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Practically Shooting

BarryinIN

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Everything posted by BarryinIN

  1. Well, I didn’t think that. Didn’t.
  2. Picture a Kimber version of the Shield/P365/Hellcat/G43/G48. Mag capacity of 11 or 13 (extended) rounds of 9mm. Tritium night sights standard. Available with or without factory red dot sight. MSRP isn't bad for Kimber, $599 or $799 with red dot. Remember- both include tritium sights. https://www.r7mako.com/ P.S. I always check prices for spare magazines for any new pistol. They want $35 for the flush 11-rd and $40 for the extended 13-rd. That will probably put them around $29 and $34 in the real world. Not bad.
  3. In case your mother was a witch. https://ruger.com/products/1022Competition/specSheets/31110.html My left-handed buddy says: “Why?” Apparently he hasn’t heard that cases crossing his line of sight is a tragedy.
  4. I’ve looked and thought and thought and looked for a couple of years, and gave in. I’ve shot the Ruger American and liked it fine. A shop nearby had a Howa Mini 1500 I looked at, and it was OK. I really wanted the CZ though, and pretty much knew it was where I’d end up. I used the excuse that the Ruger is pretty hard to find right now. Why do I want a 7.62x39 bolt action? Uhhhhhhh... Because I have ammo? Because they’re so cute? Just because? I don’t know, but it should be here next week.
  5. My first Long Range .22 match of the year is Wednesday. They had one already, but I couldn’t go. The weather has this one in doubt already, though. Believe it or not, four bricks of my favored ammo came maybe ten days ago. I got an In-Stock notice, ordered, and after two weeks or so, there it was. I couldn’t find any early last year before things went nuts.
  6. https://www.ammoland.com/2021/03/colt-reintroduces-the-44-magnum-anaconda-revolver/#axzz6q0ZRgDBE
  7. It’s been nearly three years since I’ve given an AUG update. Nothing new to report. The pace of use has slowed down quite a bit. I’ve gotten sloppy with my round count notebook, but in pretty sure it’s at almost 12,000. I used it last weekend in a carbine class, tromping around in the snow. No malfunctions, bobbles, or errors. I had one magazine change that looked like a was missing all my fingers, but that wasn’t the rifle’s fault.
  8. I never thought about that. I did all my trap shooting in the summer months. I bet with the importance of pull length, that is an issue. And if I know trap shooters, some have stocks for summer, stocks for winter, and stocks for spring and fall. And all are adjustable within the confines of their intended season. The class went pretty well. It was a first-time experiment for the instructor, having changed the lesson plan from a two-day class to single day after getting beat up by people saying a two-day class was too hard to commit to. Naturally, he caught grief for not spreading things out over two days. I’ve known the instructor for a while, but have only taken classes with him, not from him. This was a Revere’s Riders course. I don’t know how well Revere’s Riders is known outside of a couple of states. They split off from the Appleseed Project a few years ago , and is sorta kinda the tacticool version. They even hold a class or two each year here at the Camp Atterbury army ranges using the pop-up targets. I’m going to take this opportunity to ask people considering ANY class to read the course description and class requirements/prerequisites. Then read them again. And follow them. This was a basic class, but it wasn’t a beginners class. That’s not the same thing. Nobody expected a bunch of John Wicks, but there were some expectations stated in the course description. One of those expectations was having a zeroed rifle. It didn’t matter what distance, just as long as it was zeroed and you knew it then you’d have something to work with. Therefore, there should not have been people showing up needing to zero their rifles first thing. There should not have been people being so “prepared” they had a bag of empty mags in one hand and boxed ammo in the other. When a two day class gets compressed into one, there is already no spare time. Once you start fooling with zeroing, you can lose two hours before you know it. The instructor held this tight. You got three rounds. Go. Load your mags and keep up. He did something I had never seen before in a class. It could have happened, but I hadn’t seen it before. Once he started the safety brief* he said that was the class start, and anyone showing up late and missing it was out. Sure enough, here comes someone rolling it at 0810, and sure enough, they got sent packing. *At 0800 sharp, the accurate start time being another first. We did a lot of movement work all day, which was good so we could take advantage of the snow to sludge around in. The host club’s range layout was unusual to me, in that you shot one direction for 50 yards and turned 90 degrees to the right to shoot 100. (They can get 200 there, but only after some reconfiguring.) This was taken advantage of by letting us shoot close (25 and under) and 100 yards in the same drill. It’s a shame, but the truth is that doesn’t happen as much as you might think or I’d like in classes. You might shoot close, then farther, but seldom both at once. There are lots of devious tricks that can be used for. Since I’ve already bashed my fellow students, I might as well climb on my high horse and finish them off. Shooting at 100 yards was kryptonite to a lot of people. Maybe I should stop there. I’m trying. I’m really trying not to say anything. Oh man, this is hard. OK, OK, Let me just say this: If given an 8” plate at 100 yards... from prone... with a quality AR... and a low power variable scope (plus at least one ACOG)... that you’ve been shooting all day... and three shots to hit it... and you can’t pull it off... Don’t spend the class talking about what gun or optic you plan to buy next. Your priorities are off. Then when we get a second run and you can’t do it the second time either... It should become more plain. The gear is definitely not what is holding you back. A bright spot was the AK guy banging the steel on the first shot. Twice. I hope if anyone there was the type who say AKs are no good because they only shoot 4MOA, that they realized what they saw.
