Bring the pain

Long time no see.  My new pad doesn't have internet or cell coverage, so I'm in the stone age until I can get things sorted out.  On top of that I've been moving things, emptying boxes, and working my ass off in between.  There will be more blog delays, but hopefully not as long as this last time.

***

I finally got to do the first significant shooting yesterday since the move.  I say significant because I shoot rimfire off the front porch, but yesterday I put the first rounds through the .338 Win Mag, and made a good bit of noise.  What neighbors I may have in the surrounding area know I'm here.  To get the beast online, I picked up some steel Weaver rings to mount the beater Simmons 3-9 that I had sitting around.  It had been mounted to a muzzle loader at one time, so I figured it would take the brutal kick from the .338WM.  This setup will work during load development until I can put better glass and mounts on it.


First thing I'm going to say is that the concept of a lightweight magnum rifle is absurd.  I'm no pussy when it comes to magnum rifles; I was slaying critters with a 7mm Magnum on a regular basis before I hit puberty, so I know all about opposite and equal reactions.  Lately though it's become very trendy to have a pencil-thin barreled rifle with a featherweight composite stock chambered in a heavy recoiling belted magnum rifle under the asinine conclusion that it will be "carried a lot and shot very little," or "when I have to use this, I won't even notice the recoil!"

Well, hoist the BullShit flag, me hearties, and set sail for the Isle of Ghostah Reconfanboi!  We're going to plunder it for all it's worth and burn it to the ground!

Okay, what we're talking about here is a rifle that's so light it's comfortable to carry for days in the field, like you would to go hunting; and, presumably, since it's chambered in a magnum cartridge it's going to be fired in fear/anger at lions, tigers, or bears, or at the very least elk or moose, which aren't cheap to hunt.  So your telling me that you're going to take these .300, .338, .358, .458 Winchester Magnum "mountain guns," which weigh MAYBE 8 lbs. fully loaded with a scope, out to hunt either a once-in-a-lifetime creature with a $5,000 tag, or a monster bear with teeth and claws that will kill you in a moment, and you're going stake it all on your ability to shoot a rifle that recoils like a donkey punch to the soul?!?  Bad idea, hoss.  Bad idea.

Consider that when you're hunting "in the field," (DUUURRRHH!!!  When people say that I envision them in full Fudd attire, with their grey socks pulled up to their knees, wearing a fishing vest and big brimmed hat) you're likely to not be standing square to your target with the perfect cheekweld and the stock firmly in the pocket of the shoulder.  If you've ever settled for an ad hoc rest on a log, twisted in a precarious position so you can get that shot off at a deer, or taken a snap shot at game with a badly mounted gun you know that it's highly likely that the shot is going to hurt.  I've had a .243 Winchester bring tears to my eyes when I didn't have it mounted right, so what do you think is going to happen with something bigger?  I sold a Winchester Model 70 chambered in .300 Win Mag once that was one of these super lightweight guns, because she was a rowdy bitch and I wanted nothing more to do with her.  That thing was punishing to shoot, and because I shot it in "field" positions and not from a bench I knew I would never be a great shot with it.  It kicked way too hard and sooner or later I would develop a flinch (I have a video of me shooting it, but I can't load it right now).  Now though these guns are everywhere, and I think people are kidding themselves when they say they can shoot them when it counts.

My .338WM came with two boxes of 225 grain Hornady SST ammo, seven rounds of which had been fired.  A once over the gun brought me to the conclusion that these seven rounds were the only ones sent down the bore.  Let me tell you, after every shot with this thing I had to wait for my thoughts to return to my skull, like when you smack a video camera and it jacks the picture up for a couple of seconds.  If a bear was charging me I had better hit it well with the first shot, and it would probably be better if that round was the first I had ever fired through it, lest I fear the recoil more than the beast.  I shot twelve rounds getting it sighted in and confirming my zero, and the scope kissed my face with every shot.  The very next purchase for this thing is going to be the heaviest stock made, and I'm going to bed it to the action with lead.  Seriously, this thing should have a clevis at the end of the barrel to mount a boat anchor to arrest the recoil.

Keep in mind that I was shooting casually, from a relaxed position, and not snapping the gun up and getting off a quick shot.  People who say they can handle rifles like this (without developing a flinch) are full of it.  With heavy recoiling rifles you have to accept the pain before every shot -- that's a given.  You have to wait that extra second for your inner self's pitty party to end and the moment of flinch to pass, then you accept that it's going to hurt for a second while you make the shot count.  That doesn't happen when you fear permanent damage from the gun -- with the 5th shot yesterday I thought for a second that I might have cracked a rib.  Yeah, ouch.

Anyways, I have dies and brass on the way, but I have to have it delivered to my brother because there's no way a UPS driver is going down my creepy driveway.  I'm going to try to launch a 250 grain Berger hybrid at 2,800 fps without destroying the gun.  Where I live now, I can shoot basically anything I want in about 270 degrees around the house, out to 100 yards under limited conditions, so by this time next year I should be a handloading savant.  Unless I break my shoulder with the .338WM.

State of the CTone Address

I'm alive.  Sorry I haven't been by anyone's blog in a week or so; life has me tied up right now and it's going to be weird for a little while longer.  Work has me commuting through DC traffic aaaaaaand Baltimore traffic, so I'm averaging six to seven hours in the car on top of a nineish hour workday.  If you see a shaved head dude screaming his head off in traffic, red faced with spit flying out, that's me, and it's best to leave me to my grievance and not make eye contact.

