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We hope everyone had a great Labor Day. Our Annual Labor Day shoot was a little wet this year, but we still had a blast. Take a little peek into our world with the below slide show of us in action.

A customer of ours put one of our Russian Model 1891/30 Mosin Nagant Rifle Crates to good to good use. We have heard of this being done before, but Spikes08 was kind enough to post about it on AR15.com and then allow us to repost on our blog.
Check it out:
PSA: If you are reading this, please do the following three things so we might preserve the freedoms we have left.
1. Register to vote
2. Vote
3. Join the NRA
Now on to the substantive post 5k.
I original saw this piece of awesomeness you see below on arfcom. I knew I had to have one. So I got in touch with Bryan at AIM and acquired some mosin crates and Laminate Stock M44s. Thanks Bryan!

Now my photography equipment consisted of an IPHONE 4, so the pics are not as crisp as what you see above. Additionally, this project was a lot more work than I anticipated.
First you start with a basic crate. The wood on the inside is generally in good shape, the wood on the outside; not so much. They move the crates around with forklifts so you can imagine what could go wrong. There are several places that I had to repair with wood putty. I forgot to take pics of that process.

You can see here some of the wear on the outside. The undersides are where the abuse really happens. You can also see the cosmoline leaching through the wood.

I went to Lowe’s and got some paint matched, then painted the outside. (Apparently, the paint match guy was off a tad). I wanted to preserve the original markings so I painted around them. I considered painting the whole crate and attempting to stencil the markings back on, but that just seemed like a lot of work.


Rifles came in around this time. Fresh out of the box, covered in cosmoline.

Couldn’t resist putting them in the crate at this point.

Then couldn’t resist cleaning the rifles. I used mineral spirits for the metal parts, followed by Hopps #9. For the wood, I let it sit in the hot sun and wiped off the cosmoline as it came out of the stocks.



Next I decided that I wanted some feet for the table. While wandering around a surplus store with another arfcommer  “M4Geek”, I discovered these jewels.


I took these bolts, that fit the threads of the inside of the inert grenades, and cut the bolt head off.

Then I drilled holes in the bottom of the crate and glued them in.

Then just add inert grenade and floor sliders on bottom of grenade.


Next it was on to the lighting, then the top of the table to hold the glass. I bought the lighting at Lowe’s, while I out sourced the table top to an expert . I did stain the top and install myself. Tried to hide the wires as best I could.


Table was now starting to come to life!!!!!!

I ordered the glass from Glass Doctor. Installed with clear caulk and screwed the two pieces of the top together.
Kept all original hinges. I did add an additional hinge for a lock.





Thanks to arfcom and all it has given me
Especially like to thank Bryan at AIM.
Also, if you guys aren’t reading Direct Action’s monthly column in the ar15.com news letter, you are really missing out. Very well researched and written piece. Good work Joe!!!
Total cost for this table some where are $275-300. Man hours=25-35
Crate from AIM (if you pick it up) $5-10
Paint-$15
Grenade feet-$7 a piece
Lighting $140
Bolts-$2
Sliders-$5
Lock and hinge-$15
Glass-$50
Clear caulk-$3
Stain-$10
Screws-$5
Shower board- $15

Please help support a good cause and some good friends of ours this Saturday June 30th and Sunday July 1st, 2012. Miami Valley Shooting Grounds is holding a Wounded Warrior Fun Shoot and Competition to benefit Purple Heart Recipients. A great way to support an incredible organization like the Wounded Warriors in Action, have some fun Shooting and possibly win some good stuff with over $5,000 in prizes available!
For more info please call: 1.937.898.3711
Or visit: www.miamivalleyshootinggrounds.com

woundedwarriorsinaction.org

Last weekend was the Spike’s Tactical Shooting Team’s first time shooting as a team in a major match against over 150 competitors. I am happy to say that the event met and exceeded our expectations. The new 3-man 3-gun format transforms Outlaw 3-gun into a six legged relay race where competitors work together to complete a course of fire. One unique aspect of this match is a “rolling thunder” stage where all three members shoot on the same stage at the same time. Not all targets were visible from the various shooting positions. Therefore, each team had to rely on a different shooter to defeat and activate some of the targets. This added a new and challenging dimension to the stage and allowed some flexibility in each team’s planning and execution.
Another unusual aspect was some stages required one person to shoot pistol, another to fire a rifle, and a third to operate the shotgun. We were able to match our strengths with the demands of the stage and tailored who shot which weapon based on our individual skills. Cam is very quick with a pistol so we had him shoot the most pistol stages when available. Ben has had the most luck shooting slugs so he shot a lot of the shotgun portions. We asked our good friend Ryan N. to shoot with us and he’s great with a rifle so we gave him that platform. We ended up placing second in the match and we’re very satisfied with how everything went. With that being said, there is still another match left in the series and we are going after first place. Our next match will be the Task Force Dagger Championship and the 3 Gun Nation Pro Series on the weekend of June 16th.
Be sure to check out our Facebook page @ http://www.facebook.com/spikesshootingteam and subscribe to our Youtube page @ http://www.youtube.com/spikesshootingteam. We plan to bring you more videos and tutorials soon! We also appeared on 3 Gun Nations website.