  9. Carbine class Saturday. Forecast high is 30, low of 16. Plenty of snow on the ground. I’ve learned before that a couple more layers of clothing repositions the vests/chest rigs/belts enough to create some fumbling. It looks like an AUG day for me.
  10. I've shot it a couple of times now. More magazines should be here Tuesday; holster on Saturday.
  11. I grumble about the date every year, thinking a month earlier would be appreciably warmer yet still allow it to get dark early enough. Then we get there and start fumbling in the winter clothes we just started wearing again. That's when I remember it's a dual learning experience- the dark and the cold. Would I be out there in that cold for a regular class? Nope. That's the trick John the instructor figured out long ago. The valuable opportunity of a night shoot lures us out there to find and sort out cold hand and winter clothing problems.
  12. Right, no sun beating down. That hasn't been a problem yet. One year we had sideways blowing snow. That was one condition where lasers were truly awful. Back scatter is probably the right term! Pistol mounted lights worked against the shooter, too!
  13. Saturday night was this year’s annual night shoot class. I’ve been taking this same class since around 2010, and have missed one, maybe two in that time. There is a core group of us that attend each year or close to every year, and we have a discussion before and after each class over what we’ve learned and what we’ve changed because of it. Being the same people taking the same class over the years, it has been interesting to watch the changes as we learn what works and what doesn’t. It’s funny that we mostly come to the same conclusions, though we do so independent of each other. For example, those of us who have attended for a while all have hand held lights. We may or may not have a weapon-mounted light, but we all have and use a handheld. A lot of the time, you have to move the light around to get it to come in from the angle you need. We al use some sort of lanyard or retention ring on the light. We may have night sights, but haven’t found them to be a necessity. The last three years in particular, it’s been harder each year for me to find and focus on the front sight. This is a daytime challenge also, but at night it’s a real problem. This year I had several instances where I could not get the light where I could see the front sight at all. This was new. Even when I could see it, it was taking me forever to get a shot off. I was feeling pretty vulnerable in the scenarios when I was without cover. That was Saturday night. As of Tuesday, I own a Sig P320 with red dot sight. I’ve known a red dot was in my future, and finally gave in. As polymer framed guns go, I like the S&W M&P, but I used a friend’s red dot equipped P320 Saturday and liked it. It did something no other red dot handgun has done for me- It let me see the dot when I extended to shoot. No hunting for the dot, like every other one I’ve tried. His had the Wilson Combat grip frame which made it feel almost 1911-like, and that’s probably why it worked so well for me (I mostly shoot 1911s and HiPowers). We will see how it shoots. Maybe it will stick around. I haven’t bought holsters and a bunch of magazines yet. I picked a good time to need magazines and more ammo.
  14. .410- Yes! Same deal. .357 Mag in a small gun is just awful. Even in a K-frame, in the rare times I carry one, it’s usually with .38 +P. On the the other hand, sometimes when I carry a revolver it’s because I want the greater power of magnums. I’ll deal with it in a K frame then, but not smaller. I’ve shot magnums in my Kimber K6s, which is more Detective Special size, and it wasn’t much different t from a K. There are some mild magnums like Remington .357 Golden Saber, that’s more of an in-between 38 and 357, that aren’t so terrible. When ammo supplies loosen up, I’ll try to get more of that and give it another test. But in a five-shot J-frame snubby, I have no need for a Scandium framed model so I can use .357 magnums. The Airweights with .38s are plenty abusive for me. What I’d like to see done for concealed hammer pocket models is the addition of some sort of “crud barrier”. Maybe a sliding gate or a brush-like guard over the trigger travel slot would keep it clear but allow the trigger to move. Not much gets in there anyway, but nothing getting in would be better.
