Passed my CHL test

No fishing today on such as beautiful day because I spent the entire day in a concealed carry handgun course. It was quite interesting. Most of the information came right out of the law book as well as additional information from very well known authors on the subject. Our instructor was a lady and the 14 people were all men but I'm pretty sure this lady could outshoot most of the men. She did a good job with the instruction.

I was a bit nervous about the shooting part of the exam but it went pretty well. A perfect score is 250 and I scored 243 which was about average. There were some 245 and 248 scores but no perfect scores. Everyone shot autos. One guy did have to leave in the middle of his test since he didn't bring sufficient ammo (you needed 50 rounds for the test). I, as well as the teacher and the other students, were dumbfounded. The instructions clearly say what you need to bring and this guy was renewing his license! Other than this, it was somewhat uneventful. They brought in some BBQ from a local restaurant and it was OK though I think I offended my instructor since she thought it was great.

Now I just have to go to the Texas DPS office to get my fingerprints and turn in all the paperwork, pay the application fee and then wait. I hope to get that done before the end of the month.

Range practice

I went to the outdoor shooting range late Sunday afternoon to get some more practice with my XD-40. I signed up for a concealed carry class that takes place two weeks from now.

Really, the only reason I am attempting to get a CC permit was that on occasion when I take fishing trips to remote and secluded locations, I can legally carry a pistol on my person for protection. I don't plan to carry one very often though.

I still need more practice. I can hit a 8" diameter target most of the time but still tend to shoot low and to the left which means I am still jerking the trigger. I bought some targets that provide very good contrast with bright colors when you score a hit in the black.

Once I hopefully get through the class and eventually get my permit, I may trade in my Springfield Armory XD-40 service pistol for a sub-compact model that will be easier to conceal and take with me.

My brother-in-law recently renewed his CCL and he tells me that the shooting part of the test is fairly easy to pass and that I shouldn't worry since he's seen me shoot. He says that most people are able to rack sufficient points at the close up distances to pass. He also adds that the initial distance is so close that you can throw the bullets at the target and still hit it. We'll see. In the meantime, I'll keep on practicing.

Socializing at the range

I was getting restless this afternoon, so I headed to my favorite gun range, Eagle's Peak, to get some practice in with my XD. My logic was that since it was 100F degrees out the range should be close to deserted.

I arrived at the range around 5pm and there was just as many folks there as usual. I've been there now several times so I've gotten to know the range officer at the desk, Ron. who is a heck of a nice guy. As I was going in an older couple was talking to him. The man was telling Ron that he bought a new Springfield Armory XD compact and that it shoots better than his Glock. Cool! I told the man I also have an XD and he smiled.

I then proceeded out to the pistol range as usual. While I was out there, two young men set up in the next stall and were shooting a .45 auto and then one of them pulled out a rather large automatic that had a scope on it. Impressive looking pistol and then he shot it. Holy smokes! The thing was a cannon! A very accurate canon! It kicked up a ton of dust on the backstop and made a rather large hole in the target. I had to ask him what it was. He said it was a Desert Eagle in .50AE. He asked me if wanted to shoot a couple of rounds through it.

Now, at this point I felt like Ned from the Three Amigos! movie as he's about to face "The German" in a duel and Jefe says to him, "You'll want to die with a man's gun - not a little sissy gun like this.". So I put down my XD and picked up the Desert Eagle. I loaded two rounds in the magazine that were huge! They are so big that the double stack magazine only holds seven! The pistol was almost four and half pounds in weight and was almost 11 inches long! Each round cost about $1.25 so it's a pretty expensive pistol to shoot. What would you shoot with it normally is anyone's guess. A rhino?

I fired one round from the Desert Eagle and surprisingly it had a smooth push back type recoil rather than a kick, reminiscent of a .45's recoil. He mentioned the heavy weight plus that it has two recoil springs helps with the recoil. He said that he's shot a revolver in the .50AE and it kicks like a mule! Again, I am reminded of Ned after he fires the revolver that Jefe gave him! :-)

The guy offered the half dozen others at the pistol range a chance to shoot the handgun and it certainly had a wow factor. It was a conversation starter for sure. And that got me thinking that being at an outdoor range is a lot nicer than the indoor ones. You get to interact more with other people, at least from my experience. It's not as noisy as the indoor range and so you can talk easier even with ear protection on.

Later, I commented to the guy next to me that he was a very good shot. He was tearing a large hole in the center ring of his target. He showed me his .40 S&W custom race pistol that he said he built himself. As it turns out, he works for a local company called STI that handcrafts competition pistols. He had put almost 98 rounds into that target! Only one was outside the 8 ring. Almost all of them were in the center bullseye!

He said that the race gun was built specifically for competition and that the light trigger and 5 inch compensated barrel made for a very flat shot. He let me shoot it a couple of times and I was astonished at the almost lack of recoil. My XD has a pronounced snap to it but then again it has a 3.9 inch barrel which is not compensated and is nowhere as expensive as this $3,300 competition pistol. It was very nice!

I ended shooting only 150 rounds and then headed out. I stopped in the office to talk to Ron for a little while then I left. I like this range a lot. I forgot to mention that it is only a 10 minute drive from my house.

I'll be out there again for sure.