Some great news is I've found a place to live for the time being that's perfect perfect perfect in every way.  God has a way with coming through at the 11th hour with perfect solutions, and He doesn't disappoint.  There's not much to say about it other than it's close to where I am now and my kids better get used to playing outside -- it's about time for that.  Yo Gabba Gabba can take a hike.  To give you an indicator of how perfect this place is, this is me in the back yard several years ago:


My reloading addiction is about to go full tilt!  The local critters better polish up on their camouflage too; there haven't been any coyotes seen there in awhile, but I'm certainly going to find out if there are any within calling range.

I haven't had time to anything with the 338wm project, but I did get to fire my new AR upper.  It's going to need a little tweaking in the rail system, but I think it's going to be good to go.  I had many stoppages within the first twenty rounds or so -- bolt overrides, double feeds, bolt not locking back -- but the bolt was almost completely dry, and with some 10w-40 it was running like a sewing machine.  I did manage to ruin both of the Nevco steel plates; I knew better than to shoot them inside of 100 yards, but they were irresistable and I didn't have much cardboard handy.  I'll eat them up with the 338wm at distance when I get that up and running, and pick up two more for handgunnery.

I'll stop by and say hi when I can.  I hope everyone is having a smashing time with life right now!

Blog shoot

I got to meet with Andy, MSgt B, David, Nancy and her Sweet Daughter, and AGirl for some range time in on Saturday.  Each of them are genuinely friendly people, and I wish I had the time to hang out with them more often.  Interestingly enough, all of them were armed to the teeth, but yet I strangely feel at peace around these folks!  Who would have thunk it?!?

From the rounds I put downrange, I learned that Sigs are frightenly accurate.  MSgt B's Sig Pro and David's P239 and P226 will stack shotholes on top of each other at ten yards.  The only other Sig I've ever fired in life is my brother's P225, and it's the same way.  I got to shoot a pistol with a red-dot sight for the first time -- Andy's Ruger MkIII.  Saaaaawheeet shooting with a nice trigger.  Also, Imma gonna have to get me a .357 Magnum soon; MSgt B calls his the Snubby from Hell, and I would partly agree: I've shot .357 Magnums on several occasions, and none of them handled as well as the SP101.  Ruger did it right with that one.  The Hell part would be on the receiving end, as the sound and fireball that thing makes is fierce.  Who's going to stand around and shoot it out with you when they hear and see all that mayhem directed towards them?

For fun I brought out the HK P30, a postwar Walther PPK bond gun in the mighty .32 Auto, as well as the Kahr PM9.  I get a kick out of watching people shoot the P30's LEM trigger for the first time. At first they think the gun is broken or something, and it takes a magazine or two through it before they get the hang of it. My brother tried the P30 out yesterday and it took him about a mag and a half to get it down.  For folks who haven't shot the PPK and PM9 combo, it's fun to get them to shoot the Walther first because it's an all-steel gun in a wimpy cartridge that doesn't kick, and then watch them pick up a 14 oz 9mm blaster with a 3" barrel.  BIG difference!  Only about 10% of the people that shoot the PM9 actually like it, and the folks who do are fond of a double action revolver trigger or don't have a lot of trigger time on striker fired guns like Glock or M&Ps.  It's cool to see the advancement in firearm technology by comparing the two:



The Walther is a touch bigger and weighs more, yet fires a smaller round. I do appreciate the machining along the top of the Walther that reduces glare, but it's funny to me that it has such tiny sights.

Unfortunately Nancy and Sweet Daughter had to roll out without getting to shoot; there was some confusion on my part because for some reason I thought they were going to meet back up with us afterwords, but we ended up shooting for over an hour.  I didn't mean to be rude and not say goodbye!

We all went out for coffee afterwords and hung out for an hour or so, and then I went home.  I had been quietly nursing a headache from the moment I woke up on Saturday, and it intensified on the drive back home to the point that I was nauseous when I hit the house.  I downed two Goodies Headache powders and took a 30 minute snooze, at which point I had an allergic reaction to the buffered aspirin in the Goodies, so I downed a bunch of my allergy meds which jacked me up for the rest of the day.  Fortunately I got to take another nap and dream about shooting Sigs and Rugers!  Time to save up!

To infinity and beyond your target

This weekend I was able to sneak out at nap time for a little shooting therapy. I did some load development for my mom's Ruger LCP which went well; I tested out my ammunition weatherproofing skills which also went well, and I started to do some weak hand only (WHO) drills because I hadn't done them in a long time, but that part came to a screeching halt due to safety concerns.

I was shooting next to my brother's fiance' (WHOOOOHOOOOO!!!! Congrats, y'all!!!), ringing the Nevco steel target while shooting with my left hand when I noticed someone walking along a path on the top of the hill from my target. All I could see was from his jaw up, and he didn't seem to have any idea that two people were blasting away not 150 yards from him. The hilltop is part of what used to be a massive dairy farm surrounding my parent's property, but has recently in the past few years fallen into the hands of the Historical [Hysterical] Society; they made it into a Civil War historical thingy where there's a pathway a couple of miles long with information plaques every quarter mile or so. You can't do anything with the land that I know of except walk along the path, and that path happens to take you along a 15 degree angle above the place where I've been shooting for 25 years. It's a rare occasion that anyone actually walks it, but this weekend it happened. We packed up and quit shooting for the day because I couldn't tell where the guy went.

Thinking about it, I've had this very thing happen to me on four other occasions over the last 8 years or so:

- Once while shooting on a friend's private property in the middle of 25 wooded acres, a buddy of his jumped on a 4-wheeler with my friend's 6 year old daughter and went trail riding, and the trail brought them directly behind the dirt backstop we were shooting into. They knew we were shooting before they took off, but they didn't know where they were when they were behind the backstop. My friend called a cease fire and we quit for the day.

