Bullseye Target Shooting

Mouse-Finger versus Trigger-Finger

2009-07-05T07:09:00.012-07:00

Mouse-finger

Rest your hand on the table, palm down, in a relaxed and slightly arched shape.

Tap it with your trigger finger.

That's mouse-finger and, if you're reading this on-line, it's probably something you did to get here; you clicked a link or a button with your computer mouse.

And if you use the mouse a lot, you've probably become very good at positioning it quickly and then clicking or double-clicking. Your motor skills have probably become second nature. You see what you want on the screen and you click it.

Over the last two decades since computer mice have come into common use, I've used them for many hours just about every day. As a result, I'm good with the mouse. Real good, in fact. So good that my double-click speed adjustment in Windows is at the maximum.

Mouse Double-Click Speed

To adjust your double-click speed in Windows, click Start and then Control Panel, double-click Mouse, select the Buttons tab and move the Double-click speed slider left or right and try double-clicking the folder in that same area.

Mine is at the maximum setting.

That's mouse-finger.

Now imagine you're holding a gun in that hand and your finger is resting on the trigger and you want to shoot something ... Now!

Those motor skills I've practiced daily for twenty years are going to take over and I'm almost certainly going to use mouse-finger on the gun -- remember, that's what I've practiced on a daily basis -- and mouse-finger is going to push the muzzle, and the shot, left.

Jerk!

Well, no, that's not really a "jerk" even though the end result is practically the same.

Jerking is when you anticipate the sound and the recoil of firing a gun and your grip and body flinch before the bang. (The body is starting toward a fetal position to protect itself.)

That's a jerk.

Mouse-finger, on the other hand, pushes left and there can also be a downward component too as we'll see in a minute, but the source of the movement, the reason for these movements is not a flinch. It's the body trying to click the mouse (down) rather than push the trigger (back).

There is a 90 degree difference. One is "down" while the other is "back".

And to see where the downward movement comes from in all this, we need to shift to the the trigger-finger motion.

So, put your hand back on the table.

This time, however, imagine your finger tip is gently touching something soft and gentle (!). With that thought in mind, use your forefinger to gentle caress it.

...

OK, bring your mind back from erotica-land, please.

Focus attention on the gentle stroke. There are several things to notice about this action as compared to mouse-finger.

First, the direction of movement now is back toward your wrist not down into the table.

Second, the speed of movement is dramatically slower than before.

And third, it is a gentle movement, not abrupt like mouse-finger.

This is how the trigger should be moved when releasing a shot.

But we're not quite done yet.

Trigger-finger

Rest your hand on the table again, palm down as before with that same relaxed arch.

Moving only the trigger finger, move it over so it touches the middle finger.

Now try that caressing motion.

Can you move it straight back without moving the rest of the hand?

I can't!

With my trigger finger "down" toward the middle finger, when I try to bring it straight-back, my whole hand arches.

Oh it's true that if I "aim" the motion toward the base of my thumb, the finger can move and the hand remain still but I'm not moving straight back. My trigger finger is moving "up" to do that.

Conversely, if you scoot the trigger finger over toward the thumb and then try to move it straight back, the tip of the finger draws a gentle arc on the table-top.

Again, I can't move it straight back.

So, trigger-finger is most naturally accomplished when the fingers are in their most natural and relaxed position. Ideally, this is how the gun should fit your hand.

If your fit isn't perfect like this, then you'll have to learn to move the trigger straight back in an unnatural (for you) movement. The more awkward the fit, the more challenging the motion.

Custom target-shooter grips attempt to put the hand in a natural position. This will be instantly obvious the first time you take hold of grips that fit your hand.

All others require some touchy-feel'y experimentation to find that position where "straight-back" happens most naturally.

So, here are the rules:

Mouse-finger bad;
Caress-finger good; and
Natural hand position including all fingers is also good.

And feel (!) free to substitute your own word for "caress".

But keep your mind on shooting because that's a dangerous object you hold in your hand.

(So's that other object but that's not for blogging!)

Independence

2009-07-04T10:42:00.010-07:00

Continental Congress

Here's how it's supposed to work.

There are three parts of our government: the legislative branch, the executive branch and the judicial branch. Each one is intended to keep the other two in check and permit change only when all three are in agreement.

