armoredman
Member
Well, the only thing ugly was me, and the weather! And I forgot my camera, which turned out to be a good thing....
I am a born desert rat, so temperatures of 40 degrees equals COLD to me. But, I had to get out to the range this morning after the son got shoved off to school. It had been too long. 07:30 I was there. Without the sun.
I didn't want to stay too long, so I only took the vZ-58, and my P01, and a boatload of "get rid of" ammo, old reloads, odd lots of bullets I'll never get again, that type of stuff. And of course, some recent good stuff so I could be sure of some nice groups...Ha, so I thought.
See, I forgot one kinda important thing - my homemade wooden shooting bench. I like to shoot seated for ammo testing, so I got down Indian style on the concrete. Remember that 40 degrees? Concrete in 40 degrees is at LEAST 10 degrees colder. I think I left half of my left cheek down there. When it warms up, I'll know for sure.
I started with a four target 200-500 yard simulation target at 26 yards,
about where your supposed to use it. Was going to post the pic, can't find it, guess I don't use THAT one anymore! The 24gr AA1680 load with 123gr Hornady soft point worked well there, gave several groups touching. BUT, shooting a rifle at 25 yards from a seated position, you'd better have some one hole groups! That's subminiature range.
Moved out to 100 yards, the weather was really getting to me, (I will play this up for ALL it's worth! ), and groups from the good stuff moved to 4 inches across, and some other loads hit 8 inches, especially those made with H-335 and H-4895. (I am running out of AA#1680, hard to get any local, so I am experimenting with these two powders, which I do have a bit of. Maybe I can get some AA#1680 in a month. ) The good of it was I REALLY enjoy shooting this rifle, cold rear and all. Wonderful time. One failure to feed, and upon inspection, a reload from 4 years ago I should have buried in embarassment. Yikes, that case was bad. Other than that one burp, excellent functioning for about 200 rounds. Did I mention how much I like shooting this thing? vZ-58 rocks.
Then the P01 with various get-rid of loads, at 25 yards, and once again, great feeding, and ragged groups. Some were huge, and some not too horrible, all shot standing, two hand Weaver hold, frozen sitter sticking out defrosting. Some of these one-of loads I am glad to get rid of, (have any like that?), and found the P01 really likes one load for my cast 124gr LRN I do in my garage. That's a bonus. Perfect functioning, with every oddball load fed into it.
So no camera to show off my horrible shooting, and shivering self. Warmed up to about 50 when I left. Next time, I go at noon. With a bench. And gloves. And a space heater.
Edit to add, I forgot to mention that I tried SKS stripper clips in the stripper clip loading guide slot in the vZ-58 bolt. Works. Mostly. Don't reccomend it.
I am a born desert rat, so temperatures of 40 degrees equals COLD to me. But, I had to get out to the range this morning after the son got shoved off to school. It had been too long. 07:30 I was there. Without the sun.
I didn't want to stay too long, so I only took the vZ-58, and my P01, and a boatload of "get rid of" ammo, old reloads, odd lots of bullets I'll never get again, that type of stuff. And of course, some recent good stuff so I could be sure of some nice groups...Ha, so I thought.
See, I forgot one kinda important thing - my homemade wooden shooting bench. I like to shoot seated for ammo testing, so I got down Indian style on the concrete. Remember that 40 degrees? Concrete in 40 degrees is at LEAST 10 degrees colder. I think I left half of my left cheek down there. When it warms up, I'll know for sure.
I started with a four target 200-500 yard simulation target at 26 yards,
about where your supposed to use it. Was going to post the pic, can't find it, guess I don't use THAT one anymore! The 24gr AA1680 load with 123gr Hornady soft point worked well there, gave several groups touching. BUT, shooting a rifle at 25 yards from a seated position, you'd better have some one hole groups!
That's subminiature range.Moved out to 100 yards, the weather was really getting to me, (I will play this up for ALL it's worth!
), and groups from the good stuff moved to 4 inches across, and some other loads hit 8 inches, especially those made with H-335 and H-4895. (I am running out of AA#1680, hard to get any local, so I am experimenting with these two powders, which I do have a bit of. Maybe I can get some AA#1680 in a month. ) The good of it was I REALLY enjoy shooting this rifle, cold rear and all. Wonderful time. One failure to feed, and upon inspection, a reload from 4 years ago I should have buried in embarassment. Yikes, that case was bad. Other than that one burp, excellent functioning for about 200 rounds. Did I mention how much I like shooting this thing? vZ-58 rocks.Then the P01 with various get-rid of loads, at 25 yards, and once again, great feeding, and ragged groups. Some were huge, and some not too horrible, all shot standing, two hand Weaver hold, frozen sitter sticking out defrosting. Some of these one-of loads I am glad to get rid of, (have any like that?), and found the P01 really likes one load for my cast 124gr LRN I do in my garage. That's a bonus. Perfect functioning, with every oddball load fed into it.
So no camera to show off my horrible shooting, and shivering self. Warmed up to about 50 when I left. Next time, I go at noon. With a bench. And gloves. And a space heater.
Edit to add, I forgot to mention that I tried SKS stripper clips in the stripper clip loading guide slot in the vZ-58 bolt. Works. Mostly. Don't reccomend it.
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