What Did You Shoot Today?

[Gary]

Gave my 6mmARC it's maiden trip to the backyard range today. For a new rifle, the barrel was very dirty. Took 6 patches to get a reasonable level of cleanliness. I had loaded some 75gr Sierra over 27 of H335 which gave a projected velocity a little north of 3200 fps.
Amazing to me is there is little recoil and the report is as stout as my 5.56. I think I'm going to enjoy shooting this one for sure.

 

[L Ross]

I am getting serious about improving my recoil tolerance.I just came in from firing twenty rounds of .40-70 Sharps Straight. I saw the orange muzzle flash though the aperture of my MVA Soule sight. I am managing the recoil in a straight line and that helps.
Tried a new front insert today and the jury is still out. After I paint my buffalos black I'll try again. This insert has three heavy arms similar to some German scope reticles. I managed to put three out of four shots on a regulation chicken swinger into about 4" center to center.
Why I have been neglecting this wonderful rifle I don't know.

 

[Rushcreek]

I tested a semi automatic AK47 for a friend that said that it wouldn’t work. Well, once I popped the hood I found 3 large pieces of a “recoil buffer” inside….
30 rounds later I called it good. Those AKs remind me of a shoulder fired hay baler or some such. No ergonomics and lots of commotion.
Then it got fun. I shot my wife’s H&R 999, my Ruger Wrangler, my Shield 40, and my Taurus PT22. I even hit a fired 7.62 case with the Ruger.
A good hour of plinking!

 

[462]

Ever have a gun that tested your accuracy load development patience? I have one -- a Uberti 1866 sporting rifle chambered in .38 Special. Luckily, it didn't take too many range session to find an accurate jacketed load with
5.1-grains of SR 7625 and Sierra's 125-grain JHC, but four or five years later an accurate cast load has been frustratingly elusive. Various amounts of Unique, Bullseye, SR 7625, 2400, etc. have all been either no-gos or what shot well once was not repeatable. Too, iron sights are becoming ever more difficult to accommodate my vision. Or the other way round. I've had many thoughts of selling the rifle, but it's a fun gun and even its most inaccurate loads are closer grouped than the widely spaced patterns of the AR blasters. Also, I'm not ready to end the challenge.

Not having any satisfying results with HS-6 and the .45 Colt Uberti Cattleman, .the 44 Special S&W 624, or the .357 Mag. New Vaquero, I decided to test it this morning with the 1866. Yes, it's only one time and five shots and it may not seem like much but taking all of the first paragraph into consideration I'm smiling.
50-yards, 5.5-grains of HS-6, Lee's 358-158 RNFN (de-bevel based), .655" East/West .911" North/South

 

[glassparman]

Picked up the '91 Argentine yesterday. I had 5 rounds with me so I could hit the canyon on the way home. Well, plans don't always go as expected.

I pulled the trigger and no bang. After examining the bolt face closer, I could see no pin protrusion.

Home I went. I pulled the bolt apart and the inside was full of gunk. I got out the trusty ultra sonic cleaner and gave it a good bath for 30 minutes.

Wiped down the bolt parts, lubed them up and reassembled. It now measured 90 thou protrusion. I want more like .060 but there didn't seem to be a way to adjust so I went with it.

Went to the canyon this morning and all five rounds fired perfectly without any problems and no pierced primers so I think the protrusion length is good.

I also took out the Siamese Mauser that I have had for many years as I finally finished up swaging & modifying some 45-70 brass. You gotta take it real easy doing this conversion as you will get dents in the shoulder even with minimal lube. Gotta anneal first!

This rifle also shot like a champ!

That's it for today. Next up is to start casting for both. The Siamese has a .329 groove diameter so this will be fun. I have the Siamese book by Joseph Koss and he uses normal .323 j-word bullets. Not sure how accurate that would be so I'm gonna fiddle with the .329 mold.

Mike

 

[Pressman]

I tried to sight in a 1919 NRA Savage with a new scope but ran out of ammo.
Next, I tried to sight in the Remington 03A3 deer rifle with Williams sights. They were way out of Wack so gave up on that.
Then I fired 7 shots through my favorite milsurp, a 96/11 Swiss and the firing pin broke.
So I packed up and came home. I needed to finish installing a scope base on the Anschutz and that went well.
I reset the Williams sights so that rifle is ready for another range trip.