- Same friend and I were shooting rifles at 300 yards on a gas-line in the middle of a big piece of property in another county. I was in the middle of a string of fire from a .300 Winchester Magnum when some kids on three 4-wheelers drove into the woods about 200 yards behind the target. I was on the scope and couldn't see them, but my friend called a cease fire and we quit for the day because we couldn't verify where they went.

- Again, same friend and I were shooting on a big piece of privately owned property that was going to become a subdivision one day in the near future. We were shooting rifles at a 350 yard target, I was on the scope touching off 308 Winchester rounds when my buddy called a cease fire. Some curious moron with his young son drove his truck onto the property and drove right up to the target to see what was going on. His truck appeared from behind a hill about 100 feet to the left of the target. They sat in the truck for awhile and then drove off. It just about gave me a heart attack.

- Shooting on a power line on a huge piece of property in the middle of nowhere, I was spotting bullet trace for a buddy of mine while he was shooting a 30.06 at a big target at 650 yards. Right before his 3rd shot, I saw a man's face appear at the top of the target in the distance -- it was four men riding on two 4-wheelers, and they were about another 600 yards behind the target. I yelled cease fire right at the shot, which went low and into the dirt in front of the target. The men rode past us a few minutes later, but we still decided to quit for the day.


Keep in mind that these events happened over the course of about 8 years, and represent only a fraction of a percent of times when I've been shooting and nothing happened. One theme all of them have in common is that the backstop we were shooting into was certain, but the people who appeared were in the direction of fire. Rule #4: Beware of your target and what is beyond it -- this rule is really two rules in one; and unless you break it and another safety rule, you won't shoot anyone. It does help to have someone not shooting to be a general lookout so that if there's a safety issue it can be dealt with quickly. It pays to be observant!

Range Report

I left work on Friday and headed straight to the range to shoot. I wanted to try out the latest batch of handloads in the P30. So how did it pan out? Well, as usual I clicked off five factory Speer Gold Dots, 124 grain +P, just to get another data point under higher temperatures (81 degrees), and my velocity was 1,191 fps, with an extreme spread of 34 fps. A nine round group of my 124 grain Gold Dot handloads gave me - 1,191 fps and an extreme spread of 24. I can't do any better than that.

The tenth handloaded round went into denim clad water jugs to find out if they do as well as the factory rounds I water tested, and I don't have a picture but the expanded bullet looks identical, and measured almost the exact same -- .55" at the widest point. Denim has a way of slowing the expansion process a bit, but it doesn't seem to be able to stop a Gold Dot.




Also, the handloads shot to point-of-aim at 25 yards and 50 yards, just like the factory rounds, so no sight adjustment is necessary. Something I've never tried before until a few days ago is sealing the primer and case mouth, and I did it because CCI/Speer seals the primer/case mouth on the Gold Dot line. I've read that it doesn't make a bit of difference in real world testing, but I found out from my testing that it certainly does. I submerged three rounds each of non-sealed and sealed handloads for five days; one round of each tip up, tip down, and on its side, and I had two of the non-sealed rounds give me lower velocities than normal (801 and 851 fps), and one of the sealed rounds gave me 1,018 fps. Since the sealed rounds were my very first attempt and my technique sucks, I'm giving it another try against factory Gold Dots to see if I can match or beat their standard.

While I was there my brother and I ran another 250 rounds of Federal 115 grain loads through the P30, and he shot his M&P Pro at the plates. That puts my trouble-free round count at 1,798 rounds, and my brother's somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 rounds he reports. Plastic guns are super reliable these days.

Saturday I was home with just me and my two youngest sons, basically kidless for me, and I took the time to wash approximately 4,000 9mm cases in preparation for some bulk reloading. I've decided to cast 147 grain bullets for this gun, so that's going to be underway here very shortly.



I also got a chance to make a double epi-pen ankle holster, a picture of which I didn't get a chance to upload yet. My wife halfway mocks me on the matter, considering what a huge dork that I am, but I'm not out to win any fashion shows and I remind her that I am now carrying both epi-pens with me at all times. My next move is to make that medical ID bracelet I've been bitching about.

That's what I've got for the moment. Anyone else have a ranger report to share?

When it all goes bad

It has been said that practice makes perfect. I agree, and note that some people practice perfect, meaning that they practice things in an environment that doesn't include the chance that something might go wrong. When it comes to defensive shooting and the practice thereof, it's helpful to learn to shoot not only while standing upright with a functioning weapon, but also while moving, walking, crouching; while kneeling and prone; on your back and on your face; with your right hand and your left. The reason is because you may wind up in a precarious possition if ou are ever unfortunate enough to be attacked, and having the skillset to defend yourself like this may save you.

Another aspect that I've rarely ever seen practiced outside of the military is failure drills. Because, if you haven't heard, firearms can fail you at the moment of truth, and being able to deal with it could potentially be helpful. What do you do if your trigger mechanism fails, or a badguy's round disables your weapon? Hopefully you draw another gun! If you do that than you're not only a big dork, but you're a prepared big dork, and I like you. If you don't, than I hope you've tried to incorporate some failure drills into your range session so you have some idea of what to do if you draw your weapon and the slide and barrel stay in your holster.

I love GoooooooooolllllldddddDots

I was fortunate enough to escape the melee at my house for a quick range session to test the next batch of handloads for the P30, and I have settled on a load. But first, check out the expanded Gold Dot that was shot into water jugs, the second one from left:

The one furthest to the left is a 147 grain HST, and the 124 grain Gold Dot expanded just as much - .708" at the widest point, and I didn't bother to get the average because it was so uniform. The third from the left is the same 124 grain Gold Dot bullet that I fired through denim, and thinking about it now so is the HST. The bullet to the right is a .45 caliber 230 grain Remington Golden Saber that I recovered from a bucket of damp dirt that I was firing into a couple of years ago. I haven't put calipers on it yet, but to my calibrated eye its expanded diameter is the same as two of the 9 millie bullets sitting next to it. Here's the back end where you can see what I'm talking about:

Now you can see why, with modern self defense loads, the 9mm performs in the same league as the .45 ACP. When bullets for the most popular defensive handgun cartridges - 9mm, .40 S&W, .357 Sig, and .45 ACP - are all calibrated to expand while penetrating to the same depth in ballistic gelatin, why not go with the round that has the least recoil and most capacity? It makes sense. If we were all stuck with ball ammo, mind you, I would chose the .45 ACP every time. That's a bit different.

