A Great Video by an even Greater Gentleman!

Mould maintenance and Evapo-Rust

It was a cool morning, about 6:30 and I decided to fire up the melting pot and melt my collection of junk lead and see if I could get the rythm going and maybe cast a couple hundred bullets before 8.  After cleaning up my lead mix with sawdust and getting all the dross out I began the process of getting the mould to temp.  After about 10 cycles I start looking at bullets.  Not good yet.  After about 20 cycles I am starting to look more closely because by now I should be up to temp.  Some areas of the bullet are perfect but other areas are speckled.  I inspect the mould...RUST!

About four months back I stored the mould with a full pour and left the sprues on.  Prior times I would coat with oil and just deal with getting the oil off when I got ready to use them again.  That had been a problem too so I tried what others suggested on a casting forum.  My advice, skip the 'store with cast bullet' technique and use your favorite oil.

I went to my favorite casting forum and did a search. I did the normal sheet rock screw in the bottom of the bullet and spin with your favorite polishing compound.  This did not do the trick.  So, I decided to try Evapo-Rust. Have a look at this picture to see why I decided to try it.  I did and my mould is better than it has ever looked!  An overnight soak was all it needed.  Now I just need some time to cast with it.  Other items on the to do list.  The mould is now coated with oil and awaits another day.

This stuff works and is $9 for 32 oz at AutoZone in Concord, NH.

Update on STM trial after 4 hours of tumbling

Click on photos for large image

I am very happy with how well it cleans the brass, inside and out.  I ran it for 4 hours on the dot.  I opened it up at 3 and saw some primer pockets still had a ways to go.  Another hour helped, I suspect another 2 hours would have been perfect.  Some say letting brass soak in the dish soap/Lemi-Shine for a few hours first reduces tumble time.  Separating the media from the brass was easy.  I did it one to a hand, two at a time.  Shook them in the dirty water and put in a rinse container.  Not one piece of media made it to the rinse.

The upper grainy  indoor picture is of the same nasty shells.  Left shell has the split, FC is the same, 3rd shell was the chocolate colored shell and is now clean inside and out.  Yes, they got that clean.  I can see doing this each time will keep them clean vs. trying to get five firings of primer and powder residue out. Compare the FC primer pocket before and after.  Ya ya, I did not get them in exact same order.  Next time when there is sun outside.




Stay tuned for a better photo when I can use natural light outside.

STM trial has begun, 2 pm

My Stainless Steel Tumbling Media arrived today from Utah.  Good service.  Weighed it to see if I have any loss over time.  An oz short of 5 lbs.  I guess I can live with that.  The day before I located the special cleaning stuff.  Lemi-Shine.  You can buy it from STM which is a nice thing to do or you can buy it from Walmart.  It exists in both crystal and liquid form.  I opted to stick with what STM sells which is the crystal concentrate form.  Under $4 for a bottle, UPC 7 03074 22874 4.

I was scheming with John B. as to what nasty brass I should throw at it first.  We found some very very beat up 30-30 brass which I decided to throw in with some 30-30 brass I shot a few weeks back.  This gives us a test of "normal" cleaning vs. "extreme" cleaning.  All brass had been decapped and FL sized.  I did not count the number of shells I put in.  Total brass weight was 1.5 lbs which is shy of the 2 lbs suggested by STM.  Keep in mind you have 1 gallon of water or 8 lbs, media 5 lbs so these 15 lbs capacity tumblers can only hold 2 lbs of brass or approx 100 pcs of 308 or 230 pcs of 9mm per STM.  At this stage I am less concerned about capacity and more interested in whether it truly cleans the inside of a rifle case.




And an real close up showing some ultra nasty range brass and one normal piece in need of cleaning before reloading.  The relatively clean piece was last cleaned by corn cob and is R-P.  The others are either FC or Winchester so I can separate them in the unlikely chance that they all look the same after 4 hours in the tumbler.

Click on image for a close up look at this brass pre tumble with STM media.

For a seemingly endless discussion about STM, go here.  Over 41 pages of posts on this forum....with better pictures than I am able to produce.

Starter Rifle...adults, again.

A few months back I made a post about what to get as a starter gun.  I would hate to think of the amount of digital ink that has been expended on this topic by others on the multitude of forums out there.  And, I don't want to suggest I have any better insight than the other guy.  I could say the sky is blue and some will say it is black.  This is just information.

I listed the NS522, CZ452, if the "gun you own" will not suffice.  Sure, move up the price point and you can look at Sako Finnfires, Kimber HS or any Kimber 82.  A Ruger 10/22 or 77/22 are options but typically need some TLC so I don't include them.  The Win 52B Japanese version is a good gun but they no longer trade for small money.

For value, the biggest sleeper is the Remington 541, 580, 581 and 582.  These rifles are generally available and are known for their VERY FAST lock time.  541s have some collector appeal and are not as affordable as they used to be.  580 is a single shot and likely the best value for the $$$.  581 is magazine fed and I am guessing were the most commonly produced.  The 582 is an odd bolt gun with a tube magazine.  Go figure!

The knock against the 58X family is the trigger is not adjustable but this link will show you or your gun smith how to fix that.  The 541 is adjustable.  My intention is not to start a stampede to the local pawn shop for these guns.  I was asked about an inexpensive starter gun and other than the CZ and I felt a used 581 or variant is a good idea.  They even made them in left hand version.  I have seen all the guns and a NS522 is still my pick.  Heavy, built like a tank, two beefy action screws, accurate hammer forged barrel.  Trigger can be improved in a similar manner to the link above.

There are so many options out there.  The best gun is the one you own and ammo it likes.

See you at the next match.

Never Give up!

Although I have preached this rule before in my blog, today's match was a friendly reminder of just how critical it is to keep your head in the game.  It is said, silhouette is not a match with 40 shots but instead it is 40 one shot matches put together.  The only shot that matters is the next shot.

For reasons I do not fully understand, bullets were not going where I was breaking on the animal.  Some testing of the upper and lower bounds finally gave me the answer I was looking for.  I was high so break lower than usual.  It took 6/10 chickens and 6/10 pigs to come to that final conclusion.  I cleaned the last 4 pigs when I became confident of the final diagnosis.  It should not have taken that long to figure out the problem but that is for another post.

Armed with this information I zeroed in on the turkey's leg.  12 out of 20 on the short line is typically terminal.  But, I was not ready to give up and my new POA on the first turkey was a hit.  I just kept doing the same thing.  Good shots on the leg and they fell.  9 out of 10 fell.  That gave me a small cause for hope.  If I could get 9 turkeys certainly I could get 10 rams.  Held on the armpit of the ram and they fell.  9 for 10 fell.  What looked to be a disaster turned into a fair showing with 30 downed animals.  I stared at the #10 ram wondering if I had another 9 in me having already missed #4 ram.  By that point I was getting worked up.  I knew I had already taken one sloppy shot on the rams and missed.  Time was running out and I needed a perfect break.  I reset even though time was short. To take a tired, sloppy shot was as good as not getting the shot off at all.  I worked hard and told myself to FOCUS and use my time wisely.  Thank goodness the 10th ram fell because I ended up tying with a 30.  One less animal and I would have been first looser.

Lesson for the day, don't ever give up even when you feel like it is time for the showers.  You just never know what lies ahead or whether others shooters could be having a bad day too!

Stainless Steel Tumbling Media aka STM

I was interested to know if anyone uses this stuff found here?  $50 plus S&H I to get 5 lbs is an investment in media.  Based on what I can read it sure sounds like magic though.  All in the funny if not silly pursuit of clean brass.  Mostly I want to ensure the inside of my cases are clean and carbon free.  And, as of yet, I have yet to invest in any media or case cleaning system.

I was doing some research and found these before and after pictures and find it hard to imagine brass could get this clean on the inside.  I know, does it really matter and can it affect case volumes?

Before

And after

Or, go to this link and read a very long thread discussing the use of SS media.

To cant or not to cant

A number of years ago I had the pleasure of shooting in Pe Ell, Washington at the Conard Bernhardt Cup.  For those who love the 1/5th game this is one of two matches you must make before retirement.  My shooting partner was from Canada and was a Master shooter.  I was watching his prep, always hoping to learn something.  I noticed he had a spirit level on his scope which seemed overkill.  As I understood it, spirit levels were for stool shooters, not two legged shooters.  I asked him why he had a level?

He replied that he has so much cant in his setup that he wanted to confirm is scope was PERFECTLY vertical on every shot.  In Silhouette, unlike benchrest, we are changing our elevation constantly which makes us that much more susceptible to the negative implications of any scope cant.  Cant of the scope will throw off your vertical when going from chickens to Rams.  The spirit level is just one more device he used to confirm as he settled in for a center punch on a turkey that he will not have any scope cant.  Just another "belt and suspenders" strategy to ensure no dumb mistakes happen and cost you one animal.  Master shooter don't take careless shots.

Fast forward 5 years.....

Last night I found this helpful article on cant and the images I thought were worth sharing.  If you have ever zeroed in on chickens and wonder why on a calm day you have to put in some windage when you get to rams, think about the implication of cant and whether that could be a contributing factor at the ram line.  It does not take much.

Before I close I will comment as to why some people purposefully cant their rifle.  In shooting Bill Motl's gun this spring in at the Texas State match I was amazed at just how much cant he put in.  Recall you don't want to lean your head to the stock, you want to bring the stock to your head.  Sometimes this is easier said than done.  To assist, shooters will cant the rifle to their cheek and then adjust the scope to be vertical as per the above article.  I find most folks in NH shoot zero cant.  I used to shoot canted but have returned to no cant to eliminate one more variable.  With a Pharr stock the need to cant the rifle is less IMO.  Something to try over the winter to find out what FEELS good to you.  If you can find a position that feels like you could hold all day, do it.  Worry about getting your zeros in the spring.  Last year I took my whole rifle apart to fit it to me.  But that is for another post.

Cant article.

Staying with the trigger

One small tip I picked up from Chris Winstead, father of Cathy Severin and Chad, both high master shooters.

He watched me shoot 5 animals and his primary input was that I needed to work on follow through.  His point, I should be as still after the shot as I am before the shot.  Work on taking 3-5 seconds after the shot in an effort to work on follow through.  In theory, you should be able to watch the bullet hit Turkeys and Rams.  Good shooters do.

The first order of business is he did not like what I was doing with my trigger finger by releasing the trigger right after it broke.  Stay with the trigger, do not "reflexively" release the trigger.  This will introduce movement when the objective is to be perfectly still after the shot.

For practice he said after the shot always take two or three dry fires on the empty shell casing and work on ZERO movement from beginning to end of breaking on the trigger.  It takes some getting used to but after a while it does help your follow through.

Ways of the Rifle, books part IV.

I have read or should I say skimmed this book for about a week before I had to return it.  It is a reference book just like Competitive Shooting is.  There is so much to absorb.  Note the title uses the plural of way, Ways, not The Way.  The authors point out there is no one best method that one should use. Instead, it is a process of finding out what works best for you.

I am a little fuzzy on whether a second edition came out or if there is slick marketing.  This is the book I read, translated from German by Bill Murray.  If I find out more about the second edition, I will update the entry.  A simple Google search will find it from competitive shooting outlets.

Second edition looks like this.

If you can't fly to Silhouette meca, try this website on for size.

I was browsing a topic and stumbled on this website.  Good visuals.  Check out hands, head height, follow through, arm position.  I find the videos also helpful.  You need to do some digging and check it all out.  Aspects of Silhouette is good and some video's from the LA State match are great.  Notice the much slower pace of things. 

Southern Silhouette Shooters.

Stick time or Dwell time and the importance of "imparted energy".

(Cowboy, cast bullet selection related, updated 9/12/2011)

On Saturday I had a go with my new to me 44 Rem Mag for the CLA game.  This is my second centerfire gun which I swore I would never get into.  But, curriosity killed the cat and call me fluffy.  The first centerfire gun was a 336CB in 30-30.  A beautiful gun and a wonderful cartridge with tombs of history.  I learned about casting and bullet selection.  Much debate occured as to how heavy a bullet you need.  Some used a 122g Loveriegn designed 311465 and just pushed it really fast.  Some used a 173g 31141 bullet and pushed it slower.

I was a newbie and made the naive statement, foot lbs of energy + foot lbs of energy regardless of bullet weight.  Light bullet fast, heavy bullet slow, it is all relative to how many ft lbs of energy is imparted to the animal.  WRONG!  To be honest, I was skeptical but filed away my schooling on Steelchickens and opted for the middle of the road, the 173g bullet, 31141.

Fast forward a year and I now have my second lever gun for Pistol Cartridge Cowboy, a 44 Rem Mag.  Interestingly one shooter has found this to work successfully at the 200y CLA game.  Even though I had my 30-30 already I just could not resist experimenting.  The 44's trigger is by far better anyway.  So the experimentation began.  I got the Lyman 429215 mold because I really did not want to get thumped that hard.

I will explore powder later.  Let's stick to "stick time" for now.  We can do the ballistics and energy calculation later.

I noted a 38-55 and a 30-30 failed to take down a ram whereas my slow moving 44 seemed to take down rams.  Seemed odd to me but the stick time lesson came back to me and decided to research it further.  I found THIS LINK which is post 15 in a long discussion and it does a good job explaining the importance of how different bullets impart their energy to the target. A 250g aspirin going at 500 FPS would have the same ft lbs of energy at a 250g lead bullets going 500 FPS.  But the aspirin would IMPART far less energy than the lead bullet.  That is "stick time".  Go to the top right link to read the whole discussion and you will also see it called dwell time. I have to do some additional research but I bet the 44's stick time helped on Saturday.  Speculation until I do some ballistics work, but at least the readers of this blog have a deeper understanding of stick time than I did 9 months ago.

Beware of the shooter with one gun!

(This is NRA Smallbore and Smallbore Hunter gun related)

When I started this sport I was advised to get a hunter gun as I could always shoot both hunter and standard with the same rifle.  Back then the basic hunter gun was a NS522, CZ 452 or if you had some funds,  Kimber, Finfire or Anschutz 1700, 1710 or 1712.

I started with a single hunter, an NS522.  I wrung just about every possible degree of accuracy out of that thing.  After about 4 years, I had an offer to move to an Anschutz 1710 that was too good to pass up.  That gun is the same action I shoot today.

Along the journey I watched with envy the big shooters with their Anschutz hunter gun and their Anschutz MSR (Metallic Silhouette Repeater) and I yearned to be a two gun shooter. Surely that extra weight, trigger, stock would buy me more animals? Nomad loaned me a 54 MS which I used for a season for Std rifle.  I could have even bought it for a fair price which by today's prices was a steal.  I did not see any significant improvement with my scores and after right of first refusal, it was sold.  But, about 3 years ago, I again had a deal that was too good to pass on and I got that heavy gun with the ultra light trigger. It is without a doubt the best shooting gun I have ever owned.  But, for me.....I don't do well with it, just as I had not back in 2003.

Today's Hunter gun:  The rules have evolved over the years and what some call the "Frankenhunter", has become today's Hunter gun.  Go to a serious match and you will find very few guns that resemble anything that remotely looks like a "factory" gun.  Right or wrong, it is what as occurred and can explain why so many have jumped on the Cowboy scene.  No fancy equipment ($$$) required there, just a 39A and a box of bullets!

Today, serious 1/5th shooters take the Anschutz 54 1808 MSR action and make it fit the rules of the silhouette game.  A match chambered, aftermarket barrel with a taper is added.  These barrels tend to be heavy thus many are fluted to help make weight.  The trigger on an 1808 is just as phenomenal at 2 lbs as 2 oz and those changes are made.  The Pharr stock is legal but feels more like the big target rifle stocks.  In short, a standard gun has been transformed into a rule conforming Hunter smallbore rifle and you shoot just one gun.  Why not?  Two guns cost more, hard to travel to distant matches and you don't waste time sighting in two guns and have to inventory two different ammo types.

For me I shoot that 2lb trigger far better than any light trigger.  But why?  I have to write it off to what I have used the most, what I am used to.  I cannot switch back and forth between the two trigger types.  I dilute my "subliminal" shooting reflex.  I have to think too much to shoot it right.  One gun strategy just works. Today I shot a 26 with my super duper Std rifle and I struggled.  I picked up Blaze, old faithful, and shot a 31. I had practiced with the std gun and was able to shoot pigs at the ram distance.  Not easy but when I did the right thing the animal fell.  I conclude for me, it just takes too much thinking to shoot the heavy gun well.

So, I am going to return to one gun and shoot it well and play around with the social Lever gun sport.  I truly believe when it comes to the 1/5th game, the sport has become a one gun game.  Now if I can just figure out a way to make it as fun as the lever gun for others!

Shoot 40s!

G. David Tubb Highpower Rile, Books part III

I kinda got off my "good books to read stent".  I had started this but failed to finish it.  Nomad loaned me his copy and I read it cover to cover when I first started.  It is heavy to the service rifle discipline but there are nuggets around the standing position and general mental approach to competitive shooting.

Amazon has it but I am not sure it is worth $25.  There is another book I might buy first.  But something to file away and who knows, you might come upon it at a gun show.