What Did You Shoot Today?

[462]

The 1 1/4" overnight rain got me to thinking the walk to the 100-yard rifle frames would be a muddy quagmire, so decided to take the .38 Special Uberti 1866 sporting rifle and the .357 Mag. Rossi 92/EMF Hartford sporting rifle and shoot them from 50-yards with it's weed-covered walk, instead of the .223 Ruger American and the .45-70 Pedersoli/Navy Arms rolling block from 100-yards.

Still struggling to find an 1866/Lee 358-158 RF accuracy load.

I made a huge mistake, when refinishing the Rossi/EMFs wood, and cleaned the barrel. It's a lead-only shooter and it took 20 rounds of the above bullet and 13.5-grains of 2400 to recondition the barrel.

No groups to brag about means no pictures.

The range received very little rain and the 100-yard rifle walk was in pretty good condition. Oh, well, still a fun session.

 

[Snakeoil]

Went to Charile's Gun Shop for Wed "church" services. He wants to sell his 16" South Bend lathe and I'm going to list it for him on CL and maybe Marketplace. Went to the club after and my shooting partner Steve had his Meacham High Wall with him. He just got it back from Jim Hart (Hart Barrels). He had Jim rebarreled it from .40-65 to .30-30. Steve chose to use a short fat barrel. It's 24 inches and probably 1-1/8" across the flats of the octagon.

Steve had cast some 315 Saeco bullet and put them over PB. I don't remember the load because it really does not matter since PB is no longer made and the round shot poorly.

I spotted while he started at 200 yds. He got on the target quickly, which was an 8 inch disc. But he only got 2 rounds on the target and things went to Hell. We initially thought that the barrel was just warming. So, he continued to shoot while I called the conditions and all he did was chase that target with scope settings. And the change in bullet placement refused to line up with the scope changes. He's loaded quite a few rounds and decided to move to 400 yds to see what it would do there. Just as bad. In spite of cranking up on the scope, the round continued to fall short. He did hit the target once or twice. He wanted me to shoot the rifle so I did. I struggled as he did. First shot went way short and I put 8 minutes up (32 inches) and damn if it did not hit just about in the same spot again.

So, Charlie is at the bench next to us shooting a .30-30 Rolling Block with irons. He is listening to the conversation going on between Steve and I and yells over to ask if Steve wants to try a round that will work. I think it was a 150gr RNFP over 10 or maybe 10.5 of Unique. That round worked. Groups tightened up immensely. He got on the 200 yd disc and never missed. He still needs to do more work, but he's on the right track. I suggested he check the Lyman manual to see if he could find that load to get an idea for velocity. If not, he can shoot it over his chrono. Then he can use that velocity as a reference as he works up ladder test using 2400. Should be a great shooting rifle.

 

[462]

Oh, happy day!

After a couple years of intermittent range sessions and no resulting accuracy load for the .38 Special Uberti 1866 sporting rifle I may have stumbled on one. The ancient but ever so popular Lyman 45 has 2400 data and a SWAG of 8.0-grains and Lee's 358-158 RF resulted in a 50-yard four-shot group of half-an-inch. I've no idea where the fifth shot went, because the four holes don't look like any one of them is a perfect two-in-one, and there are no other holes in the target. Stranger things have happened, though, so I'll not rule out that it's a five-shot group. I think the manual had a maximum of 11.0-grains, but I'm not trusting it to treat the rifle's brass receiver with gentleness.

The .223 Ruger American has a Sierra 77-grain accuracy load of 25.0-grains of IMR 4895.

 

[RicinYakima]

I never shot less than nine grains but never had a problem with with SR primers if I kept the bore clean.

 

[Michael]

I went out with my wife while she shot her 338 Fed in preparation for her elk hunt (1st one for her) in a few weeks, today she/we shot prone with a bi-pod. I had my .308 along to play with. It continues to amaze has comfortable her rifle is, 185 grainers from her Fed felt softer than 150's from mine, both rifles are the same make and model. Cannot help but wonder if the logic of smaller calibers for women might be going the wrong way, 7-08, 6.5's, 243, etc., while light enough against the shoulder, to me seem to all have a bit of a jab or snap in the recoil impulse. That "little" 338 gives a shove but no jab or snap, maybe bigger within reason is really less. Either way it is a joy to watch her shoot and truly enjoy "her rifle", which BTW is becoming in my mind the coolest, most amazing round ever.

 

[462]

I never shot less than nine grains but never had a problem with with SR primers if I kept the bore clean.

Back home I checked the rifle's bore and saw powder zombies.

I have to assume Uberti proofed the brass receiver to some percentage over SAAMI .38 Special pressures, so maybe I'll up the 8.0-grain load and do a re-test.

