“It’s better to go broke at the range than it is to make a fortune in the shop.”*--Christopher Self, Alabama machinist, designer and rifle nut.

Last week, I got a further lesson on the folly of attempting shots at long range without actually testing your equipment beforehand. Shooting at 300 yards, a 165-grain polymer-tipped bullet which had shot splendidly at 100 and 200 yards turned in a group with a vertical spread of 7 inches. There was no horizontal dispersion at all, but the slugs were all over the place up- and down-wise.

According to some balistically sophisticated friends of mine, there are three possible causes:

1. The polycarbonate tips melted off by the time they got to 300 yards and caused variations in the bullets’ flight.

2. The bullets were stabilized at 100 and 200 but by the time they reached 300 their loss of velocity destabilized them.

3. Satan.

I saw a similar occurrence with a .300 Weatherby Magnum which shot handloads using Norma MRP very accurately at long range. When the MRP ran out, I worked up a load with RelodeR 22 which gave about 50 fps less velocity and nearly identical accuracy. At 100 and 200, fine. At 300, all over the target.... [ Read Full Post ]

There's already been a  boatload of bloviation expressed on the recent reversal of the ban on loaded firearms in our national parks, some of it sensible but most of it (predictably) bordering on  hysterics.

This column from the Huffington Post is a perfect example:
 
"In fact,  the new rule is likely to make national park visitors less safe around  wildlife. Packing heat could give some people a false sense of security and  make them more likely to approach bison, elk, moose, and grizzly bears,  rather than keep a safe distance which is better for both people and  animals."

But the most certain outcome of this congressional action is  that it will promote poaching. The National Park Service warned in its fiscal 2006 budget submission each year for the past several years ... The data  suggests that there is a significant domestic as well as international trade  for illegally taken plant and animal parts." Poaching, the agency said, "is suspected to be a factor in the decline of at least 29 species of wildlife  and could cause the extirpation of 19 species from the parks." 

[ Read Full Post ]

*Not a typo.

The previous post elicited so many interesting opinions that I was able to get a second post out of it. Herewith:

1. The message on the Badger muzzle brake and on the Claymore mine is “Front toward enemy,” not what I had. Once more my memory has done me dirt.

2. In theory, you could take the .30/06 in question hunting and never miss a shot with it—provided you kept your shots to 200 yards or less. Beyond that, stray shots really start to wander. I myself would not hunt with such a rifle because I have other guns that don’t throw shots. Why ask for trouble? It will find you without any help.

3. A number of you suggested a ruptured scope, or parallax, or loose rings or bases. In my experience, if a scope is defective, or the bases or rings are loose, you won’t get any kind of groups at all, or you’ll get 4-inch groups. As for parallax, the scope was an American model Zeiss 4.5X-14X with dial-a-dog parallax on the turret, so that was not the problem.

4. It’s pretty hard to throw a shot from a bench rest if you’re set up correctly. The last... [ Read Full Post ]

As a kid in the 1950s, I was taught that the Democratic Party was the repository of all human evil, and in the ensuing half-century I haven’t seen a lot to make me change that point of view. However, this past week, a pair of Democratic senators have done shooters a great service. To wit:

About two weeks ago, the Department of Defense decreed that surplus military ammo would no longer be sold to the public. Instead, said the DoD, it would be “mutilated,” presumably chopped up and sold for scrap. It’s difficult to see what purpose this would serve from the government’s point of view, but for shooters who handload military calibers and for people who re-manufacture ammo, it would be a catastrophe.

Then, on March 17, Senators Jon Tester and Max Baucus of Montana, Democrats both, sent a FAX to the DoD stating that this would not be such a good idea, and since Senator Baucus is Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, the DoD locked its heels together and listened. On the evening of the same day, Baucus and Tester received a reply that the decision had been reversed and mutilation was no longer an option.

So, swallowing my bile, I... [ Read Full Post ]

Normally, this blog is dedicated to peaceful pursuits. However, SFC Frick speaks much wisdom. I am giving him a meritorious promotion to Command Sergeant Major (E-9).

(For more on this subject, visit our list of the five best gunfights of all time).

Drill Sergeant Joe B. Fricks Rules For A Gunfight

1. Forget about knives, bats and fists. Bring a gun. Preferably, bring at least two guns. Bring all of your friends who have guns. Bring four times the ammunition you think you could ever need.
 
2. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammunition is cheap - life is expensive. If you shoot inside, buckshot is your friend. A new wall is cheap - funerals are expensive
 
3. Only hits count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.

4. If your shooting stance is good, you're probably not moving fast enough or using cover correctly.
 
5. Move away from your attacker and go to cover. Distance is your friend. (Bulletproof cover and diagonal or lateral movement are preferred.)
 
6. If you can choose what to bring to a gunfight, bring a semi or full-automatic long gun and... [ Read Full Post ]

This video proves that if you practice a whole lot and focus on target, you can break clays with anything, even a fishing rod and a weight. It’s pretty amazing.

The clip also brings up a number of questions, like the best sinker size for skeet, and what pound test you need for 27 yard handicap, not to mention rod length, rod fit and fiber-optic tips.

