Buckshot
04-23-2007, 06:11 AM
...........Heck, I'm at work, it's 0200 and I felt like making a new post :-)
We may have a new Burrito Shooter join us. There's only 4 of us left now. David (El Pistolero) took a new teaching position and works Tuesday-Thursdays now. Ron moved to Prescott, AZ and ole Ken passed away a couple years ago. LArry is a volunteer with Redlands PD but they work him like a rented mule so he's not always there. There are a bunch of other regular Tuesday shooters, and several shoot cast, but none want to shoot with us. They find out we shoot standing up over iron sights and they're all intimidated.
The new guys name is Chuck and he's a motorcycle traffic cop from some burg in east LA county. He's shooting at Inland now because the developers and the city shut down Fish Canyon. He said he's going to be retiring in 14 months and wants to move out this way. He said he really loves to shoot and likes Inland Fish & Game. He sat down and had burritos with us and got along well. He, Larry , and Deputy Al all know some of the same people together so he was at ease quickly.
Chuck said he was just getting into reloading, and me and Deputy Al exchanged looks and Al said (like in passing) you'll have to get into casting your own boolits! Chuck was shooting three 22RF rifles that day. A really nice Anschutz (or the other German make, I forget) and he had a fancified Ruger 10-22 he said he had $300 into but it was a *** 8-). We told him we shot every Tuesday and he said that sounded good, but next Tuesday he had court. Later on when he was leaving he said he had a great time and liked shooting with us, and he might be able to get someone to cover his court thingie, ha! I think maybe we hooked one.
I shot the little Brazilain Comblain carbine Tuesday. Monday I was loading some 7.65x53 to shoot in the match and had to get into the cuboard over the reloading bench for something and saw the box of Comblain brass. I checked and it was all ready to load. Then I glanced over and saw the container of lube-sized Catshooter GB 353gr 45 cal boolits. Heck I hadn't shot it in a couple years so decided to load'em up. I had 36 cases ready to go.
Previously I'd only shot the Lyman 292gr FNPB so this 353gr would be a new deal.
http://www.fototime.com/6316BED7BD76390/standard.jpg
The Comblain. Sorry for the poor photo. It's really a nice little gun. It's a single shot with a falling block action using a centrally hung hammer with a 90* arc. the cartridge is the 11.4x42R . The bore is a constant .433" but the groove is progressive depth. It's .465" deep at the breech and ends up at .452" at the muzzle. Oddly enough for a black powder cartridge rifle it has a very tight 16" twist, that's left hand.
http://www.fototime.com/FB833F810B2C0FE/standard.jpg
The cartridges. Short fat little dudes. I make'm from 32ga Mag-Tech (CBC) cases. They're (new ones are boxer primed) Berdan primed so I convert then to 209 shotshell primers. I loaded 4 loads:
11.0grs Unique
20.0grs surp SR4759
24.0grs H4198
30.0grs Surp 4475
I had high hopes for the SR4759 load as last time it shot a really tight (well like 2") 10 shot group at 50 yards. This time with the heavier slug the carbine shot the Unique load into a 2" 10 shot group and ditto the 4475 load. The fastest and slowest shot the best? Concerning the groups and the carbine. First of all the chamber has no neck:
http://www.fototime.com/921BEFCB0819540/standard.jpg
Chamber cast. Sure don't know what it was done this way, but it wasn't limited to these carbines as the maker EM & L Nagant in Belgium also made Comblains on other contacts and they were the same. So you have no chamber necks. While the slug IS butted up into the lands, the front of the case is just floating around as it IS necked. Add to that the fact that the slugs are sized to .460" and the grooves at the breech are .465". No neck and way undersized slugs.
Finally the front sight is a rectangular block with a little round nub on top. The rear sight is a typical (for the era) short ladder and elevator carbine type sight with a V notch. The trigger is sharp and crisp with zero creep or takup. I remember it shot high so I aimed at the bottom bull. The rounds hit in the 10 ring of the top target so it's like 2' high at 50 yards. Gonna have to make a clamp on front sight replacement for it! It was great fun. Oh, BTW, when I cleaned it at home there was zero leading. Same as last time. The Unique load chrono'd 1006 fps avg and the 4475 load was 1130 fps.
