problems with new ammo, then i'll take it back...the one good thing was that the gun was pretty accurate when it did fire...i only had an hour until closing, and i wasted so much time clearing the jam that i only got to shoot about 20-30 rounds....i still had to test my other reload ammo in the remaining time

first i shot 9mm with my cz75b...no real issues...i had about 30 minutes left, so i only shot 50 rounds...next was 45acp with my rock island armory 1911...i experienced several failure to feeds...also 2 rounds wouldn't chamber at all...they were shorter than a normal 45acp, but i couldn't tell if they were shorter because of a defect or if the failure to feed pushed the bullet back into the casing...the lever gun did the same thing the with the 38special...2 bad rounds out of 50 plus several failure to feeds...no es bueno...i'll have to go through the case and hand check the rounds...if i had to grade my time at the range, it would be a D

ammo prices are hard to stomach, and i'll have to cut back on my shooting after this year's range membership or ammo runs out...whichever happens first...no way i can keep shooting as much as i have been...i might even switch to archery as my main hobby...i went to the archery store next to the gun store that i usually frequent, and the prices for starter bows were decent...about $100 (classic wooden style bows and not the hi-tech ones)...the best part is that you can reuse arrows...they even had 4 or 5 lanes near the back of the store for shooting

i'll probably take a couple of my guns to the store to see what i can get for them...selling is usually just 50% but trade in should be a little better...if their trade in offer is decent, i'll get the revolver that i have been eyeing...a ruger gp100...i like the look and feel of the smith and wesson 686, but it is too expensive...if their offer is too low, then i'll have to post them somewhere and do a private sale...i should be able to get about 85 to 90% back on a private sale...i can get more money if i sell them myself, but i don't want to deal with the chance of the buyer being some shady character