The Congress can make new laws. The President can veto the Congress. The Congress can, in turn, overrule the President's veto. The Supreme Court can rule the law unconstitutional. That constitution can be amended but, as evidenced by how long it takes to do so, that is a very rare event.

Change, yes, but only very slowly. This is a key and intentional feature of our Constitution, the goal of which is to make it hard for the government to infringe upon our rights against our will.

And by preserving our rights, by hamstringing the elected government so it can only move slowly, the constitution gives us time to assert our wishes. We have time to elect different representatives who will do as we wish. We have time to overturn laws that infringe upon our rights.

This intentional and forced slow-to-change nature of our Constitution works to preserve our independence. Our founding fathers were amazingly wise.

Change, yes, but only slowly, with much debate and discussion, and with considerable recourse.

Independence ultimately also means we don't depend on our government. We take care of ourselves, our families, our neighboring community and, when necessary, our country. That was the goal of the settlers who came to this continent. They wished to express their lives in actions and words as they saw fit, to live, to flourish, to flounder and to die according to their own minds and hands.

And to ensure those rights, we hire amongst ourselves those to oversee our interactions as we go about our independent lives.

By any measure, the government depends on us, not vice versa. We elect them. We pay them. They represent us but only at our bidding or, in its absence, at our knowing acquiescence. Ours is a "representative democracy". We rule through our representatives. They run the collective works while each of us runs our personal work.

The Continental Congress began as a coordinated resistance to British control. "Taxation without representation," was a primary complaint in a long list that described how the British government had infringed upon the rights of its citizens in the colonies. And on this date in 1776, that Continental Congress signed what is known to most around the world as the Declaration of Independence.

And that's what this day of the year is about, independence, yours and mine.

Nurture and display it and, when -- not if but when -- necessary, protect it. It is very precious and many are trying to take it away, both here and abroad.

Independence Day is about embracing, not just reflecting upon, your freedom.

What will you do today to demonstrate your Independence?

Freedom of the Press Stymied

2009-07-03T17:41:00.002-07:00

Get the word out, folks. This is just plain old wrong.

Solution to Primer Shortage Problem?

2009-06-30T15:36:00.006-07:00

Well, it would certainly take a long time to make enough for a 2700 this way but, then again, the video below has an undeniable appeal for the do-it-yourself types.

I wonder if the ignition time feels different?

See http://www.youtube.com/user/delstacy24 for related videos from this same gentleman.

Which Flag for This Saturday, the Fourth?

2009-06-29T08:33:00.004-07:00

Gadsden Flag

What flag will you display this Saturday, July 4th 2009?

If you need the basic equipment, try google.com for "flag store CITY" for nearby shopping locations. I found what appears to be a good retail store in Phoenix a few miles from home. Their on-line catalog lists the Gadsden flag which, according to this article at Wikipedia, was used by the US Marine Corp as an early motto flag. I'll be purchasing a 3x5' version of this as well as the traditional stars and stripes. Both flags plus all the necessary hardware and even the car's wear-and-tear and fuel to go and get it will be comfortably under $100.

Which flag will be displayed on my home on the 4th?

Depends on what Obama does between now and then.

Addendum

July 4, 2009: We are displaying the Gadsden flag today, and for many days hereafter as well.

After the Match

2009-06-25T20:27:00.003-07:00

Trust and Honor

2009-06-22T06:02:00.008-07:00

EIC Match Coming Up

I wrote the following as a comment to http://xavierthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/19112-m1911-and-other-heirlooms.html, a blog I follow.

In the sport of Bullseye, a.k.a. Conventional Pistol, dozens of shooters stand side by side firing at targets. Each shooter trusts those on both sides to fire their weapons safely, make them safe when the time is up, and follow the four rules of gun safety at all times.

At a large match, on a table for all to see and consider, are the items each shooter has brought to sell or trade. Several thousand dollars worth of guns may be sitting on that table throughout the match.

And at each shooter's firing point, two or three more valuable handguns will be sitting there while everyone is 50 yards downrange looking carefully at and scoring the targets.

The thought of a gun going missing never crosses anyone's mind.

Mixed Bag

2009-06-14T20:28:00.007-07:00

Steve Reiter (2008)

Here are some scattered notes and comments from today.

