Good day at the range

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Buckshot, Larry and I went to the range today. The range we went to is at about 4500 feet elevation and it is normally a decent place to shoot complete with covered benches. Today however I knew something was wrong when we arrived and I saw that there were no shooters at place where we usually shoot. We had to got to a much less desirable range with no cover and mind you it was over 100 degrees today. The benches at this site or very small and for some reason , square. We decided to shoot anyway. I had my trusty ,06 and my Pedersoli Sharps in 45.70. Buckshot had one of those less desirable Italian copies of the Sharps made by Uncle Poody's Plow Works.and a rolling block made by , I believe that famous Italian gun maker Guissipe Linguine. Buckshot asked if we wanted to have an informal match. I am not sure what informal means. Maybe no white tie and tails. At any rate, even though I had not shot off hand for a long time, I said sure. Well to make a long story short, I put the whup to him. Now mind you I did not gloat or belittle his effort. After all we should give encouragement to those less gifted. In fact I told him that with diligent practice and good coaching he may someday qualify for the special Olympics. Perhaps the "C" or "D" division. I am attaching pictures of us at the range. I am standing to Buckshot's left demonstrating the winning form I used to put the whup a-- on him. Yep, all things considered, it was a pretty good day.

[RobS]

At over a 100 degrees in the sun.......................I can only imagine the fun..........where are your head bands to keep the sweat out of your eyes??? It is never the less fun to shoot with good friends. :drinks:

[Buckshot]

...............Whoooeee! Who IS that pussle gutted rascal in the blue shirt? But photo's DO make one look, er ............... chubbier. Yes, friend Gopher Slayer did open a can of whoop-butt on me today. In my own defence my alibi was that I had a front apurture in place that was too small, allowing no white to show around the bull. I have to add that while he beat me by a tidy 5 points, his winning score wasn't such a big deal compared to what we USED to shoot when we were shooting the Burrito Invitational every Tuesday. But then, what does that say about my score?

I think that 10 rounds we shot was the most ammo GS sent downrange consecutively. The rest of the time he was picking up brass :drinks: It's a constant amazement to me how much brass people leave behind. I could have picked up a grocery bag full of 45ACP alone, however I manfully desisted but GS has this disease so bad he speaks poorly about himself for doing it but always leaves with bags full. Truth to tell, I see more of the seat of his pants when we're at the range then I do the rest of him [smilie=1:

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

[9.3X62AL]

Are y'all hitting the range every Tuesday again? If so, I'll come south and join ya a couple times a month.

I hit the range today locally, waiting until 5 P.M. with the 105* temps we had. It wasn't bad at all, and got to watch the sun slip behind the Sierras as I was calling it a day. The 32-20 and 25-20 Marlin 94s got the duty today, and the 32-20 shot VERY well with some warmish loads--#311316 @ .313" prompted by 11.0 grains of 2400. A ten-shotter went 1.5" at 50 yards, and another shaded it to about 1.4". Definite promise there. I ran some of the RCBS-85-CB flatnoses through the 25-20 ahead of 3.8 grains of Trail Boss, and they stayed inside 2" at 50, but not quite to the 32-20's standards.

On the way home, a jackrabbit made the egregious error of crossing Brown Road about 75 yards ahead of the truck. He was quite cool-breeze casual about it, too--being dusk, and thinking I had blown off all my ammo at the range, he just kinda loped along across the pavement, and okey-doked his way about 40 yards beyond the shoulder before setting down. That's insolence, pure and simple. I stopped--got out--and grabbed the Marlin 25-20 and levered one of the RCBS loads into the chamber, and slid a second one into the magazine in case of a charge. Jacks can be unpredictable, you know.

He hadn't moved a lick, just sitting there in the open about 50 yards off the muzzle. I placed the front sight bead right on his near shoulder through the Lyman aperture's ghost ring (screw-in aperture removed), and squeezed off. Pop/THWOCK, and over he went. DRT, and not a kick made. A quick post-mortem showed the round hit right where I sighted, and though only running about 1100 FPS the flatpoint sailed right through, shredding the far shoulder more than I would have expected. Must have hit and shattered a bone or 2. I believe this to be the first actual critter I've taken with the plain-base RCBS 25er, and it didn't disappoint.

[bruce drake]

Not saying anything but is that fella in a purple shirt related to Jeff in NZ? I cant' believe the Color Purple is making a comeback in this country!

And Al, you contributing to the Great American Desert Drive-by Ritual? That poor jack was just pausing while on his way back to the burrow and his loving family of 13 from a long day of chewing on creosote bushes. And you ruthlessly proceeded to smash a high-velocity lead bullet through both his shoulders!

Nice range report from both posters!

:)

Bruce

[9.3X62AL]

Ah, Bruce--guilt, the gift that keeps on giving. Nice try. In an ordered universe, the jackrabbit has two roles--

1) Rifle and handgun target

2) Coyote chow

The first calling dovetails nicely with the second, wouldn't you say? One of those yin/yang relationships. Or something.

