Tag: guns

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Will Brown Would Like Some Advice.

Constrained by range limitations he’s looking to build a short range precison rifle:

My thought here is to discover what options I might pursue, with a gun I already own, to turn it into a reliable shooter at it’s ballistic practical extreme, that I can also fire at a local known-distance outdoor range. I own a Marlin 983S that I intend to use as the basic platform, with which I can shoot 3/8 inch groups (from a rest) at 25 yards indoors without a scope (ie: the gun’s basic accuracy exceeds my ability to shoot it).

If you have some thoughts on the topic, perhaps you can head on over and give him some suggestions.

Test Report: RCBS Chargemaster 1500 Scale & Dispenser

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As I noted previously, I purchased an RCBS Chargemaster 1500 back in May. I have since used it to load some .45LC and tonight some .308. I was asked a couple of times to report on how well it worked. As I noted in the previous post, I bought it because my standard powder measure, an old, pretty worn RCBS manual type wouldn’t throw Unique powder +/- 0.1 grain consistently, and fuhgeddabouddit if you were trying to throw an extruded powder like IMR4350. Unique is my go-to powder for .45ACP and was for .45 Colt (I’ve been using 2400 for the Colt recently and may have settled on that powder for that caliber.) I also use Varget in my .223 loads, and now that I’ve bought a .308 I will be using Varget there, too.

A few days before heading off to the Second Annual Gunblogger’s rendezvous I loaded up some .45LC with 2400 using the Chargemaster. Tonight, I loaded 50 .308 rounds. (Sooner or later I’ve got to load a bunch of .223!)

Conclusion: It’s not quite as fast as I am, but a far cry better than throwing the charges by hand and trickling them up.

The procedure for finishing a rifle cartridge is as follows, once the press and scale are set up and you’re ready to rock:

1) Press the “Dispense” button.

2) Pick up a piece of brass and the powder funnel

3) Mate the powder funnel and brass

4) Wait a couple of seconds for the powder measure to finish weighing out the first charge

5) BEEP! (Annoying tone.)

6) Pick up the powder pan, pour the charge into the case, replace the pan on the scale.

7) REMEMBER TO PUSH “DISPENSE”

8) Put down the funnel

9) Pick up a bullet

10) Place the bullet in the neck of the case

11) Put the cartridge in the press and pull the handle

12) Remove the loaded cartridge and put it in the ammo box

13) Pick up a new case and the funnel

14) Mate the case and funnel

15) Wait for the measure to finish…. (Lather, rinse, repeat…)

Out of 50 charges, the scale was ready before I was probably five times. The longest time I had to wait for it (when I remembered to hit “Dispense” as soon as the pan was back on the scale) was probably ten seconds. The scale was dispensing 43.5 grains of Varget.

When I did 100 .45LC using 2400 I had to remove the case from the press, dump the powder charge into the case, and put it back in the press (Dillon RL-450). I have a powder-through-expander die, but no funnel to fit it. (Yet.) Again, the Chargemaster never made me wait more than ten seconds or so.

It doesn’t seem to matter much how large the charge is, it’s those last few tenths that take the longest to measure out.

I can unequivocally state that the Chargemaster 1500 is FAR faster than throwing low charges by hand and then trickling up to the desired weight. It is FAR more accurate with 2400 than the Dillon measure that came with my RL-450. In fact, the shape of the powder is immaterial to the function of the Chargemaster – it’s going by weight alone, not volume.

If, however, the volumetric measure you have does a good job metering the powder you prefer, the Chargemaster is most definitely SLOWER. I won’t, for example, be using it to measure out my 7.0 grain Unique charges for .45ACP – the measure on my Square Deal-B works just fine for that.

KevinLeave a comment

OK, It’s Not Plastic…

…nor is it stainless steel. As I noted below, I just recently purchased a Remington 700 rifle with a stainless-steel barrel and action. A not-cheap Remington 700. And the trigger guard/floorplate assembly looked and felt like plastic.

Cheap plastic.

Well, it’s not. Its some injection-molded pot metal, and it’s pretty ugly. That had to go, so I searched around until I found Williams Firearms, and their Remington 700 Short Action bottom metal. It arrived yesterday. Here’s a comparison – click for the full size images.