I didn't shoot very well in today's 2700. All my scores were down at the low-end of where I've been shooting. The bad news is this was an Authorized match and the scores count so I'll be in Outdoor Sharpshooter land for a while. The good news is that's where I *should* be competing, that's where I *need* to be working, and doing the things I did today (shooting, not quitting, re-focusing on basics) is what will *eventually* let me learn what I need to know to advance. Patience!

Clarence, to my immediately left, had a squib but caught it immediately. Other than the round stuck in the barrel, there was no damage to his 1911. (I think he was shooting the gun later in the match but I didn't confirm that.) He shot well in spite of that incident (and whipped me by 100 points -- way to go, Clarence!).

Steve Reiter, Senior US Champion many times over, was scoring my 45 targets. I let that get to me on the first two Slow Fire targets and butchered them both, scoring only in the low 70s with not one hole in the black on the second of the two. Ugh!

But then I re-focused all my attention back into my shot plan by meticulously following each step and, I'm pleased to say, resurrected myself on the first SF of the NMC with all shots in the black. TF and RF thereafter weren't great but they were tolerable, mostly in the mid-90s.

I fired some carefully reloaded Aguilla brass in Slow Fire after making them specially for today and making doubly certain to fully seat all the primers. Even so, I had nine high primers in the 60 rounds in Slow Fire over CF and 45. For TF and RF, I switched to reloads in Starline using the same batch of primers but had no problems -- no high primers. So, something is decidedly wrong with Aguilla brass.

But I still have mixed feelings about discarding it.

On the down side, the high primers cannot all be detected by vision or touch. I've had several shooters try and we all failed to spot several high primers. So the bottom line is if I shoot the Aguilla brass, some "thunks" will happen.

But on the plus side, if I restrict its use to Slow Fire only, shooting it is a great "ball and dummy" drill; and brother does it show me I have a problem when I think there's a live round in the chamber.

(Jerk!)

Dry firing alone just isn't solving my "jerk" problem so, for the time being at least, I think I will continue reloading and shooting the Aguilla "Surprise" ammo, but only in Slow Fire of course. And quite frankly if the high primers continue long enough for me to learn the lesson of how *not* to jerk, that would be fabulous.

So, looking forward, we shoot a "Camp Perry Warm-up" next Sunday starting at 7:30AM.

I'll be the jerk with the high primers in Slow Fire ... but not for too much longer if this works.

See you on the line.

Where and When

2009-06-12T16:16:00.011-07:00

Six O'clock Hold
Focus on Front Sight

I've been shooting Bullseye a little over four years, since early 2005.

Like many other shooters, I also have a full-time job that limits my practice time. And also like many others, my job includes travel which compounds the situation.

And in my case, I mean a lot of travel. On a typical trip, it is common for me to be "in transit" for 8-10 hours on day #1 with a combination of shuttle to the airport, checking in the recommended 60-90 minutes early, flying for 5 hours (Phoenix to some east coast location), and then having another hour of airport and travel time to some previously booked hotel. Then, I put in the next four days, 8 to 5 or 6 or 7, at a customer's location. Then, there's the company email to be scanned and mostly deleted before bed. Day #6 of such a trip is fly-home day with another 9-11 hours "in transit" since I buck the jet stream on the way back west.

So, I take my Bullseye sport if, when and where I can.

Most clubs are very welcoming to newcomers. And although my Outdoor Sharpshooter and Indoor Expert ratings aren't the most stellar, they do say I've developed some small set of skills and that I'm not likely to do any harm ... well, except to the target frames or maybe a low-hanging overhead on occasion (sorry, Florida!).

Although my progress up the Bullseye ranks has been slow, there are some advantages to how I've had to fit in the sport.

First, and as I've noted before, I've met a lot of nice, stable, solid and dependable people.

That's because this sport attracts those people. Remember, you're standing side by side with loaded guns, concentrating on your own front sight and trying hard to ignore everything else around you. This demands a deep trust in, and also from, the person standing next to you with his or her own loaded gun. Those undeserving of that trust, or who cannot develop the same toward their neighbor, don't stay in the sport.