 

[L Ross]

Ever have a gun that tested your accuracy load development patience? I have one -- a Uberti 1866 sporting rifle chambered in .38 Special. Luckily, it didn't take too many range session to find an accurate jacketed load with
5.1-grains of SR 7625 and Sierra's 125-grain JHC, but four or five years later an accurate cast load has been frustratingly elusive. Various amounts of Unique, Bullseye, SR 7625, 2400, etc. have all been either no-gos or what shot well once was not repeatable. Too, iron sights are becoming ever more difficult to accommodate my vision. Or the other way round. I've had many thoughts of selling the rifle, but it's a fun gun and even its most inaccurate loads are closer grouped than the widely spaced patterns of the AR blasters. Also, I'm not ready to end the challenge.

Not having any satisfying results with HS-6 and the .45 Colt Uberti Cattleman, .the 44 Special S&W 624, or the .357 Mag. New Vaquero, I decided to test it this morning with the 1866. Yes, it's only one time and five shots and it may not seem like much but taking all of the first paragraph into consideration I'm smiling.
50-yards, 5.5-grains of HS-6, Lee's 358-158 RNFN (de-bevel based), .655" East/West .911" North/South
View attachment 35965

Two 1966 clone Yellow Boys liked that 195 grain round nose Lyman mould for the .38 S&W and about 23 grains of 3fg Black. I do believe a fellow could kill deer with that combination. It sure slapped cowboy swingers silly.

 

[Glaciers]

Well Lynn you got my interest up to load a couple of oldies. I’ve got a Colt lighting and a Winchester 92 octagon barreled rifle both in 44-40. Never loaded for the 44-40 or the 38-40. Sold off my 38-40’s in an opportunity to reduce the herd to a more reasonable range.
But I’ve shot both a fair amount, but not in a while.
Just need to slug the bores and figure out which molds I have will work.
Really enjoy the Lighting, put to your shoulder beer cans beware. Both are great point and shoot.

 

[Rushcreek]

I shot a dead coyote to open it up a bit for the poor buzzards struggling to get inside. The Lee 278-135 did a decent job from the 6.8 with full penetration on the two day old carcass(Cuz shot it in the head Friday night).
Later we shot his new Savage 64 Takedown Left hand .22- it’s a neat little gun- on steel plates.
I went ahead and shot my 6.8 with the cast loads on steel also. The cast bullets @1900fps were kind to the steel and fun as can be.

 

[Ian]

Those AKs remind me of a shoulder fired hay baler or some such.

I haven't laughed that hard in ages!!!! Actually, I immediately thought of one of Bret's hay balers, at least the way he describes them.

462 (Michael), all of my .45 Colts really shot well with 10.0 grains of HS-6 behind a 250-260 grain cast bullet and a Winchester LP Magnum primer. The results left blackened powder granules all over the place, including in the action of the revolvers, but sure grouped nicely.

So, shooting. Friday afternoon at the airplane shop we all at the fluck-itz in a bad way. One of the guys is a muzzleloader nut and we're always trying to get together and shoot but life keeps happening. One of the apprentices volunteered we go shoot at his big ranch so we took him up on it. Eventually he invited the whole crew and we descended on his place early this morning and helped him set up a makeshift if extremely functional and safe range off in the back corner, complete with giant oak tree for shade that will accommodate half a dozen pickups. Had a nice tailgate shoot, brought some of my frontstuffers and set up the works on a table and let everyone take turns with the flintlocks. I ran about 30 shots myself and helped dispose of several dozen cans of extremely expired canned goods. Helped clean up and headed home to strip and clean my guns. It was time for a full strip of my Kibler SMR and 20-gauge fowler for a rust check and did find some starting in a few places so I have some work to do there, went ahead and cleaned the stocks really well and put a fresh coat of linseed oil on them, will probably let them sit a week and put another on while I have them torn down. Sadly, the finish I used on my cherrywood Chief's gun started wiping off with 70% alcohol, so that finish is fired and I'll have to take it the rest of the way down and start over with some Tried & True. That's okay, I didn't like how the finish looked anyway and there are some bug hole repairs that need done over, so good excuse to go ahead and fix all that as well.

