Rally Point After Action Report

The Rally Point shoot today went well. It was held at the Langhorne Rod & Gun Club, which I have to say is the nicest gun club I've seen since moving to Pennsylvania in 1979. For me, the gold standard for shooting ranges is the Associated Gun Clubs of Baltimore range in Marriotsville, MD. LRG&C was the first range I've seen which compares with the AGC range, though the New Holland Rod & Gun club out in Lancaster County comes close. I'm seriously considering getting a membership.

Turnout was pretty good, though I don't know yet how many people we had. At least twenty. I spent most of my time on the 50 yard smallbore/black powder/pistol range. Centerfire rifles are not normally permitted on that range but the club appears to have made an exception today. So, I was able to run about 105 rounds through the Rock-Ola M1 Carbine that I picked up a couple of weeks ago.

The M1 ran well except for a couple of malfunctions early on. I had one bolt over base failure to feed, and one instance when the last round in the magazine popped up and instead of feeding into the chamber, stovepiped. Both malfs were with the 15 round magazine that I got with the Carbine. This particular magazine has seen better days.

I have a single 30 round aftermarket M1 Carbine mag. It generally works OK in my Underwood, but I found out today it won't fully seat in the Rock-Ola. Unless I can find some excellent condition GI 30s, I'll still with the GI 15 rounders for anything serious, anyway.

The ammo I used today was 55 rounds of USGI Ball made by Remington in 1952. I got this on clips in bandoleers in a sealed spam can from Ammoman.com a few years ago. It looks new and shoots great, although both of today's malfs occurred with it. I also ran 50 rounds of current production Remington 110 grain jacketed soft points through the Carbine without any issues. I will need to pick up some more of this ammo.

I let one of the other guys who is from NJ shoot the Rock-Ola. The rifles he brought were all Kalashnikovs -- a SAR-1, a SAR-3, and a Chinese model. To show you how fouled up and illogical New Jersey's gun laws are, the Kalashnikovs and AR15-type rifles are legal in NJ with a 15 round or less magazine, while the less-powerful M1 Carbine is banned by name in NJ's state assault weapons ban.

After finishing up with the M1 I drove down to the 200 yard big bore range. Even though it doesn't have a covered firing line like the small bore range, it's still very nice. While there I got to observe a Savage Model LE2B .308 WCF rifle fitted with a sound suppressor being fired. The reduction in the report was astounding. Full-power .308 sounded like .22 LR high speed ammo being shot from a carbine. The rifle's owner has a picture posted here.

"Soda Pop," the organizer of the Rally Point events was there selling Woolrich Elite tactical clothing, for which he's a distributor. It all looks extremely well made and designed. I got one of the vests, which for the purposes of either concealed carry or "tactical" applications, is much better designed than the generic photographer's vests or safari vests often used for such. For example, compared with the Woolrich safari vest which I bought a few years ago, the WR Elite vest has a canvas shell as opposed to a softer cotton weave. This should stand up to abuse much better. Also, the pockets on the Elite vest look to be more useful than on the safari vest.

Several new shooters got some good instruction as well, which is a major focus of these events.