Original:

Replacement:

Here are closeups of the trigger guards:

Original:

Replacement:

And a couple of profile views:

Original:

Replacement:

I think it was worth it.

Now off to have all the metal refinished in matte black.

A Girl’s Guide to Firearms

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An interesting piece at CO-ED Magazine, by that same title. Excerpts:

I could have cared less about firing a gun.

Growing up, even on the mean streets of New Jersey, I had never even seen a gun, fire arm, pistol, or whatever you want to call it except for television and movies. It wasn’t that my family was against weapons or the right to bare(sic) arms, we just didn’t bare arms. So when it came time to act interested, I had to do just that: ACT.

But being familiar with fire arms and pistols is something that is very important and every woman should know. Not only can it be thrilling to fire a gun but it is also very empowering.

(Emphasis mine.)

Together, we’ve gone to the range often. To find a range near you look here. Honestly, it surprises me to say, but I am even considering buying a gun myself. To see the laws in your state look here. In some states it takes a long time to buy a gun, which can be good or bad.

Something probably needs to change since there are so many nut cases carrying guns on college campuses these days. Still, as much as the government wants us to feel safe, I think I would definitely feel safer if I had a gun like Dirty Harry. I sit in my classes, and in the back of my mind, I think of how I am going to get out of the room if I hear shots from the hallway.

I’ve actually contemplated taking classes only on the first floor so I have a quick getaway. I’m not saying that I would want to carry a gun with me to class but at least if the campus security carried something other then a flashlight and a cup of coffee, I might feel safer. I don’t think I’m alone or crazy in my thoughts, but even if I am so what, I don’t think it is too much to have an expectation of making it safely through my classes each day.

RTWT.

Education. Isn’t it wonderful?

Gun Pr0n

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By request, I’m posting some pictures of my Garand, and I thought I’d throw up a couple of pictures of the Remmy while I was at it. Click to see full-size:

It’s a little beaten up since I’ve run about a thousand rounds through it, but it still looks very nice.

Here are a couple of shots of the Remington right out of the box:

I’ll post photos after it’s refinished.

CHA-CHING!!

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Shooting can be a very expensive hobby.

The stainless-steel Remington 700 I just bought was a thousand dollars ($1,000!!), new-in-box (and that doesn’t include tax). No sights. And the triggerguard/floorplate assembly looks and feels like plastic. Actually, it is plastic.

Cheap plastic.

That has to go. But you want to buy a replacement in steel? How about Badger Ordnance’s Tatical triggerguard/floorplate? Three hundred and thirty-five bucks! Jeebus! That’s a third of the price of the damned rifle!

Thanks to the Intartubes, I was able to find and then research Williams Firearms and their Remington 700 Short-Action bottom metal. On order now, one each in-the-white: $154 plus $8 freight. Sorry Brownell’s, but if you offered this product I’d have probably bought it through you.

As I noted previously, this rifle is going to be given a matte black Gunkote finish by Mac’s Shootin’ Irons. I’m going to go with Mac’s Tuff-Gun II process (though no initial parkerizing over anything but the new bottom metal, since the rifle is stainless steel). That’s another $230, unless we negotiate the price down since I’ll be delivering it and picking it up.

Because this is intended to be a long-range precision rifle, and I hate to clean copper fouling out of barrels, I am also going to treat the bore with Ultra Bore Coat – another $51 with shipping.

This gun is going to be mostly shot off a bench or prone, so it needs a bipod. A Harris S-BRM (on sale!) at MidwayUSA: $79.99. ($121.90 at Brownell’s – ouch!)

