What Did You Shoot Today?

fiver

Well-Known Member
those little ball bearings are the ideal way to roll.
the VEE blocks are kind of a pain to get just right.
 

waco

Springfield, Oregon
I doubt most handloads would benefit from a concentricity gauge. Accuracy rounds meant for best accuracy at distance from a firearm that can realize the benefit, absolutely. From a defense round at 950 fps fired at 25 feet, waste of time.

I have and use what appears to be the identical one that Rick posted the pic of above. Not the same gauge but the same stand. There's no name on it, I've had it 30-40 years and have never seen any reason to go to a higher priced unit.
My Sinclare came in handy loading this ammo. It's an old video but a good one.
 

Mainiac

Well-Known Member
Now that theground is covered in snow,,ive put the bottom feeders up.revolver season now.
Took my 8 inch mod 14 out,,,man,thats a sweet shooting gun!! 14 degrees is a little hard on the fingers,though.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
At first glance I thought your buddy made that out of a 3-AAA LED flashlight.
back when we could make and keep our own in state, you'd have probably been super surprised at how many mag-lights were 'duct taped' to the end of a barrel around here.
 

glassparman

"OK, OK, I'm going as fast as I don't want to go!"
At yesterday's Family shoot, I brought out the '03 Springfield and the M1 Carbine. Both of which were from my Father's collection.

I thought I had a problem with the carbine not cycling properly but some mil gun grease and oil fixed that straight away!

That vintage Kerr sling was on an old Enfield when I bought it.

Yes, I know . . . time to recover that shooting table! My father built it in the 70's.

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Pressman

Active Member
At 5 above and sunny, I still opted to stay indoors. Browning T-Bolt is finally running good, Stevens Buckhorn, Model 56 and a JC Higgins/Marlin 100 got some long overdo exercise.
 

Snakeoil

Well-Known Member
Today was test day at Wilton. My shooting partner Steve was there to shoot is Win (Miroku) .32-40 that I'd spent a couple of days doing a deep dive on why he could not get that gun to shoot. I posted the gory details last week. Ian called it "a saga" which it was. Well, Steve case up some "round" bullets with his Saeco mold and loaded up 40 rounds. Put the rifle on the bench and got scope settings from 100 out to 500 yds. And boy did that rifle group. The wind was not our friend today and changed directions and gusted when you did not need it. But there were times of zero wind. Steve had groups that were sub-MOA all the way out to 500 yds. He put 5 shots in about 1-1/2 inches at 200 yds on the chicken. He was grinning like the Chesire Cat by the end of the session.

I brought my Browning Miroku HW in .38-55 to try breech seating a nominal 280 grain Lyman 375448 (449 with GC area removed). I was pleasantly surprised as well. I did not put all 40 rounds over the chronograph but did put 11 over it. MV averaged 1146 with an ES of 77 fps and a SD of 24 fps. Not great, but not bad. And the groups were excellent given the wind conditions. The guy spotting for me was not calling the wind and had round move right and left with changing wind. But with no wind, they were piling up on top of each other. At 500 yds, he called no wind and I broke the shot. Next the wind was howling 9 to 3 and he never mentioned it. Shot went 6 inches right. Next shot he called the conditions and when he said "no wind" I broke the shot and it was touching the first shot, which was also with no wind.

I ran out of scope adjustment. But I had put a shim under the front block so I took it out and the screws were not too long to put the block back on alone. I had just enough to get out to 500 with a small amount to spare. I'll be making a new shim for the rear block to get me back into the middle of the adjusting range.

Recoil was the only negative aspect of the day. That damn crescent buttplate beat my shoulder up badly. It was not intolerable. But it has been a long while since I felt soreness after a few rounds. I can live with that. But I'm concerned with the floater in my eye. I have about 100 225gr bullets from Montana Bullet works that are precision cast, sized and lubed that came with the rifle. I'm going to try and breech seat those to see how the recoil is and if the accuracy out to 500 yds holds up. If the recoil continues to be an issue, I think I might have George Peterson make a stock for me and send it out. It will be a shotgun butt. Might even drill it for a recoil reducer. Will definitely get a Decelerator pad. Be a good winter therapy project. Also good practice if I decide to built a HW in .32-40.

The other issue with this rifle is the trigger. Although it is crisp, it's probably about 2.5 lbs. I'm spoiled with the Timney in my 03 and the trigger in my 52C. I know that a trigger that makes you take your time is not a bad thing. But I really like a light trigger. I might just have to take the Browning apart and see if I cannot improve things a bit. I'm told that you cannot make them better than mine. But I struggle with that. A sear is a sear. Now the mechanics may suck. Then that warning may apply. But I just have to look to satisfy myself that I cannot make it better.
 

