Well, son #1 John ("Spanky" here on CGN) and his brother are home for Easter weekend and John wanted to go to the range to do some shooting. Weather conditions were, shall we say, marginal, temp about minus three and 20 kph winds, and did I mention SNOW. 
But anyways I reckon he doesn't get home that often, so I can put up with some mild discomfort. And so I packed up some guns and ammo and out to the range we went.
I have been sending these range reports to a couple dozen people via e-mail, but most of them are here on Gun Nutz anyways, and some other folks might be mildly interested as well. So this time I will post the range report here....
OK, first out of the cases were a pair of old .410s that just came in the mail courtesy of CyberK. I just wanted to test-fire them for function. Both of them went bang, both extracted the shells nicely (but not ejection in either case), and both are headed for the Belleville Gun Show next Sunday. Thanks Mike!
Next up was my Remington 660 in .350 Rem Mag which has just returned from the Sick Gun Doctor, our very own smoji here on Gun Nutz. Last time out with a new scope base, rings and scope (Burris Compact 2-7), I had that one go off accidentally, which caused me serious consternation.
The cartridge has fairly stiff recoil when one is holding it properly, but it has very rude and surprising force when it goes off and you are half-holding it with one hand.... Nobody got hurt and my underwear cleaned up nicely, so the gun went to smoji for a look-see. Turns out the safety was not engaging properly.........and the trigger was set to three pounds which was quite crisp but a touch on the light side.
So today with some factory ammo I got the old gal zeroed at fifty yards, last two rounds side by each. Good enough for now, and I needed some brass to load up anyways. The stiffer trigger means that sub-moa groups are not going to happen with this one, I don't think, but we'll see.
A Browning BAR in .270 Win that arrived a while back had already proven to be a good shooter. This week I also got the muzzle brake that had not accompanied the rifle when it first arrived. The brake does the usual thing, it makes one powerful amount of noise, but does settle the rifle down a bit. I don't personally find that one needs a brake on a semi in .270 Win, but this gun has one. Accuracy with some factory Norma ammo (old stuff sitting in my ammo locker) was quite good at about 1.5" for four rounds at a hundred yards. That one is going to the gun show also. Now that it has been refinished and cleaned up, it is a nice-looking rifle.
By this time the snow was falling quite heavily and the wind had upped a bit, so I bypassed the .222 to shoot the Remington 700 in 7 x 57 (thanks to Busterbrown for this one!) It has been out to play before and it does very well indeed in the accuracy department. Three round groups right around an inch at a hundred yards make me a happy camper: I am not a bench rest shooter and if a gun can shoot moa in my hands it is a sub-moa performer in the hands of a skilled shooter. This one is staying for a while, at least until I use up the factory Norma match ammo I got from jimmyjazz in a recent swap! But then of course I will have brass to load this one myself....
The wind dropped a bit and snow starting falling more heavily so it was time to take out the lovely little Remington 600 in .222 Rem. This one is definitely a sub-moa rifle, and it quite likes 55 grain spitzers pushed by 22.5 grains of IMR 3031. I am not sure if it was me, or the wind, or what, but the spray at a hundred yards was not too pretty. It would have been a dead coyote for sure, but at almost 2inches separating the three holes, I was not exactly delirious with joy. I still had the fifty yard target up and put the last group of four rounds into a nice three-quarters of an inch. This little rifle came to me from sandyamac a few years ago and is one of the long-term keepers. So far.....
Last one out of the case was a BLR 81 in .308 Win that has returned from major surgery. It now looks quite pretty, and I wanted to see how it shoots before it goes to a gun show with me. My usual test load for .308 is 40.0 grains of H4895 and a 180 grain bullet. In this case the bullets were some Nosler Partitions that I had "pulled" out of something or other, might have been some handloaded .300 Wby I got that I did not want to shoot because it wasn't me that loaded them. Dead deer, with the open iron sights and my old eyes. Cleared for take-off to a gun show near me soon!
Oh and what of Spanky, you might ask? He was in the heated indoor range with a young lady friend, blasting away with a couple handguns..........
The rifles are all inside now in my little hovel, getting dry and warm before they get cleaned and put away. And for that matter, so am I!
Happy Easter to all of you!
Doug
But anyways I reckon he doesn't get home that often, so I can put up with some mild discomfort. And so I packed up some guns and ammo and out to the range we went.
I have been sending these range reports to a couple dozen people via e-mail, but most of them are here on Gun Nutz anyways, and some other folks might be mildly interested as well. So this time I will post the range report here....
OK, first out of the cases were a pair of old .410s that just came in the mail courtesy of CyberK. I just wanted to test-fire them for function. Both of them went bang, both extracted the shells nicely (but not ejection in either case), and both are headed for the Belleville Gun Show next Sunday. Thanks Mike!
Next up was my Remington 660 in .350 Rem Mag which has just returned from the Sick Gun Doctor, our very own smoji here on Gun Nutz. Last time out with a new scope base, rings and scope (Burris Compact 2-7), I had that one go off accidentally, which caused me serious consternation.
The cartridge has fairly stiff recoil when one is holding it properly, but it has very rude and surprising force when it goes off and you are half-holding it with one hand.... Nobody got hurt and my underwear cleaned up nicely, so the gun went to smoji for a look-see. Turns out the safety was not engaging properly.........and the trigger was set to three pounds which was quite crisp but a touch on the light side.So today with some factory ammo I got the old gal zeroed at fifty yards, last two rounds side by each. Good enough for now, and I needed some brass to load up anyways. The stiffer trigger means that sub-moa groups are not going to happen with this one, I don't think, but we'll see.
A Browning BAR in .270 Win that arrived a while back had already proven to be a good shooter. This week I also got the muzzle brake that had not accompanied the rifle when it first arrived. The brake does the usual thing, it makes one powerful amount of noise, but does settle the rifle down a bit. I don't personally find that one needs a brake on a semi in .270 Win, but this gun has one. Accuracy with some factory Norma ammo (old stuff sitting in my ammo locker) was quite good at about 1.5" for four rounds at a hundred yards. That one is going to the gun show also. Now that it has been refinished and cleaned up, it is a nice-looking rifle.
By this time the snow was falling quite heavily and the wind had upped a bit, so I bypassed the .222 to shoot the Remington 700 in 7 x 57 (thanks to Busterbrown for this one!) It has been out to play before and it does very well indeed in the accuracy department. Three round groups right around an inch at a hundred yards make me a happy camper: I am not a bench rest shooter and if a gun can shoot moa in my hands it is a sub-moa performer in the hands of a skilled shooter. This one is staying for a while, at least until I use up the factory Norma match ammo I got from jimmyjazz in a recent swap! But then of course I will have brass to load this one myself....
The wind dropped a bit and snow starting falling more heavily so it was time to take out the lovely little Remington 600 in .222 Rem. This one is definitely a sub-moa rifle, and it quite likes 55 grain spitzers pushed by 22.5 grains of IMR 3031. I am not sure if it was me, or the wind, or what, but the spray at a hundred yards was not too pretty. It would have been a dead coyote for sure, but at almost 2inches separating the three holes, I was not exactly delirious with joy.
I still had the fifty yard target up and put the last group of four rounds into a nice three-quarters of an inch. This little rifle came to me from sandyamac a few years ago and is one of the long-term keepers. So far..... Last one out of the case was a BLR 81 in .308 Win that has returned from major surgery. It now looks quite pretty, and I wanted to see how it shoots before it goes to a gun show with me. My usual test load for .308 is 40.0 grains of H4895 and a 180 grain bullet. In this case the bullets were some Nosler Partitions that I had "pulled" out of something or other, might have been some handloaded .300 Wby I got that I did not want to shoot because it wasn't me that loaded them. Dead deer, with the open iron sights and my old eyes. Cleared for take-off to a gun show near me soon!
Oh and what of Spanky, you might ask? He was in the heated indoor range with a young lady friend, blasting away with a couple handguns..........
The rifles are all inside now in my little hovel, getting dry and warm before they get cleaned and put away. And for that matter, so am I!
Happy Easter to all of you!
Doug