Bullets and brass and something to put assembled ammo into? Lapua .308 brass, two boxes of 100 at $52.99 each. Sierra 175 grain MatchKing HPBT bullets, box of 500: $117.99. Two 100 round smoke gray plastic ammo boxes: $4.27 each. I already have RCBS full-length size and seat dies, but this is a bolt-gun, and the only gun I have in .308 caliber (I sold my Ruger M77 LONG ago), I wanted a Lee Collet neck sizing die: $16.99. Lee case length gauge and shell holder for their trimmer setup: $3.49. Cutter and lockstud: $4.99. Given the reputation of Lapua brass, I shouldn’t need to trim the cases for a bit, but it’s best to be prepared. I’ve already got eight lbs. of Varget powder – well, a bit less than eight because it’s the powder I use for my 75 grain .223 loads – but I need large rifle primers. I have some Winchester, but I really like CCI’s benchrest primers for this: another $41.99 for a thousand, plus tax.

So far I’ve poured $1,718 into this project, not including the upcoming refinish.

And we haven’t addressed optics yet.

Since this is to be a 700 yard rifle, it will be very helpful if the scope base has some built-in elevation, that way it won’t be necessary to crank the scope to the end of its adjustment travel to be able to reach out, out, out there. I’ve already run across this problem with the Swede. My solution then was Burris Signature Rings that have inserts that allow for extra elevation. I don’t want to go that route this time. I do, however, want a one-piece Picatinny/Weaver style base. But again – cost? Badger Ordnance has a great reputation, but $150?? And they’re not alone. Nightforce wants $120 ($150 at Brownells). Some Internet searching and… Evolution Gun Works 20 MOA Remington 700 short-action Picatinny scope base: $39.99, with a good reputation to boot. I believe that will be my choice.

Now, the glass.

On a precision rifle the glass means as much as the rifle. No matter the potential accuracy of the rifle, if you can’t see the target, or if your scope adjustments are not reliably repeatable, you’re not going to hit what you’re aiming for. Still, like most shooters I think, I cringe at laying out more for the glass than I did for the gun. When the gun costs a grand, the thought of dropping another grand (or more, much more!) on a scope has a tendency to induce nosebleed.

Because my wife wants to punch me in the face.

I have not yet settled on a scope. One helpful commenter has recommended the Nikon 2.5-10X44 Tactical from SWFA’s Sample List. They have several in stock, and I have bought from there before. The Leupold scope on my AR-15 target upper came from there, as did the Simmons scopes on both the Swede and Conan the Borg. The Nikons run $700-800, and that’s an excellent deal, but I’m looking very hard at an IOR Valdada scope. Their 2.5-10X42 with a 30mm tube, new, is $725 and is supposed to be excellent. I like their MP8 reticle, too.

Anyway, until I settle on a scope, I can’t decide what rings to get. One-inch or 30mm? “Tactical” (which means “expen$ive”) or standard? Leupold, Burris, or somebody else?

And then there are the other little doo-dads that accumulate. A spirit-level cant indicator, a retractable ballistics chart, so on, and so forth.

I love this hobby, but I’m damned glad I picked a profession that pays well.

KevinLeave a comment

Long-Range Bangstick.

Longtime readers of this blog know that I’ve been working on a long-range rifle for some time. Specifically, long before I started this blog I had a tapped-out 1896 Swedish Mauser rebarreled with a medium weight Shilen 1:8″ twist tube chambered for 6.5×55, and then restocked it, mounted a decent scope, and proceeded to try to find just the right load that would allow me to whack 50 lb. steel rams at 500 meters offhand.

I fought with it for a couple of years until I thought I had it licked. Turned out, not so much.

As a last-ditch effort I sent the barreled action to 300 Below and had them cryo-treat it. (Pictures of the Swede at this link.) Deep-freezing helped, but not enough. Two minutes of angle off the bench is a good hunting rifle, but not up to target specs.

Ever since I shot Joe Huffman’s “Spud Gun” at the Second Annual Gunblogger’s Rendezvous, I’ve had a severe itch to build or buy a rifle capable of 700 yard accuracy. Well, I’ve gotten a bit of a cash windfall, and after doing some research I decided upon a Remington 700 R5 Milspec rifle. I decided against a .300WM because A) I like to shoot at least 100 rounds through any rifle I take to the range, and .308 is at the upper end of my shoulder’s comfort zone for that without a muzzle brake, and B) I hate muzzle brakes. Further, the longest range at Joe’s Boomershoot is 700 yards, at which the .308 should be adequate, and around here finding a place to shoot 700 yards is fairly tough, so the .300WM wouldn’t buy me much more than a little flatter trajectory at the cost of more bruising.

