Range Day

Last Saturday Jeffersonian and I went up to the range to send some no-serialized bullets downrange, make a lot of noise and have a hell of a time, all in the interest of science, of course.

First up were the Mosins. Two M44's and one M91/30. We each shot ten rounds of his handloads through each of the rifles and compared the results. Besides proving (again) that he's a lot better shot than me (2MOA vs MONAZI), we also learned that the M91/30 shoots a lot better than the M44's we had with us. The M91/30 shot consistently high and right(1 - 2 o'clock) about 4 inches with both of us shooting. With Jeffersonian shooting, it turned in a respectable 2MOA with both of our handloads. Not bad for a 70 year old military surplus Russian rifle with rudimentary sights and a crappy trigger. Now that I know it'll do it, I think I'm going to spend some more money on this rifle and get it some decent sights or a scope, and an after market trigger.


Here's the results from 100 yards with my handloads and Jeffersonian shooting. That tool is exactly 4 inches long.


Compared to mine. Yes, there's five shots. There's a flier in the upper right quadrant. I was shooting some of Jeffersonians handloads. Notice the POI is basically the same.


Here I am touching of one of my handloads.


From there we moved on over to the Garand. It is my intention to shoot in the May Garand match at the range, so Jeffersonian let me touch off a few rounds. Once I got used to the sight picture I managed to send my last six shots into the black from 100 yards. Yes, there's seven holes, but one of those (9 ring, 4 o'clock) is left over from the Mosin experiment.


Here's some bonus footage of Jeffersonian shooting his Garand.


From there we headed up to the top range and tried to get my SKS sighted in. With his help, we were able to establish that it was grouping at least (4 - 5 MOA), but some sighting issues may be contributing to the problems I have been having. A) the scope is mounted high. There may be no getting around that because of the way I've had to mount it. B) the scope is canted slightly, increasing the parallax error. I'm going to correct those as best I can and try again with more factory ammo. Speaking of which, I think the surplus ammo I had may have been contributing to the inaccuracy too, because with Winchester FMJ's the rifle was grouping.


Here's a target shot at 25 yards. The trend continued out to 50 yards, ending up high and right, but we ran out of ammo and time so I'll have to come back once I get the scope adjusted and try again.


Finally, here's some more video of Jeffersonian shooting the SKS. I'd have some of me, but he was busy trying out a rifle of his own while I was taking my turn. Next time, I promise!


Well, we both learned a lot from our day at the range. Now I can't wait to get back up there and get in some more trigger time. Lord knows I need it! *grin*

UPDATE: I accidentally left out the load information for the 7.62x54R loads we used. Mine was prvi-partizan brass and 150gn (.311) FMJBT bullets over 43.9gn IMR 3031 with a Winchester WLR primer. Loaded to a 2.9" COAL. Sierra manual lists a 2,500fps MV but I didn't have a chronograph. Jeffersonians was 125gr (.311) Sierra Pro Hunter #2305 flat-base Spitzer soft-point bullets, S&B case, 50.5gn H380 and Winchester WLR primer. Loaded to 2.85" COAL. He has clocked this load doing an average of 2,534fps through the chronograph. Both loads were run through the Lee Factory Crimp Die.

UPDATE II: I just discovered that the scope rings on my SKS are loose enough that I can rotate the red dot with firm hand pressure. Unacceptable. I will be locking them down with some locktite ASAP. This would explain the reason the scope was canted to the left.

Sarah Brady Cries! Film at Eleven!

Last Friday I went up to my range to practice for the monthly Plate Match which was held the next day. I was unable to go to the match because of a family emergency, but still it was good to get some trigger time in anyway.

Thanks to Robb at Sharp as a Marble, I had a fresh supply of "Every time you hit a bullseye, Sarah Brady cries!" targets with me. Thanks Robb! They're great targets and the guys at the range loved them. :-)

Here's the scoop on the Plate Match. The .22lr division shoots a 6" plate from about 15 - 17 yards, roughly the same distance as the pistol range. Robb's targets have one big 10" target and two 6" targets. First I'd warm up on the large target and then shoot the lower targets rapid fire to simulate the Plate Match. Rapid fire meaning 3-4 shots a second until I'd emptied the magazine (10 rounds). In this case, hitting anywhere within the 6" circle is considered a hit, as it would certainly knock down the steel plate at the match. Having the targets the same size as the plates worked out great too!

