We went back to the range this weekend with six ice blocks. Our group had a variety of rifles this time in .308 Winchester, 7.62×51 M118Lr, .30-06 Springfield, 8mm Mauser and .444 Marlin. As appealing as it was, I resisted the urge to just empty an M14 magazine. Perhaps its the engineer in me, but I wanted to test each cartridge on a different block of ice and record the results. Surprisingly, the .30 caliber rounds made more spectacular explosions than the .444 Marlin. While we were dismantling the block ice, my two-year-old was watching with LRH safely from the parking lot. After we started the experiment she commented, “loud things break a snows Momma”. LOL.

She also commented when the guy with the Mauser took three shots to bring down the block. He was using AP rounds so they punched little holes in the ice that she couldn’t see. Her remark was, “he can’t do it Momma, Daddy do it!” Just priceless.

I had a good time at the range this Saturday. We showed up with a block of ice, placed it at about 25 yards and proceeded to destroy it with one 40-caliber rifle round. I’m going to bring 5 blocks next time I go shooting. Check this out:

The 444 is an intimidating cartridge that produces plenty of recoil. There was a small group of guys at the range and only two of them were willing to shoot that rifle. My wife walks up, chambers 4 rounds and proceeds to dismantle a block of wood at 50 yards. After she was done, her first comment was “that didn’t kick much.” Any woman who can handle a large-bore rifle is hot. Add red hair to the mix and you’ve got mega-hot so I count myself blessed!

We also brought some clays and put them on the hill at 100 yards. We had a Mini-30, Mini-14, 30-30 and a brand new absolutely badass Ruger Sr-556. Those clay zombies didn’t last long. I’m going back in a few weeks with more ice blocks and a real video camera (not that worthless thing in my iPhone). Stay tuned.