My 1/5th gun history, Part I

So often the people I socialize with in the game of Silhouette ask me about my equipment.  It's always about equipment, equipment, equipment.  Sadly I fall into the same trap.  Good equipment just puts more of the burden on the shooter.  But, entry level equipment does not "remove" the burden from the shooter. Good shooters will still shoot high counts with average equipment.

A story first.  Winnsoboro, LA.  Friday before the match there must be 30 shooters practicing, confirming zeros.  And why not, they put up 400 1/5th animals, yes, 10 banks!  I have my NS522/Weaver KT-15 shooting Wolf MT.  I was on turkeys with a young girl from Florida.  I knew her a little as we were squadded together at the Sunshine Classic a few months earlier.  She had a beautiful factory Anschutz 1712 in a Miestergrade wood stock.  Leupold scope and shooting Eley EPS.  After a year of shooting she was already a master shooter and boy could she shoot! 

Anyway, I turned a turkey and I invited her to show me her stuff and knock it down.  She replied shyly that her Dad sent her with just one brick so she had to conserve ammo.  I acknowledged her response, but to make things fun, I offered her my gun and ammo.  Her eyes lit up and happily took me up on my offer.  One shot later the turned turkey was on the ground.  After I picked my jaw off the ground, I smiled and offered her to continue shooting.  She politely and said "thank you, one was enough."  Obviously it was not the gun, ammo or sight settings.  It was the jerk behind the trigger which limited my performance.

Lesson learned.  It ain't the equipment dummy!  Or is it?

Struggling with new Anschutz

Another story.  Pe Ell, WA.  1710/MacMillan/Leupold 6-20x/Wolf MT.  2005 as seen to right.  In short, I was having one of those crappy days.  Managed a horrible 23.  Fighting something.  One of those times when I should have stayed home but home was 2,800 miles away.  I was shooting with the TX gang, Motl, Kuney, Pharr, Clark.  Mark Pharr, in an effort to cheer me up, offered to let me shoot his gun.  Seeing as how Mark Pharr is one of the top Silhouette gunsmiths and competitors, he never shows up with the same gun twice.  Needless to say, he had a new very nice rig.  A custom Ultra Light Action (ULA), repeater, Lija barrel, Timney trigger and his prototype stock in wood.  I knew nothing about Ultra Light Arms at the time or that his stock would become the basis of a popular fiberglass mould.

I declined, knowing I had to grow up and figure out my own gun.  But, after another horrible Saturday afternoon match, I asked him Sunday morning if the offer still stood?  He said sure but there would not be enough ammo for any practice.  No worries on my part, the weekend was now just a learning trip as I was out of the running for any sort of prize.

ULA in prototype Pharr stock, click to enlarge

To make a long story short, I went from a 23 Sat morning to a 33 on Sunday morning.  Although the ULA, pictured to the right, had feeding issues, which is why Mark does not use them anymore, it shot lights out.  It was like a laser beam.  I broke on the animal, the animal fell.  Stock was awesome, it just stayed put.  After that, I knew it was time to upgrade my gun.  But, a $2,000 custom gun???  If I had the money it would have flown home with me!

In summary:

So there you have it.  Conflicting stories.  There is no right answer.  It is a journey.  But, a journey where you must proactively seek out information.  Experiment, take notes, filter emotions from fact.  The best advice is to shoot what you own and travel to as many matches as possible and talk with EVERYONE. This hobby is more about information collection, socialization and discovery than it is about winning.  You will find the silhouette gang quite helpful and will often let you try out if not use their equipment.  The 1/5th game is not easy.  After a year of practice on the 1/2 scale animals my first 1/5th score was a 12.  Today, I am a solid AAA shooter but not a master.  There are many shooters who never shoot less than a 35.  I have never been there and not sure I ever will.  But I keep trying.

Trigger Control

I've been asked to comment on trigger control.  The question is, do you hold and wait for an unexpected trigger release or do you hold, and when you like the sight picture, do you deliberately squeeze the trigger?  The shooter had been advised or was of the opinion that a surprise or "unexpected" break was better than a "deliberate" break.  But, recent results at the range was disproving his belief that "unexpected" was better than "deliberate".  And, the concern was, "deliberate" trigger technique would create bad habits.

Because silhouette is shot outdoors, we have wind to contend with.  The likelihood of success by holding on the animal and waiting for the trigger to break while the wind is calm is low.  I support a concept put forth by Lanny Bassham, the subconscious yet deliberate release.  This is far more sophisticated than what I would call "snatching" at the trigger while the sights are on the animal.  I think this is the bad habit the shooter is worried about by adopting a deliberate break.

When I started out with my NS522, which had more creep than my Anschutz, I developed what I called the "boa constrictor" trigger release.  With a solid 2lb trigger I would gently squeeze the trigger just a little more each time I had a good sight picture.  Eventually, the trigger would go off while on the animal with trigger SQUEEZE, not pull or "snatch".  This worked very well for me and broke the tendency to "snatch" at the trigger.

When I moved to the Anschutz two stage trigger, I found this technique unnecessary.  Either it broke cleaner or I improved my technique.  But, my technique comes from a great deal of practice in order to develop what Lanny calls the "subconscious" shot.  You really need to read the book discussed here or an article that can be found here.  Navigate to [Document Library], scroll down to [Training] and click on 1.  Truly, buy the book used from Half.com. 