  15. I started with revolvers and had a bias that way for a few years, but have been an auto guy for a long time. I know a lot of people say they shoot revolvers better, but I’m not one of them. I have to look for reasons and places to justify choosing a revolver in most cases, so I may not be the best one to sell you on them. I readily admit the nostalgia is one big attraction to me. I’ve been addicted to Adam-12 since old reruns have been showing this year, so maybe that’s it! I do prefer them for places like pocket and ankle carry. I think they resist pocket crud a lot better than autos, and the shape makes the grip easier to get my fingers around in a pocket. I like the S&W Centennial models (442/642/640) with the concealed hammer for this, so it has one less opening to collect crud. I have gotten sloppy and waited too long between “de-lintings” and found more than I’d like in the trigger travel opening, but I feel confident I could press through it on the shot. Manually operated is an advantage here, I think. The 2” model 12 I got last winter is a bit big for pants pocket carry since it’s a K frame, but it worked great in a jacket pocket. I really, really, like having a revolver in a jacket pocket. I can have it in my hand with nobody knowing. If I had to, I can shoot through the pocket, and keep shooting until empty. An auto’s slide would surely foul on the pocket some way or another. I see some other honest advantages to revolvers, mostly involving close quarters shooting. Really close, as in crushed up against each other. An auto slide can be blocked or bound by pinching up against someone, but you can power a revolver through it. And again, a “hammerless” model has less to get interfered with. Snubs are awful hard to shoot well. It drives me up the wall when well-meaning gunshop loafers suggest a snub as a first gun to people (almost always to women). They are NOT beginners’ guns. They are experts’ guns. Even at that, few “experts” shoot them well. But as what I call a “Get Off Me Gun” I think they are the best.
  16. Just a little. I looked at their steel barrels since weight wasn’t a factor here. There was something I can’t recall that kept me from looking further, like maybe I didn’t like the length choices. I wanted a fairly long barrel for this, to get more weight out front since it’s a prone gun. Honestly, once I found a good deal on the IBI barrel from an outside source, I quit looking. A friend at the gun club who works with us in the Jr Program just built a lightweight Savage 6.5CM with a carbon fiber barrel. I’m not sure, but he might’ve used a Proof Research barrel. He’s in AK with it right now. I didn’t want a threaded muzzle, but since it came that way and without a thread protector, I had to find a way to protect the threads. I had a couple from other barrels- aluminum and stainless- and some other 1/2-28 muzzle devices, so I gave them all a try. Since they varied in weight, and some in function, I expected differing accuracy, and I got it. The best accuracy came with a muzzle brake of all things. It seems funny to have a muzzle break on a hefty weight .22, but there it is. It shot the worst groups by far with an A2 flash hider. I filed that away in my mind for further experimenting.
  17. The 4” one isn't here yet, but I was doing some comparisons and realized this: A 2” barreled S&W Model 12 weighs 17oz. A 4” barreled S&W Model 12 weighs 19oz. A Glock 43 is right in the middle at 18oz. The S&Ws are six round guns. The Glock is 6+1. The G43 barrel is 3.41”, so it falls right in there also*. I didn’t realize they were all that close. I suppose the Glock 48 with its longer 4.17” barrel is a closer comparison to the 4” S&W 12. The G43 weighs 20.74oz empty. That is actually 1.74oz more than the S&W. *If I wanted to get really technically off in the weeds, I’d point out that revolver and auto barrel length specs aren’t a direct comparison. Since revolver barrel lengths are for the barrel only and don’t include the chamber like autos do, you can either add another 1.67” for the S&W cylinder or subtract 1.2” for a Glock 9mm chamber. Then things go all wonky.
  18. I told you thought they were neat. I just won a Gunbroker auction for a 4” RB model 12. I wish they had made them with 3” barrels, but I’ll compromise with a 2” and a 4”.
  19. The KRG stock arrived yesterday. And earlier that day I ordered a new barrel from International Barrels. https://internationalbarrels.com/product/22rf-cz455-452/
  20. Thanks! The wind was pretty much a non-factor this time. That’s one reason. I’m not sure, but I think scores were higher across the board. Also- They rotate through three courses of fire. This was my first time seeing one twice. That helped a lot to lower the match jitters. Plus I had a good spotter this time. There was a large number of attendees, so I got separated from my buddy in the shuffle to align squads, but this guy was good too. A good spotter can gain you a few points sometimes. ********** My buddy John has a new goal. He wants to clean each of the three CoFs. The next one is tougher, but I think he can do it. But he has now been moved up in class and has to shoot farther. ********** He didn’t get to use it in this last match, but John just bought a KRG chassis stock for his CZ. I liked the looks, but wanted to look one over. I like the CZs, but the stock just doesn’t work for me in prone. This is getting serious. I ordered a green one. https://kineticresearchgroup.com/product/bravo-chassis-rimfire/
  21. They had a match Wednesday evening. I shot a personal best, but my buddy outdid me handily. He shot the first perfect score they’ve ever had.