As far as the Gold Dot handload I've settled on, the 6.6 grains of VihtaVuori wins the day again with a 1.692" five-shot group at an average velocity of 1,193 fps and a 17 fps extreme spread. It matches up close with the factory Gold Dots that gave me a 1.565" five-shot group at an average velocity of 1,182 fps and a 27 fps extreme spread. The last time the 6.6 grain VV charge gave me a 1.421" five-shot group, so I know this isn't a fluke. I'm also not going to dicker with the seating depth as I'm quite happy with inch-and-a-half 25 yard groups from a sub-compact length barrel. Also, I have to workat it to get that much powder settled in the case so the bullet can seat down all the way.

My brother also put some rounds through his M&P9C while the chronograph was up and the sun was shining. He thought the 147 grain HST +P rounds in his gun were recoiling a little excessive, and after shooting it I have to agree. You could feel a hitch in the slide when it went back, like it had some overtravel and was going back further than it should. Fortunately, the 124 grain +P Gold Dots did well in his gun, so he's switched to those under the promise of a steady supply of free ammo since I can make them so cheap.

Also of some interest, I broke down and added some duct tape to my home made appendix holster this weekend:

To go the extra mile on my trashiness, I couldn't locate my roll of duct tape and, because I was in such a hurry, as always, I had to use the duct tape from my Glock AIWB holster. This time though I'm using some soft gel and a synthetic shammy cloth to pad the holster, and I'm content with it at this point.

Reloading Range Report

This weekend I started on load development for the P30, and it went great. I started out by researching all the load data that I could find in books and online and then picked a place to start. Considering I'm using VihtaVuori 3N37 powder, I checked out Lapua's loading data for 9mm, and their test barrel is 4", which is close to the P30's 3.85" barrel. Lapua got velocities higher than I did though.

I'm using once fired nickle plated CCI/Speer Gold Dot cases that came from factory Speer Gold Dot ammo, which is my carry load, and which were fired in my gun. I'm also using the exact same bullet -- Speer Gold Dot 124 grain, part number 3998, and I'm touching the powder column off with a CCI small pistol primer, the same one that Speer uses in their factory load. Even my overall length is the same as the factory ammo: 1.129". Exact same case, length, bullet, and primer; the only difference between my handloads and the factory Gold Dots that I have in my gun right now is the powder, for all I know; there's no way of telling what CCI stokes the Gold Dot line with.

Disclaimer: Do not try to duplicate my load data. If you want to do the same thing, you must must MUST start at a low powder charge and work your way up, and my firm advice is to consult with a loading manual first to know where to start. I did, and I measured the water weight capacity for the cases that I used that have been fired in the chamber in my gun and plugged that into Quick Load, which predicted the performance of these handloads and assured me that shooting them would be blissful.

I loaded the cases with VV 3N37 powder from 6 to 6.8 grains in .2 grain increments, five rounds of each charge. I was shooting off sandbags on a heavy bench at a range of 25 yards, and I started out by firing a group of the factory 124 grain Gold Dots through the chronograph so I know what velocities I need to be working with. Here are my targets:



As you can see, the factory Gold Dots hover at just under 2", which is typical of this load in this gun from my past groups. As for the handloads, I'm liking what I see from the 6.4 and 6.6 grain charges; If you take away the one high-left flyer, the 6.4 grain charge yeilded a 1.194" group. If you check out my workup sheet below, you'll notice that the average velocity from the factory loads matches the velocity from those two charges, which I don't think is a coincidence.



Here's the breakdown:

Factory average is 1,169 fps
6 grain 3N37 average is 1,113 fps
6.2 grain 3N37 average is 1,142 fps
6.4 grain 3N37 average is 1,168 fps
6.6 grain 3N37 average is 1,174 fps
6.8 grain 3N37 average is 1,221 fps

Notice from the increasing velocities that the 6.4 and 6.6 grain charges are very close and don't jump as rapidly as the rest. This is an indicator of an accuracy "node", and it matches the factory ammo results. Now I'm going to do another test from 6.4 to 6.7 grains in .1 grain increments, and then follow that up with a seating depth test. Once I settle on a load, I've made up my mind that I'm going to use it as my carry load instead of the factory ammo. I'm also playing with the idea of Optimal Barrel Time, and now that I have some data I'm interested to see if I can predict the smallest groups from the next tests.

Some people frown on using carrying handloads in their defensive arm for fear of an overenthusiastic lawyer playing the "killer ammo" card if they're ever involved in a shooting. Whether that has merit or not is irrelevant to me, as I'm not building ammo with any more punch than the factory stuff. I'm using the exact same components and matching the velocity to the factory stuff, which cops all over the world use in their service weapons, but I'm looking at making my handloads more consistent and with better quality control than factory. If you look at the extreme spreads from these handloads, some of them being only 10 fps, and compare them to the factory extreme spread of 43 fps, you can see that my ammo is more consistent. Add to that that I personally handle each and every component, and personally measure each powder charge to the hundredth of a grain, and you can see why my quality control is much higher than mass produced ammo from the factory. Also keep in mind that modern hollow point bullets are callibrated to perform withing a very specific velocity window, and driving them faster than they're designed will result in poor performance. Read up on the 10mm Auto and .357 Sig cartridges to see how they drove bullets faster than they were designed, and the performance was poor.