The general concept i'll compare to driving a standard car.  When you need to shift you don't think about the timing of the clutch.  You subconsciously depress the clutch, shift, release the clutch.  It should be the same with shooting.  You have to practice so that when the sight picture is right, you subconsciously squeeze the trigger without thinking.  If you have to think about squeezing the trigger then unwanted results will occur.

The next major issue is the isolation of the trigger finger from ones hold.  This is my biggest challenge.  Clean breaks where there is no movement after you break the shot.   You should watch the bullet in the scope go down range, see the animal fall and hopefully the paint fly.  This is where we all want to be.  Yes Virginia, you should always see the animal fall in your scope!  And, now you know why white animals are preferred.  You can see your hits as they happen.  Much harder to pick up the point of impact on fast moving black animals.

The only way to work on this is by using various drills.  Here are a few that I have picked up but I am sure there are others.

• The Troy Lawton circle drill as found here.  This was covered in post found here.
• The modified Troy Lawton drill.  I met with Troy when I was first starting off and he watched me shoot.  His counsel, at home, take the bolt out of the gun and hold on a dot and simply work the trigger back and forth and discover the hold, the whatever, to ensure the gun does not move while your trigger finger is moving.  Whether technique or muscle memory, work through it to reduce any movement of the rifle when the trigger finger breaks the shot.
• Dry fire, dry fire dry fire at home.  And, at the range.  Chris Winstead also coached me and he gave me two big nuggets.  First, never take your finger off the trigger after releasing the shot.  Stay with the trigger.  Any muscle movement that close to follow through is a bad thing.  Second, when practicing with live ammo, always shoot once and then dry fire on the shell three times noting any issues and taking corrective action.  Then shoot another live and repeat and repeat and repeat.....
• Practice practice practice to build up the subconscious.  It works!
• See this POST and watch the trigger finger.  Bill dry fires 100 shells every lunch break.  At home, he has 33 feet and dry fires whenever he can.

So, in short, in my opinion, you have to break deliberately on the animal using your subconscious trigger finger. And, to do that, you have to develop a serious at home drill regimen.

2012 New Hampshire Metallic Silhouette Schedule

After some this and that with our respective clubs, your fearless match directors, John, Dave and Jud have hammered out the schedule for this year.

2012 NH Silhouette Schedule.

Please print one out for yourself and a friend.  Of note would be the following:

• The first match will be CLA at Pemi, April 29th
• Pioneer is going to have a clinic for new and aspiring shooters May 19th
• There are some rule changes for Cowboy as noted HERE.
• PSI program for NRA Approved monthly matches HERE. 
• Granite State Regional program is work in process.
• NRA rule book Pistol HERE, Rifle HERE.

Have questions, suggestions, ideas, offers?  Send me an email durantjud [at] yahoo.com

See all blog posts, go HERE.

What is Silhouette you ask? 

The short version is this.  Silhouette shooters shoot from the standing position without any support.  We shoot at profiles of four steel animals; Chicken, Pig, Turkey and Ram. Each at a set distance as per the NRA rule book as per the links above..  There are typically 10 of each animal making a total of 40 possible "hits" or points.  If the anmal falls off the stand you get a point.  The shooter with the highest points wins.  The shots are taken in string of 5, each string is allowed up to 2 minutes and 30 seconds.  A line officer calls the line giving range commands.  After your two strings on the first animal is completed, you move to the next animal, adjust your sight settings and have another go at it after you return from setting up your fallen critters.

The challenge:  Shooting off hand makes this a shooters sport, not an equipment sport.  Learning your rifle, ammo and your ability is fun.  I like to call it organized plinking.  Plenty of folks say it also helps their hunting season.

Here are a few links.

Pioneer Sportsman webpage with details of how the game is played in NH.
An excellent website put together by a shooter.
An older website which I used when I was trying to figure out what I just saw.

Inspiration Video on 1/5th turkeys

I watched this video and at first I was confused.  Usually shoot offs are sudden death here in NH.  But, I gather at Nationals, it is best of five.  If by some chance you tie in the bank of 5, you start a second bank of 5 and so on and so on until the winner is determined.  If you can believe it (read the details under the video), they were tied hit for hit up until the 15th shot.  Yes, they needed three banks of 5 to settle a tie which in itself was 35 animals.  It can be done!

Fun video once you tune out the background noise.  It took me a second viewing to wrap my noodle around what was going on.  It starts at the beginning of the 2nd bank of 5.  Notice the gender of the top silhouette shooters in the country!

10 Meter Air Rifle, first time out in 2012

Target #5, two of five 10's.  And almost a pinwheel.

New Hampshire has had an odd winter. No snow.  Can't say I miss the pre sunrise frolic with the snowblower, but lack of snow comes lack of revenue for the State.  Today is the NH Primary, so what better time to blow the dust of the old Silhouette blog and see if anyone is out there.

Pioneer Sportsmen in Dunbarton, NH is trying to revitalize the air program.  We can hang 8 steel backstops from the ceiling in the indoor 50ft range. They also act as target holders at 10 meters from the 50 ft firing line.  It works quite well every Monday night.  I decided to go last night and see just how rusty I am.  My benchmark was from a 2008 shoulder to shoulder team match against Reading Highpower's Team October 8th.  We fought and clawed to get 4 shooters to represent Pioneer.  Glenn G., John M., Mark M. and Jud D.  It was a timed event shooting side by side.  I managed a 539 (93 90 90 85 87 94). Better than my usual.