  22. How about a 500 yard .22 match? https://www.nmlra.org/calendar/august22longrange
  23. Seriously, if it ever works out, let me know. I’m a member there so can get you in early so you can set zeroes beforehand. Odds are I’m going anyway.
  24. Shoot what you brung. No limits on rifle or scope that I can see. The only equipment rules concern your rifle support, i.e. bipod or backpack front rest only, no rear bag. I’ve seen plain CZs and older Rem 541s, and I’ve seen a couple of gee-whiz chassis systems. I’d say the two most common rifles are CZ 457s (mostly MTR models) and Ruger Precision Rimfires. The downside to a big Smallbore match rifle with lots of adjustments is they are single shots. Each twenty round stage is timed. It fairly generous at five to eight minutes, so a repeating action isn’t necessary, but it helps a LOT since you already have plenty to do. It looks like a lot more money is spent on scopes than rifles. I’ve seen some crazy optics, but the Hawke brand seems pretty popular among the regulars. Hawkes are big among airgunners and are pretty reasonable. My buddy has been using an Anschutz 64MPR (MultiPurpose Rifle). He swiped a Vortex 6-24X PST off a rifle of his kid’s. He tried his CZ457 Varmint and Bushnell 4-12X Saturday. I was using a CZ457 American standard taper barrel with an SWFA 16X scope. A $450 rifle and $250 scope. My neck was killing me in prone since the stock isn’t high enough. So I took my 1980-ish Walther KKM UIT*, put a fair to OK Weaver KT15 on that I had around, and used it. Much more comfortable. I didn’t think about it before, but I guess I took an opposite approach to many: put more money in the rifle and used a cheaper scope. It is more accurate than my CZ, but the stock fit is by far more important and helpful. The key to this seems to be ammo. You have to test a little. What shoots well at 50 yards might not do well at 100, let alone farther. And ammo we’ve given up on at 50 has been OK at 100 and beyond. What really hurts is the flyers. No matter what ammo you use, or how much you put into the rifle or scope, ammo-caused flyers happen. It must be unavoidable in rimfire. Even Eley Tenex and Lapua Midas throws flyers, they just do it less. You know the old hot rod saying? Speed costs money; how fast do you want to go? Well, how accurate do you want to be? Here’s my take on it: You don't need super accuracy for this, not like you might think. Holding 2 MOA should be enough. But you need to hold 2 MOA all the way out ***including flyers***. I’ve seen $2.50/box ammo and $18/box ammo. We’ve been taking the middle ground and using SK Long Range ammo. I don’t think either of us have missed a shot with it we can blame on an ammo flyer. That’s not to say it doesn’t give flyers. Some appear to have have strayed, but still hit if we expected it to and missed when we expected it to. It is great fun. I’m afraid I’ve made it sound complicated and expensive, but it’s cheaper than most shooting sports and makes more sense when you see it. If I were buying a rig for this, I’d buy a Ruger Precision Rimfire then go to SWFA’s “sample list” and get a demo SWFA 16X scope for $260. That would be capable of clearing the course. This club runs this match twice each month. Once on a Wednesday evening and then ten days later on a Saturday they run the same course again. It’s that popular. Here’s a link, but it doesn’t tell you much about the courses of fire. http://www.rileycc.com/match-descriptions/match/index.php?ID=22 Long Range Rifle Ya know... It just occurred to me... They are not all THAT far from Chicago. *Walther KKM is a series they made for several years. It’s more or less their competitor to the Anschutz 54. The UIT model was made to meet rules that were only in place a couple of years, for a more basic class with almost no stock adjustments and a lower weight limit than the super duper match rifles of the time. Luckily for me, the stock fits me well in prone. When in position, the toe of the stock comes close enough to the ground that I can put my left fist under it for support. I delayed using the Walther because it’s a single shot. I modified an ammo box to hold the rounds staggered so I can grab one at a time, taped it to a chunk of bullet casting lead for weight, and it worked alright. I feel disaster lurking there, however.