For the match I shot a nice M1891 Argentine I bought from a friend of Scoungers several years ago. It's all matching down to the cleaning rod and in like unissued condition. Nice rifle to say the least. I'd loaded up 50 rounds with the Lyman 314299 sized in a .314" lube die (.3135" actual) over 24.0grs of H4198 + dacron. WIth the rear sight ladder up and the elevator at 400 yards it shot just into the 9 ring, left of the 10 ring. I used some Kentucky windage :mrgreen:
Glen finished up before me with a 87-0X. I didn't start out very good only managing a 42 for my first 5 rounds getting a 7 and two 8's. Glen was pleased. Larry then announced he'd shot an 82 so he was out. I decided to buckle down and see what I could accomplish with the last 5 rounds. I was looking at a 92 possible and my 6th shot was a 9. My 7th and 8th shots were also 9's. Glen said he was going to stop on the way home at the DQ and get a soft serve ice cream cone with the winnings (there was a whole $4 in the pot).
My 9th shot was a X and my 10th was a 10 :bigsmyl2: so I finished up with a 89-1X. Glen called me a bad name. I told him that I would be buying the DQ soft serve on the way home.
He was packing up to leave and just generally asked "What are we gonna shoot next week?" No one said anything, and I said what about centerfire pistols? So then he went off muttering about me and that *&^%$# S&W K38 of mine[smilie=s: Can I help it if the thing shoots? Heck, I've NEVER said anything about being a pistol shot.
The deal is, you can be a grand master pistol shot and if you're handed a *** how can you overcome that? On the other hand, if you're a real neebish with a handgun but it shoots like a raygun you can do pretty well, right? That's the situation here. As I've said before, if I'd gotten this K38 a lot sooner I might have actually developed a liking for handguns. Of course anything aquired after that would have had a REAL tough row to hoe in comparison.
...................Buckshot
We may have a new Burrito Shooter join us. There's only 4 of us left now. David (El Pistolero) took a new teaching position and works Tuesday-Thursdays now. Ron moved to Prescott, AZ and ole Ken passed away a couple years ago. LArry is a volunteer with Redlands PD but they work him like a rented mule so he's not always there. There are a bunch of other regular Tuesday shooters, and several shoot cast, but none want to shoot with us. They find out we shoot standing up over iron sights and they're all intimidated.
The new guys name is Chuck and he's a motorcycle traffic cop from some burg in east LA county. He's shooting at Inland now because the developers and the city shut down Fish Canyon. He said he's going to be retiring in 14 months and wants to move out this way. He said he really loves to shoot and likes Inland Fish & Game. He sat down and had burritos with us and got along well. He, Larry , and Deputy Al all know some of the same people together so he was at ease quickly.
Chuck said he was just getting into reloading, and me and Deputy Al exchanged looks and Al said (like in passing) you'll have to get into casting your own boolits! Chuck was shooting three 22RF rifles that day. A really nice Anschutz (or the other German make, I forget) and he had a fancified Ruger 10-22 he said he had $300 into but it was a *** 8-). We told him we shot every Tuesday and he said that sounded good, but next Tuesday he had court. Later on when he was leaving he said he had a great time and liked shooting with us, and he might be able to get someone to cover his court thingie, ha! I think maybe we hooked one.
I shot the little Brazilain Comblain carbine Tuesday. Monday I was loading some 7.65x53 to shoot in the match and had to get into the cuboard over the reloading bench for something and saw the box of Comblain brass. I checked and it was all ready to load. Then I glanced over and saw the container of lube-sized Catshooter GB 353gr 45 cal boolits. Heck I hadn't shot it in a couple years so decided to load'em up. I had 36 cases ready to go.
