armoredman
Member
Ok, so here I am, enjoying my respite from work, (doctor told me to take a day off, who am I to argue?), when it hit me like a sandbag between the eyes - I haven't been to the range yet. I keep putting it off, too little gas, too much heat, way too much HEAT, all right, time to go. I jumped out of bed, promptly fell over tangled in the sheets while my dogs and cats laughed at me, and fought my way to readiness. This was spontaneous, instantaneous, and any other "eous" you can think of. I was so spontaneous I forgot the camera. Dagnabbit.
I arrived at the range at opening time of 7AM...to find people all over the place already. Double drat. Fortunately the long range only had one guy there, the sun was covered up by some nice fluffy clouds, so I grabbed a spot, exchanged some pleasantries, and got to work.
YEAH RIGHT! I was immediately the subject of the attentions of two lost or very hung over honeybees, who either thought I was their mother, or suspected me of owing them money. Either way, it quickly drained a LOT of the joy out of the trip. Nevertheless! I was here to shoot, and shoot I did!
I brought the faithful CZ 527M - did I mention how much I love to shoot this rifle? I do, indeed. With me came a small selection of loads, the four new testers for Accurate's revamped powder data for AA# 1680, some in H-335, and a few of the old standby load. Up goes the shooting block and bag for front rest, and the target stand went out to 50 yards. Why 50? I always try new rifle loads at 50,and if they impress me there, then I will move it back. A couple did. But first, the control group, same load/bullet combo I've been using for a long time.
Not that great, definitely nothing to write home about. So, let's see what those new levels of AA#1680 do, shall we? First up, the base load, 24.8, with the new Berrys plated FP bullet.
Say, that's not half bad. .9", gives about 1.8 at 100 yards. Roughly. With luck. Lets go up a notch, say, 25 grains.
That's also not bad, a little vertical stringing, probably the bugs bugging me. Always blame it on the bugs; they can't file slander charges.
A little higher, grainwise, perhaps? I can feel a little recoil now. Not much, just enough to let me know these are going out with some authority behind them. Lets try 25.3 grains.
What the...I wonder, I only saw one bee after this one, think I hit him by accident, that made the bullet yaw off course? One can only hope. It almost looks like the plating was maybe thinking of coming off that one, might be getting close to it's limit, maybe not. in any case, that one went sideways, but the rest were OK. Lets see, last load with me from this powder, 25.6 grains AA# 1680.
I'll give it this - it's consistent. Nothing spectacular, but better than the control group. Also, no primer flattening, no signs of overpressure at all, so, all right, drag it out of me kicking and screaming...maybetheguysatAccurateArmsknowwhattheyaretalkingabout. OK, and you can't make me say it twice, so neener. I will continue to investigate.
BUT, I have some other rounds left, from a powder I rarely used, but have a pound or less to use up somehow. It worked great at the so-called base load, but kicked, snorted fire, and left us all wondering who brought the cannon. So I dropped it by 10% to see what it could do, "under-loaded".
Say what? Lemme see that again. Center to center .75. OK, this one bears repeating at 100...when the bees leave!
I had had it with trying to concentrate while being the subject of insect love, (must have been, I never got stung), so I put my rifle away - did I mention how much I love shooting this rifle? Just in case I forgot. But away it went, and out came the CZ SP-01 Phantom. I have been carrying this concealed in that new High Noon Down Under holster, with the High Noon Rock Steady belt, and can't recommend them highly enough. Awesome stuff. But I wanted to try to eliminate some printing by switching from the extended 18 round magazine to the standard 16 round CZ magazine, keeping two 18 rounders as spares. This is what the sidearm looks like - pretty darn Czexy if I say so myself.
So the target was reset at 10 yards with one of those wonderful donated Perhle police targets - they're so classic I should frame one before they're all gone. But they do make a good B-27 stunt double! All shots fired from the holster, concealed, first round DA, 3 rounds, scan and reholster. Not the GREATEST of practice, but close enough for government work, and fun. How did I do? Eh.....
The first 16 were carry rounds, and they went right where I wanted them to go. Then I got cocky. See, you cannot miss fast enough to win, slow down, aquire that front sight, etc., if this had been an actual gunfight at longer range, I might have missed. Bad juju. But I'll take it for now. Other load used was the 6.4 grains of AA#7 under a 124 grain hand cast lead round nose, Lee mold, lubed with lee Liquid Alox. It works quite well. Yes, that's a snap headshot, more like a jaw shot. Oops.