Second, because the laws in some places make it difficult for me to bring my own guns, I've been blessed with the opportunity to shoot a wide range of very fine handguns that have been loaned to me by shooters in those locations. I've shot everything from stock Rugers to Hammerlis, from more Rugers with Volquardsen parts to Rock Rivers, and from even more Rugers that've been blessed and fussed over by the finest Ruger gunsmiths in the country to 1911s that have been tweaked, ramped, honed, pressed and maybe even prayed over by the likes of Roddy Toyota and Dave Salyer, and I've had the honor of being able to shoot more than one Ed Masaki which, as any Masaki owner will probably tell you, just getting to shoot one of those is fabulous.

And the triggers I've experienced across all of these get a very wide range of descriptions. A very small number have been like dragging a brick across concrete. Those are darn hard to shoot straight. Most triggers, though, are like breaking a glass rod in their abruptness except that a glass rod will give a little before it snaps but a crisp trigger won't. And then there are the roll triggers, short, medium and long, with one so long I wanted a bathroom break before the shot went.

Over all those fine guns I've had the priviledge to shoot, I've learned to my public embarassment that I can jerk the finest handguns just as badly as the cheapest. (And thanks for not laughing.)

But I've also learned that I can hit the bullseye with just about any trigger as long as I concentrate, press straight back and move only that one finger.

This Sunday's 2700 starts at 7:30AM to try and beat the heat.

I'll be there concentrating on that "straight back" and "only that finger" and I'll be the one feeling like all of me is just pouring into the red dot.

I know you'll pardon me if I seem to be ignoring you while we're shooting.

But then again, if you're a Bullseye shooter, you already know that.

I'll see you on the line!

Brass Pool

2009-06-07T20:40:00.012-07:00

The sorting of my large bucket of all 45 ACP brass according to headstamp is done.

If you've been reading along, you'll know I'm doing this so I can separate out the Aguila that seems to have been having high-primer problems.

With the baggies of brass arrayed before me, here's what is in my pool.

The most common headstamp in my collection is Winchester of which most was saved from ball ammo purchased at Walmart back when I first started shooting the 1911.

Second and third most common are StarLine purchased at the Dillon store and the Aguila of which I've been writing most recently. The Aguila is also from ball ammo but purchased from a different source.

Here's the complete lineup and for the "rare" ones, the count:

Aguila
AP 02 (qty 1)
CBC
CCI (qty 4)
Federal
LC
MFS
Midway (qty 1)
PMC
PMP (qty 1)
RP
S&B
S&W (qty 1)
Speer (qty 4)
StarLine
Texas 45 Super (qty 1)
TZZ
WCC
Winchester
W-W

Scoring Targets
(click for larger image)

My original plan was to discard the Aguila. But with it now separated out and in its own baggie, I realize I can give it the extra little attention it needs in reloading. That is, when I decide to reload the Aguila, I'll just remember that this brand needs an extra firm push in the 650 reloader to fully seat the primer. (And I'll restrict its first couple of uses to Slow Fire just in case a high primer sneaks through.)

So, what have I learned from all this?

First, all 45 ACP brass is not the same. Although all of my supply is of the reloadable variety (brass not steel), some of it needs a little extra oomph when reloading.

Second, keeping brass sorted by headstamp is a good idea. Doing so from the beginning might have saved me a couple of days of headscratching and testing.

Third, top competitors use new or once-fired brass in competition. I assume there's a valid reason for that but exactly why, I don't know. If it makes a difference, then some of my tired old brass isn't gonna cut the mustard, but I don't know which shells those are. Although this experience didn't "teach" me this lesson, it did point out that, by storing brass in a single bucket, keeping track of firings for the brass was impossible. But by sorting the brass and storing it by headstamp from here on, this becomes possible. So, as I buy new brass in the future, I'll start doing this additional level of documentation -- each purchase will get its own baggie and I'll start tallying the number of firings of each such purchase.

And fourth, I still enjoy recognizing a problem, gathering evidence, conducting experiments and drawing conclusions. In software, we call that "debugging" and it's why I've been a software engineer (and software teacher) all these years. I do love the chase.

10s and Xs ... and no high primers!

The Great Aguila Purge of 2009

2009-06-05T16:28:00.034-07:00

Note: The pictures herein have nothing to do with the content of this article other than the inspiration for excellence each of these Bullseye shooters has provided over the years.

Strike #1

Pat Clarkson
California

After its initial firing (as factory-loaded hardball), 100% of the Aguila brass would not pass through the Martindale gauge. This suggests it has been stretched beyond its ability to recover possibly because of the thinness of the brass or its composition among other reasons.

