Shooting

[DirtySteve]

Anyone been shooting lately? The forum has been quiet lately. I have been casting. But really wanting to shoot weather is just not cooperating..

[Don McDowell]

Ben busy casting between other stuff
Have enough cast up to shoot the Desert International for my main rifle plus enough to do a little trigger time cofirming sight settings before we go if I can get a break in the weather
Need to get some more cast up for my backup rifle

[JKR]

I’ve been shooting. My shooting friend and I have resurrected an unused 600 yard range that the National Guard built at a local shooting club. We asked permission and they seemed happy to let us use it. Only downside is, because of the side berm, we’re not allowed to shoot at 600 if someone is on the adjacent trap or pistol range. We can, however, shoot from 500 yards at any time. This has been almost on good to be true. All we’ve had to do is build a target frame and balance out one of the twelve carriers. We bought some targets and two way radios and we were in business. Soon it will be too cold and the snow will be too deep but it sure has been fun.
Since starting this project, I’ve been working on a grease grooved bullet load for my Shiloh 45-70. I don’t need my long range paper patch load for 600 yard shooting which I do a lot at gong shoots I attend. I’m using a Brooks Postel type bullet and 63 grains of Swiss 1 1/2. Last time shooting at 500 yards I managed a 95-3. Had to shoot sitting from the sticks because of the snow.
I’m not looking forward to having winter cut off my shooting. Sure is a long way to Arizona!
JKR

[Lumpy Grits]

Need to up that charge 2-3gn.
How much are you compressing the powder?

[Don McDowell]

The year TerryYork won the midrange nationals when we gotthruwith the last round and I got all the xs counted on his scor card I asked hi what his load was
62 grains 1.5 Swiss 030 fiber wad u def a 535 postel

[Lumpy Grits]

Wasn't Swiss milled stronger back then? ?

[DirtySteve]

JKR, You are very lucky to have that set up at you disposal..

Don, nothing more satisfying than casting nice bullets.. Other than shooting them.. lol..

[Don McDowell]

Gary hard to tell it was 2014 and don’t know what lot of powder he was shooting A lot of variation in Swiss lots it seems
Steve agree whole heartedly casting the bullets is half the fun

[JKR]

Gary,
I’m not trying to develop a long range load. I have one that I’m happy with. I looking for a nice load for mid range and gong shoots. I’m using .080” compression in Winchester cases. I use .1” in my long range PP loading with good success. Different rifle though. It’s the latest lot of Swiss. Perhaps it will tolerate more compression. I haven’t chronographed it yet, but I guessing the velocity is 1100ish. I wouldn’t mind bumping it up some if accuracy will hold up.
We shot yesterday at 600 and I found it interesting that that 63 grain load required 15 minutes more elevation than the PP load from the same rifle. I shot an 88 which was not disappointing considering it was 25 degrees and I had to shoot from sitting.
Arnie,
The RV antifreeze works great for winter shooting. My shooting buddies patches were frozen solid. My gun wiped out beautifully!
Jim

[JKR]

JKR, You are very lucky to have that set up at you disposal..

Don, nothing more satisfying than casting nice bullets.. Other than shooting them.. lol..

Steve,
Yes, we are lucky to have it’s use.
Funny thing is, this 12 point high power range was built by WI National Guard engineers in the early 90’s, in collaboration with the local gun club. To my knowledge there has never been a match held there. I was hard into HP competition at the time so I would’ve known if there was a match just 30 miles from my home. There seems to be zero interest in this nice 600 yard range.
There was a good deal of interest in hp competition at that time and lots of NG troops attended matches. They didn’t need to be on the shooting teams. Any troop could draw a match conditioned rifle and match ammo to attend a match. They could turn in a voucher and have their entry refunded. It all came to a screeching haunt when funds were cut during the Clinton administration. NG competitors all but disappeared except for a very few who were willing to shoot on their own hook. The matches dwindled down from four and five relays to three with empty firing points.
I guess all the precision shooting sports have suffered this fate to some extent.

Jim