Then I made a major discovery. In 45 minutes of shooting, the clouds had cleared, the sun was hammering on me with a ten pound double jack, and my water was almost gone. My my, how time flies when you're roasting in 110 degrees, at 7:45 AM. The news said it was only 97, pshaw, whadda they know! In any case, I, and the gentleman who had been shooting at the other end, were done. Maybe I only fired 40 rounds of 7.62x39mm, and only 48 rounds of 9mm, but it was worth it. Could be spontaneous ain't such a bad thing after all.
I arrived at the range at opening time of 7AM...to find people all over the place already. Double drat. Fortunately the long range only had one guy there, the sun was covered up by some nice fluffy clouds, so I grabbed a spot, exchanged some pleasantries, and got to work.
YEAH RIGHT! I was immediately the subject of the attentions of two lost or very hung over honeybees, who either thought I was their mother, or suspected me of owing them money. Either way, it quickly drained a LOT of the joy out of the trip. Nevertheless! I was here to shoot, and shoot I did!
I brought the faithful CZ 527M - did I mention how much I love to shoot this rifle? I do, indeed. With me came a small selection of loads, the four new testers for Accurate's revamped powder data for AA# 1680, some in H-335, and a few of the old standby load. Up goes the shooting block and bag for front rest, and the target stand went out to 50 yards. Why 50? I always try new rifle loads at 50,and if they impress me there, then I will move it back. A couple did. But first, the control group, same load/bullet combo I've been using for a long time.
Not that great, definitely nothing to write home about. So, let's see what those new levels of AA#1680 do, shall we? First up, the base load, 24.8, with the new Berrys plated FP bullet.
Say, that's not half bad. .9", gives about 1.8 at 100 yards. Roughly. With luck. Lets go up a notch, say, 25 grains.
That's also not bad, a little vertical stringing, probably the bugs bugging me. Always blame it on the bugs; they can't file slander charges.
A little higher, grainwise, perhaps? I can feel a little recoil now. Not much, just enough to let me know these are going out with some authority behind them. Lets try 25.3 grains.
What the...I wonder, I only saw one bee after this one, think I hit him by accident, that made the bullet yaw off course? One can only hope. It almost looks like the plating was maybe thinking of coming off that one, might be getting close to it's limit, maybe not. in any case, that one went sideways, but the rest were OK. Lets see, last load with me from this powder, 25.6 grains AA# 1680.
I'll give it this - it's consistent. Nothing spectacular, but better than the control group. Also, no primer flattening, no signs of overpressure at all, so, all right, drag it out of me kicking and screaming...maybetheguysatAccurateArmsknowwhattheyaretalkingabout. OK, and you can't make me say it twice, so neener. I will continue to investigate.
BUT, I have some other rounds left, from a powder I rarely used, but have a pound or less to use up somehow. It worked great at the so-called base load, but kicked, snorted fire, and left us all wondering who brought the cannon. So I dropped it by 10% to see what it could do, "under-loaded".
Say what? Lemme see that again. Center to center .75. OK, this one bears repeating at 100...when the bees leave!
I had had it with trying to concentrate while being the subject of insect love, (must have been, I never got stung), so I put my rifle away - did I mention how much I love shooting this rifle? Just in case I forgot. But away it went, and out came the CZ SP-01 Phantom. I have been carrying this concealed in that new High Noon Down Under holster, with the High Noon Rock Steady belt, and can't recommend them highly enough. Awesome stuff. But I wanted to try to eliminate some printing by switching from the extended 18 round magazine to the standard 16 round CZ magazine, keeping two 18 rounders as spares. This is what the sidearm looks like - pretty darn Czexy if I say so myself.
So the target was reset at 10 yards with one of those wonderful donated Perhle police targets - they're so classic I should frame one before they're all gone. But they do make a good B-27 stunt double! All shots fired from the holster, concealed, first round DA, 3 rounds, scan and reholster. Not the GREATEST of practice, but close enough for government work, and fun. How did I do? Eh.....
The first 16 were carry rounds, and they went right where I wanted them to go. Then I got cocky. See, you cannot miss fast enough to win, slow down, aquire that front sight, etc., if this had been an actual gunfight at longer range, I might have missed. Bad juju. But I'll take it for now. Other load used was the 6.4 grains of AA#7 under a 124 grain hand cast lead round nose, Lee mold, lubed with lee Liquid Alox. It works quite well. Yes, that's a snap headshot, more like a jaw shot. Oops.
Then I made a major discovery. In 45 minutes of shooting, the clouds had cleared, the sun was hammering on me with a ten pound double jack, and my water was almost gone. My my, how time flies when you're roasting in 110 degrees, at 7:45 AM. The news said it was only 97, pshaw, whadda they know! In any case, I, and the gentleman who had been shooting at the other end, were done. Maybe I only fired 40 rounds of 7.62x39mm, and only 48 rounds of 9mm, but it was worth it. Could be spontaneous ain't such a bad thing after all.