Water for chocolate

We continue to get rain just about every day. By now, this July will likely go down as the rainiest July in Austin in recorded history. The rivers and creeks look a lot like rivers of chocolate yoohoo though I suspect not as tasty (if you think yoohoo is tasty).

I talked with my cousin yesterday and the coast isn't much better. He has talked with some folks from TPWD recently that had done some gill net studies and found carp and blue catfish in Nueces Bay! It seems the normally saltwater bay is not quite as salty now from all the fresh water being dumped into it by the Nueces River.

So, needles to say I have not done much fishing (zero) in my favorite river, the San Gabriel. To avoid going completely stir-crazy I've taken this opportunity to practice at the range with my XD-40.

I've now placed 750 rounds through the XD-40 and continue to get better with it. I am seriously thinking of next year picking up an XD-45ACP Compact model.

I also participated in my first fly swap. I haven't participated in one before because I figured I wasn't good enough. However, this swap was on woolly bugger variations and I submitted some Cactus Buggers so it wasn't too hard. The flies I received from the swap were all excellent but I have so many flies in reserve that I am not sure if I will ever fish them.

While I still think it's been great getting rain instead of being in a drought, I hope some time in the next month it slows down long enough to get a chance to fish the San Gabriel minus the chocolate of course.

Cast and Blast

I got all of my yard work done on Friday evening and Saturday morning. I also replaced the kitchen fluorescent lights with a newer, larger, nicer set of lights (though my wife wanted recessed lighting). So, since I had several weekend work out of the way, my wife agreed I could do some things on Sunday afternoon while she watched the Argentina vs Brazil Copa America soccer finals.

The Blasting

I arrived at the outdoor range around 2:30pm and found an open pistol bench so I started loading my magazines with CCI Blazer Brass FMJ 180gr rounds. I had gone last weekend to complete 500 rounds in the new XD pistol and afterwards found it to be highly dirty after placing 250 rounds of Winchester USA ammo. Both my thumb and trigger finger had black soot on them which was really bad. I scrubbed and cleaned the XD thoroughly and thought there should be some other ammo out there that is cleaner burning but still inexpensive to allow me to shoot at the range.

I started looking through forums and lots of folks recommended CCI Blazer Brass ammunition not only for it being cleaner but also cheaper than the Winchester ammo. As it turns out, the CCI BB was much cheaper. I bought 150 rounds of the CCI BB to see if it was decent.

I took a little bit of adjustment but the BB performed well enough to make the switch and after 150 rounds, my fingers were clean. I had no failure-to-feed (FTF) or any other problems with the BB. With the Winchester USA, I had at least one FTF in the previous shooting sessions but this time it may simply be because the gun is pretty much broken in already. I haven't cleaned the pistol yet but it didn't seem as dirty as with the Winchester USA ammo. Looks like a winner!

While I was testing out the BB, there was a gentlemen next to me firing a large framed .44 magnum revolver. Man, was that thing loud! It was a heckuva cannon that's for sure!

After an hour of being at the range and expending the new ammo (this is with breaks and slow reloading mind you), I headed home and rested for a short while and then put together my 2wt.

The Casting

I arrived at the park pond around 5pm and cast a #16 humpy under the shade of a tree hanging over the water. I had some swirls and some missed strikes but finally landed a bluegill. It had been a while since I had done this. For some reason, the humpy was difficult to get a good hookup so I switched to a #14 olive hare's ear and that worked a bit better and started catching bluegill, green sunfish and redbreast sunfish more consistently. I also caught a small largemouth. The best fly, however, turned out to be a #14 red San Juan fly which caught larger sunfish than the other flies.

While I was fishing quietly I spotted two "rodents" swimming towards me which turned out to be baby nutria. They swam into some vegetation along the shore next to me but eventually swam out and hung out about three feet right in front of me. They didn't seem all that scared and as if they wanted something from me but I didn't know what and eventually they swam back among the weeds. I know in Louisiana the state pays a bounty on nutria since they damage the the root systems in the wetlands and marshes. I've seen otters in the lakes before but this was my first encounter with nutria here.

After an hour and a half at the pond I went home to find I'll be building a dog house for my two dogs next weekend. Yet another weekend project. Oh yeah, Brazil won 3 to 0! I thought for sure Argentina was going to win.

A couple of hours at the range

I finally got to go with brother-in-law to the pistol range and fire my new Springfield Armory XD-40. I put about 250 rounds through it and think it's a great pistol. My brother-in-law liked it as well and thought it was very smooth overall. He also liked the additional features such as the visual and tactile indicators indicating when it is cocked and chambered. He also liked the stainless steel high capacity magazines.

I compared it to my brother-in-law's Glock 27 and while I do like the accuracy of his Glock, they are fairly comparable at 10 yards though my XD-40 is a bit larger since his Glock is a sub-compact. I took along different rounds and got some good groupings and results from the Winchester USA 180gr JHP bullets. We'll probably go back out to the range to put another 300 rounds though the XD and break it in further. I'm pretty pleased with this pistol.

When we went to his home to clean the pistols afterwards, the XD-40 was very easy to disassemble, clean and re-assemble. My brother-in-law had a little bit of trouble in disassembling the Glock.