It’s the rifle on the wall. Nothing fancy, but it’s what I reach for when things go bump in the night. And sometimes things do go bump in the night. I need to know it works.
When I had my eye surgery and couldn’t use iron sights any more, a friend of the blog sent me a scout scope. My buddy Ian loaned me the WASR with the Ultimak rail. The scope worked fine and sometimes I kind of miss it, but…well…
The AK just wasn’t made for a scout scope, is all.
When Ian offered me the use of this Russian red dot (which will only fit the mount on the WASR receiver, so it’s pretty much useless for any other AK) I gave it a shot.
I like it a lot, but there was some anxiety attached. It took a long time to get it zeroed, and I really wondered at the time: Why oh why would somebody crank it so far out of zero? Did he have it mounted wrong?
(Alarm bells in the brain of the person who knows me best: DO I HAVE IT MOUNTED WRONG?)
That’s probably what led to my extended dream, in which I dumped a couple of magazines at something I could not hit. Maybe you’ve got to live in a war zone or wild country before a dream like that will actually leave you laying awake and thinking: Maybe that side-mount can work loose? Maybe I installed it wrong and now it’s slipped out of zero? A few months ago D killed a couple of dogs, including one that – according to L – was in the process of charging him. I’d hate to just assume that red dot is still zeroed…
And that’s the nice thing about having a rifle range only a few hundred yards away.
BANG(pause)CLANK! I feel better now. 🙂
Yup, range therapy.
“Maybe you’ve got to live in a war zone or wild country before a dream like that will actually leave you laying awake and thinking”
Thirteen years as a government school inmate did it for me. I’m not sure if that counts as a war zone, wild country, or both.
Been having a number of anxiety dreams myself lately. Some revolve around the train wreak you laughingly call an election and it’s aftermath. Others revolve around the macho games the Russians have been playing. I know I shouldn’t worry. I’ve done as much to mitigate either bad scenario as I can. It’s just the thought of some idiot thousands of miles away doing something stupid (that I have no control over) which ends up causing me grief, bugs me.
I see your grab and go gun is an AK while mine is a scout. Like you my eyes ain’t the best any more so the scout has a 4X LER scope not a 2.75X that’s recommended. Around here the issue isn’t so much roving packs of dogs, it’s black bears. While 7.62×39 might work with bruin, 7.62×51 will. Meh, so long as what you aim at stays down when hit all is good.
One thing about the red dot, have a spare battery handy and the means to swap it out fast. I’ve been in the situation of using a battery powered red dot and the damned battery failed right at the moment it was needed the most. And who says the fates don’t have a sense of humor?
When the bears are awake my grab and go is a Marlin guide gun in 444 Marlin as there is a chance one of those big grizzly bears will come through. The rest of the year it’s a .357 marlin 1894.
@MRyan – same problem, different solution: Aimpoint claims, and I have no reason to doubt them, that the PRO can be left on for something like 25-30K hours on the same battery, which works out to 3+ years. I still put in a fresh one every 3 months and carry two spares.
Using an Aimpoint T1 rated for 50k hours on one battery and changing said battery every year reduced that anxiety for me.
In addition to that, I use absolute co-witness with my iron sights. Even if they do not work for you for shooting purposes, they are great for checking if something is off. Doesn’t work for the side-mounted optic you’re currently running, though.
Last thing is putting witness marks on the side mount and every adjustment screw there is.
Just your brains way of telling you you havent shot the rifle enough lately… every few years I have the same dream (more or less)
it only takes a few rounds for the world to feel right again
One of the things I like about this one is that it uses a single AA. Seriously. So I expect to swap it out fairly often. But since I already stockpile AA batteries…
The people that have lived their entire lives on a 13×3 mile concrete island don’t understand this. Don’t care.
It’s funny to me how folks that have never needed a gun in their lives can claim to be worldly but still not be able to imagine that lots of folks still live in places where guns aren’t optional.
Goofy buggers.
@ Norman… When I still worked for a living (if you could call working for a city run zoo doing safety and security working) I was one of the guys tasked with being on the emergency response firearms team. They had a red dot on the one shotgun but not on any of the rifles (why? Beats the heck out of me.) that were used. The shotgun was for animal control and for serious animal social occasions like escapes, somebody falls into an enclosure etc..
The battery issue came to light when the rem 870 was needed quickly (potential animal escape) and when the shooter (me) checked the red dot it was dead. Turns out a few month earlier the Rem 870 had been used at the range for qualifying. Of course the last person (a supervisor) to use it forgot to turn the red dot off. To get the rem 870 operational in a hurry I simply took it off with my trusty Swiss army knife tossed it to the supervisor and went on with the call. This happened around 5 years ago and they still haven’t put the red dot back on.
I’m know they are a wonderful rig but not for me thanks. Maybe it’s just me, I have never had that much faith in electronics when failure could my neck could be in the noose. Same reason I don’t use a GPS outside of the one I have in my car. Always have a plan B.