Previously I'd only shot the Lyman 292gr FNPB so this 353gr would be a new deal.
http://www.fototime.com/6316BED7BD76390/standard.jpg
The Comblain. Sorry for the poor photo. It's really a nice little gun. It's a single shot with a falling block action using a centrally hung hammer with a 90* arc. the cartridge is the 11.4x42R . The bore is a constant .433" but the groove is progressive depth. It's .465" deep at the breech and ends up at .452" at the muzzle. Oddly enough for a black powder cartridge rifle it has a very tight 16" twist, that's left hand.
http://www.fototime.com/FB833F810B2C0FE/standard.jpg
The cartridges. Short fat little dudes. I make'm from 32ga Mag-Tech (CBC) cases. They're (new ones are boxer primed) Berdan primed so I convert then to 209 shotshell primers. I loaded 4 loads:
11.0grs Unique
20.0grs surp SR4759
24.0grs H4198
30.0grs Surp 4475
I had high hopes for the SR4759 load as last time it shot a really tight (well like 2") 10 shot group at 50 yards. This time with the heavier slug the carbine shot the Unique load into a 2" 10 shot group and ditto the 4475 load. The fastest and slowest shot the best? Concerning the groups and the carbine. First of all the chamber has no neck:
http://www.fototime.com/921BEFCB0819540/standard.jpg
Chamber cast. Sure don't know what it was done this way, but it wasn't limited to these carbines as the maker EM & L Nagant in Belgium also made Comblains on other contacts and they were the same. So you have no chamber necks. While the slug IS butted up into the lands, the front of the case is just floating around as it IS necked. Add to that the fact that the slugs are sized to .460" and the grooves at the breech are .465". No neck and way undersized slugs.
Finally the front sight is a rectangular block with a little round nub on top. The rear sight is a typical (for the era) short ladder and elevator carbine type sight with a V notch. The trigger is sharp and crisp with zero creep or takup. I remember it shot high so I aimed at the bottom bull. The rounds hit in the 10 ring of the top target so it's like 2' high at 50 yards. Gonna have to make a clamp on front sight replacement for it! It was great fun. Oh, BTW, when I cleaned it at home there was zero leading. Same as last time. The Unique load chrono'd 1006 fps avg and the 4475 load was 1130 fps.
For the match I shot a nice M1891 Argentine I bought from a friend of Scoungers several years ago. It's all matching down to the cleaning rod and in like unissued condition. Nice rifle to say the least. I'd loaded up 50 rounds with the Lyman 314299 sized in a .314" lube die (.3135" actual) over 24.0grs of H4198 + dacron. WIth the rear sight ladder up and the elevator at 400 yards it shot just into the 9 ring, left of the 10 ring. I used some Kentucky windage :mrgreen:
Glen finished up before me with a 87-0X. I didn't start out very good only managing a 42 for my first 5 rounds getting a 7 and two 8's. Glen was pleased. Larry then announced he'd shot an 82 so he was out. I decided to buckle down and see what I could accomplish with the last 5 rounds. I was looking at a 92 possible and my 6th shot was a 9. My 7th and 8th shots were also 9's. Glen said he was going to stop on the way home at the DQ and get a soft serve ice cream cone with the winnings (there was a whole $4 in the pot).
My 9th shot was a X and my 10th was a 10 :bigsmyl2: so I finished up with a 89-1X. Glen called me a bad name. I told him that I would be buying the DQ soft serve on the way home.
He was packing up to leave and just generally asked "What are we gonna shoot next week?" No one said anything, and I said what about centerfire pistols? So then he went off muttering about me and that *&^%$# S&W K38 of mine[smilie=s: Can I help it if the thing shoots? Heck, I've NEVER said anything about being a pistol shot.
The deal is, you can be a grand master pistol shot and if you're handed a *** how can you overcome that? On the other hand, if you're a real neebish with a handgun but it shoots like a raygun you can do pretty well, right? That's the situation here. As I've said before, if I'd gotten this K38 a lot sooner I might have actually developed a liking for handguns. Of course anything aquired after that would have had a REAL tough row to hoe in comparison.
...................Buckshot