Gun-Fi

[archosman]

Well I rented the Walther P22 and shot a few rounds today. Worked pretty good... as a single shot! I kid you not... it would fire one round, kick it out, and not chamber another from the magazine. I ended up having to cycle the action for just about every shot.

Now to be perfectly honest I was using some cheap Federal ammo. Usually I shoot CCI stingers but didn't want to pay the money. Should have... shot like crap most of the day with even both of my Rugers. It also hadn't been cleaned so that's another issue.

Also thought that the magazine spring was too weak. You know how your thumb hurts if you reload the Ruger magazines several times? I could reload the P22 all day and probably not have an issue. I may go back with my cleaning kit + Stingers and give it another try... but I wasn't very happy. In fact I should have asked for my money back. Good gun shop though...

[trains are bad]

Originally Posted by Old Pa

Answer: a lot. Can't tell you how much not knowing your muzzle velocity or the wind speed and direction, but short .223 bullets like that sacrifice a lot of ballistic coefficient, which is also a measure of bucking wind drift, for velocity. It's all a compromise. I shoot no bullets lighter than 55 grains in the .22-250. If you had 20-30MPH of direct crosswind across the 410 yards, you could very well be talking 30 or 40 inches of drift. Did you even see any ground impact dust?

That's good; I was beginning to think my dad couldn't shoot. We don't handload yet and cabelas only had 40 grainers in stock, which did seem awful lite to me...that's what we usually shoot out of our .223s.

[Old Pa]

Originally Posted by trains are bad

That's good; I was beginning to think my dad couldn't shoot. We don't handload yet and cabelas only had 40 grainers in stock, which did seem awful lite to me...that's what we usually shoot out of our .223s.

Velocity and ballistic coefficient are always compromises with each other. BC not only means resistance to winds, but also retention of velocity over longer range and higher sectional density. Velocity means flatter trajectory and greater tolerance of error in range estimation. 52 grains is sort of an all time sweet spot for .223 bullet accuracy. I shoot 50 grain polymer tipped boattails these days in my .223. Just got confirmation on our June Prairie Poodle Safari from my partner in Illinois.

[gpalmer]

Originally Posted by TwoFiveOne

At one point I had 21 Smith & Wesson revolvers but have sold off almost all of them since I don't really have anyone to leave them to and the prices they now fetch have just gone nuts.

I have lots of photos of them all. Here is a Model 27-2 .357, from 1975, a real classic.

Seriously, PM me if you ever decide it's time for that beauty to leave your safe. It's gorgeous!

[ALBPM]

Here are some more of my FALs...


Springfield SAR4800 in .223




One of my first builds with a DS Arms receiver, South African barrel,
FNC hand guard.




The latest build with a DS Arms receiver and US made Barrel.
Nice Quilted maple handguards.

[Old Pa]

Very nice, ALPBM. How do those .308 folding stocks shoot compared to a fixed stock?

Precision long range shooting requires great optics. Not just telescopic sights on rifles and pistols, but also binoculars for long periods of scanning and powerful spotting scopes for positive target identification, spotting shot placement, and wind from mirage. Even with good vision, identifying faces at 200 yards is not reliable and downright problematic before 300 yards. And aneometers and various passive and active rangefinders are necessary where even a five per cent error in range or wind estimation can mean a miss or a maiming.



My main shooting optics sit here on the London Bridge Trading Company’s excellent spotting scope and tripod field case. At top left is my Leica Geovid 8x42 binocular laser rangefinder. Good binoculars have excellent clear optics in tubes that are properly aligned to each other for hours of comfortable fatigue free scanning. Eight power is the highest I can hand hold for long periods of time. The laser reads out to 1300 yards +/-10yds. As an active system, it is subject to detection and must be employed accordingly. All of my precision rifle scopes have mil-dot reticles which allow for accurate range finding at the scopes highest magnification. The Leupold 12-40X60mm armored spotting scope in its London Bridge Trading Company cordura cover at top right goes them one better. Its mil-dot reticle is mounted in the first optical plane and can therefore be utilized at all eyepiece magnifications. The leupold is wearing a honeycomb anti-reflection filter. Below these two optics in the case are the green Manfroto speed ball head and wilderness tripod for rock solid mounting of the Leupold.

At bottom left is my Meteos Skywatch Anemometer/Thermometer and clamp. It provides accurate omnidirectional indication of wind and ambiant temperature, both of which can effect ammunition performance and bullet flight. Ball powders seem to be especially sensitive to varying temperatures; ammunition tested at 50F may have too high pressure after being warmed by direct sunlight beyond 10F. It has a floating compass in its lid for convenient determination of wind direction. BTW, I have found that a small cooler with a white lid is a handy ammunition box when shooting out under the summer sun; keeps everything together and relatively cool. At bottom right is my Kowa TSN-823 20-60x82mm (Prominar flourite coated objective) spotting scope in its Creedmore sports cordura case. It’s my spotting scope for high power service rifle competition with a different 25 power long eye relief eyepiece. With the 20-60 eyepiece, the resolving power of this scope is amazing. Its angled eyepiece allows it to be set up alongside a shooting position and utilized without leaving the shooting position. I have my Varmint Master portable shooting bench rigged so that the Kowa is co-axial with the rifle rest and, within field of view limitations, what shows up in the Kowa is the same as what shows up in the rifle scope.

Proper employment of quality optical equipment greatly enhances the efficiency of the long range shooter. Besides, this stuff is so neat!

[trains are bad]

Can anyone recommend cheap (1-200 dollars) binoculars? I'm going to buy my dad one for father's day; he uses them for groundhogs. Or rather, he doesn't, because he lost his.

[Old Pa]

Your father might well be better served with one of the lower end Leupold or Nikon fixed power spotting scopes for groundhog shooting. Good binoculars are expensive because you essentially have two scopes which must be synchronized and aligned with one another to provide an instrument which does new fatigue the user. That's quite a bit more expensive than just making two scopes.

[geardoc]

Two questions.. being a headfi'er:

Do you do something special to protect your ears? I've been double plugging - earplugs + muffs to reduce the chance of any more high frequency loss.

Do you wear IEM's to the range?

[vpivinylspinner]

I got a set of Westone custom ear plugs made when I had my custom IEMs made. They fit great and cut sound way down. If I am going to need to hear conversations, competitions/classes I use a set of electronic ear muffs that actually work really well.