Where on Wednesday twenty eight [+ one]: No self-whipping required

I fucked up...I know, it happened again!

Last week's #whereonwednesday was entitled twenty eight when in fact it should have been twenty seven. Damn it! I'd done so well up until that point too. Oh well, I'm sure you'll forgive me and not invoke a self-flagellation-style punishment upon me...I'm not into self-whipping you know...I'll just hang my head in shame for a few moments, hit the reset button, and move on. [G-dog hangs head in shame...]

So, this weeks post is called twenty eight + one to account for my momentous title-error last week. My apology for misleading you last week y'all, it may happen again, but not this day.

OK, so now that's out of the way, just exactly #whereonwednesday am I? Well my people, I think a better question could be...Where am I not?

As you may know I've been preparing for the IPSC State Titles in which I'm competing. The competition is this weekend, Australia Day weekend, and will run over Saturday and Sunday.

It's a pretty intense two days of practical shooting, problem-solving, strategising and physical activity and I'll arrive at the end of it completely drained and probably feeling every muscle in my body...And not in a good way. Fortunately Monday is a Public Holiday right across Australia and I have Tuesday off too so I'll get a sleep in and some recovery time, probably at the beach y'all!

Anyway, where I am not right now is at work. I'm actually in my workshop preparing my firearm, ammunition and equipment ready for the weekend. I'm not a leave it to the last minute sort of guy and what better time to be cleaning guns and preparing equipment than company time?

Above is the firearm I will shoot over the weekend, broken down for cleaning on the left and cleaned, oiled and back together on the right. The little dropper bottle is the oil I use - I'm pretty liberal with it as it burns off as I shoot, but the gun runs better with a little lubrication, as do many people I've found. Anyway, I will repeat this process on Saturday night after the first day of competition.

Today I've come home from work early and have broken my firearm down, thoroughly cleaned and oiled it, plus drop tested all of my competition rounds in the chamber. You can see that pictured below. It simply means dropping each live round into the chamber to ensure they go in and come out smoothly with no snags.

Drop testing all the rounds (300 of them) to make sure they fit into the chamber and slide out nicely. This minimises the opportunity for jams during the event. You can see a live round in the chamber. That short black thing is the barrel. You can see a better image of it in the photo of the gun disassembled, the item second from top, below the slide.

Above you will also note that silver section on the barrel to the right of the inserted round. That's the feed ramp which feeds the bullet up into the chamber as the slide closes. This gets very dirty and is one of the main reasons for miss-feeds...That's why the handgun is cleaned in between event days. Usually I would leave it until I'd run about 1000 rounds through, but for the State or National Titles I'm more fastidious.

I have also marked my rounds for easy identification for after I shoot each stage. I collect the brass and reload it again and again which makes it cheaper. It makes the rounds about $0.22c each instead of $0.43c and when I shoot hundreds a weekend it makes a difference to my annual cost.

It also means I can lessen the recoil by loading less gunpowder in each. Although, the muzzle velocity will be checked at the competition to ensure my rounds attain a certain minimum power factor so no one achieves an unfair advantage through lessened recoil. The calculation is bullet weight (in grains) multiplied by the velocity at the muzzle (feet per second) divided by 1000. (A chronograph is used to measure muzzle velocity.)

There are machines that can put the marker line around the case but I don't see the point in paying for one when I can come home on company time and do it by hand! You will note I mark them twice, blue on the base and green around the case. I only do this at big events as the sheer volume of shooters may make that double identification necessary. Usually I just do the blue. The 300 rounds took me about a half hour.

I have also dissembled my magazines and cleaned them inside and out. Some use a lubricant on the outside of them to aid in insertion and removal, make them slipperier, Frog Lube is a popular one however I'm not a big fan of it so I simply clean the magazines and leave it at that. I think the Frog Lube is a load of wank. Frog Wank I call it. (Google 'wank' if you have no clue what I am saying here.)

Above left shows a magazine broken down and a complete one above it. The pieces are: Magazine body, follower, spring, spring base plate and magazine base. The bullets get loaded into the magazine at the top and the spring pushes up the follower to feed them into the gun. The second image simply shows the magazine cleaning brush used to clean out the inside of the magazine body.

I've packed my shooting bag with everything I'll need including tool kits, cleaning kit, towels, hand wipes, sun block, hand grip solution which is a fluid that dries into a chalky-coating on the hands, competition shoes, hat, shemagh (light headwrap/scarf thing for sun protection - Google it) and a few other items. My gun and ammunition will go into the bag at the last minute as it is law that they are locked away.

I'm pretty much ready for the event other than working out food and hydration which I will do on Friday. I'm still practicing my draw and dry-firing at home but will ramp that down as I get closer.

I'll be leaving home at 6am on Saturday morning for the drive to the event and registration at 7:30am and then by 8:45 shooting begins and it'll be on like donkey kong until Sunday night. I'm looking forward to it although I always get nervous (nervous energy) at big events.

I'm pleased to say that my wife Faith will be coming with me on Sunday which is good as initially she was not going to make it. I always like her to be there (in case I get shot - Just kidding) and despite the fact she can't be there on Saturday I'll take what I can get; Sunday will work. She'll look after me, keep me fed and hydrated and so all I'll need to do is worry about the shooting. Yay for Faith!

So, this #whereonwednesday comes at you from home on company time...Although if anyone asks you, just say I'm at work OK?

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Tomorrow isn't promised - Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default
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