Our good friends over at the Military Arms Channel released another great video review over the weekend. This time they reviewed one of our CZ-82 pistols. Check it out!

Another great video by our friends over at the Military Arms Channel.
The annual WWII reenactment held at Buckley Homestead in Lowell Indiana is an amazing living history event. Reenactors recreate WWII American GI’s, German Soldiers, US Marines, Russian Soldiers and more. It’s one of the best WWII reenactments in the mid-west.

Last weekend we shot the 2012 Texas Multigun Championship and had a blast.  This years theme was the Pacific Theater of World War 2.  The stages were set up to replicate Pacific battles.    There were real Browning 1919’s and MG42’s at a couple of stages as well as a plethora of military vehicles including a tank. The LaRue BBQ trailer was there serving up free brisket and sausage all three days which is one of the reasons this match is so popular.  A lot of thought and effort went into setting up the stages and they turned out great.  The stages were more challenging than last year and had multiple long range pistol shots which we loved.  The most difficult stage was the long range stage.  The wind was blowing roughly 20-25mph at full value when we shot it which made for challenging shots.

There were a couple of lessons to take away from this match. I’m going to start running heavier and hotter shotgun loads.  After watching the video from a couple of the shotgun stages, I could see the paint fly off a couple of steel targets and not go down. Those 1oz loads going 1200fps did not cut it.  Cam had several great stages but realized that he could have benefited from a shotgun tube with more capacity.
Over 450 people shot this match which makes it one of the largest matches in the country.  If your a newer shooter and want to travel to your first major match, this is the one to go to.  We will see you there next year.  Our next match is the 3 Man 3 Gun in Topton, Pa.

3 Gun Nation Pro Series Round 1, St. Augustine, Florida
Recently, the 3-Gun Nation Pro Series kicked-off their inaugural invitational match. The organization invited the top 3-gunners from around the country to duke it out for a straight cash-payout prize. Match director Rob Romero set-up blazing fast courses with wide open shots and zero “no-shoot” targets. These stages challenged the best shooters to see who could meet the demands of the stage with the most speed. Each stage involved a 50 yard sprint which did not slow most competitors. It set the tempo for 3-gun “target shooting” to be more of an athletic sport.  Cam shot the match and Ben was an RO so we decided to give two different perspectives of the match.

From a shooters perspective (Cam Thompson):
I was fortunate enough to be present as one of the top 64 3-Gun shooters selected from last season’s 3-Gun Nation points series scores and accepted the invitation to see how I stacked up against the competition. Although my squad didn’t bump into any camera crews this time, we still put down some impressive times and I was satisfied with my own performance up until I had some equipment problems with my shotgun. In this field, there was no room for mistakes, equipment malfunctions, or brain malfunctions. The match was set up to be a pure speed run with sponsors providing stage guns for each stage.  Usually, these guns can cause many problems but this match was set up differently; the “stage gun” portion was not a part of the timed stage. The shooter started the timer after abandoning the provided stage gun.  This new idea worked and any problems with the stage gun did not count as a penalty against the shooter. The event was exciting to watch and more importantly, it gave hundreds of spectators the opportunity to observe the sport of 3-gun and learn more about what competition shooters do.

From an RO’s Perspective (Ben Powell):
I was asked by a good friend to be a Range Officer at the match.  I had never RO’d anything other than a couple local matches and was not quite sure what I was in for.  I ran the long range stage along with Martin H. and Chris E. It was a very interesting and rewarding experience since, I was able to see what worked and what didn’t throughout the day.  Whenever I break down a stage, I usually wondered if my time could be reduced if I tried something different but would never really know what the quickest way was to shoot the stage.  After watching the best shooters run the stage, I learned a lot.  90% of the shooters shot the stage exactly the same and 5% shot it very creatively. The other 5% had problems that forced them to change their plans on the fly. Among other challenges at this match, the new “bull’s-eye” styled paper targets threw some shooters off.
Overall, the match was run smoothly. A lot of things could have gone wrong (and did) but everyone was prepared for it.  The match was almost cancelled after a torrent of rain blew through the area. Fortunately, the targets were made of vinyl so the rain did not affect them. In addition to that, the match director was open to making changes during the event to speed things up. It turns out that his flexibility paid off and we ended up finishing the event just before it was too dark to shoot.  What I took away from this experience is that the best shooters all do the same thing as the average competitor; just faster and with fewer shots.  With a few weeks left until the Texas/ LaRue Multigun, this was a great warm-up, see you in Liberty Hill, TX!

Man it would be nice to have a playground like that!