Last night, Match #1, ouch.  515 (87 83 87 88 90 80).  I lost my zen at the end allowing an AD leaving me with a 5.  That is a good way to throw away points.  I had three ADs for the night.  5, and a 6.  The other was on target when it broke and was an 8.  I managed eleven 10s, five of them on my 5th target!  The key to that moment, catch yourself doing something right and repeat it.  Obviously I failed to follow my own advice.  Those pistol shooters shoot fast.  I need to block that out of my head.

Goal?  To shoot a 540 before the air season is out.  If I shot a 90 once, I can shoot it 6 times in a row if I work at it.  I figure this is good practice for Silhouette although the triggers are vastly different.  I struggled with my trigger last night.  It seemed to behave differently.  Rough in a word.  Sometimes it was clean to the 2nd stage which you could feel.  Other times it was rough to the second stage and as a result I could not feel it.  I made sure I felt for it when I was close to center.  I few times that saved me.  Twice it cost me.

Match #1  515 (87 83 87 88 90 80)
Match #2  510  (85 89 85 86 82 83)
Match #3  532  (94 87 83 91 89 88)  (season high, 94/100 tied best ever 10 shots)
Match #4  530  (87 90 90 93 89 81)
Match #5  524  (86 84 88 91 85 90)  
Match #6  517  (88 85 88 87 90 79)
Match #7  524  (82 91 88 91 84 88) 

    

Toughts about the trigger, its shape and use.

Anschutz trigger shoe

At the last match of the year we took some time shooting different rifles to get some relative comparisons.  One such rifle I shot I found it hard to work the trigger.  Try as I might to squeeze the trigger I could not make it work for me.  Each "snap" of the trigger resulted in a downed animal.  Odd I thought to myself.

At the time the issue bothered me.  The entire pad of my finger engaged in the wide, curved trigger shoe is what felt different.  I am not going to suggest I understand the physiological make up the of the human finger pad, but for me, I like to feel the trigger pushing through all the "flesh" right to the bone.  Not sure that makes sense to anyone but I will expand.

When I shoot my gun I actually put the very tip of my finger pad on the bottom of the trigger.  Effectively I am pushing on the bottom "point" of the crescent shaped trigger shoe.  Sure, sounds odd, but it works for me.  Not only does it give me a different point of leverage, but it gives me a very certain engagement of the pad of my trigger finger.  I don't like to have 160 degrees of my finger engaged in the trigger.  I want just 5 degrees of my finger pad engaged so I can really feel what is going on.

As I think back to various exposures I had, this preference does make sense to me.  For those fortunate enough to have the 5018 Anschutz trigger, you can fit all sorts of trigger shoes to it because it has a "rail" on which the trigger staff and shoe can be fitted.  This enables adjustment forward and back as well as cant.  In short, you can hang just about anything off the trigger due to the handy rail which might be a reason so many people fit this trigger to other actions.  The caption picture came from the Anschutz website and I recall one gentleman raving about this trigger.  At the time I was a novice and I did not even try it, but I filed it away in the memory banks for this blog entry 10 years later.  Back then I was still trying to figure out how to sight in my rifle let alone the arcane world of changing out your trigger shoe!

You don't have to have an Anschutz to try this concept.  Put your finger on the very end of the trigger.  See what it feels like.  See if you can get a non "fleshy" 5 degree engagement of the trigger and whether it feels better for you.  To me it is crisper.

Tubb trigger, see article

For more on trigger technique your can read the article below.  See that they too get away from the crescent shape and strive for a smaller "contact" patch of your trigger finger.

This entry is getting a tad obscure but I am running out of new material.  If you have something you want discussed shoot me a comment.  Of course you can always use a bent nail.  :)

Enjoy!

Tubb article on trigger technique.

Air guns as a practice tool

With the temp just at freezing this morning it is a good sign that outdoor shooting will soon be less than optimal for both equipment and human.  I will say that my buddy John C. in Alaska shoots year round.  Hint hint.  But, for now, NH is a fair weather crowd and given the amount of effort it is to put on a match, that is fine with me.

But I am going to work hard on air this season.  Most of what I would write is available on other sites so I will keep it brief and share only one personal experience and then provide some links for ongoing reading.

When in Dallas I had a three car garage.  Keep in mind your garage was also the only storage you had.  I was able to create a nice 33 ft range and I practiced all the time.  At first I had a cheap Chinese knock off which I tuned as best one could.  In other words, I learned a lot about spring airguns.  I shot it a bunch and finally took it to an airgun silhouette match and shot well enough to start in AA.  I was hooked.  I did the math as to range fees, ammo, miles driven, time etc and justified the purchase of a TX200 mfg by AirArms.  This gun could be used as both a practice tool and was appropriate to shoot in 2 of the 3 MS Airgun divisions.  Why not!  I spent 3x on an airgun than what I had spent on my first rimfire!  CRAZY!

I started shooting it in my garage and wow what a difference!  What a beautiful instrument.  My at home scores went up but more importantly, I TRULY had a revelation of what Lanny Bassham writes about.  The subconscious or "reflexive shooting".  Meaning, you don't think about taking the shot, you just reflexively take the shot.

I was at some match in small bore and my practice took over.  It is hard to describe but effectively I envisioned my dot on the animal at home and simply repeated what I was doing at home at the match.  Dot here, wiggle there, finger squeeze.....pow....ding.  I was not thinking about anything, I was just repeating what I had been doing at home over and over.  Sadly, that level of practice has not been attained again.  But I know it works and I know what I need to do if I want to improve.