After I finished my test, I dragged out the Ruger 10/22 to see how the Wolf Match ammo did. I was impressed. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, but I had one group that -- despite one called flyer -- shot the nine others into a hole the size of a pencil eracer at 50 yards. Sick! Here's my brother shooting it yesterday:



I'm going to have to take the 10/22 out again and do some more shooting with it. I'll be posting another P30 range report in the near future, hopefully.

Sharing is good

I've had these for awhile now, but only recently uploaded them to my photobucket account. These are targets that I made for various purposes, and they have 1 inch and/or 1/4" markings to help you measure the horrific groups from your shooting. I made them using GIMP -- that's the program I use to print them, and the lines subtend correctly. I'm not sure if they will print correctly from whatever garbage imaging software Microsoft puts on your computer these days, but when your priviledged 30 day trial is up, I recommend GIMP (it's free).

Click on the targets to make them bigger, and then save them. If that doesn't work out let me know and I'll try to modify them so they can be saved and printed.

Anyways, here's my favorite 100 yard rifle target:


The green diamonds make it hard to see your groups from a 9x optic, which for me is a good thing as I don't get all excited and blow my group with the last shot. Walking down to check the target is like opening a Christmas present (unless the groups suck, then I throw a fit).

Here's the same target in orange, which I can see the shot holes with a 9x scope:


Now, for those with high magnification optics and super accurate rifles, here's the same targets with smaller diamonds for you to miss:



I also have this one for 200+ yard shooting, and it can also double as a handgun target:


Lastly, I use this one as a handgun target to test different factory self-defense ammo:


If your printer is a hand-me-down from Adam and Eve that no longer prints magnificent colors, you can stick the orange dots from Wal-Mart on the diamonds, which helps a bunch.

Running late

I had a great time this Saturday at the blog shoot at the NRA range in Fairfax, Virginia. Though I've lived about an hour away most of my life, I've never been to the National Firearms Museum there; I consider anything North of Stafford, Virginia to be indian territory, so I rarely travel that far. Shooting at the range and browsing the museum with fellow gun bloggers was good to go, and I finally got to put faces to names/blogs:

My Muse shanked me

The Miller

In Search of the Tempestuous Sea

United Conservatives of Virginia (cargosquid)

Excels at Nothing (who I missed because I had to leave)

And also AJ and his wife

I wish I could have stayed for lunch, but I had friends driving up from Georgia to stay at my house for the weekend, and there were things that needed to get done around the house before they arrived. Fortunately, we all live relatively close (except for AJ, who drove down from New York, ouch!), so we can do a lunch or another shoot sometime in the future.

Testing. . . Testing

I finally managed to test some self defense loads through the Kahr PM9 this weekend. I've taken it to the range a half dozen times or so with that intent, but never got around to it. I tested the same four loads as I did for the P30.

Despite the little blaster's 10 yard accuracy, it is not for self defense at ranges of 25 yards or more; my five shot groups (if you can call them that) were tough to keep on a sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" paper with all of those loads, fired slowly off sandbags. I shot five of each, except the HSTs of which I fired ten. That is the load for that gun, which conveniently is the one for the Glock 26 as well. Perfect.

Here's a rundown on velocities out of the PM9's 3" barrel:

124 grain Speer Gold Dot +P
- 1,145
- 1,115
- 1,135
- 1,149
- 1,122
- Ave 1,133 fps

124 grain Remington Golden Saber Bonded +P
- 1,082
- 1,069
- 1,059
- 1,051
- 1,053
- Ave 1,062 fps

147 grain Winchester Ranger-T
- 942
- 934
- 928
- 916
- 910
- Ave 926 fps

147 grain Federal HST +P
- 1,001
- 969
- 966
- 987
- 968
- 982
- 967
- 971
- 960
- 977
- Ave 974 fps

There were no stoppages. All of these rounds were unpleasant to shoot from such a little gun, with the Ranger-Ts being the less painful. None of them were any more accurate than the other, and none of them hit right to point of aim, so I should have fired them at 15 yards for that. Too bad. One day I'll put night sights on the gun, and then I'll check those loads and hopefully some other ones for accuracy at 15 yards and post my results.

Blast from the past

I was goofing off with the kids downstairs last night and decided to take a break and check out all of my books on the bookshelf that don't have the time to read. I came across my rifle data books from my range qualifications in the Marines and thought it would be a fun (warning: profane) post. It really brought me back. You can see from my notes that my handwriting ability was proportional to the amount of coffee I had drank, and before you ask, yes, I talk to myself just like I do in my notes. Full disclosure and all.



There's some Microsoft Paint redaction going on there. Why do you neeeeeeed to know my social security number, anyways? I don't know if it's still like this, but in Marine Corps doctrine it's written somewhere that you must emblazon everything you touch with your SSN. I have a stack of certifications, awards, and promotions that have my SSN in Ariel Bold font front and center. Every one of them. I can't put up a love-me wall with all that stuff because of it, and you have to wonder what the legal-beagles at the JAG were thinking when they came up with this policy. Enough of my bitching - here's the Rifleman's Creed for y'all that want to know the whole thing:



Sorry about the blurry cellphone pics. Click on it to make it bigger and more beautiful.

Next up we have the four safety rules, which are slightly different than the NRA's version, but not too shabby. I've also included some tactically morbid doodling on my part - call it "Blue Falcon" carry (look that one up if you need to). Giving my utmost attention to an instructor with less time-in-grade than me is not my forte.




