(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)
In addition I stress myself at the range by exercising when I get there (running, pushups, jumping jacks.) The idea is to degrade my performance by tiring and winding myself, which will show me how I will shoot under stress. Since I’m now in my 70’s, I feel the best home defense weapon is a rifle. Semiautomatic pistols are great but a rifle with its’ longer sight radius leads me to be more accurate. Also as I get older I am concerned about the complexity of the “manual of arms” for the AR-15, especially under stress and pressure and am now relying on the lever gun, Henry Repeating Arms, a great American company, they are simple, with no detachable magazine load or drop, no bolt release, no charging handle, and no safety to switch. There is a safety but no switch. They are not complex–just work the lever and trigger to use–and quite accurate. I understand they are limited in number of rounds but that is a tradeoff that I’m willing to take. Mine are tube fed. I’ve made (out of plastic pipe) a quick feeding device similar to the other tube feeding devices, but not as slick as commercial ones.
I have an M1 Garand, caliber .30-06. Note that the Garand should not be fired with today’s civilian .30-06 cartridges as modern day soft nose civilian hunting cartridges generate too much pressure. But there are cartridges made today that are suitable for the Garand. I generally shoot Greek Army surplus ammunition. My shoulder does not like the recoil so I used a Limbsaver recoil pad. It really does help. I also put one on my AR-15 and the results are great.
Some time ago, the surprise came to me when a friend stopped on the way to Florida. He wanted to shoot the M1 so we went to the range. I had won a steel target and target stand made for larger calibers on a stand so we shot at 110 yards. I did not expect him to shoot as well as myself and he did kick up some dust near the target. When we went to retrieve the target, the steel target was missing some paint but the stand had holes in it. The steel for the stand was ¼ inch thick. The AR-15 we shot barely scratched the stand. So with that we went to more than one rifle that will shoot the .30-06 cartridge. The target is a Shootsteel, Inc. Magnum Autopopper. They are very well made, and fun to use.
I reload and only buy in bulk for defensive ammunition.