Snakeoil

Well-Known Member
I think I might have George Peterson make a stock for me and send it out.
Turns out George tricked me, the dirty dog. He has a picture of a Miroku on his website with a stock he made. I talked to him last night and he said it was a one-off for a friend. Said the Mirokus varied too many features of the High Wall amongst the models making it difficult for him. Oh well. CPA offers them. But I'm going to try a 225 gr bullet next. That should provide about an 19% reduction in recoil with everything else remaining the same. We'll see.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
i can sure tell the difference in a 225 and a 265 when they get shoved down a 375 win. barrel.

a couple of strips of cardboard and some tape will flatten that curve out.
it'll look like crap but it'll help.
so will a 30-40 dollar leather wrap that slides over the stock, laces down the bottom and fills in the curve, but those are kind of fancy for a shootin' gun.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I went to a 200 for my 375 Win. Tom recommended a mould and I was smart enough to listen. A 200 at 1500 is a pussycat, a 265 not so much.
 

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Shot the Randall. One hundred each of Lyman's 452460 and 6.0-grains of WSF, and 50 each of Lee's 452-230-TC and 6.2-grains of Herco. Fun stuff.
 

Snakeoil

Well-Known Member
i can sure tell the difference in a 225 and a 265 when they get shoved down a 375 win. barrel.

a couple of strips of cardboard and some tape will flatten that curve out.
it'll look like crap but it'll help.
so will a 30-40 dollar leather wrap that slides over the stock, laces down the bottom and fills in the curve, but those are kind of fancy for a shootin' gun.
I actually made a wood filler and bought a slip on pad. It was a PITA and increased the length of pull beyond reasonable.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
only cure for that is to start choppin.
probably not something i'd do to an original myself.
but someone with more tools than a hacksaw and a straight edge could match up the plate top well enough to simply make a small insert for the part not cut off.
 

Snakeoil

Well-Known Member
New Year's Day match today. .22 silhouettes pushed out an extra 50 yds and only 30 rounds, no rams. Iron sights only. Buffalo offhand at 300, 2-shots.

The wind was truly obnoxious today. We started at 150 and I managed to get all 10 and was feeling pretty good about myself. That was a mistake. At 200, those skinny turkeys were a challenge. Wind was pushing the bullets left and right the full width of the animal. Steve did a great job of calling the conditions but they changed so fast that you'd break the shot and the wind would change 180 degrees. By the time we got to the last relay, I suggested we call it The Annual Wilton Whiners Match because all you heard while they painted targets was guy totally baffled by the wind, forgot to bring the right front sight inserts, etc.. It was hysterical.

My partner brought his Win 75. The Lyman 17 on the front was too tall to get out to 200 yds with the limited elevation range of the rear, so all he had was a short front bead sight. He struggled because the bead was bigger than the targets. But he was still grinning at the end of the match.

Charlie's wife made a chocolate bunt cake with buttercream frosting and Charlie brought a half gallon of Stewart's vanilla to top it off. I think I could have missed every target and still been happy after I finished my plate of cake and ice cream. But that's it for me. I was 193 this morning and I'm on oats and tree bark for the foreseeable future until my jeans fit me better.

The Norma TAC-22 ammo has proven to work so well that pretty much the entire line is shooting it now. That removes one excuse from the list of many used.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Burned up about 1/4 pound of 3F this morning in an old caplock kit pistol, been about 29 or 30 years since I shot it best I can remember. It ended up at my place after a buddy and I spent the day shooting everything front-stuffer we could get our hands on, and I've had it ever since. Now it's all cleaned up and repaired, probably time to give it back to its owner.

Now to go through my black powder bag and my FIL's mess of a range box and sort the good from the bad, clean everything up and organize it.
 

Reloader762

Active Member
Went over to a friend's house this morning and put about 50 rds. each of 45 ACP and 9 MM down range. Didn't get to shoot much as the weather was overcast with off an on rain, but I needed a little trigger time, I'm a bit rusty, but it's been a few months since I've been able to shoot. Had a couple bowls of some beans with ham for lunch before packing up and heading home to clean up my pistols and throw some brass in the tumbler.
 

Snakeoil

Well-Known Member
Another test day at Wilton. For me it was 225 gr bullets breech seated over 15 gr of 2400. Shot very near the same as the 277 grainers with 17 gr of 2400, but with a lot less recoil. Last night I thought I'd try my wood spacer and slip-on Limbsaver pad again. This time I doubleface taped the wood spacer to the crescent buttplate. Stayed put all day. On the bench the added length of pull was not even noticeable. Gonna keep it for a while.