When you go to the range in the Marines it's a two week affair; the first week is basic instruction and "snapping in", which is dry firing thousands of times, and then a week of firing that includes zeroing your weapon. Unless you have stars on your collar, as far as I know, you have to go through the whole two week process every time. The data book is meant for you to keep track of your shooting throughout the week of firing, so that when your qualification day comes, you know how your rifle is performing.

The distances you shoot are at 200, 300, and 500 yards in the standing, sitting, kneeling, and prone positions. On the 500 yard line you only fire from the prone. To get an expert score, you must shoot for 40 points or better.







Those are all from the 200 yard line, and are not all inclusive. There are Marines in the pits pulling the targets and marking shots, and it can get screwed up down there; thus the reason why I'm belittling their work scoring my target. The entire target is a six foot square framed monstrosity with a canvas or plastic backing, and is chock full of shot holes. The paper target that's glued onto the backing is usually shot to shit, and when you're marking targets you place a spotting disk in the last shot to come through, and cover the old shot holes with colored stickers called pasters. Problem is, the Marine Corps is extremely poor, so you have to rip the pasters into little bits just big enough to cover **most** of the shot hole. After a week of shooting, it makes it impossible to cover the mess that is your target, and sometimes you can't tell where the shooter's bullet went through. Scoring errors are very common. Here's what the pits look like (pardon the clarity. Cellphone picture of a 35mm picture)



The 200 and 300 yard targets are in the lower target carriage, with the 500 yard target in the upper carriage. Everyone looks to be especially attentive (snicker!) The bottom picture shows a white shot spotter in the black, and a red scoring disk in the lower left corner.

Moving on to the 300 yard line:



When a round passes through the target you can hear the supersonic crack, but keeping in mind that there are about 150 Marines shooting all at once, it can get confusing knowing whether a shot came through your target or not. Also, it is not uncommon for a shooter to shoot the wrong target, either because they weren't paying attention, can't shoot, or, in the case of high-wind ranges like Edson Range, have a 35 mph wind blow a shot from the shooter next to you into your target. At it's worst, two shots can hit the target at the same time; go ahead and figure that one out for a score! You sometimes get to talk to the guys who either marked or shot your target, and when there's a problem (careers can sometimes be on the line) it can get interesting.

500 yard line:



On this particular day I was already at an expert score before I got to the 500, so there was no risk involved with shooting for headshots for fun; with little or no wind I could sometimes hit eight or more. It's actually possible to leave the 200 yard line with 40 points, but I'm convinced that it'll only happen when the planets are aligned. There's squib rounds, gusty winds, broken parts, and incompetence in the target pits to contend with for that to happen, or to even get a perfect score (it has happend though). I don't think there's any repeatability there though. I didn't win the title of Battalion High Shooter once because of a squib round, and I've had parts breakages as well. I've also had my shots not get marked at all, like the Marines running the target fell asleep or something. A couple of times, when the Marine next to me couldn't get his rounds on the target, I would tell him to aim at mine while I would put a few rounds in his target, though not on qualification day. That day was up to him. Here's what happens in the pits when Marines get bored:



That's a Baker target for 500 yard shooting. Notice his three stars. . . .

And here's yours truly:


Derrrgh!?!

I was a skinny bastard back then. That had to have been 10 years ago at least. These days my range trips are much more leasurely and pleasant, with my only concern being to watch my language:



Now isn't that the sweetest thing?

Busy weekend

I have to post this first: this was my view yesterday morning when I woke up:



I'll come back to that in a minute.

Friday I left work and started load development on the 123 grain Nosler Custom Competition bullets in 6.5mm. I used Benchmark powder this time instead of IMR 8208 XBR, partly because I love Benchmark so much, but also to take the .264 LBC in a new direction. I was rewarded for my efforts:



The groups are not tight at all, but in an OCW test that doesn't matter; you're not looking for groups, but whether several different charge weights have the same vertical point of impact, which the bottom three do. Yes, the bottom right load is over half a grain above the maximum load Hornady recommends, and if you do not know what you're doing, then do not try to duplicate my loads. Always start low and work your way up. I know this gun very well already, and I also know how to look for pressure signs.

With that said, I'm going to take the next step and narrow my charges down until I find the sweet spot, and then fiddle with seating depth. To be getting velocities over 2,500 in a 18" barreled gun with these bullets is significant, and in the future I may have to mess around with the Lapua Scenars again as there is still room left in the case with this powder.

Next up, I got invited to check out some land owned by a local hunt club, and if all goes well I'll be filling in a recent empty spot left by a previous hunter. While we were there, I got to shoot the MK12 down a power line at 652 yards, and I got to see what the 'ol girl is capable of. My first group with my handloads went into 6 inches, and as I was clicking off a second group, I was treated to the sight of a good sized black bear running across the power line at over 1,200 yards. Pretty cool. All of my other groups sucked right up until my last one, in which five shots (one of the shots from another shooter is circled) went into 2.8", four of them going into 1.3":



This is what's commonly referred to as a "refrigerator group", being a group that's noticeably tighter than any of the others. This is because either the shooter or the gun cannot produce a group like this on demand; in my case the former symptom being the relevant one. To be fair to myself, I was shooting off of a wobbly folding table, and would have done better firing prone with a rear sandbag. That wasn't an option due to the grass being so tall.

Going now back to the first picture, My family and I were invited by some wonderful friends to stay at their family's cabin up North in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. The cabin was amazing, as was the surrounding terrain:


I had to ask myself why we don't live in a place like this, as living where I do now is not where I want to be. On our way home yesterday, the further the car took us from the cabin, the more I wanted to turn around and go back. When we were only about two miles away, we stopped at an intersection in the middle of "town" to check our directions for about a minute and a half, and there were no other cars to be seen; nobody pulling up behind us and blowing the horn. Of the the half dozen cars we did pass, several of the drivers waved, and not with their middle fingers, either. Pulling into my subdivistion two hours later, I had to swerve to avoid being hit head on by yahoos who were busy watching what was going on in somebody's yard. Oh well.