I'm using Tula small pistol primers, at the moment, but there are only 300 left then I'll be switching to Federal small pistol. I have some Wolf small pistol magnum, too. Don't know if I want to try small rifle, preferring to keep them for the .223 Ruger American.

Thoughts . . .

 

[RicinYakima]

If you are shooting less than 20,000 CUP I would use regular SP, although Federal 100's are iffy at that pressure. I have lots of Federal 205's that I use for rifle, but have a couple thousand Wolf ".223" primers for AR's.

 

[RBHarter]

The Brass Henry's are a brass colored alloy that while not up to steel is considerably more durable and stronger that brass or even gun metal of the past . I don't remember the details now it was probably 10 yr ago now .
It seems like it was ok for 357 and 45 Colts but not 44 mag .

 

[MW65]

Back home I checked the rifle's bore and saw powder zombies. ... Don't know if I want to try small rifle, preferring to keep them for the .223 Ruger American.

Thoughts . . .

I'd stick with the sp with the lighter loads... save sr for the 223...

 

[Ian]

Cannot help but wonder if the logic of smaller calibers for women might be going the wrong way, 7-08, 6.5's, 243, etc., while light enough against the shoulder, to me seem to all have a bit of a jab or snap in the recoil impulse.

Lighter bullets in smaller calibers. Problem isn't Newton's first law but how Pascal's law affects Newton's first law in an "area under the curve" sort of way. More surface are on back of bullet, larger expansion ratio, all else the same, then the PSI on bullet----and butt of rifle stock---- is lower. A .45 Colt will push the same bullet at nearly the same speed as a .44 Magnum at just over half the pressure. Area of a circle increases at a rate that is the square of the diameter increase divided by four yielding a curve that goes UP.

My first shotgun was a Model 37 Winchester .410. It beat the crap out of me. The next gauge to graduate to was 20, but we didn't have one and 16 just didn't kick much in a similar single shot. .12-gauge 2-3/4" 3 dram equivalent loads in an 870 were even more comfortable. I too think that "small gauge/caliber for small people" is the wrong way to go.

 

[462]

The Brass Henry's are a brass colored alloy that while not up to steel is considerably more durable and stronger that brass or even gun metal of the past . I don't remember the details now it was probably 10 yr ago now .
It seems like it was ok for 357 and 45 Colts but not 44 mag .

The rifle is a Uberti. I should send them an e-mail asking if the receiver is rated at +P pressure. Sure would like to use 2400, because of its accuracy and I have a good supply of it.

Though yesterday's 2400 group was excellent, I've not given up on Unique. For sure, the rifle does not like Bullseye and SR 7625, much to my disappointment, and I do not have HP38/W231.

 

[Glaciers]

I went out with my wife while she shot her 338 Fed in preparation for her elk hunt (1st one for her) in a few weeks, today she/we shot prone with a bi-pod. I had my .308 along to play with. It continues to amaze has comfortable her rifle is, 185 grainers from her Fed felt softer than 150's from mine, both rifles are the same make and model. Cannot help but wonder if the logic of smaller calibers for women might be going the wrong way, 7-08, 6.5's, 243, etc., while light enough against the shoulder, to me seem to all have a bit of a jab or snap in the recoil impulse. That "little" 338 gives a shove but no jab or snap, maybe bigger within reason is really less. Either way it is a joy to watch her shoot and truly enjoy "her rifle", which BTW is becoming in my mind the coolest, most amazing round ever.

What you’re describing about felt recoil is one reason I chose the 338 mag over the 300 WM. My brother in law was pushing the 300 relentlessly and he was a shooter and Reloader of note, but he was like a dog with a favorite bone. I found the 338 mag more of a shove that a snap that I found the 300’s were. But when I loaded the old Speer 275’s with full load of 4831 the shove did get your attention. Still not a snap though.
I chose the 338 because the recoil impulse was decent and I wanted heavier bullets and more diameter.
To this day I won’t own a 300 WM. The only 300’s I am interested in are the H&H and the 300 Savage.

 

[RBHarter]

The Uberti are under the Beretta umbrella and have to CIP proof. I'd bet it's the same receiver as the 357 . Unless there is a major cost difference or they are producing an exact copy of an original example , which is why the 50-70s C&B pistols were all different from each maker .

 

[Michael]

Dropped my wife off at a "A Girl With a Gun" function yesterday with a local group that she is getting involved with, she has her RSO certification and the leader is really happy about that. So off I went to buy things I didn't need and spend other people's money, when I arrived back a couple of hours later the instructors offered me the opportunity to shoot the rifles they had brought out for the ladies. Was able to shoot an AR-15 variant....meh..... just wasn't there for me even after being shown the tacticool way to shoot it. Next was a supressed Ruger Precision Rifle in a 6.5CM, it was better than the AR. Nope. Still ain't going to buy either a RPR or 6.5CM.