I am a huge advocate of at home air practice.  It would be best to use a scope on some form of scaled animal.  I will see if I can include a link to the scaled 10m animals for air.

Here is one by Dave Imas, a very good shooter and coach on the left coast.  He is also the one with mile high scope rings under Too hot, too cold.

Imas

Second, is one of the best off hand shooters in Silhouette.  David Tubb's review of how to get the most out of an airgun for at home practice.

Tubb part 1.   
Tubb part 2.

10m scaled Silhouette target

10 meter air in Munich 2011

Tom W. recently asked me to do a write up for the Pioneer website regarding our fledgling air program.  There are a few blogs which I also watch which are heavy to Pistol Bullseye. Tom is working very hard to improve the indoor range and the overall condition of the PSI club house.  Under the basic rule of thumb, people will take care of something that looks nice, we are not only improving the mechanicals but also the cosmetics..  We are also doubling the air handling equipment which has an advanced "multistage" air filtration system.  They are being installed this week.

In my write up I mentioned that in Europe, 10m air is a huge sport.  Although I am only a web based spectator and reader of what goes on, I believe my assessment is accurate.  To demonstrate, I thought I would include the photo above.

To give proper credit, the photo came from the below link under the Munich 2011 album.

https://picasaweb.google.com/110058510710131713019

Evapo-Rust continued

Evapo-Rust helped my mould but I did not take any pictures.  I was organizing tools, inherited tools.  Trying to have the tools I need at the ready and the tools I own but don't need in storage so they won't rust.  This nice antique Stanley carpenters square sadly got left in a drawer where mice made a nest and their pee destroyed some nice stuff.  In short, mice can ruin just about anything with either teeth or their waste.

Click one, then again to enlarge

I put the square in a open container and let it sit for about 18 hours.  For me, the experiment is done.  it works well and the non toxic part is a plus.  But it ain't cheap.  $9 for a quart.  Small pieces , it is great.  Big stuff, you have to buy a lot to get it immersed.

To the left is a picture demonstrating the results.  My container would not let the square lay flat so only half of the square was in the liquid solution.  This exercise was more for experimentation than the desire to return this square to its original condition.  There is not much I can do about the pitting.  Right side is basically a "before" and left is an "after" illustration.  As always, click on the picture  to enlarge.

I would give it two thumbs up.  The appeal, it ONLY goes after rust and not the rest of the metal or wood or brass.  Just the iron oxide.

I guess I could test out electrolysis rust removal on the other side some day.

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.

Granite State Regional Follow up

We just wrapped up another great two day match where shooters were able to see just how many times they could pull the trigger and keep hitting steel.

Although I know of only one out of state shooter, I would have to say all those who attended had a good time.  The best part, the Boy Scout target setters!  What a pleasure to be able to sit back and chat with your shooting neighbor and not worry about having to reset targets in the hot sun! 

On a whole it was a great turn out. Good weather, good food thanks to the Boy Scouts and all those non Silhouette folks who ventured by to buy lunch were very impressed with the silhouette shooting community!

Thanks Mike for putting on the match!  Sadly I did not have a camera.

Jud

More 44 tests with 8 gr of unique

Click on image for larger view

Updated 9-15-2011

Finally got to the range.  7.5 gr of unique was no good.  Worse than 7.0.  Then I tried 8.0 and it was better.  I have looked at both and neither is up to 30-30 accuracy so it may be time to try some other powders.  Reality is I do not have the time or expertise to be doing this right now but it is a nice diversion.  I could argue the results here are my shooting ability and two shots got away from me.  I guess the next step is to take 10 rounds of 7.0 and 10 rounds of 8.0 and have a shoot off.

Still using my home cast 429215 sized .430", weight 218g, no gas check, Blue Angle lube.

This was max of 3.674 MOA vs 7.0g of unique which was 3.3.  But the ATC (average to center) was slightly better, 1.025 vs. 1.052.  Of course none of these groups are anything to write home about.

Take two, different powder.

Click on image for larger view

I tried some Titegroup based on some advice from a fellow shooter who noted LaserCast listed Titegroup as an accuracy load.  I gave some a whirl and in a word, WOW!  The target to the right is what I call a group.  In fact, I had the second lower group going with just a box of 4 holes.  Your brain runs a mile a minute as you work to squeeze off that 5th shot and you panic about ruining a nice pair of groups.  To my shock and great pleasure the bullet went right in the middle of the box doing nothing to open up the group size.  Amazing.  Subject gun is one of those modern Marlin 1894's in 44 Rem Mag.  Yes, with a scope but off a rolled up blanket and an old wooden bench.

Scope power

If you have been following this blog there is an extensive review of head position as dictated by the location of the scope.  High, low, forward, back.  It is a case of personal preference.  I am not going to suggest what works for me works for everyone.

Recently there has been some interest in scope power.  "What power do you shoot at?" the line goes.  This is a fairly common debate among shooters and it is similar to scope height/location.  You have to do what you like after extensive experimentation.

But, unlike scope height, there is this allure that more power is better.  Many a shooter rationalizes "if I just had more power I could shoot more animals".  Me too!  I learned more power can get you in more trouble than you would expect because it introduces what I will call "pass shooting" and "snatching" at the trigger.  Neither of these are good habits to get into.

