Operation "Fast and Furious" - our response as outraged citizens

Please read this information provided by the NRA.  https://www.nra.org/fireholder/Background.aspx

Also, if you are not a member of the NRA, or if you know someone who believes in our 2nd amendment rights, but is not an NRA member, please join!  http://membership.nrahq.org/

The NRA fights for our rights every day, and I support their efforts through my membership, and by spreading the word about responsible gun ownership!

I also think it's important to keep in mind that the media loves bad news, and gun related violence makes for big headlines. However, they don't report on the good news...all of the situations where responsible gun owners were able to defend themselves, instead of becoming victims / injured victims / dead victims.  Every month I read in American Rifleman stories about people who are alive today because of the legal guns they had to defend themselves.

The .308 Winchester kicks like a mule

So anticipating what amounts to someone kicking me in the shoulder every time I pull the trigger, shooting the .308 Winchester gets me down....cause it makes me look like a bad shot.  :(

(This is a composite of 3 separate days of shooting the 308, the shots in yellow are from today...easily a dead dear...but nowhere near competition shooting)

The funny thing is (and probably quite revealing), back during the winter, my 308 groups were substantially better...probably due to all the padding I had with the winter jacket, and sweater.

Time to man up, and shoot that bad boy until I'm not skittish about pulling the trigger...and maybe I'll start shooting the 308 like I do the 17.


Now my shooting with the 17HMR....pretty good today.

At 100 yards, 4 of the 5 shots in this group were smaller than my thumbnail....I can't argue with that.  Even this group was pretty good...

Another new target

Sometimes 4 targets per page isn't enough...so here are 9!  Enjoy!

The target may be downloaded in PDF form from here: TargetV4d.pdf

Don't shoot me, but I want an AK47

There is a guy at the range who shoots an AK47 all the time, and the more I see and hear that rifle, the more I like it.  I like the wood, and I like the way the front end of the rifle looks.  It's growing on me...time to save up some pennies....

17HMR Shooting and Split Cases

I spent some extended time at the range yesterday with the Savage 17HMR.  It was nice to have some extra time to chat with the other guys at the range, and to take my time working on aim and breathing. This was my best group of the day (50 yards 5 rounds, white circle is 1" across):

 I also noticed while picking up my brass, that I had quite a few split where the case necks-down.  Being a bolt action rifle I'm not worried about it, but if I had a semiauto it would be concerning. 8 rounds out of 50 had split, with this one being the worst.

I did some searching online about this issue, and this was the response one individual had received from Hornady (the ammo I use) "The 17 HMR cases may crack because of the annealing process when they are made. The annealing process is what makes the material brittle or flexible depending on the length of time and degree of the process. This is a precise procedure with any other case that can be reloaded, as we want the case to be hard enough to do the job but soft enough to stand up to several reloads. The 17 HMR case is dispensable and can not be reloaded, therefore the annealing procedure isn't quite as strict as with other cases. When the case cracks, it's because the neck was annealed a little harder than it needed to be, making it more brittle. This does not affect the accuracy or performance of the ammunition. Normally, the fired case will eject the same as any other, and unless they are picked up later, the shooter may never even know they had a case with a split neck. We would prefer that none of the cases split, (and the majority of them don't), but it seems redundant to spend the time and money on perfecting the case when it isn't practical or necessary. Our lab has evaluated cases with cracked necks, and the powder is fine, the case necks are just more brittle."

AR15 range time (testing the extended stock length)

The extra 1.25 inches of length fixed my eye relief problem with the scope, and today's shooting was quite good...for me. (See this post regarding the stock length http://ar15shooter.blogspot.com/2011/06/additional-eye-relief.html )  Shooting was at 50 Yards with a front rest.  Overall it was an enjoyable time out...and more relaxing than usual, thanks to the tighter groups.

Offhand, sitting, and bench rest shooting

It is interesting how my vertical accuracy improves as I move from offhand (red) => sitting (yellow / legs crossed with elbows rested on my legs) => bench rest (green / front sandbag).  10 rounds were fired in each position.  This is with my Savage Mk II 22LR bolt action rifle.

As for the horizontal skew in my bench rest shooting, I think this is due to the way my sand bag grips the rifle...it is an 'H' shaped rest, and if there is torque against the rifle, I think it causes movement when I fire the rifle...I am going to try a tube type sand bag that doesn't grip the rifle from the sides, and see if that improves things.

(Follow up 6/18/2011...turns out the sandbag isn't the issue, it's me!  Once I place the rifle in the sandbag, I need to rock the rifle left and right a few times to settle things to center...once I do that, the horizontal skew tightens right up!  I tried using a block of wood with a towel on it to rest the rifle, and I'm far less steady and accurate than I am with the 'H' bag rest.)

Additional Eye Relief

With the DNZ scope mount, I found I was having to pull my head back a bit to get the proper eye relief for the scope, even thought I have it mounted as far forward as I can.  I extended the length of the stock (which is fixed thanks to ass-backwards laws in NY state) giving an additional 1.25 inches of eye relief.

I had to drill and tap a new 1/4 20 hole in the bottom of the buffer tube which was an easy job.  Slide the stock back on, bolt her up, and presto...nice comfortable eye relief!

And NY must *surely* be happy that the gun is longer, and.....therefore harder to hide under my t-shirt??  Senseless.

Great issue this month at the Rifleman's Journal

Lot's of good info this month, check it out!
http://riflemansjournal.blogspot.com/

This guy is really smart, I spend a lot of time reading what he has to say.

Trigger time with Dad

I was able to visit my father this past weekend, and we shot up a fair amount of paper and cans.  It was very enjoyable!

This also gave me time to compare the Timney trigger to the stock trigger, as well as look over differences between his Bushmaster and my DTI.

The Timney trigger is fabulous...much lighter and very clean breaking!  I did notice that the hammer spring is considerably lighter than the stock hammer spring, and found that interesting, but there haven't been issues with failure to fire, so this shouldn't be a concern.  Once I have the chance to save up for the Geissele SSA-E trigger, I'll be able to compare them to each other.  Without a doubt, the Timney is a huge step forward over the stock trigger.

One interesting difference I noticed between dad's Bushmaster AR (VA legal), and mine (NY legal), was the length of the buffer tube.  The buffer and springs were identical, however my tube was much longer...looking inside I noticed an aluminum spacer in the back of the tube, which made the internal length idential to the Bushmaster.  I'm suspecting that to meet NY laws for overall length of the rifle, the tube has the spacer in it to prevent shortening of the rifle by simply moving and re-pinning the stock along the tube.  This spacer results in a much heavier lower on my rifle compared to dad's.