Anyway, the rifle’s on layaway right now. I need to acquire a scope base, bipod, Lapua brass, and some Sierra 175 grain MatchKing bullets. For the interim I think I’m going to move the Simmons scope off the Swede, but I plan on getting a better scope in the future. A NightForce would be nice, but outside my price range. I’ll probably end up with another Leupold.

Oh, and I intend to take the rifle to Mac’s Shootin’ Irons to have him finish it in matte black. Mac refinished my M1 Garand a while back, and it looks mahvelous! I’m not too thrilled with a stainless rifle, though, so getting it finished in black is a high priority.

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“Having a gun changes everything”.

Last Friday I noted that NPR’s Weekend America program would be featuring a segment on a guy with a gun. I didn’t get a chance to listen to it on the air, but sure enough it’s available as a podcast at their website now. I took some time to listen to it today. Interestingly enough, it’s accompanied by the original letter to NPR that spawned the piece, and some pictures of the subject. If you don’t want to take the time to listen (it runs right at five minutes) or if you don’t have RealPlayer, I’ve transcribed the audio below. I’ll reproduce the letter and a couple of the pictures here, too, for posterity. Here’s the letter from Eric:

My first firearm. It was a Ruger Mark 2 semiautomatic target pistol and with it I learned to shoot at the oldest continuously-operating handgun club in the United States. I was interested in self defense but my experiences at the revolver club led me into the world of competitive shooting and joining the NRA. I had always had suspicions about the motives and practices of the NRA but I wanted to join so that I could compete in NRA sanctioned matches (where the best shooters compete). I came from an upper middle class family from White Plains, NY. Guns were strictly forbidden by mom and dad. My two sisters had no interest in guns, and even I didn’t like riflery at Boy Scout camp.

Learning to shoot a deadly weapon with skill (I became the #5 shot in Ohio in Olympic 10 meter air pistol, and was co-winner of the revolver club’s handicap pistol league in my first year) put me in a strange position: how could I explain my activities to my family who was hostile with my new found interest. My personal politics had never been “conservative” and many of the people I socialize with are anti-gun to say the least.

Well, I’ve learned to separate the wheat from the chaff as far as what the NRA claims to be true and correct. I’ve become more confident in defending myself and in defending my gun rights to those who are hostile toward them. This is tough since I associate with a lot of Unitarians and academics (my wife teaches at a university).

All this has led to much soul searching and a better understanding of what I believe in regarding self-defense and the right of the people to have the power that is represented by guns.

I’d be happy to expand on any of this at your request.

Now, Eric didn’t want to be identified (as the following transcript notes) but he gave everybody enough information to identify him in about thirty seconds of Google searching, I think – but no matter. Here’s the transcript:

Desiree Cooper: Last year more than nineteen billion catalogs were mailed out, so as you all pour over those slick pages this weekend, I want you to ask yourself this question: “Is this purchase really going to change your life?” Over the past weeks we’ve been asking about purchases that have changed your lives, and no matter where you made the purchase or how, we want to know what happened when you finally brought it home.

For one story we’re going to the Midwest where we’ll meet Eric – now he doesn’t want us to give his last name or the city where he lives, but this weekend Eric will be spending some time with a purchase that changed his life: a gun. And like a lot of guys, he got into them at an early age.

Eric: When I was a kid I was in Cub Scouts, and I had this idea, as I’m sure that a lot of little boys do, that it was gonna be – and I remember the fantasy totally clearly – um, there were gonna be hula dancers; really, really good lookin’ hula dancers. And machine-guns. (Laughs) I don’t know. I was a little boy! I guess too much action TV. Of course Cub Scouts had absolutely nothing to do with that. There were no guns or anything with Cub Scouts. (Ukelele music in the background.)

Eventually, um, what I wanted to do was get a pellet gun, and actually I went out and I just bought one. Um, and I brought it home, and you know, and I still remember my mom screaming “IT’S AN INSTRUMENT OF DEATH!” (Laughs) Which, of course, you could kill somebody, but boy, it’d be really hard to kill somebody with it – so guns were just like this foreign, you know, virus.