It comes down to what I call "perceived movement" vs. 'actual movement".  We've all looked through a high power telescope I assume and we recall just walking on the floor can cause the image to "move" or vibrate.  The high magnification will show you this movement when it would otherwise go unnoticed.  It is the same thing with a high power scope.  It will appear you are moving all over the place.  Pick up a 15x scope and you will feel like you have a fairly solid hold.  Pick up a 30x scope and the retical will appear to be dancing all around the animal.  Folks think their hold has deteriorated.  Not the case, the higher power is just making your movement more apparent or it "magnifies" your movement.  Funny how that works! 

Often shooters upgrade to a higher power scope too early in the process under the rule of thumb "more is better".  This can cause one to start snatching the trigger as the dot sweeps by the animal.  AKA pass shooting.  This will never yield a better score.  Sure, you might get lucky some of the time but on a whole it will not improve results.

My 24x vs 36x target test post demonstrates this.  My hold was not ready for 36x  Not sure it will ever be ready.  I have tried training with 36x and then for the big event, I shoot 24x so it fools me into thinking my hold is GREAT!  I tried it and I believe it helps.  The downside, you have to waste more time and ammo swapping scopes and getting zeros.  So, I use the high power scope on my airgun for practice and then shoot lower power for the real deal.

So, when people ask, I now shoot a Weaver T24.  I would shoot a Leupold M8 24x (no longer sold) but it is heavier than the Weaver.  They are both great scopes.  Repeatability is the single most important thing with scopes.  I find optical clarity helps one focus in on the task at hand but that is personal.

Importance of testing the gun on the bench to a "control" target

A few folks have asked where I have been.  Well, we had the 4th of July and a few other family issues which have taken priority over shooting.  Heck, I have not even tried my 7.5 and 8.0 gr loads for my 44 Rem Mag which have been on my bench for two weeks.

I did manage to make it to PFFG for their match today and I always walk away wondering why I don't work harder (practice) for this stuff and see if I can figure out how to improve or at least shoot consistently.  I do enjoy the game and hope I can get others to enjoy it as much as I do.

One event or observation over the past two weeks.

The challenges another shooter has been fighting reminds me of the importance of having a "control" for your rig.  Your rig is a system which includes barreled action, ammo, stock, scope, rings, trigger, even your bolt knob!  It is tempting to play with MANY variables in search of better scores.  Whenever working with your equipment you need to have a "control" that is carefully documented. When things go haywire, you simply go back and see if you can replicate the control.  If you can't, then you have made a change for the worse and you need to undo it.  Of course it is ALWAYS advised to make just one change at a time.

I keep a binder for each gun and in it goes all targets with detailed notes.  What seems like too much information 10 minutes after shooting the target is never enough information a year later as you try to digest what is effectively your "engineering notebook".

When I get ready to make my gun into an expensive tomato stake, I counsel myself to see if I can duplicate the control.  For me, it is my 1710 with a Weaver T24, Pharr stock and 711B off the bench at 100m. Before my range trip I clean the barrel.  I lightly coat the bore with Kroil, muzzle down to ensure any surplus fluid does not get into the action.  Clean that out 24 hours later, a little JB Boreshine, clean that out with Hoppes and the run patches until clean and head to the range.  I have a standard target on 8.5 x 11 paper divided into quadrants where I shoot 20 shots, 5 at 4 POAs for group.  If I am miles away from my control I know I have made a change or done something that needs to be found and undone.

In NH we make very little use of the bench.  Less than in other regions I have competed.  In other parts of the country everyone confirms their chicken zero on real benches and real rests before the match starts.  Adjust knobs to zero/zero and then quickly confirm pigs, turkey and rams.  0, 2, 4.5, 8.0.  Or something like that.  If it happens to be 0 2 5.0 8.25 that day then so be it and shoot the match accordingly.

In NH we step up to chickens w/o much opportunity to ensure we are seeing the normal group size at 40m.  That does not make the 1/5th game any easier.  It really puts the onus on the shooter to make good calls and watch where the bullet hits.  Not something easily done for new shooters because it takes years to develop this skill.  I don't have a solution but merely share an observation.  New shooters should always invite a veteran to spot for them to avoid getting frustrated.

Good shooting.

Good read for casters out there.

As I beg and borrow to get some 44 Rem Mag materials I stumbled upon what seems to me to be a treasure trove of information for those wheel gun casters out there.  First, I have no intention to get into wheel guns, ever.  Simply not enough time and money to scratch that itch.  Phew!  But, casting bullets is an interesting pursuit, one I am still trying to figure out so every chance I have to read what others have to say I soak it up.

This web published book is 178 pages long and is stuffed with information.  I am unsure why I only just stumbled upon it but I do see it is copyrighted for 2011.  Enjoy.

From Ingot to Target:  A Cast Bullet Guide for Handgunners.

First 44 Rem Mag hand loads with unexpected results.

100y 44 Rem Mag.  Click image for larger view

I sinned and picked up a Marlin 336CB in 44 Rem Mag, ballard rifling.  I know, it is not the "real game" but a bunch of folk play the lever gun game and it seemed to me I was missing out on a bunch of fun.

Shooting the 30-30 and 44 lever guns have been a way for me to start learning how to reload in baby steps.  I cast up some 44s using a Lyman 2 cavity 429215.  Most of them fill out to over .430 so they get a nice squaring up of the driving bands when they run through the .430 sizer.  I found slugging my 30-30 barrel to be inconclusive.  I might have to try again on the 44 barrel.  Something about tapping a projectile through a barrel with a brass rod that still makes me nervous.