So, I started at 200 yds and worked my way out to 500 yds, recording scope settings along the way. The wind was howling on and off as well as changing direction regularly so not a day to attempt any group sizes. But when the conditions were the same the accuracy and repeatability was pretty impressive. It was enough to evoke a "WOW!" every so often out of Paul, who was spotting for me. 500 yds was what was going to tell the story on whether these little bullets would cut the mustard. In spite of the wind, they did a great job of maintaining windage. But I was getting vertical stringing that used most of the body on the ram. I would place 2 shots almost touching at the top of the back and then the next one would go into the belly, but at the same windage. Paul is very quiet and not good at calling conditions. Another issue at 500 is you are shooting over a short berm for the 200 yd .22 silhouette part of the range. Any head or tail wind will become vertical at that berm. But I don't think that was the problem.

I had my chrono set up and was watching the MV for every shot. The shots that went high had about 30-40 fps more MV than those that hit low. Because I am breech seating, neck tension is not in play here. Those of use that understand what could be happening tended to agree that I probably need to up the powder charge a bit. I think my next move is to go to my local club and bench the gun at 100 yds on paper on the protected range. I'm going to make up 5 round test loads and look for the best group. Then take that back to Wilton and have another go at 500 yds.

My shooting partner, Steve, brought his .30-30 Meachem with the new Hart barrel. For those who might not remember (I have severe CRS so I understand) Steve could not get that new barrel to shoot. I fixed his problems and made an M-die for him and delivered it yesterday so he could load for today. He was shooting while I was shooting and another good shooter, Craig was spotting for Steve. He kept looking over at me and smiling. When I looked at him he'd say, "She's shooting good". Nice thing to see was when Steve made a scope adjustment, the bullet impact showed the same adjustment. What he needs to do now is make some test loads and put them on paper. He said he's going to go up in 0.2 gr steps to see how they perform. I was truly pleased to see that rifle shoot well. I knew he was frustrated having a rifle with a new, top-notch barrel that would not shoot. I think the cockeyed GCs were the root of the problem and the mold not fully closing just contributed to the problem. Steve was a happy man when he left the club today.

I had brought my laptop and was running GRT on it so we could plot the loads to see how they compared with the chrono. Then others were curious, and I sat there pumping in numbers for various rifles and loads. I think several went home with plans to download the software tonight. What was nice to see was GRT was predicting the same MV that I was seeing on my chrono for my loads.

Paul had brought his Hepburn with him. It was a .40-65 that he had another member line the barrel to .32-40. He has not been able to get it to shoot. We talked about it and suspected that he was loading too hot a round. He also was using 2400 which is rapidly become the Kleenex powder at Wilton for cast bullet loads in rifles. We put his rounds over my chrono and they were doing 1638 on average. He only put 5 over the chrono. But those five had an SD of 12 fps which is not too bad. But they were all over the place. I ran his bullet in GRT and it predicted similar MV to what we were seeing. Craig said the Schuetzen guys are running in the mid 1500's for the .32-40. So, I kept changing the powder charge in GRT until I got a mid 1500's MV load. He's going to load some up and go up and down a few grains and give it another go.

So, it was another great day at Wilton. I think everyone left a little better informed and pretty much everyone left with a grin on their face. I did get another M-die job. But I'm used to that. The M-die is becoming a staple at Wilton as well. But I ran out of ratty dies to use to make them. So, now they have to provide a die for the mod. I don't charge anybody for this. If I did, it would become a job and I don't want a job. I specify that it has to use a 1/2-20 thread for the adjusting stem so I can use a Gr 8 bolt to machine the plug. I'm starting to think that I should just go to Fastenal and buy a bay of 1/20-20 bolts to have on hand.
 

Winelover

North Central Arkansas
Shot the same load in the CA Bulldog, using the CT laser grips versus open sights. I'm always praising the laser grips. They do make a significant difference.

The load:

5.3 grains of Red Dot under RCBS 240 SWC GC at 15 yards.

The delivery system.

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Results:

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Both targets were shot DA only. Two cylinders full, at each target.
 

Snakeoil

Well-Known Member
The delivery system.
Gee, when I first saw the photo, I thought you had some kind of Special Klan Edition.:eek: I actually went to the CA sight to look at that model to see if the markings were factory. That's when it dawned on me that you simply blocked out the SN with a bunch of K's.

D'oh!