The first firearm that I bought was a Ruger Mark II bull-barrel pistol. And the club where I was taught how to shoot shot a specific type of target shooting called Bullseye, and, um, I became the fifth best shooter in the state. And, um, I was really proud of that. And, um, it was really, really a lot of fun.

I mean there really is a perception that people who are gun enthusiasts are by nature socially conservative, and, um, that’s it. I come from a completely different background. Um, I’m very independent. And the thing about guns and, you know, in terms of my friends, some friends were interested. Uh, other friends I could really clear out a room, you know, if I brought up the subject.

I learned really fast that it just wasn’t something you talked about.

I don’t think there’s any question, it has made me much more cognizant of the ethics and the morality of self defense. The only time you would ever produce a firearm in an act of self defense is when you fear for your life. That’s it. And I never really had to come to grips with the idea that I might actually have to do that until I bought a gun. And then it became a very, very important quest for me to get as much knowledge about “what am I gonna do with this thing?”

Having a gun changes everything.

I can’t meditate. I have a “monkey mind” as the Buddhists would say. I just think about too many things. Um, the only time I’ve ever been able to really focus on my breathing and on relaxation for any period of time has been during shooting. When I have that task, I relax, and I focus, and I visualize shooting a lot when I can’t shoot. Gentle breaths. The arms raised. And then my finger moves to the trigger. And the squeeze is timed with the breathing. I bring in a breath, and then I begin my squeeze. And I have to complete the firing of the gun before I run out of air. And the fun thing about shooting sometimes is that’s when I listen to NPR. (Laughs. NPR theme plays in the background.)

You know, we’re all running around like crazy, you know, for a lot of us on the weekend, but when you get to the shooting range – everything stops. And for a lot of us who do things fast, fast, fast, fast, it’s a time to slow down. (Segment ends.)

I’m not going to comment on the fear, the disease parallel, the social pariah identification, I’m not even going to comment on the self-realization that came about from his purchase of a firearm. I’ll leave that to you, my gentle readers. I’m just going to post the two pictures of the subject with one quick comment afterward:

OH MY GOD! HE’S GOT AN ASSAULT RIFLE!!! (Looks like a match-legal pre- post-ban, too.)

Interesting that no one at NPR said anything about that. I wonder what else didn’t make the cut?

KevinLeave a comment

Really, Really Late.

This is a gunblog, after all.

I’m out of town (again), so I’m afraid posting must be light – no 7,000-word essays & such. Perusing through the stuff I’ve missed over the past several days, I ran across this post at Say Uncle. Pictures of 10/22’s? Why yes, yes I do:


(Click for full size)

Say Uncle asks, “What, you don’t name yours?” In this case, yes.

When my wife saw it after I’d swapped out the stock and barrel and mounted the way too much scope, she said “THAT’S the cute little rifle I gave you for Father’s Day?? It’s technologically barbaric!”

Meet Conan the Borg.

He’s since received a Volquartsen trigger group that cost more than the original gun. You can see the extended magazine release there in front of the trigger guard.

I told her the day she gave it to me, “Oh, love – you don’t know what you just started!”

I was right.

No IBM1 for Me. :-(

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Well, the ODCMP is taking applications for the few IBM M1 Carbines they have starting October 1, and I’m not going to be able to get one.

Dammit.

Truck tags are due in October, the Gunblogger’s Rendezvous is in October, I just dropped a chunk of change to replace my stereo receiver (that, or get psychoanalysis for my wife who cannot live without her music), and I can’t find the damned form I have that says I’m qualified to buy a rifle from the ODCMP anyway.

Anybody want to buy ten 15-round M1 magazines? It looks like I won’t be needing them after all.

Dammit.

UPDATE: In comments, Sebastian from Snowflakes in Hell points out my poor reading skillz: The IBMeraphim go on sale in October of 2008, not 2007! I can still save my pennies and get an IBM1!

The offer of my ten M1 Carbine magazines for sale is hereby withdrawn!