subsonic
04-01-2012, 10:58 AM
I just wanted to share some fun my step-son and I had yesterday. He's 15 and just got his driver's permit.
We took his Christmas present, a .44 SBH out for the second time. The first time he had it out was just after Christmas and we only shot a handfull of rounds due to the cold.
I've loaded up a bunch of .44spls for him to get comfortable with, using mostly stuff I have laying around. I had a box of Hornady 240gr swaged SWC and put those in mixed SPL cases over 7gr of Rex 3. I also loaded a few cases with 44-250-K that I cast with the same charge when I ran out of the Hornadys. We are working through the Hornadies first.
It only took a handfull of rounds to get it sighted in, and I found that it was still a about an inch high at 7yds with the rear sight bottomed out. I'm thinking 200gr Lee boolits over a little more Rex 3 to get it zeroed in.
I like starting people at 7yds for the instant feedback and elimination of "gun" errors. I don't think I've ever shot a handgun that would not put all shots touching or close to it at 7yds with ANY load. This gun and load was no different.
We warmed up with my MKII. He was having some trigger "speed" issues at first. He has shot a decent amount with that pistol, but generally, being a male teenager, does not listen when I tell him it's HOW he's pulling the trigger that's making the shots go where they are. Heck, everyone I've tried to help doesn't beleive it, so no surprise here. After he was grouping low and to the right (lefty) I told him to put his finger on the trigger and let me pull it to fire the gun when he told me the sights were on the target. He said "now" and I added pressure until the gun fired. This shot landed right where the red dot was, in the middle of the bullseye and the lightbulb went on for him. I told him to pull the trigger at the same SPEED and with the same method of adding pressure until the gun SURPRISES him by going off and he put several more rounds almost touching the one we fired together. Then we switched to the SBH. His first shots were decent, but by the end of the cylinder, he was snatching the trigger.
The next cylinder had only 2 rounds in it and he saw for himself what he was doing and put another cylinder full into a tidy group with one flyer.
We moved over to a 6" plate rack at 10yds. The first time through he hit four of six. I reminded him to slow down and be careful with the trigger and he ran six in a row for a couple of passes.
While we were there, I found a new game to play. On the cowboy range there are metal frames to hang steel silhouettes of animals. In front of these for some reason is usually a large pile of shotgun shells. I rested 10 shotgun shells across the top of the frame and tried to blast them with my MKII with the TRS25 red-dot on it while standing. This is a tough game and will teach you some things. I did not clean them easily, but after 20rds they were all on the ground, usually not requiring all 20 shots and sometimes getting 2 for one like in bowling (cheating). I paced it off as 18 steps. This is a good time! :bigsmyl2:
We took his Christmas present, a .44 SBH out for the second time. The first time he had it out was just after Christmas and we only shot a handfull of rounds due to the cold.
I've loaded up a bunch of .44spls for him to get comfortable with, using mostly stuff I have laying around. I had a box of Hornady 240gr swaged SWC and put those in mixed SPL cases over 7gr of Rex 3. I also loaded a few cases with 44-250-K that I cast with the same charge when I ran out of the Hornadys. We are working through the Hornadies first.
It only took a handfull of rounds to get it sighted in, and I found that it was still a about an inch high at 7yds with the rear sight bottomed out. I'm thinking 200gr Lee boolits over a little more Rex 3 to get it zeroed in.
I like starting people at 7yds for the instant feedback and elimination of "gun" errors. I don't think I've ever shot a handgun that would not put all shots touching or close to it at 7yds with ANY load. This gun and load was no different.
We warmed up with my MKII. He was having some trigger "speed" issues at first. He has shot a decent amount with that pistol, but generally, being a male teenager, does not listen when I tell him it's HOW he's pulling the trigger that's making the shots go where they are. Heck, everyone I've tried to help doesn't beleive it, so no surprise here. After he was grouping low and to the right (lefty) I told him to put his finger on the trigger and let me pull it to fire the gun when he told me the sights were on the target. He said "now" and I added pressure until the gun fired. This shot landed right where the red dot was, in the middle of the bullseye and the lightbulb went on for him. I told him to pull the trigger at the same SPEED and with the same method of adding pressure until the gun SURPRISES him by going off and he put several more rounds almost touching the one we fired together. Then we switched to the SBH. His first shots were decent, but by the end of the cylinder, he was snatching the trigger.
The next cylinder had only 2 rounds in it and he saw for himself what he was doing and put another cylinder full into a tidy group with one flyer.
We moved over to a 6" plate rack at 10yds. The first time through he hit four of six. I reminded him to slow down and be careful with the trigger and he ran six in a row for a couple of passes.
While we were there, I found a new game to play. On the cowboy range there are metal frames to hang steel silhouettes of animals. In front of these for some reason is usually a large pile of shotgun shells. I rested 10 shotgun shells across the top of the frame and tried to blast them with my MKII with the TRS25 red-dot on it while standing. This is a tough game and will teach you some things. I did not clean them easily, but after 20rds they were all on the ground, usually not requiring all 20 shots and sometimes getting 2 for one like in bowling (cheating). I paced it off as 18 steps. This is a good time! :bigsmyl2: