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View Full Version : It's my birthday and I still got it!



facetious
07-12-2016, 03:10 AM
I will be 59 on the 12th and I have the week off so I told the wife all I wanted was a day to go shooting and not have any thing else I had to do.

The closest real shooting range is all most 90 miles. It is a forest service range and is nice with real bench's. It has been a long time sense I last shot from a good bench and wanted to try some things that got shelved a few years back.

I got some TAC a while back and wanted to try working up a load for my m77mkII in .223 started 23grs. and went up to 25grs. At 24.5 it started getting better at 25 it started opening up. But non of them where any thing I would brag about. Well it is a start. All I have to do now is figure out if it is the load, the Zytel stock or if I am really just not to good of a shot. I'm thinking It may be one of the last two and would like to blame the boat peddle stock.

I got a .308 M77mkII that I got back in the days of Clinton the first and got to shoot 120 jacked bullets out of it then came the big shortage much like this last one. I was all ready shooting cast in .....38s and .357s . I got a couple of molds and had at it. The Lee didn't do so good but my LBT did better. Starting with some 4227 I worked up from the starting load and and things went from not that good to not any better. So with a plinking party to go to I dropped the load one grain loaded some up and off I went and with open sites and all the targets inside 50yds it was like a laser, the small water bottles were the game of the day and I stopped before i used them all up. I loaded up a 150 of them to have on hand but have never shot them on paper with a scope so I had to try them. I don't want to brag about them ether. 50yrds not to bad at a 100 it went down hill. Will have to work on that too.

While I was there, there were two other guys and a gal shooting. Thy were banging a way with a AR and two pistols. We talked a bit while setting targets and looked at each others stuff. The guys had never heard of cast boolits ( thy were in their mid 20's) so I let them shoot a few rounds from the .308. Thy had brought a old hard hat that thy were shooting at the 100yrd line and on the first shot the first guy hit it first try. He shot it a few more times and hit it a couple more times. Then the other guy tryed he was all over couldn't hit it for nothing.

So it was back to what we were doing. The one guy was intent on hitting that hard hat with his AR and I had brought my ..357 Ruger BH out to try. I'm starting to get the old arthritis in the hands and got a set of Hogue stocks to see how thy felt. Now I haven't shot this gun in I don't know how long but in the 80's I shot it a lot and got to were I could hit a milk jug full of sand at 125yds about half the time so I got a good rest and took a shot at his hard hat, nailed it on the first shot and got close enough to scare it before hitting it again. The guy stopped and asked if that was me shooting at it and then saw that I had a hand gun and not the .308. "your hitting it with that!!!" That look was worth the trip!! :bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2: I bet I was grinning like a poop eating monkey!! Thy had never even looked at one before so I let them try that one too and even got the girl friend to try it, thy got a video of each other shooting it. I didn't have the hart to tell them that there mite have been some luck in there. So I just enjoyed it and thy went home with a story to tell. But I still got it!! :happy dance::happy dance::happy dance::happy dance::happy dance:


I picked up all the brass thy left and some others left by some master blasters and came up with ten pounds 2/3rds are .223/5.56 the rest are .40's and .45's. I all so picked up 21.8 lbs of range scrap to add to the 15lbs I got the last time. Now I have to figure out how to melt all the TMJ ones I picked up, hope I don't have to hit each one with a hammer or some thing. Thy didn't have them the last time I had I was getting range scrap.

Teddy (punchie)
07-12-2016, 03:48 AM
Well sound like a nice time , fun at range and meet some interesting shooters. Happy B -Day !!

lightman
07-12-2016, 07:14 AM
Happy Birthday! It sounds like you had a nice day at the range. Good on you for sharing your gear with those other shooters. It sounds like you helped them to having a good day at the range too!

Thumbcocker
07-13-2016, 08:46 AM
It is always fun to see the looks when you pull up to the rifle range with just a handgun case.

DerekP Houston
07-13-2016, 09:53 AM
Dang Happy birthday and congrats! Sounds like a great trip to the range, and you came home with more money in brass than you probably spent reloading :). Win win in my book.


"your hitting it with that!!!" That look was worth the trip!! :bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2:

Best part right there!!

WFO2
07-14-2016, 04:03 AM
Luck or otherwise good shootin .

Rustyleee
07-14-2016, 04:40 AM
Happy Birthday! I hope you got a nice cake too.

facetious
07-16-2016, 03:07 AM
Thank you for all the nice words. No cake but did pick up a pie.

mold maker
07-16-2016, 09:41 AM
It is always fun to see the looks when you pull up to the rifle range with just a handgun case.

Even more fun when they realize you shot better groups than they did, and did it with home made ammo.

facetious
07-17-2016, 05:34 PM
Well it's back to work tomorrow. So much for for my week a way from reality and back to the grind stone of real life.

But I did find that the Hogue stock did feel good and fit much better then the pachmayr's that I had on it. Can't even get a good grip on it with the stock ones. Now I kind of got the bug to try playing with top end loads in it again at longer range. Was thinking of trying some of that MP300 and seating the 358156 out to the bottom crimp groove to tell them apart and get a bit more powder room.

The .308 disappointed me some, I had hoped it would have don better. I have seen that a lot of guy post of using loads that are a lot less then the starting loads in the lyman book. I was using 20grs of 4227 One less then the starting load in the book but see some post of using down around 18grs. The LBT is a 170gr that was one of the ones that he made from a pound cast. With Herco it would drop them in to one hole at 50yrd's till your trigger finger got tired. I want to do a ladder test working down to see if it gets any better, just have to see how low I can go. I would like it to be able to get to about 1800's. I think of it like a hot .357 in a rifle.

The .223 has been a love hate thing from the beginning. I was at a gun show had some cash and the background check thing was going to start for rifles and it was kind of a impulse thing and it went home with me. But it has never grow'n on me like the .308. I like the .223 but when every one is talking about one inch groups and I'm shooting ten shots and throwing out the five "flyers" to get a 2.5 inch group It is hard to get to excited. I was looking it over and can see where it is touching the stock. I have sanded the for arm so it is not touching but looking at the recoil lug I can see were it is touching and it dos not look like it is hitting the face of the lug. I can't see were it hitting going back but You can see were it hits pushing down. I am tempted to try some epoxy bedding on the lug and see if it helps or not. There is not a lot of bearing surface in the front, only about 1/4 inch. I was wondering if i could fill the void in front and behind the recoil lug with epoxy putty to get a more solid bed. Maybe I could use the putty to bed it with or fill with it and follow it with regular epoxy. Or get one of those Boyd thumb hole stocks and forget the boat paddle stock all together.

But it is back to reality and I am sure that thy swapped out the old grind stone and put in a new coarser one while I was gone. I all ready had the CEL light come on in the car and changed out the egr purge valve. Fifty buck down the rat hole. And having dropped a wrench under the car I got to see that the boots on the axles are shot. So now I can look in to getting that fixed. Damm I just saw were there is water leaking around the base of the toilet. Some thing else to fix. Well back to reality.


P.S. Nothing like reality to ruin a good time.