Tuesday at the range 11 - 06 - 07

[Buckshot]

................I couldn't BUY a 10 during the match today :-(. We shot the usual today, centerfire cast, iron sights, offhand. Ten rounds at 50 yards. I used a 1938 Tula manufactured M91-30 shooting the 200 gr Nu-Judge slug sized .314" over 16.0 2400. I shot a flat 89. Nine 9's and an 8, curses! What's a pisser is that using the same boolit and 10.0 grs of Unique it will lay'em into the 10 ring off the bench with the rear sight at 525 yards.

Naturally with the 16.0/2400 you're screwed (I found out) as it's betwixt and between settings on the rear sight. Bummer. Of course I found that out after firing five 9's and the 8 right under the bull. So I raised the sight one notch and shot four more 9's just OVER the 10 ring, ha! I didn't win, as Glen shot a 94 - 2X, the *(&$%$#_(). He used a mostly completed Springfield sporter in 30-06 shooting a Lyman 311291 and 24.0grs of DuPont Lightening. I try to make myself feel better noting Glen's rifle has reciever sights and an insert front and aTimney trigger. I had the issue military sights and that *** trigger to deal with.

9.3x62AL, shot a Savage 99 in 250-3000 and ended up with a 88 I think it was. He managed to plunk in four 10's and some 9's but two 7's cooked his goose. He must have been thinking bad thoughts about me and God got him for it, er sumpthin'. Larry and El Pistolero were pretty quiet so it must not have been too shiney for'em. Larry is one of those guys who can shoot 3-4 tens and then drop one outside the scoring rings :-). 9.3x62AL gave Glen the winnings, and when Glen reached for it AL was going to staple it to his palm but he wasn't fast enough.

I'm finally getting some results with the Tanfoglio Witness (CZ75 clone) with it's 45 ACP bbl and slide. In 38 Super it shoots most anyhting so well I was getting a bit discouraged with my results so far. I'd loaded up 50 rounds using the Lee 190gr SWC sized .452" and cast of WW. I had 10 rnds each loaded with 5.1, 5.3, 5.5, 5.7, and 5.9 grs of W231. What's kind of odd to me is this boolit shoots exceedingly well in my 45 Colt Vaquero too. Heck, it's about as long as it is big around. Yet a 230gr RN or TC will produce larger groups?

The 5.1 load produced the largest group of them all. 5.3grs was much smaller and then the 5.5gr load got a bit bigger. The 5.7 and 5.9gr loads got smaller. The first 5 rounds would put 4 into a 1 to 1-1/2" hole, then one high or low. The next five would kind of fill in between. I'd guess (I haven't measured them yet) that the best group was the hottest and was about 2.5" and if you'd forgive 1 or 2 shots I think it'd go maybe 1.5". Actually all but the first load were pretty good all told.

We sure enough had a very fine fall day to do the shooting. Bright sun, T-shirt warm with a slight breeze from 6 o'clock.

..................Buckshot

[Bret4207]

Nice to see your serial "Tuesday at the Range" program back on the air waves Buck!

Lightning?! Where in the world did he find that? Shades of Phil Sharpe...

[VTDW]

Buckshot,

You sound pumped from a great day with good friends sir.

Dave

[Buckshot]

..............Yes, Tuesday is ALWAYS a pleasure. I'm blessed to be able to shoot with a bunch of great guys every tuesday. Me, 9.3x62AL, and Glen cast. El Pistolero CAN cast and has all the stuff, but not the burn. He usually buys his lead boolits, and Larry is a gung-Ho SASS guy and shoots a ton. He says he doesn't have the time.

Some of the best time is spent at teh picnic table at lunch. That's when most the BSing is done and many and sundry are the problems that get hashed out and solved over Mexican food :-)

The Lightening powder was given to Glen. It was a sealed 6 lb can dated 1932. It's big chunkey stuff, that Glen says meters like charcoal briquetts. Stuff burns like a champ though!

..............Buckshot

[Misfire99]

See if you can find a trigger from a Finnish Mosin for your Tula. This will help a lot. If you can't let me know and I will get the specs from one of mine and you can drill and insert a roll pin to give yourself a two stage trigger.

[PatMarlin]

You guys should all move up north, then I could go.. :mrgreen:

[9.3X62AL]

Yeah, this past Burrito Shoot was "Quarter-Bore Day" for me. The 1930-vintage Savage 99 continued its positive work with NEI #19, the 100 grain RG-4 look-alike. I ran these a little faster than I normally do, this time opting for 19.0 and 20.0 grains of IMR-4198 in place of the usual 12.0 grains of 2400. No chronography done, but the RCBS Cast Bullet Handbook shows these loads to be in the 1875-1950 FPS neighborhood. Off the bench, accuracy held together with 1-3 flyers in each 10-shot cluster proving the need for scaling over eyeball approval. Discounting the flyers, the 10-shotters ran 1"-1.125" at 50 yards--include the flyers, and 1-3/4" was more the rule. There was no significant difference in grouping or in POI shift between the two loads. I can live with that, given iron sights--old eyes--eyeballed boolits--and sporter lever rifle.