Here we have an example of the target I was using:



And here are a selection of smaller targets in no particular order. I should point out that most of the "misses" on the smaller targets can be traced to screw-ups in shooting the larger target. Usually when I got a little too fast for my own good. *blush*







Next Friday, my birthday oddly enough, I intend to make another range trip to re-sight-in my SKS. Seems last time I shot it, the recoil was harsh enough to loosen the set screws on the scout mount. I took it down and applied lock-tite to them and put everything back together. When I did I noticed that the red dot was no longer anywhere near where the rifle was pointing. I've bore sighted it down the hall, but it definitely needs to be re-sighted before I trust it to 100 yards again. And yes, I'll be shooting more Sarah Brady targets too. :-) Time willing I'll try and get more hand gun practice in and perhaps try out some of my newly minted Mosin rounds. We'll see...

Speaking of 7.62x54R...

I have made fire...again!

I just finished these up last night and thought I'd share. You're looking at 100 homemade 7.62x54R rounds. These are the first for this caliber I've loaded and I think they turned out pretty good. The components I used are Prvi Partizan brass and 150 gn .311 FMJBT bullets (for 303 British but I've got a .312 bore) seated so that the COAL is 2.9", Winchester WLR primers, 43.9 gn of IMR 3031 (stick) powder (per the Sierra manual). All this and a trip through the Factory Crimp die to finish up.

Today's Delivery

I placed an order with Graf's not too long ago and it came today:


Here's what you're looking at (clockwise from the top): Lee Auto Prime II, 100 unprimed Prvi Partisan brass in 7.62x54R and 100 150gn .311 (303) Prvi Partisan projectiles. I got the .311 projectiles because my m91/30 barrel slugged out at .312 and I don't think that 1/1000th of an inch is going to make that much of a difference.

I already have primers (Winchester Large Rifle) and powder (IMR 3031) so all I need to do now is get off my ass and get them loaded up.

One small thing. The brass has discolored areas on the neck from annealing, will tumbling remove that or will I need to get some Scotch-Brite? I know it's only cosmetic...

Range Trip

I went to the range last Saturday afternoon with Jeffersonian. Since I am wanting to take part in the AvA (Axis vs. Allies) match at the club next Saturday, I decided I needed to make sure I could at least still hit the target.

I started off with my 10/22 and as expected, I was putting them in a 2" circle at 100 yards. Okay, no sweat... Then I broke out my Mosin Nagant M91/30, quite possibly the worlds longest rifle when the bayonet is attached. OUCH! I have shot this rifle before without a recoil pad, but it's been a while since I did and my shoulder is still aching!

I put three rounds down range and check my spotting scope. S&%#! I was hitting about 8" high and to the right (1 o'clock), this with new WOLF production and Polish surplus ammo (yes, my rear sight was on 1). Several rounds later, and holding off at about 7 o'clock, I was still not reliably hitting the black. It was at this time that Jeffersonian offered to let me use his VZ 24 in the match, with him shooting his Garand. I shot the last of his practice rounds through the VZ and managed to turn in some respectable hits at 100 & 200 yards. So it was settled, I will be shooting the VZ in the match this Saturday.

This is the first time I've shot in a match of this type, with both prone and standing shots taken under timed conditions. I'm using my M91/30 to practice with at home, and I'm already doing pretty good at getting into the position and working on cycling the bolt, though the Mauser's bolt is much better. Not to mention the trigger and sights. Jeffersonian has a Timney trigger and a Mojo rear sight on the VZ and they flat out rock! I'm going to have to get a Mojo for my Mosin and see what I can do about the trigger. As with most Mosin's, my trigger sucks!

Well, wish me luck!