As long as the Master Casters stick to clay birds, this is the coolest thing ever. As soon as some idiot starts snagging birds on the wing, reeling them in, kissing them on the beak and letting them go, I am going to have a serious problem. [ Read Full Post ]

Claiming – shooting at the same time as someone else, then hollering “I got it!” –  ranks fairly high on the list of ways to annoy to your hunting partners. I try only to say “Nice Shot!” on the rare occasions I shoot at the same bird as someone else.

I had a bird claimed from me when I first started hunting and never forgot it. I  started late, as a college senior,  but I was still young enough to think of myself as a kid among adults when I went with my dad and his friends. An acquaintance of my dad’s named Bill, a real grownup, but probably closer in age to me than to my dad, came with us one day. As we walked a creek bottom, the one rooster of the day flushed between us. Bill and I both shot, me from the left, Bill from the right. Having shot all of two pheasants thus far in my life, I was thrilled to see this one crash to Earth.  The bird was still barely alive when I picked it up. Bill grabbed it from me and dispatched the pheasant by twisting its head all the way off.  He said:... [ Read Full Post ]

The father of one of my son’s friends called the other day to say he had a chance to pick up a used Ruger Red Label and should he buy it for his son? Since I had just come back from a wonderful quail hunt in Texas and still harbored warm, fuzzy feelings for the 20 gauge Red Label I borrowed down there, I said sure.

   
For whatever reason, no shotgun is loved and hated as much as the Red Label. It has a loyal cult following, and a cult of haters, too. Having owned and sold three, I’ve done time in both groups.

Red Label lovers point out:
It is made in the U.S.A.
It is solidly engineered.
It has a very low-profile receiver.

Red Label haters counter:
It weighs too much.
The wood-to-metal fit is of high-school shop class quality.
It flops open.

All of the above are true, with a couple of caveats. The 12 and 20 are overweight pigs, except for the Sporting models, which have lighter-contoured barrels. The 28 is built on a perfectly scaled-down frame and handles beautifully. I was deadly with mine,... [ Read Full Post ]

“Coach says it’s OK to bleed from the ears.”—Reggie Ray, in Not Another Teen Movie

For fear the hearts of men are failing,
For these are latter days we know.
The Great Depression now is spreading;
God’s word declared it would be so.
I’m going where there’s no Depression,
To that lovely land that’s free from care.
I’ll leave this world of toil and trouble.
My home’s in Heaven; I’m going there.
—A.P. Carter, from Songs of the Depression, by The New Lost City Ramblers, 1959

Some of the following is already fact. The rest of it will probably be fact before 2009 is out.

On December 18, one day after Washington announced its new “reasonable” gun-ownership laws, MSNBC news bunny Mika Brzezinski was mugged outside her D.C. hotel by a robber who did not carry a gun. Meanwhile, the murderer of Chondra Levy, the intern who was killed in a Washington park in 2001, remains at large.

President Obama will push a new firearms-control law through a Congress that is distracted by a debate over whether to bail out kitty litter manufacturers (unsympathetic reporters label the pro-litter faction “The Pissing Pussy Posse”). It establishes the National Bureau of Gun-Owner... [ Read Full Post ]

I’ve written before that the only ballistic information you can believe is what comes out of your barrel and hits your targets. This was driven home yet again last week when I ran some drop tests on my beloved 6.5x55 New Ultra Light Arms rifle. I use two loads in it: the first is Norma factory rounds firing 156-grain Oryx bullets at 2,508 fps; the second is a handload that shoots the sensuous, attractive 130-grain Swift Scirocco at 2,750. I sight in the Oryx loads  (of which I am fond because they don’t punch dinner-plate-sized holes through 90-pound deer) to hit 1.5 inches high at 100 yards; this is fine for 90 percent of the shots you get at whitetails. The Swifts print 3 inches high, and if I think I may get a long shot I use those.

However, until last week I was relying on guesswork to figure how much the two slugs actually dropped, so I went to the range and found out. The Scirocco was no surprise; it dropped 7 inches below the point of aim at 300 yards. The surprise was the Oryx. I first tried it at 200 yards, and it dropped only 2 inches below... [ Read Full Post ]

The role of the spotter (also called the observer) in a sniper/ spotter team is to give the target location tothe sniper, provide windage and distance information, spot bullet impact, and make corrections. It may also be the spotter's responsibility to provide security for the sniper, in which case he will be armed with an M-16, M4, M-14 with scope, or teeth.

  [ Read Full Post ]

A judge of my acquaintance--a regular reader of this blog and a hard and pitiless man to whom the mere mention of mercy is a mortal affront--takes issue with my prediction that Plaxico Burress will skate because of who he is. There are, says Ye Judge, ways around mandatory sentences, but the uproar over Burress’ Glock groping has eliminated them, and he is surely looking at prison.

Whether I am right or the judge is right, what Burress gets will not be justice, but public relations, and the whole wretched business points out how capriciously gun laws are often enforced.

Anyway, back to greed and covetousness:

Vero Vellini rifle slings. I have no idea who Vero Vellini is, but he makes the most comfortable rifle sling I know of. It’s heavily padded, has just a little spring to it, and best of all, does not slip off your shoulder ever 7.5 seconds. Depending on model, $20-$50. Widely available.

HSM rifle ammunition, sold by Cabelas. Much cheap ammo is loaded with bird droppings and melted-down T-34 tank hulls by people who subsist on cabbage and other cheap, gas-producing vegetables. HSM is loaded in the USA by people who go to Taco Bell to get... [ Read Full Post ]