My turn!

Ian

Notorious member
It being Father's Day and all, I decided to do some honest "plinking". Can't remember the last time I shot a soda can or a rock for fun, everything has been serious work and I just didn't feel like it today. I've wanted to try some powder-coated Lee 311-100-2R bullets in Jackie's rifle (that she'll get a loooong time from now), so I baked some up and ran QL numbers on Titegroup, coming up with 3.5 grains for 1,000 fps.

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Off to the range to check the sights at 50 yards...

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Close enough for ventilating soda cans. With the suppressor the striker is all I can hear until the bullet impact. Even hitting the dirt 50 yards distant, the impact is louder than the rifle's report.

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I had so much fun that another trip to the gun room was in order to refill and go again.

Big thanks to Jim for the target file and Barn for the long discontinued fabulous original Williams sight for the square-bolt 1899!
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Shoots (and looks) pretty darned good for a "junker". You did a heck of a job with
that rifle, Ian.

But baby blue bullets? :rolleyes::headscratch::D

Bill
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I perforate many cans each year. Damn things over populate and soo e turn bad and start marauding. Stoping them is a huge priority at the range.

Nice rifle Ian. I had forgotten about that one,
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I still like the raised comb.
I got a few Gatorade bottles before they could come off the hill and get me today too.
they are a lot more fun than knocking down steel plates even if all I gotta do is pull a rope to stand them back up.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Our range specifically prohibits shooting ANYTHING on the ground or on the berm. The
range was founded and run by benchrest shooters, and I think they see it as a moral
duty to make sure nobody is having too much fun at the range.

I DO shoot cans at my house, and my grand nephews shot a bunch of them at
the cabin in Colorado last week. And my nephew in law, nieces and I had
fun with my two plate dueling tree, both the .22 plates and the centerfire plates
got a good workout. Reactive targets are fun.

As a kid, I practiced at 100 yds on beer cans as targets with my .22 Ruger pistol.
Quite a challenge.
 

Ian

Notorious member
It looks a little odd but fits....like it was made for me? :p

Hopefully it will fit Jackie too one day. Actually it should fit just about anybody, the critical measurements are real close to a Remington 1100. If she turns out to be a shooter she's gonna love this load. Quiet as a mouse but thumps pretty solidly downrange for .380 ballistics.

Good to hear you guys were also holding off the can/bottle assault in your respective states!
 

Spindrift

Well-Known Member
Beautiful rifle, and nice shooting!
It is a good thing, to take a break from «serious» load development every once in a while, it keeps the «hoot» in «shooting».
 
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Ian

Notorious member
Anyone notice that all the rifles I build for ME have scopes? I'm still trying to figure out the peep and bead thing, starting to lean toward changing that bead out for a blade like I think someone already suggested. Lining up an aim point on top of a bead and centering all that in the big fuzzy hole is a little weird.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
you gotta sight the hits in behind the dot or it will drive you nuts trying to find the top of the circle and put it on the bottom of the other circle.
a flat is a lot easier to place the circle on top of and much easier to place smaller circles there.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
What Fiver said. The bullet hits right behind the bead. Not as precise as a blade, or a set of crosshairs for that matter, but it works for hunting. For group shooting try an inverted triangle rather than a bull. Tip of the bead at bottom tip of the triangle.
 

Jeff H

NW Ohio
Shoots (and looks) pretty darned good for a "junker". You did a heck of a job with
that rifle, Ian.

But baby blue bullets? :rolleyes::headscratch::D

Bill


Hey, hey, light blue is a pretty darned manly color if you ask an Infantryman!

ef88d3f8.jpg

 

Ian

Notorious member
I grew up covering the bullseye with the bead and nestling the bead in the rear notch, but a high school buddy introduced me to the concept of a "six o'clock hold" so I've done that ever since. I only have four rifles with peeps counting the tang sight on the Sharps and only two have round front sights (10/22 with Firesight and Williams aperture, and I DO cover the target with that one). This rifle was set up for hunting and I prefer a small ivory or brass bead for that, I'll adjust my technique and see if I can do better at aiming. I know the rifle can shoot better than that, but I can't see that well anymore and the afternoon sun that I was basically shooting into was coming in and out of the clouds was very distracting.
 

Ian

Notorious member
For group shooting try an inverted triangle rather than a bull.

Did that, see pic. I put the bottom of the vee on top of the front bead and tried to center the bead in the aperture but my brain kept wanting to make an "8" out of the image and center that, so I had to really focus to keep from having a lot of vertical.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
I have used a black triangle, point down, on white for a pistol target and I like it. I should
use it more. But that is with flat topped post type front sights and notch rears.

I do well with a post and an aperture, competed with that in Swiss rifle competition for years.
But I am not particularly bothered by the bead with the POI at the top of the bead rather than
the center of the bead, just what the gun needs.

i hear you Ian on the 'eyes going to hell' deal. I struggle to shoot as well as I used to be able
to do on demand. Now I need great light and the right glasses to even approach what I could
do in about any decent light with just my normal glasses. :sigh:

Bill
 
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Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Stay away from Ian if you are smart Jim.
He will work hard to convince you to put a suppressor on your flintlock!