I started with my nice set of RCBS Cowboy dies, Federal primers and Unique which is what Mark gave me and what Bob says works very well in his Microgroove 336.  6.5 grains to start.  12" pattern.  6.0 grains was about the same.  I was pretty discouraged because I was testing my bullets w/o gas checks in hopes I could find something that I could use for CLA..  Then I tried 7 grains and wow.  Not to say it is great but it was nice to see a 3.5" group after a 12" with just .5g more powder.  I guess 7.5 grains is the next test.  A bit more recoil than 6.5 but something I should be able to live with.

The other concurrent test was to see if Federal primers would give me as many FTF problems.  CCI primers drove me crazy at the first match I shot the 44 but the Federals worked 100%.  Good news, it must be a primer issue, not a gun issue.

This was shot off a bench with a 20x scope.  No wind to speak of.  The far right shot  was me although it seems to have cut the paper differently.  All other shots were reasonable given my bench, rest and ability.

RCBS Customer Service Praise.

Back around June 11th I wrote that I was ham fisted with my RCBS decapping die and broke a pin on the 395th 30-30 case.  I should have sensed abnormal resistance but as a newbie, I just charged ahead.  I stopped by Riley's later in the week and after 15 minutes of iPhone work and catolog work, I left with a package of new pins that may or may not be the right size.  I guess I could have bought both sizes but I chose not to, I figure I had a 50/50 chance.

When I got home I spent some time on the RCBS website and found it still a bit vague so I sent an email to customer service asking them to advise which size pin I should use.  To my utter amazement they replied a) promptly b) in english and c) with the response that they would be sending me an entire new decapping unit with in the new button head pin format with a 5 pack of pins!  That response was back on 6/16.

Today, 6/24, I have a nice new decapping shaft and set of spare pins 1+5=6 for my 1980 set of FL 30-30 dies.  WOW!  Three thumbs up for RCBS!  No need to buy dies from any other company IMO!

Have a great weekend, let's hope the rain stops soon!

RCBS press history link.  I was trying to figure out the difference between a RS and  Jr.  I guess they are one and the same.  My RS (Reloader Special) lacks the following when compared to my RC (Rock Chucker) No extra "steel bushing" for die holder.  RS is just threaded cast iron.  No compound lever action on RS.  Unless you are doing a lot of rifle brass, the RS is just fine.

Pioneer Father's Day shoot in the WIND!

Pioneer, click for larger picture

When I got to the range at 7:15 I wondered if we would have much of a turnout given no one had yet arrived.  It was a slow start but Ernie, Bob, Mike and I made short work of the 240 animals.  Well, we made short work of the black spray paint as they were rusty from the last mach which was pouring rain if you recall.  This weekend day was something else.  WINDY!

We had a great turn out.  28 shooters and a number of new faces which was nice to see.  But did I say it was WINDY!  More specifically, GUSTY!  One minute the dust from the shot was going to the left, the next time to the right.  Still, we all had the same challenging conditions so it was a day for wind shooters!  It was also a good day for developing one's mental toughness.

I would be on an animal as I "lean" on the wind and just as I break the shot the wind would subside and I would fall off the animal.  Shooters wind was maddening to say the least.  My TX buddies would laugh at me by calling today's wind "wind" but, when you are not used to being buffeted about, it can be discouraging.  My best advice on a day like today, shoot the lulls and be sure to use your whole clock.  I need to work on this as I let the wind get to me on the first match.

Giving up.  It is so easy to give up and just want the whole thing (match) to end especially when we all start at chickens in NH.  Because we know Rams and Turkeys are ahead and things can likely get worse..  To give up is a huge loss of a great training opportunity.  I almost gave up.  I had for a moment decided to shoot my 39A SB cowboy gun.  But that would be a cop out.  So, I picked up Blaze and had another run at it.  9 7 5 5 = 26.  I should have had 10 pigs regardless of the conditions so I need to work on that.  The long line was just a fight.  I was happy to have hit a ram on my last shot of a long weekend of  160 competitive shots.  Every shot is a lesson, be sure to benefit from it and don't throw it away.

Yup, this is an ADDICTIVE game.

NY Hendrick Hudson Post match reivew

Hendrick Hudson, click for larger picture

We had a good time in NY.  We left at 5:30 am from the Hillsborough Park & Ride and Dave kindly drove.  It was my fourth time to HHFG and this is the first time I had the pleasure of being a passenger.  We were there by 7:45 so 2:15 was pretty good.  It was a bit longer coming home due to traffic and we were a tad tired.  I don't think we were pushing it at all getting there, we just have a direct route and it works.

The picture to the right is from the post lunch match where they convert 3 of the 1/5th stands into 1/2 scale animals.  This accomodates all levels of shooters  Those who want to shoot a club SB Cowboy match can and those who want another try at 1/5th can get in a second match in the afternoon.  Since they shoot squaded with two relays there is still "capacity for 8 1/5th shooters in the afternoon.  Or, if you don't make the first match which starts at 9:45 you can sleep in and catch the second match after lunch.  For the long distance traveler such as the NH gang, it lets you shoot twice, standard and hunter, with your spotter.  Not a bad program. Just remember to shoot the top animals first!.