 

[462]

462 (Michael), all of my .45 Colts really shot well with 10.0 grains of HS-6 behind a 250-260 grain cast bullet and a Winchester LP Magnum primer. The results left blackened powder granules all over the place, including in the action of the revolvers, but sure grouped nicely.

You made me go back and look at my HS-6 load records and targets. I misspoke that the Uberti doesn't like it, because targets of 9.5 and 10.0-grains tell a different story and I will be retesting those loads.

Also saw some targets that I need to retest 8.0-grains of SR 7625.

It's a good thing I keep targets because relying on memory is becoming a loosing proposition.

 

[RicinYakima]

I am taking pictures with my phone and saving them instead of the paper ones. FWIW

 

[L Ross]

I had good intentions. I ordered a SliXpring nipple wrench and stainless steel nipples for my recently acquired Pietta 1860 clone. They arrived and I put them to use and loaded said Pietta. However, as I was fishing Saturday I became aware I was coming down with some illness and it progressed rapidly yesterday to full blown crud stage by late morning. Thus I did not go out and shoot at all. I figured if I snuffed up some BP smoke I'd choke to death.
I worked on loading some .40-70 Sharps Straight until I felt just too beastly and hung it up and hit the recliner to wallow in my misery. Lungs and sinuses hurt but I do believe I'll dodge the autopsy once again. I sure do hate the feeling of wasted days though.

 

[462]

I am taking pictures with my phone and saving them instead of the paper ones. FWIW

I understand your reasoning, but I have a Luddite aversion to smart-phone use other than the phone feature.

I used to cut the groups out of the targets and attach them to the appropriate section of the load development binder, but two-years-ago started saving the entire target.

I had good intentions. I ordered a SliXpring nipple wrench and stainless steel nipples for my recently acquired Pietta 1860 clone. They arrived and I put them to use and loaded said Pietta. However, as I was fishing Saturday I became aware I was coming down with some illness and it progressed rapidly yesterday to full blown crud stage by late morning. Thus I did not go out and shoot at all. I figured if I snuffed up some BP smoke I'd choke to death.
I worked on loading some .40-70 Sharps Straight until I felt just too beastly and hung it up and hit the recliner to wallow in my misery. Lungs and sinuses hurt but I do believe I'll dodge the autopsy once again. I sure do hate the feeling of wasted days though.

Get well soon, sir.

 

[Ian]

BP smoke breathing treatments should cure what ails the respiratory apparatus and recoil helps cough it up. --"Dr" Ian.

 

[popper]

I just take the targets home and run them through the scanner/printer and save on the pc. I do need to document the load better on the targets.

 

[RicinYakima]

This is my most common, backed up on the iCloud.

 

[462]

Thought this morning would be the Uberti 1866's final load test. Did eliminate one of the three loads, so am planning for the last two to have a Friday showdown.

Decided the Lyman 311284 will be looking for a new home. The 03A3's 2-43 dated four-groove barrel has not been able to make it compete with the RCBS 30-180-SP and the NOE 311-188 FN.

 

[L Ross]

BP smoke breathing treatments should cure what ails the respiratory apparatus and recoil helps cough it up. --"Dr" Ian.

Yeah, so I sprained my ankle this afternoon saving a snapping turtle. By tomorrow it should be technicolor.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

My Benelli MP 90s!!

I have not picked it up in almost two seasons. I dont remember when my last was but it was in 2021.

I shot tonight cold as I couldn't get to range over weekend my friends and family pulled me to and fro!

I shot a 263/300. Twenty points below my last average... But as its largely a mental game, and we all know my mental state isnt solid. Ill take it. Wasnt too bad a nite. Only a couple guys who have been around that knew my wife. Most shooters tonight was new folks in last couple years.

EDIT: WE WON the match and my miserable score made tge team! Ha!!