Getting there....

Friends, my safe has come home, and along with it the last of my wayward firearms. Retrieved from storage at a good friends, almost all made the transition. I regret that a few had to be sold.... but none of the mil-surps.




And, what good would all those shoot'n irons be without fodder? This is most of the remaining stock.... and will be till I can retrieve my loading bench and begin the Carteach0 ammo assembly program again.



I'll be up and operational by Midsummer, and till then I'll be shooting up what I have. I may have to buy some factory ammunition, but that will give cause for some comparisons I suppose.... (g)
Best I get the chronograph limbered up and install fresh batteries.

Beautiful S+W model 41 at auction

This morning I received an E-mail from Smith and Wesson. It gave notice of this gorgeous bit of metal work being auctioned off on Gunbroker.

I've never been much for owning highly engraved firearms, but in this case I think an exception could be made. I could easily grow accustomed to owning this... (g).

No, I won't be bidding. It's way outside my price range (spare a buck for coffee mister?). What I did was steal the photos from the auction to show here, with the link. Of course, I had to tweak them a bit.








Outstanding piece of work from the Smith and Wesson engraving studio.
The value on this Model 41 has no place to go but up.

It's interesting to note this appears to be S+W's first foray into selling on
Gunbroker. Their user ID shows them as such. I hope it goes well. It's a trend I'd like to see continued.

My favorite gun club

Yup, has to be the nicest I have ever shot at. Friendly people, excellent facilities, beautiful ranges, and minimal rules that are almost universally obeyed by all members. In fact, I think belonging to the Southern Lancaster County Farmers and Sportsman's Association probably makes me smarter and better looking. It might even cure warts!

A recent visit found some nice touch ups and projects completed.
The 100 yard range got new walkways. Very nice on rainy days.





The pistol shooting bays all got concrete pads to put benches on, at the
fifty foot mark. Also new target holders and weeds trimmed.



The parking lot for the main pistol range, new gravel and freshly trimmed.



I'd like to extend an invitation.... if any blog readers will be in the
area over a weekend, and would like to see the club, let me know.
It would be an especially good day on one of the CMP style shoots,
with military rifles of all ages showing up.

CCW practice, the S+W M+P, and a failure drill

I got some range time this weekend with my carry pistol, as well as the AR180b. Burning a few rounds through this weapon every range day keeps me in tune, at least as much as a broken down old school teacher can be.

I had picked up a box of cheaper 9mm ball ammunition as my reloading gear is packed away right now. I should buy a case.... but I can't get my head past those 500 prepped cases packed in boxes in a storage area.

Swapping out my Speer Gold Dot carry ammo for the ball, I did a mixed practice of bullseye and draw/fire.





Along the way I had an unexpected, unplanned, failure. The magazine catch was tapped during draw (a slightly weak area on the S+W M+P). As a result, a few rounds into the practice the slide closed without stripping in a fresh cartridge.

Happily, practice and learned muscle movement took over and I did a tap/rack failure drill without thinking.




Notice the trigger finger is off the trigger till it's on target?
I didn't, till I watched the video a few times.

I think video of myself shooting will become a regular practice
tool. It makes sense. Athletic teams have been doing it for fifty years,
and it's easier these days. All I did was set my digital camera on the bench
and punch the red button. Slowing it down and cutting out the dead air time...
I used Windows Movie maker, a free deal that came with the operating system.

Yup, I will surely do that a lot more often.

Range day! Comparing Privy vs. Wolf .223

Today was my first range day in a long time. A very long time. We'll let 'why' slide for now......

Today I choose to become reacquainted with my Armalite AR180b. It's a sweety, with an Eotech 512 mounted on it. All this has been covered before here.

I took two brands of ammunition with me, and decided to compare. Yes, I can shoot for shear enjoyment! But, I also enjoy discovery just as much.

I have mentioned the Privy Partisan .223 on this blog before, and decided to compare it with the Wolf brand of the same ammunition.



Both function well, and accuracy is not so far different that further testing would not be needed to be sure which is better. My impression is the brass cased Privy is the more accurate of the two, but I'm not certain of that without testing. Today was more about fun, and I wasn't really bearing down on the technique.

One thing noticed at once, as it's glaring, is the difference in impact point. The Privy struck about six inches lower than the Wolf from my rifle.

On this target, the Privy brass cased .223:



And on this one, the Wolf steel cased .223:



I think the difference is in velocity. Not having my chronograph set up today, I can only guess. But the recoil pulse was quite different between the two different rounds, ejection was very different, time back on target was different, and slide velocity seemed quite different.

The Privy Partisan seemed to be stepping along much faster, and thus was out of the barrel before it could begin rising much from recoil. This is called 'bullet time in barrel'. The slower a bullet travels in the barrel, the more time it has to be acted on by recoil before it leaves the firearm. This is why a .38 special fired in a .357 pistol will impact much higher than the .357 does. It's not because the .357 magnum shoots flatter (it does, but that matters little at 25 yards). It's because the weapon begins rising from recoil before the bullet leaves the barrel, raising the impact spot on target.

Perhaps these videos will help show the comparison better. In one, the empties are ejected rearward and the recoil pulse is clearly lighter. This was the Wolf ammunition. In the other, the empties eject forward and the recoil is quite sharper.




As I said.... it's mostly subjective. On the other hand, I made a pile of empties and had a ball. The range was recently upgraded, the weather was perfect, I had the place to myself, and life was just really good for a little while.