The match was run perfectly with about about 25 shooters.  I don't exactly recall the results.  Rick shot a 28 with the Smallbore Rifle, I shot a 28 with Smallbore Hunter Rifle and Dave shot something a little less.  That made Rick the Match Champion for SBR and me the Match Champion for SBHR.  It was not enough to win the Club trophy as we came in first loser behind a club from Salem.  Maybe next year! Picture to the right is from the far left of the range.  They have 16 identical positions, each bench has a notch for two rifles to stand on the very nice concrete pad.  With 2 relays they can accommodate 32 1/5th shooters.  I don't think we had that many but it would be fun to try!

Range results with balistic data

I went armed with the follow info.

Chickens are 11 feet closer and should require -.25 MOA.the normal settings
Pigs are 17 feet closer and should require -.75 MOA the normal settings
Turkeys are 22 feet closer and should require -1.25 MOA the normal settings
Rams are 28 feet closer and should require -1.5 MOA the normal settings

One gun (Woodie) was just not zeroed with the gun I was shooting.  It was also windy so it was hard to figure out what was really happening at 100y.  I almost packed it in but the results were so squirrely I decided to move to 40m and confirm true zero.

With that done I opted to confirm Blaze and interestingly it conformed quite nicely to the expected adjustments.  Rams was spot on.  8.5 became 7.0.  Amazing.  Still, too much wind to truly believe 100y results but it is a start.

JBM Trajectory web site. Free software on line.

When I first started this game some 10 years ago I was very analytical.  Now, I just go to the range and dial in my zeros.  Not sure why I changed my approach because the trajectory graph I used way back then was amazingly accurate.  Perhaps is it because I can get to a range easily and half the fun is shooting your equipment and finding your zeros.

In order to do my at home analysis I found this great free web software.  JBM software is very detailed but has great output.  The only guess work you have to do is to take a stab at your muzzle velocity.  Or, pull out the chronograph and get the real number for your favorite ammo and do it right.  I don't own a chronograph.

(This is a work in process post to see if I can get the data to stay with the link.)

Since we are heading to Hendrick Hudson in NY which uses yards and not meters it seemed like a good time to do some ballistics charts. Although there is a site in period it is nice to know what should happen to help sort through the chaos when getting sorted at a new range.

Here is a link to Aguila Match ammo so we know what the difference is between meters and yards.  From this data and knowing the following facts.

40y = 37m  so, instead of zero it is .3 moa higher or .25 moa for a scope.
60y = 55m  so, instead of 2.7 it is 2.0 moa or a difference of .7 or .75 for a scope
77y = 70m  so, instead of 5.6 it is 4.4 moa or a difference of 1.2 or 1.25 for a scope
100y = 91m so, instead of 9.7 it is 8.1 moa or a difference of 1.6 or 1.5 for a scope.

I used this chart to figure out what to expect at these distances against our current meter settings.  (Go to bottom and click on calculate) to get the raw data.  Or, use it for your gun.

The primary fly in the ointment is the assumption that the muzzle velocity out of my gun will be 1,050 FPS.  I don't own a chronograph and I guessed on the muzzle velocity.  I read it may be more like 1,025 FPS.

Inter club match for silhouette shooters in the North East

Hendrick Hudson Fish & Game is holding a club match June 18th where teams from various clubs compete for bragging rights.  There is a handicap system for equalizing M, AAA, AA etc shooters.  Read more here about the exact details. NH is going to head over and see if we can win the title!

Here is a sample of their results from the last match.

So why not jump in the car and head on over.  Here are some approx times for those who might travel some distances.  Gate opens at 7:45, folks start signing up at 8:15, practice at 9 to 9:30, first relay called to the line 9:45.  These are target times. 

Put Gun Club Way or Rd, Averill Park, NY 12018 in your GPS and see how many miles it is.  I don't have a GPS but Mapquest says 135 miles or a little over 3 hours given the non hwy miles from my house.

Sounds like some fun.  See you there!

As Lanny says, figure out what you are doing right and REPEAT!

After today's match I am not able to put my finger on what happened that led to a personal best of 34/40. (8 8 9 9)  I was very excited to shoot my 44 Marlin lever gun that I picked up last fall.  Read, my mind was focused on the "dark side" of silhouette.  All things that are not either Air Rifle or Small Bore silhouette are tossed in the category "The Dark Side" of silhouette.  With good humor of course but IMO Cowboy dilutes your efforts with the 1/5th animals.

Even with that strategy I seem to cross back and forth now and again because 1/5th has been a lonely game in NH.  Today I decided to shoot SB first fearing the 44 might contribute to any flinch I am trying to suppress.  For whatever reason my hold was solid after not touching a SB gun for two weeks if not longer.  I quickly invoked coaching rule 101.6, paragraph iv, section 2.  Always figure out what you are doing right and repeat.  Avoid focusing on what you are doing wrong and correcting it, instead figure out what you are doing right and repeat.  NPA, use timer, read notes and sight picture comments from prior match, learn from each shot and adjust if necessary, feet position, squeeze don't snatch.  All basic stuff, there was nothing earth shatteringly different other than a borrowed vest, having a spotter and white animals.  I can't imagine white vs. black animals would make that kind of difference.  The vest was not much different than mine which I left at home.  What was different?  Could it be I was not fully focused on 1/5th and I just got up and shot without any "arousal" as the 10m guys call it?

