Libercontrarian

Crushed between the wheels of capitalism and big government.

Few Gun Posts

Some of my friends reading here might wonder at the postings I've been putting up lately - comments on pop music, Iran, the wireless phone industry, techie-nerd shit. You guys are probably saying, "Hell, son, where's the guns?"

Take it easy - I'm still a shooter and a reloader. I shot in a National Match competition on Saturday with my AR (yes, the carbine I built, and yes, I used Yankee Hill Machine iron flipups). The results were less than spectacular; I shot a 155 (1-x) standing (not too bad, probably a personal best on the 200 yard standing target), and a 161 (1-x) seated rapid at the reduced 300 yard (200 actual) target.

That was when I decided to "get clever" and adjust my sights.

As it turns out, I over-adjusted and could not get a bead on the target, and put a very nice, tight group into a patch 20" too high. This earned me a 21 (1-x) in the prone rapid , followed by an inexplicable crappy spray of bullets all over the target during prone slow fire - 86 (0-x). Thinking I had the sights truly screwed, I shot off a bench after the match, and discovered that I was only a click too high in elevation. The prone position had my eye so much closer to the rear sight that looking through the peep was like looking at the front sight through a hula-hoop - I was having a great deal of difficulty gauging vertical displacement of the front sight through the coarse YHM sights, which are meant for operators to use in close-quarters-battle in the event their primary electro-optical sight has failed. Since any kind of optics are banned in NM competitions, I went with what I had - and it cost me. I figure that I was shooting well enough that I could have broken 600, which would have been an overall personal best.

Oh well, it's an adventure everytime I go to a National Match - I almost never take the Garand, as it is such a laser gun that it is passably easy to shoot well. I kind of like the adventure of taking some goofy rifle that isn't configured specifically for that competition. Probably next will be the Lee Enfield or the M98. I am sure that I will make a hash out of it unless I prepare better for the competition by developing some tight handloads and shooting them through the course of fire up at Pawnee Grasslands or Lyons prior to heading out to Byers or Boulder Rifle Club for the next competition. Hopefully, the weather will return to its pre-Spring state (65 degrees and sunny, crazily enough) to permit me to do my thing out on the plain; it's 19 degrees outside right now and snow is covering the ground.

Gear note: Bought myself an RCBS Chargemaster. For you great unwashed out there, it's an automated powder trickler and scale, hooked together via infrared port, and meters the powder of your choice out to the tenth-of-a-grain in about the time it takes for you to seat a bullet on a filled case and put it in the box. It cuts out wads of loading time, and is a real aggrevation-saver. I have loaded a couple-hundred rounds with it and believe it to be one of the finest tools I have ever seen in the hands of a non-scientist. Truly amazing stuff!

I am in the middle of some pernicious case-prep for .223 right now. It is my least favorite task, as it takes an incredibly long time to finger-fuck a case into shape to make it viable for self-loading rifles. Part of the problem inevitably is occurring because I am Mister Precision, who must put a Marine D.I. shine on the brass, to avoid the inevitable appearance of Gunnery Sergeant Stephen C. Holt,  U.S.M.C. (Non-Commissioned Terrorist of Battalion One) for a two-hour PT session with his "permanent 'Owe-Me.'"

Oh well, it's my obsession, either I live with it or I spend $26,000 in psychotherapy overcoming the problem. I'll take the former, and have clean, shiny brass, thank you.

posted by: underwhelmed at March 21, 2006 23:27 | link | comments |

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