[bruce drake]

Al,

I see you have achieved a nirvanic balance in your life now. If I see you the desert in the future, I'll just have to picture you in a brown robe and sounding like Alec Guinness in the future (Go Obi Wan!).

I was wondering if you brought it home for jack stew...

[9.3X62AL]

Oh, right--the hot desert sun just can't help but make ya into into a mystic. The brown wool robes are just the fashion statement for 106*, too. Way esoteric. Very high-concept.

I could never get my mind around jackrabbit hasenpfeffer. Probably about as tender as a truck tire sidewall, and not half as tasty.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

Jack rabbit is good! Soak in salt water a few days first!

Really is tasty, I eat more jack rabbit than cottontails, tender too!

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s220/ShawnTVT/Guns/Hunting019.jpg
This the Jacks backstrap.

[looseprojectile]

is a fine figure of a man. [ resembles me].
Gopher slayer. Don't you eat?
I see Buckshot as trying to give the less gifted Italian gunmakers a place to sell their wares. I respect him for that.
Always seems to me that it is much more fun to shoot in the heat or cold if you have someone to comiserate with. Most of the time I have to shoot alone.
Therefore there is no one to back up my claims of the one ragged hole groups or to refute them for that matter.[smilie=s:
I'll bet on Buckshot next time.

Life is good

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Actually Looseprojectile , I eat a lot, in fact I just polished off a large Mexican dinner and had a Snicker ice cream bar for desert. Very tasty.

[Buckshot]

.............9.3 naw we're not hitting the range every Tuesday since it's 80 miles round trip, costs $14 to shoot, and compared to Inland Fish & Game it's pitifull. Huge, but pitifull. Besides I can only handle so much of Larry. Not OUR Larry but Larry the RSO. He does a fine job a an RSO, but talk??!! If no one was around he'd have a 30 minute conversation with a rock to keep from exploding. You can tell the people who know him because they'll all scatter like a covey of Quail if they see him heading in their direction.

I have no doubt he's shot a lot of guns in his day but they probably all belonged to someone else, or else people have told him about their's and he's now over time taken that as his own experience, in his own mind. We've all learned it's in our best interest to simply not make eye contact with him, as that cuts down on the conversation some.

LongPoint ............ All Right!! "Tuesday at the Range" I love it. Any way you guys could get a video of that for all the world to see? Well maybe that's not such a good idea after all.

You remember those posts eh? :drinks: They were a lot of fun and we had a good 12 year run of a (what I think) fairly unique experience. Five to six guys, all boolit casters, all experimental reloaders, all having an affinity for the same types of rifles, all meeting at the range EVERY Tuesday to shoot, cure the world's problems over lunch, and then our little weekly $1 entry cast boolit match. What fond memories :violin:

A video? It'd be kinda boring I'm thinking if Gopher Slayer was in it as it's a kind of 3 way race. You have to wonder which is going to happen first? He's gonna finish his trigger squeeze, the Second Coming, or if his primer will die of old age. :mrgreen:

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

[Wayne Smith]

.............Besides I can only handle so much of Larry. Not OUR Larry but Larry the RSO. He does a fine job a an RSO, but talk??!! If no one was around he'd have a 30 minute conversation with a rock to keep from exploding. You can tell the people who know him because they'll all scatter like a covey of Quail if they see him heading in their direction.

I have no doubt he's shot a lot of guns in his day but they probably all belonged to someone else, or else people have told him about their's and he's now over time taken that as his own experience, in his own mind. We've all learned it's in our best interest to simply not make eye contact with him, as that cuts down on the conversation some.

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

What a change from around here. Our RSO's don't talk about their experiences 'cause they can't. If you want to know what the true capability of your gun is you give it to one of them to shoot. They are mostly retirees out of SEAL Team Six. Standup guys who have my utmost respect. At the range periodically are a retired Admiral and ex sub driver and another ex sub-driver.

[1Shirt]

For GS, Being an old yankee, am reminded of the old yankee sayin that "even a blind hog occaisionally finds an acorn!"
1Shirt!:coffee:

[a.squibload]

Hate to butt in here, but isn't that shoulder shot an awful waste of meat?

You made me hungry again, where's that snickers...

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

Ain't much more meat on the front of a Jack than on a cottontail . . . I don't bother with it usually . . . Jacks are all dark meat . . . I shoot them because they are there!
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s220/ShawnTVT/Guns/Hunting014.jpg


[smilie=s:

[leadman]

Benz, you've been out in the sun toooooo long!LOL . I have even made jerky out of jack. Guys at work thought it was good until I told them what it was.

Took some smoked fish into work one day and passed it around. One guy was on his second helping when he asked what it was. Told him it was carp (it was) and went over and threw up in the trash can!!

Those flat nosed bullets do a great job on animals.

Glad you guys got out in spite of the heat. Was 109' when I was at the range Thursday.