I cannot figure out what was different.  The first two hits on Turkeys were sloppy breaks but seemed to catch an edge.  I knuckled down and cleaned the bottom 5.  Missed #7 and then got the rest.  Rams went about the same way.  First shot arced in and nicked the back edge so the animal fell forward.  It was a good break but it with the help of my spotter I knew I had to hold low which worked.  I guess that means I was using real time data to adjust my game.  Often I react to what is happening too late and it costs me a bunch of animals.  It could be having a spotter for the whole match.  Hummm.

After that I shot my 44 and I had technical problems which aggravated me.  I should just put it up and focus on smallbore after today.  Pistol cartridge is just one big distraction.  But maybe it was a positive distraction given my smallbore results.  The worst part of it is I now have 2 legs into Master class.  No more shooting Blaze in Hunter until PA!  If I can shoot a 32 in PA, so be it! 

From a participation perspective, today was pretty exciting.  We had more 1/5th shooters than "other" disciplines and there was actually a wait to shoot the small animals.  Must have been because they heard we were going to shoot at white animals!

Cheers!

First use of RCII on 30-30

Mark asked if I would FL size, trim and bell the 400+ shells.  I had picked up a nice RCBS Rockchucker II at a gun show this winter and wanted to try it out.  It worked great but I had to beef up my bench which I did AFTER the 400 cases were done.  Put a giant piece of fir vertical to the press all the way back to the wall, (6x7x22) under the bench.  4" long deck screws captured it to the 3/4" plywood and I used some threaded 7/16" rod through the 3/4" bench and 6" fir block.  Now there is some REAL beef under the press and I look forward to another 30-30 test.  Only casualty was a broken de-capping pin on the 4th to last shell.  I was stupid!  The pin had loosened up so it was not centered and I put too much pressure on it as I wanted to finish.  Did I say STUPID! I'm smarter than that but I was tired of running the press.  Good lesson.

When a shell holder is a shell holder.... but.for a different tool.

Nothing new here for savvy reloaders but I am just dipping a toe in the water.  I was fortunate enough to purchase some of John Livingston's reloading equipment to seed the dark side of reloading.  John sucked me into this mess, I was just hoping he would be here to educate me.  I am honored to be keeping his equipment running and hopefully will be able to share what I learn with other newbies or even the next generation.  At this point I am still a newbie myself so that is a few years out.  Some of what I picked up includes a complete set of Lee shell holders and a RCBS Jr press with a shell holder in it.  But, as luck would have it, not the #2 needed for 30-30.  Instead it had a #23 which must have been used for loading 32 Auto.

RCBS Press Shell holder vs Lee Primer Shell holder?

I was told RCBS and Lee  shellholders are basically interchangeable except take care to note they may have different overall heights and therefore are not 100% interchangeable.  This nice cross reference would certainly suggest they are interchangeable but based on the picture to the right, Lee and RCBS are just not designed to affix to the ram the same way.  I don't have a Lee press.  Perhaps what I have is a set of Lee shell holders but for the Lee PRIMER tool!!  And, there is a whole different set for the PRESS...argh!  Live and learn.  I found the RCBS #4 is fairly close to a #2 and it allowed me to size four 30-30 junk shells.  Still, I will scrounge up a #2 and do it right

update 6/20/11.  I purchased a #18 and a #2 to go along with my #4 and #23.  My 44 Rem Mag range brass is now ready to load.

With Winning in Mind, Books part II

Simply put, this book, With Winning in Mind by Lanny Bassham is a must read if you want to improve your results. I have read this book three times and each time I get something new from it.  My favorite line which I often recall is "I'm the best snow shooter in the world.". 

A great book written by an Olympic Rifle Champion Lanny Bassham.  The power of positive thinking.  The importance of understanding the power of the subconscious.  In short, you don't want to think about executing the shot, you want your body to do it just as you instinctively apply the brakes when a car pulls in front of you. 

How to get a copy?  I am a huge fan of Half.com.  A good place to get used books.  There are always a few copies for sale.  As of the date of this post, here is the offering. 

Luck is where practice and perpetration come together!

Coon-ass-challenge is tonight in Winnsboro

I want to wish all my shooting buddies down in Winnsboro good luck as the start of the 1/5th game begins.  There are likely 200 SB Silhouette shooters now in Winnsboro getting ready for the start of the match on Saturday.  To get ready and have some fun they have what is called the Coon-Ass-Challenge fun match on Friday night before the beer truck is turned on. 

You are envited to form a team of 4 shooters and come up with the best stupid, fun, silly name you can.  Truth be told just about everybody creates a team but obviously there is some degree of getting the top master shooters to make a team against another team of top master shooters.  But, to counter that they spot  AA, A, B shooters some extra points.  Once you are triple A your swimming with the big fish. 

Winnsboro, LA 2005 Coon Ass Challenge 4th place

Back in 2005 we made a team with Ernie, Sandy, John and myself.  John had turkeys which is the hardest.  Ernie had rams.  Sandy had chickens and I had pigs.  The teams (12 at a time) are called to the line and what is usually an individual sport becomes a team sport.  Talk about nerves.  Even worse, to have pigs you are expected to clean them!  To make a very long story short we tied for 3rd.  I recall I managed 9 pigs and everyone else did very well so the scrappy little team from Texas and Alaska had spoiled some Master class teams.  The lowest classed shooter of each team had to shoot off on turkeys to settle 3rd vs. 4th.  Ernie was none to optimistic as he stepped up to the line with a nationally ranked Master shooter from California but we manged to take 4th and get some cool t-shirts along with a brick of RWS Target ammo.  It sure is a fun sport plus you make some life long friends!