It was a great weekend, and the kids had a good time. Now I'm thrown back into the work week, but at least it's only four days!

Oh yeah? Well, how many rounds does it hold?

From this ARFCOM thread, here are guys shooting the .950 JDJ:





Some facts:
2,400 grain bullet
240 grains of powder
2,100fps
25,400 ft lbs of muzzle energy
277 ft lbs recoil energy
Cartridges cost ~$40

I always did wonder why so many reloading scales went up so high!

My baby is clean

I had forty minutes to spare yesterday evening -- I had hoped for more, but life can be like that sometimes -- so I ran 150 rounds of my 124 grain +P Speer Gold Dots through the P30 to ensure that they function reliably. There are those who say to run 500 or more for that, but I personally feel that anywhere from 100 - 200 rounds is adequate. If you're going to have a problem with a specific load, you'll find out rather quickly.

The sun had been below the treeline for over a half an hour before I fired the last of what I had, so I got to see if there was a flash from this load. There wasn't. I had some old Gold Dots that I think were the short barrel version, and they flashed some, and I had a partial box of 124 grain +P XTPs from Black Hills, and they flashed a lot. I always prefer to test the flash of my carry loads in low light, as with the Nuclear 1911 it was a huge problem. For that reason, I won't carry anything that makes fireballs, as I don't want to be blinded in the rare chance that I would need to shoot to save my life at night.

The Gold Dot bullet breaks into bigger pieces when it hits steel, and I could hear and see bits of it raining down with every shot. Last night was also when I discovered that my weak-hand shooting left much to be desired. I did fine with my strong hand, but had a hard time keeping shots on steel with my left. My draw times were hovering between 1.56 and 1.65 seconds from concealment under a T-shirt. Much quicker than from under a long hoodie. I also put up a cardboard target with a 6" shoot-n-C target to find out where my carry load hits at 30, 40, and 50 yards. I'll take it out all the way to 100 yards one day when I have the time. It's good to know where it hits, just in case.



As you can see, it hits a little to the right, but my grouping was OK considering I was resting my forearms on the back of a cracked lawn chair. I'll have to adjust that to center later.

All in all, I've put 1,112 rounds through this pistol without any problems.



I'm going to start reloading for 9mm in bulk very soon, and I have to place a bunch of orders for powder, primers, and bullets. I have more 9mm cases than I can count, so there's some savings there. I estimate that my cost per 1,000 rounds will run about $110. Time will tell.

A couple of days ago I was loading up some .264 LBC while watching 24 on DVD, and I thought a picture would be appropriate:



Yes, I'm a dork for 24; I have every season including the special 2-hour specials. Something you might not know is that Jack Bauer used a Sig in the first couple of seasons before switching over to a USP. It's old vs new in this pic, and one day I think I'll pickup a USP.

To wrap this up: I decided not to go for the 2,000 round challenge, and cleaned the pistol as it will be some time before I can start cranking out reloads. I'll probably document that when I do it.

I'm on a video kick today

Slow motion gun p0rn:



Some things I took away from this video: the Glock firing confirmed what I had heard previously about the weird ejection pattern that Glocks often have. I had read somewhere from somebody in the firearms industry that slow motion footage shows the empty cases hitting all over the ejection port, making them fly in many different directions. This would be why random cases come back and smack the shooter in the face. Why Glock decided to dicker around with the recoil springs instead of lowering the ejection port on Gen 4 guns is anyone's guess. See how clean the other hadguns throw their cases?

The other thing I noticed can be seen during footage of a shooter firing a full auto battle rifle: the bullet leaves the barrel and recoil shoves the shooter back well before the bolt unlocks, which is why unsupported automatic gunfire (not in a tripod) goes up and to the right. The last time I had to qualify on the M240B, we didn't have a tripod handy, so I had to shoot off the bipods. Getting a passing score was a bitch, even with me putting all my weight into those bipods, and I had to try a couple of times to pass.

More slow motion videos here.

New Year's Eve blogger shoot

This past Saturday I met up with Andy and JB Miller and others for some down-on-the-farm range time, and it was just what we all needed. This marked the first occasion where I got to shoot a suppressed weapon: a Ruger MKII with integral suppressor. That thing is ridiculously quiet, to the point where you get to hear the full sound of the .22 round smacking steel without the encumbrance of muzzle report. I want a suppressor so bad I can taste it.

We shot pistols for awhile first thing that morning to let the dew burn off. I'm happy to report that the P30's flawless round count now stands at 922 rounds, most of it being the 115 grain Federal FMJ that I picked up from ammoforsale.com, which I earlier called "POS" which it isn't; all of it has fired well. From reading up on the LEM trigger, I find that I'm doing it wrong, which explains my tendency to sometimes drop shots low. I will now practice the "rolling trigger" technique to see if it helps my accuracy.

I remembered to bring ammo for the MK12 this time, and it was grouping pretty well at 250 yards. When I first dragged it out, I was proned out on my yoga/impostor shooting mat with the bipod legs set on the ground. After the shooters to my left touched off some .308 Winchester rounds and the blasty concussion was felt, I backed up on the mat a ways and the bipod legs were sitting on it, causing some bounce that is evident in the groups. Even with that, we were holding everything within 2" to 3", and Andy had five or six shots in a row touching. I can't wait to stretch the MK12's legs out even further now that I know it can really shoot.