The Marlin 94CL has returned to its poetic grouping again. I had both low-end and medium-hot loads using 3 boolits--Lymans #257420 and #257312 plus RCBS 25-85 CB. All three shot poorly, the trend tended toward vertical stringing, sometimes 4"-6" at 50 yards. Windage wasn't that gross, about 1.25"-1.5". Exasperating. Felix said something some months back on the 25-20, that no modern powder really serves its needs well. Some commentary concerning WC-680 or AA-1680 was made, I think that will be my next move.

Last but not least, I did some paper targeting and a little dingerplate plinking with my RWS 52 sidelever air rifle in 25 caliber. Beeman Crow Magnums cut cloverleaves and chrysanthemums at 25 yards, just lights-out accurate. This is a 27 grain wasp-waist airgun pellet with a concave nose, like a wide and shallow HP. From the 52, it runs about 780 FPS. It is like The Finger Of Apollo on backyard ground squirrels, significantly more decisive than the 22 LR Super Colibri. The latter require a head-shot for DRT, the Crow Magnums with a center-mass hit will end things promptly. I have whacked several jackrabbits with this same system, and they are DONE when hit well.

I decided to throw caution to the winds, and move the targets to 50 yards. Can't say if it was my eyesight on the half-sized bulls at that range, or whether things fall apart at longer distances--but fall apart they did. These field airguns sometimes degrade accuracy past 35-40 yards, so I wasn't real disappointed here. The 3" top circle of the dinger plate was toast at 50 yards, though--and gave more momentum movement than I thought would occur. Interesting. Buckshot had looked on during the 25 yard work on paper, and commented that the rifle deserved a scope to see what it could REALLY do.

I share that view. If there is someone here with long-term experience with scopes on the magnum spring-piston airguns, I would sure like to hear from you. The strange and strong recoil dynamics of "springers" can play hell with scopes, and I would prefer to buy ONE that holds together well rather than playing the warrantee tennis match bit through UPS or USPS.

[Pilgrim]

Al - My air rifle is a Webley Patriot .22 Cal. My son did all the research for me re: power & such. He indicated that the Patriot was among, it not THE, most powerful stock spring piston air rifles. He has a Theoben, and I can't tell the difference between them for the $500 difference in price. The oldest son also has a patriot but under a different name that I cna't recall. Some day I may have the spring piston "customized" to increase its' power, but prolly because I can, not that I need it. The oldest boy has a 'tricked out" Patriot and I can't see any difference between his and mine, but ....My scope is a BSA Air Rifle scope. They are relatively inexpensive, but mine seems to be holding up well. So far, no problems. I don't recall the scopes on my boys' rifles, but it seems to me one is a Bushnell and the other a BSA. All of us would like the Leupold scope, but the price differential doesn't seem to be worth it in this case. If I was taking a long trip to hunt with it, then the extra bucks for the Leupold would be worth it for the insurance, but my use of this rifle is within 15 miles of home, at the farthest. With the "springers" I think "you pays your money and takes your chances". FWIW...Pilgrim

[Pilgrim]

Sorry for all the typos in the previous post. SPEND THE MONEY TO GET GOOD SCOPE MOUNTS AND RINGS FOR YOUR AIR RIFLE. Sorry for the shouting, but we have had far more problems with mounts and rings than with the scopes. The mounts and rings both slip. DO NOT buy the B-Square mount. I have one (used & replaced from my rifle) and will happily send it to you for your use. It is the second B-Square mount. I had to get the first replaced as it failed almost immediately. I replaced it with a spendy one given to me by my boy. I think the mounts were ~ $100 which approaches the price of the scope! This one is NOT FWIW...It's the real deal. Get the BEST scope mount you can buy. If you need it, I'll go dig my air rifle out of the safe and check on the mount name....Pilgrim

[Dale53]

Al;
I believe that you and I had discussed the 25/20 in a previous conversation. My "heavy" load is 14.5 grs of RL-7 (compressed load). My medium load is 11.0 grs of RL-7 and my squirrel load is 4.0 grs of Unique.

Any of those loads will, with my scoped Marlin, shoot ten ring groups all day long on the 50 yard NRA smallbore target at fifty yards. The "X" count is not high but they will be all tens. All loads using the 257420 GC bullets from the Lyman Mould with linotype.

My rifle wouldn't shoot for spit until I had about 500 rounds through it. Then, almost magically, it started to shoot and has had reliable grouping ever since.

I wiped a tear from my eye when I realized that I live too far from you guys to share a "day at the range" with you. Sounds like you fellows have a wonderful time.

Dale53

[Buckshot]

.................I still think Al orta put a bit of Cox airplane fuel in the cylinder of his air rifle. That oughta really get those pellets zinging.

...............Buckshot

[Ron]

Buckshot, some of the juice from a Burrito would do just fine.

[PatMarlin]

Cox- that brings back some cool memories.. :Fire: