44 Rem Mag take three. She's BACK!

For those of you who follow the blog, you will know I put a great deal of time into developing a self cast hand load for my Marlin 1894CB.  I simply love the trigger and wanted to use it over my 336CB in 30-30 which does not have as nice a trigger.  I tried two different moulds.  Two different powders and thought I had an acceptable solution as discussed in THIS post.

But, on June 3rd, 2012, I was shooting my new rifle with rounds produced per Junior Doughty's excellent "how to" make cast bullets perform at their maximum. After methodical benchrest like handloading techniques, (all cases trimmed to one length, primer pocket deburred, weight sorted brass, weight sorted bullets) I was getting scatter gun results. 10 Chickens, 6 Pigs, 2 Turkeys and 3 Rams for a whopping 21!  That was almost a year ago and I have not shot the 44 since or for that matter, even attend the last two matches of the CLA season.  This year, I dug out my 30-30 sight settings and shot it instead of the 44 and managed an improvement with 34 animals.  Was it me or the gun?

So, what happened to my 44?  I concluded the only variable to blame was that I had pounded in a blank in the rear dovetail.  My "used" gun came with no rear sight and I decided to make her look pretty.  I used my vernier to ensure I had the small side go in the wide side of the dovetail but it still took a great deal of force to beat in the blank.  Like an idiot, I kept beating on it until it "looked pretty".  Perhaps this blank introduced some barrel stresses?  There are some owners of the 44 who claim there is a tight spot where the barrel was stamped with Marlin et all.  Their point, there is not as much barrel wall relative to other calibers.  Today, I removed the blank, cleaned the barrel looking for a "tight spot" and concluded all was well.  I took some of those very same handloads to the range to test two things.  Accuracy of the gun @ 100y and the viability of a Redfield 75 which I will save for another post.

I started on chickens (50y) to get on paper.  I did in a fashion as the Redfield cannot come down as much as
I would like.  Once on paper and on the chicken, I went to the 100y benchrest.  I fashioned a crude "paper plate" from a hunk of white corrugated and stapled it on brown corrugated.  (I failed to bring a blank targets or spotting scope).  Put in 20 clicks of "up" and took 5 shots with just a front post insert to see if I was on paper.  (See "1" shots).  Fair but a little high.  Took out 5 clicks and moved it right 2.  Took another string of 5  resulting in the shots labeled "2" and WHOA!  My 44 is back to what it had been doing pre blank installation!  Please note, this 2.5" group was shot with iron sights off a rolled up jacket!  

Clearly the gun is capable and I need to get back on the 44 bandwagon.  But can I get enough loaded for Sunday?  Hope to see you at PEMI  this year, the link is current schedule and past results!

 

2nd Annual Silhouette clinic at Pioneer May 18th, 2013

Saturday May 18th Schedule

8:30    Pioneer silhouette range open (rain or shine)
9:30    Clinic begins on silhouette range.
11:30  Burgers on grill.  Please bring your own drinks
12:30  How to sight in or "zero" your firearm at Chickens and so on...
           How to find the best ammo for your gun
           How "iron sights" and "scopes" are different yet the same.
           How to shoot off hand. 
           (There will be four veteran shooters at four stations demonstrating these topics)
1:30    New shooters buddy up with veterans to shoot for fun until....

Why a Silhouette Clinic?

Last year we ran this program for the first time and it was a great success.  The objective of this "second annual" silhouette clinic is to introduce new shooters to the sport.  Since there is no "NRA approved match" going on Saturday, it is a great time to ask questions.  The best way to describe silhouette is organized plinking.  The sport can be an outlet for a number of interests.  You will find folks there who enjoy old lever guns.  For others it is an opportunity for a family to shoot and pass down a tradition..  For a husband and wife to share an interest.  Still others enjoy serious competition and the science of equipment and shooter.  To each their own which is why silhouette is such a fun sport.

The objective of this clinic is to demystify what typically goes on three Sundays every month during the summer and let new shooters ask questions in a informal setting without timers and guns going off.

Cost.  Donations requested for food and drink. 

What We'll Cover

Here is an outline which will be updated right up to the 19th.  Consider it a "work in process" as I get input and come up with other ideas.

• Introductions and what you want to get out of the day
• Silhouette history
• Why all off hand?
• Why different types of targets and various sizes?
• Where to begin? (Family, competitive shooting, use what you own, try something new, cowboy/lever gun, improve your marksmanship, or just do it)
• Equipment options (Rifle or pistol or both)
• Caliber options
• NRA Classification book and pursuit of a Grand Slam
• Ammo is akin to women's shoes.  Vast selection and you can't every have too much!
• Sight systems.  (Iron sight vs scoped gun)
• Safety.  (Ears & Eyes & lead management.  OBI/ECI etc)
• QUESTIONS
• Course of fire and the Range officer.
• Primer on how to shoot off hand. 
• The role of a spotter or coach
• The importance of learning how to 'call your own shot'
• How to get your equipment (firearm) ready for a match.
• Want to really immerse yourself, a binder for each gun you want to shoot.
• Matching ammo to the gun (rimfire) or hand load development, cast or jacketed.
• How to practice or what to practice.
• QUESTIONS
• How you can help the game and the clubs that make the sport possible.
• MORE QUESTIONS

HEAD over to the covered Silhouette range  We will spend an hour or so going over issues at "four stations" and then have a fun match with veterans and new shooters paired up.

What should a new shooter bring?

Firearms: First, if you don't own a firearm that is not an issue.  I expect there will be some "loaner" equipment available and at least two youth sized guns.  Now, if you have some equipment bring it in your car, cased and unloaded.  We will review the proper method to remove your firearm from the car and bring it to the safety table.  Although the intent is not to make this an antiques road show, if you want some advice on how to best utilize what you own, bring it along and I suspect a veteran shooter will be more than happy to counsel you on how to best enjoy "Grampa's old gun".  So yes, if you own something, bring it along.  If you are unsure or uncomfortable about how to handle it or use it, ask a volunteer for help getting it out of your car.  When in doubt, ask.  Throughout this entire day there are no dumb questions!

Safety equipment:  Even if you don't have a firearm, coming with your own pair of safety glasses and ear plugs is HIGHLY recommended.  Visit Riley's Sports Shop as they support our club, or the sporting goods store of your choice.  If you are bringing a youth member, they make nice youth sized safety glasses which work much better than generic safety glasses.  If you bring a firearm, please also bring an OBI (open bolt indicator) also called ECI, (empty chamber indicator).  If you don't have one, you can buy one at the club for $1, our cost.

Ammo:  If you are bringing a firearm.  Centerfire:  Factory ammo is overkill for this sport but you have to start collecting brass sometime soon.  100% of all centerfire competitors reload their own ammo.  We will not have centerfire ammo available but we can advise you as to what your options will be.  Rimfire:  Bring your favorite.  If you don't have one, I find Federal Lighting 22LR to be a good start.  In short, bring what you have and we'll tell you whether you are good to go or not.  At my first match, my mentor reviewed what I brought and politely told me to put it all back in the car and we used his gun for the session.  12 years later my ego is just fine.  Besides,  I learned a lot more that we would have trying to sort out my equipment.

Pre clinic day Questions: you can ask them here in this blog.  Or, email me at durantjud---yahoo----com  if you want to call me call 6ix 0ero 3hree 7even 4our 6ix 3hree 0ero 4our 0ero.

Please, let me know if you plan to attend.  Not required but helpful.

JD

PS:  All this fun on Saturday will be followed by a real silhouette match on Sunday where you can come and shoot, which after Saturday, you should be more than ready.

Sight Radius

I was at our CLA match last weekend and the question came up about what "sight radius" was all about.  And why do you hear CLA shooters talking about it so often when considering gun options?

It seemed like an innocent enough question.  So here is the short and simple answer.  Sight radius is the distance between the front sight and the rear sight.  Pistols have short sight radius and rifles have a long sight radius.  Sight radius only applies to gun using iron sights and does not apply to scoped guns.

In concept, the "greater" this distance, the easier it is for the shooter to visually align the gun sights on the target.  So, in CLA, the general rule of thumb, more sight radius is better than less sight radius.  This has meaning when you are selecting your gun and sight system.  But how much meaning?

Much to do about nothing?  Academically, the rule of thumb is true.  Look at a smallbore prone shooter and they will have a "bloop tube" extending the barrel to the maximum length to give greater sight radius.  They don't want more weight or more barrel.  They just want the front sight as far away from the rear sight as possible to afford a greater sight radius.  But do we need this with clowboy?

Since cowboy shooters cannot add something off the front of the rifle, they move the rear sight back.  Many shooters seek out a tang sight to get 3 more inches of sight radius.  I myself got sucked into this pursuit but the tang sight is in the way and, I ride up on my gun.  Maybe not the best idea for CF guns.  My point, does the 3 inches of increased sight radius out weigh the lost "comfort" of a head forward position or a thumb wrapped around the tang?

I think we tend to over emphasis these issues.  Sure, if given a 20" barrel vs a 24" barrel, you'd pick the longer barrel.  That does not mean you are at a significant disadvantage with something shorter than 24".  Favorable results are the aggregation of many variables.  Accuracy of load and shooting ability are top priority.  The other stuff is secondary. Helpful but secondary.  Maybe when you are working on that 10 in a row ram for a few years it cold be time to seek out more sight radius.  Until that time, have fun.

Of course I have a 24" barrel and tang sight and I still missed a pig last weekend.  You can't blame that on sight radius!  Bottom line, new shooters should shoot what they own.  If you don't own anything, longer barrels are better than short barrels but come with a price due to scarcity.  More sight radius typically costs more and although it helps, the greatest variable is the person pulling the trigger.  Remember, this is a shooter's sport, not an equipment sport.  Maybe after you clean your chickens and pigs, can you begin to wonder if your equipment is the weak link.  Until that time, I would propose that the importance of "sight radius" is tertiary.