Lets Go Shootin'

*Lets Go Shootin'*
By Winchester

Do you always run around trying to figure out what all and where all your stuff is when you are already 10 minutes late for a date at the shooting range?

You could try what I have done, which is to work up some different "modules" (as a friend of mine calls them). I have a cleaning box. This box has everything I need to clean absolutely each and every firearm I own and some I don’t. I started out with a Midway complete rifle cleaning kit. This comes with a box, it’s much like a good-sized tackle-box. This box has a built-in rifle cradle to allow you to clean your firearm. It has a removable box that holds all of your rags, brushes, patches, picks, etc.........There is plenty of room in the bottom of this box for cans/bottles of solvent and oil, also rags and many other extras. I bought my box as a complete kit; which included rags and brushes and some other items. I didn’t buy the rods that can also come with the kit, as I prefer not to use segmented rods. The box alone costs about $50, the complete kit is about $80. I had my wife buy my box from Midway as a present. I felt the addition of the rifle rest was worth the extra money spent. If you are on a budget you could get a large tackle box from a local retailer and customize it. I would take along a bottle or two of the solvent I use and make sure they can stand up in the box. Consider getting one with drawers to store rags and brushes and other do-dads. If you don’t like the drawers, look at a deep toolbox and add some of the clear Plano type storage boxes with the dividers so you can customize your gear. You can always use sand bags for a rest to clean your shootin' irons.

I like to have some crossover between my modules. By this I mean that in my cleaning box I keep a set of hollow ground screwdrivers, a couple of files and some pliers. These tools are better represented in my gun-repair box but if I’m in my cleaning box and need a screwdriver quick, no problem!

I also keep a gun-repair box. This is my general shooting kit. This is all in a toolbox with wheels and a handle I found at a local retailer. You could use a hand truck and add a toolbox or whatever works for you. My box has two sections. The top is like a traditional toolbox. It has a clear lid on the very top that flips open to provide a storage tray with about 6 dividers for keeping screws or other small items or maybe something you need quick access to, such as a spare pair of ear plugs. Snap this lid closed and open the box and there is a removable tray with some storage space underneath. In this part of the kit I keep all my tools such as brass hammers and punches some taps, files, dental picks, a large set of hollow ground screwdrivers.

***A word on "hollow ground screwdrivers", I tore up a few rifles before anyone told me that there were screwdrivers made special for guns. A regular household or shop type screwdriver has a tapered shape to it. This shape will tear your rifles all to pieces. A hollow ground screwdriver is made with square blades to fit gun screws perfectly. There is less chance of messing up your rifle. These drivers are an ABSOLUTE MUST for working on your own rifle. They can be purchased from several different dealers.***

In this same box I keep a small bottle of solvent and one of oil also. To go with these bottles I keep some Bore Snake type pull through type bore cleaners. These are woven "cords" that have a weight on one end and brushes woven into the other end. Let the weight slip through the chamber and out the muzzle, add a little solvent to the snake and pull through. Use the solvent sparingly and you’ll be able too pull through again and have a clean barrel. I wouldn’t use this for regular maintenance, but in a pinch it’s a marvelous tool. I also keep an appropriate sized "snake" with me while out hunting, along with my other gear, just in case. I also keep some sunscreen, SPF whatever the strongest I can find (I need SPF 5000 lol) and a few other things.

Just below this top box is a drawer that revolves out of the box and has adjustable dividers. Right now I use this to throw scavenged dirty brass that I've found into. This drawer and all above it are one piece. This piece has two side latches that lock it together to the lower box. Opening the lower box you would find my first aid kit. Everyone here should have a 1st aid kit in the truck/car but sometimes that’s not close enough for me. Along with a first aid kit there are some beanbags. Socks that I fill up with .....beans! My chronograph, my notebook, a large bottle of water, my spotting scope, a carpet staple gun (for posting targets), clothes pins for the same use, a stripped down MRE and some other odds and ends. A note on the H2O above and the MRE, sometimes I shoot ALL day, I get caught up in it and don’t stop to eat. One place we go is about 30 minutes to the nearest food. I don’t like carrying a cooler and a lunch box and etc, etc. I've already got a truckload, so the MRE and water keeps me from getting an awful headache, yes I learned from experience, a BAD one. LOL!

My third module is my mag-bag. I have a large gate mouth bag that was originally intended for carrying tools in. It has several pockets along the outside and inside also. I fill all these pockets with magazines for whatever rifles or pistols I’m carrying and in the center I carry some ammo, and a roll of targets.

These are some of the things I carry. Its not all I carry, there are stools, a tripod for my chronograph, some ammo cans and some boxes of other stuff. This is not a how to article. This is a how-would-I article. Sit down and make a list of what you need when you shoot, try to remember that time you got so ill because you broke _______, or didn’t have ________ . Then start putting together your stuff, and go from there, most of all, HAVE FUN!

Winchester

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