  25. My attention wanders like that of a coffee-guzzling squirrel. My latest interest is shooting in Long Range .22 Rifle matches. I'm sure everyone has a different idea of what "long range" is with a .22, but at this club it's 75 to 240 yards. Basically it's like silhouette shooting, but at extended ranges and shot from prone with bipods. Targets are typical steel animal silhouettes plus a few rectangles and even some bolt heads thrown in. They have two classes, Standard and Master. The main difference is the distance shot. You have to shoot in Standard until you clear 75% hits in two matches. Usually, Standard shoots at 75, 110, and 165 yards. Master shoots at 165, 200, and 240 yards, the max available there. You can use a bipod, but no rear bag. You can also rest your forend on a backpack to replicate hunting situations, but no front sandbags. A friend took about two seconds to think of putting a sandbag rest in a backpack, the weasel. If you claim decrepitness, you can shoot from a bench. I should, but have resisted. Shooters are paired up, so that whichever one is not shooting can spot and keep score for the shooter. Because it would be too easy to shoot that far with a .22, they add to the difficulty with the shooting order. They have three basic courses of fire, and they rotate through them from match to match. At my first one, they shot the middle one as far as difficulty goes. This may get confusing on paper, but here is how that went. You draw a random scoresheet from a stack, and it has your shooting order. Three 20-target stages. Five minutes per stage. My order? Five at 110 yards, then five at 165, five at 75 yards, then back to 110 for the last five. That's my first twenty targets. 110/165/75/110 Some back and forth there, you see? Break to paint targets and switch places with your partner. After his turn, here is what I had for my second stage of twenty: Five targets at 75, five at 110, five at 165, then back to 75 again. 75/110/165/75 Break, switch shooters, they shoot that stage, then it's time for my last stage. That was five at 165, five at 75, five at 110, and 165 again. 165/75/110/165 So you shoot each distance four times in those three stages. Twenty shots total at each distance for 60 shots overall for the match. Like in silhouette, targets are shot in order left to right, one shot each, a point for a hit and nothing for a miss. With the jumping around in range, and need to adjust scope elevation AND parallax, there is plenty of opportunity to screw things up besides the usual shooting error. A good spotter is important too, because they will remind you what distance is next, remind you to change your scope, etc. I shot with a friend I've shot with a lot, so that helped. The importance of that was pounded home next time. I got 11 out of the first two arrays of 20. That's 11 for them combined. Then I got 15 of the last 20. That's what happens when you use the match to zero- 26 out of 60. My buddy who had shot this once before (and unbeknownst to me spent an afternoon fine tuning his zeroes on this range) got 51/60 and one step toward Master. The winner got something like 58. Next month was the toughest course of fire they use. You change distance a lot more. No more than two targets were shot at any one distance, then you changed to another bank for one or two, then switched again. Your score sheet had you all over the range. Scope knobs were spinning, parallax dials were cranking. I was glad I had shot a match before this, because it would be a bad one to start on. This one really shows how important the spotter is. That person needs to be on their toes just to tell the shooter what target is next. My buddy couldn't make this one so I got someone else. Someone less. It was so he could do to keep up with where I was. I had to wait for him to sort things out. He missed shots. He missed hits. None of this helps, especially in a times event. I don't remember my exact score for this one but it was in the 20s and close to the first one. I'd like to blame the spotter, but I can't. The most recent match was the easiest of the three courses. They don't allow scores from this one to count toward moving up in class to Master. You shoot a stage of 20 at one distance. Next stage, all 20 are at another distance. Last stage is at the remaining distance. The only complication is you get assigned where to start and end. Oh, and this one is shot at the same distances for everyone, so it's 110, 165, and 200 yards. I got to start at 200. This time, I got over there to get good zeroes ahead of the match. That made a difference. I also switched rifles to one with a stock better suited to prone shooting. My neck had been killing me. Things went a lot better this time around. My buddy and I are members of this club although it's an hour farther than our regular club. We took another guy from our local club this time, and the three of us ended up in the top five. He joined at their meeting the following night. My buddy tied for first with 58. I've shot NRA Highpower (centerfire) to 600 yards, and F-Class to 1,000 yards. I've played around at all ranges in between. People say this Long Range .22 is like shooting .308 at around 700-1000 yards, but I don't think it's as hard as 700 and sure isn't as hard as 1,000. But it IS hard, and it's a lot easier to setup and do. It takes about three hours to do the match, and that's with a crowd of 25-30 that requires three relays. Capable equipment is easier to come by, too. Ammo isn't even close!
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