The Miller's AR10B was hammering steel out to the 250 yard target with ease; everyone that shot it commented on how tight the sights were, and how effortless it was to shoot and get hits. That's why the AR platform is so popular, and known for outstanding accuracy. The Mosin Nagant carbine was again a crowd pleaser, but for different reasons I believe. To me, the rifle is like the .22 rimfire of the battle rifle world, like a fire-and-forget weapon. Ammo is stupid cheap, and being steel cased you could care less about where it ejects. It's also designed specifically for that rifle, so there's no worry about groups or vertical stringing or any of the other stuff that comes with precision rifles. The little carbine was fired until it was scalding hot, ringing the 100 yard steel offhand several times out of ten shots. My guesstimate from the shell casings that made it into my range bag put the round count close to 200 rounds. Recoil from the beast is fierce, with the small profile steel buttplate jamming into your shoulder with each shot. Good times.

The grand finale was when Andy set up fruit for us to shoot. Exploding fruit is fun that has to be experienced, and we were all smiling at the end of the day. Thanks for the trip, Andy!

Range Report

This is the first bona fide range session I've had since Andy and I went shooting this past summer. All the shooting I've done in between then has been ad hoc, and generally rushed. Today was kinda rushed, but I still clicked off over 500 rounds from the P30, did some more accuracy testing, and tested out the Safariland #27 that I got in the mail yesterday and modified last night.



As always, click on the pictures to make bigger and more beautiful, and also check to see if there's any more pics in my Photobucket account that I didn't post.

The Safariland #27 has been around for a long long time. Rumor has it that Moses used one to CCW his heater past the Pharaoh's guards, and we all know that was a long time ago. It's an inexpensive holster, which means that you can order one and it'll be at your door way before the more expensive holsters arrive. The robust J-hook is very thick and adds to the mass tucked in your waistband, and also isn't the most secure way of retaining the holster. It swivels a bit even if you tighten the allen bolt, so to remedy that I stippled the J-hook with a soldering iron behind where the bolt goes through and it didn't slip at all within the several hours I walked about the house cleaning up after the kids. The #27 doesn't help to tuck the grip in for AIWB carry so I set about adding a wedge to do just that.

My initial design failed, as the wedge I made was not that secure.



My intent was to mount it where the retention screw is, but it moved around too much. I used the plastic from an old muzzle loading stock that I had sitting around by cutting it off with a sawzall, and finishing it using a file and sand paper:





It took some time for me to figure out how to securely place a wedge on the holster without using an adhesive, and my solution was to build a bracket that went from the retention screw to the J-hook screw:



It was cut out of a piece of sheet metal that I had - I don't know the gauge, but I was able to shear it out with incredible difficulty using tin snips in order to keep from waking the rugrats. I had to bend it to match the contour of the holster, and for that I clamped it in a vice to get the initial shape along my contour lines, and put the finishing touches on it with Klein's and channel lock pliers:



I cleaned it up on the belt grinder with a 600 grit belt, and then drilled holes where the plastic gunstock wedge goes:




I truncated the first wedge I made and matched the holes for the bracket; a forster bit counter-sank the holes where the screws ran through:



The bracket was tapped and the screws were run through the wedge into it. The ends of the screws were ground off with a file, and finished on the belt grinder, making sure I kept the whole thing cool by dunking it in water to keep the plastic wedge from melting:




Here's the final product. I added a Bladetech strap instead of the J-hook to make room for the wedge, and also because I find it to be a more secure way to keep the holster on my belt:


My savvy readers will notice that the screws I used look an awful lot like green self-tapping ground screws that have had the outer edge of the head ground off. The whole thing is a little sloppy, and fugly as hell, but I did all this in between diaper changes, sippy cup refills, bathtime, bedtime, and bourbon time, so cut me some slack. Time is not a luxury I have right now, so I measure once and cut once, hoping it all works out in the end.

The holster now keeps the grip tucked into my sucked-in gut quite well:



This is all well and great, CTone, but didn't you mention a range report in here somewhere?

Sure 'nuff, I took all my gear out for a couple of hours to get some rounds on steel:



Any guesses as to where the shrubbery between those steel targets went to? My brothers and their significant others put a metric ton of 9 mil through there every month. Today was my start into some serious shooting using the P30. I started out doing some bench testing for accuracy with the 124 grain+P Speer Gold Dots and the 147 grain +P Federal HSTs. After further review, I'm going to go with the Gold Dots; they shot right to point of aim at 25 yards, and gave me a 1.865" five shot group:



I got great groups from the HSTs as well, but they were not consistent. I shot two groups with them today off sandbags: one measured 1.929" and the other 2.159". Where it was inconsistent was that the point of aim would shift by an inch; this isn't surprising if you pay careful attention to your group average, and not just the tightest one. Each of the HST groups from today and from my earlier shoot would have four rounds almost touching, and one flyer an inch out. If I shot a whole box for accuracy, I bet my group would grow to around 3" to 4".

I ran 500 rounds of 115 grain Federal POS through it for practice drawing from the #27, and I did OK. I draw from concealment, and in today's cold, windy temps, that meant drawing from under my favorite Dickies hoody, which is many years old and stretched out. Sometimes my sleeves would get trapped in between my grip and my hand, slowing my first shot. I also found out that keeping my Leatherman Wave on my belt at 9 o'clock means that it will snag the bottom of my shirt while lifting it during the draw, thus slowing me down. This is why you practice with your gear exactly like you would be wearing it so you know what works and what doesn't.

The LEM trigger is superb if you practice good trigger control, and horrific if you do it wrong. I'm a big fan of that, as it means that if I learn to not half ass any of my shots at any time, I will be rewarded with consistent hits. The P30's grip lends itself to excellent control and follow up shots. I can't say enough good about it. I haven't had a malfunction of any kind, though if I don't get a proper grip, sometimes my strong hand thumb will prevent the slide from locking back on the last round.

Soon I will be back out for some more shooting, and I'll have more pictures and stuff to post then.