The third rifle was a vintage Rem Field Master 22LR pump, I have no idea how old, I am likely way off, maybe 50's vintage. Wide flat bottomed fore end, deep oval ejection port, and the magazine tube, rather than push and twist to release the knurled end cap, had to depress a tab on the side of the cap. Now that one was the highlight of the day, I have shot any number of bolt, semi auto, lever, and single shot 22's over the years but never a pump, to make a long story short, I am going to have to find myself one of those. It may not end up being the same vintage, but it will be nice to venture into a LGS with a purpose in mind for a change.

 

[Snakeoil]

Another day of humility at Wilton. I rode in a Motogiro type event yesterday and when my Honda dropped a needle in the carb, I nursed it home on 1 cylinder and got out my sidecar rig and meet the guys at the lunch stop and then rode the PM leg with the rig. But a sidecar rig is pure work and I was truly beat when I got up this morning.

It was our .22 match and I had put my 15x Lyman STS on the 52C. Mistake. I was not very steady today and that extra 5X just amplified it. I think I shot a 35/40. Did not even look at my final score. One of the guys that shot with us shot a 37 with iron sights. Granted, his targets were bigger, but still, that's damn good.

Conditions were deceiving. It was cool, overcasts and no wind at first. Even when the wind did pick up, it did not appear to be very strong. I was reading light winds off the flags when I was spotting. But something was going on because every so often you'd get this wild shot. Guys on the bench next to us had the same happen to them. Suspect we had some head or tail winds going over the forward berms and making up and down drafts.

I did redeem myself by hitting the 12 inch buffalo at 300 yds offhand. And damn near hit it again with my second shot. So, got another pewter buffalo pin to put on my shooting box. After the shoot, spent a couple hours putting carpet on the 6 of the benches on the indoor range. I'd had some extra indoor/outdoor carpet left from a home project and decided to cover the indoor bench I always use. Well, a couple of the senior members saw that and got all excited. Next thing I know the club has authorized me to do the rest of the benches. So, that was today's post-shoot therapy project. They came out pretty nice. The guys that hung around after the shoot to chew the fat were all pleased with the end result. We'll see if anyone notices next Sunday.

 

[richhodg66]

Shot two rounds of Trap today, hadn't been in a month or so. Shooting leagues now, still a newbie, bit involves shooting a round at 16 and a round at 21 for the month, hit 22 at 16 yards and 20 at 21 yards which is a pretty good day for me. Seems like me and the Model 12 just got along today.

 

[Snakeoil]

Shot two rounds of Trap today, hadn't been in a month or so. Shooting leagues now, still a newbie, bit involves shooting a round at 16 and a round at 21 for the month, hit 22 at 156 yards and 20 at 21 yards which is a pretty good day for me. Seems like me and the Model 12 just got along today.

Mod 12 is probably the finest trap gun that was ever made. The only gun I found to hold and swing like a 12 was a 682X Beretta top single. Nice shooting.

 

[Glaciers]

Dropped my wife off at a "A Girl With a Gun" function yesterday with a local group that she is getting involved with, she has her RSO certification and the leader is really happy about that. So off I went to buy things I didn't need and spend other people's money, when I arrived back a couple of hours later the instructors offered me the opportunity to shoot the rifles they had brought out for the ladies. Was able to shoot an AR-15 variant....meh..... just wasn't there for me even after being shown the tacticool way to shoot it. Next was a supressed Ruger Precision Rifle in a 6.5CM, it was better than the AR. Nope. Still ain't going to buy either a RPR or 6.5CM.

The third rifle was a vintage Rem Field Master 22LR pump, I have no idea how old, I am likely way off, maybe 50's vintage. Wide flat bottomed fore end, deep oval ejection port, and the magazine tube, rather than push and twist to release the knurled end cap, had to depress a tab on the side of the cap. Now that one was the highlight of the day, I have shot any number of bolt, semi auto, lever, and single shot 22's over the years but never a pump, to make a long story short, I am going to have to find myself one of those. It may not end up being the same vintage, but it will be nice to venture into a LGS with a purpose in mind for a change.

Michael the Remington model 12 is the predecessor to Field Master and a wonderful slim little gun. Can’t go wrong with a 22 pump

 

[Michael]

There was not a model number showing, just Field Master and Remington on the left side of the receiver. Doesn't really matter, thinking it came from a older relative, father, grandfather, uncle, etc., what cool and likely very special rifle to share and teach with.

 

[Snakeoil]

Michael the Remington model 12 is the predecessor to Field Master and a wonderful slim little gun. Can’t go wrong with a 22 pump

Rem. still makes the 572 Fieldmaster.