My normal reload procedure is, after cleaning, to run each piece of brass through the Martindale gauge. Any that fail are discarded. I inserted this step into my procedure shortly after I started reloading because of a number of jams that occurred due to Glock-bulged brass. The Martindale gauge was 100% effective in resolving that problem so I've retained the step to guard against future jams.

But for the once-fired Aguila brass that came from my gun -- a 1911 not a Glock -- I made an exception. I resized that brass before the Martindale gauge assuming that wad loads would prove to be easier on the brass and that the Aguila would, therefore, perform well.

That exception has proved to be the cause of my efforts this week but not for the expected reason. That is, if I had followed my procedure and discarded the bulged Aguila brass, I would have removed it from my supply and thereby avoided this week's chase with high primers. The Martindale gauge step was added to prevent jams, not high primers but, for possibly coincidental reasons, that step would have been effective against this spate of high primers, nonetheless.

Strike #2

In the testing this week where the ammunition suffered from a very high probability of high primers, it was determined that all such high primers were in Aguila brass. None of the rounds in other head stamps had high primers. Not one.

The testing involved a total of 300 rounds of which 50% were Aguila. And a good proportion of that Aguila had been fired only once -- as ball ammo -- and had been resized before reloading. The remainder of the Aguila and all of the non-Aguila brass had been fired many times.

It's worth adding that I had already made those 300 rounds before figuring out that something was wrong. They then became "the test batch" because they were all suspect.

"Slocat"
Steve Locatelli
Colorado

Was it only the newest Aguila that suffered high primers?

If that were the case, then perhaps only the latest batch of Aguila brass had flawed primer pockets. But it is also true that I've been getting high primers for almost a year, in slowly increasing frequency, which is just about the same amount of time over which I've been slowly adding Aguila brass into my supply.

Regardless, I didn't pay attention to high-primer versus once-fired status so the question is moot. I don't have the data to know.

This week's batch did, it may be worth observing, have an inordinate amount of once-fired Aguila brass. Normally my mix of brass is relatively homogenous but when I went to make up the ammo for this week, I grabbed the nearest containers of clean brass. On my recent trips to the range I've been shooting ball, the Aguila ammo, and those were in the containers I used in making the 300 reloads.

Interestingly, it is probably that anomoly of using a non-homogenous mix of brass that enabled the meaningful results from this week's testing. (Anomolies can be your friend?)

So, in preparation for the final round of testing last night, I divided the 300 rounds into three categories. First, there was the non-Aguila brass, all of which I hand-checked but found no high primers. Second, there was the Aguila brass that did not appear to have high primers, again hand-checked. And third, there was the Aguila brass that had eyeball-spotted or finger-felt high primers. That final batch had subsequently been run through the press a second time -- fully loaded -- to reseat the primers.

Yes, I was nervous about pressing primers deeper into fully loaded rounds. Of course, I followed all the usual safety precautions of eyes and ears, but I also kept my face and body shielded by the reloader itself. And while it is true that the reloader has (almost!) never set off a primer and I was careful to press the primers with a smooth steady pressure, I was still nervous about doing so.

Fortunately, I'm typing today with both hands and arms intact. Nothing went "Bang!" in the reloader.

Tim Copley
Arizona

By the way, I said "almost" because I did once, and only once, have the entire stack of primers go off during reloading. To this day I don't know exactly how that happened. But as you might imagine, it was quite startling. The 650's steel primer tube safely contained the blast but launched the plastic follower into the ceiling sheet rock and left it stuck there. The reloader was, of course, instantly unusable. (Dillon replaced all the damaged parts at no cost -- that's part of their warranty.)

Suffice to say, I was careful in reseating the high primers and although I pressed them very solidly home, it was not without some trepidation.

Afterwards, and with no explosions in the process, all the formerly high-primer Aguila rounds looked normal.

That's group three in this test, the reseated former high primers in Aguila brass.

With those three groups ready, I drove down to the range to try them out.

The last group (re-seated) and the non-Aguila brass all performed flawlessly. Only the middle group, the Aguila brass that appeared normal, had failures. In that group, the failure rete was 2 out of 80 rounds or about 2.5%, somewhat like the failure rate I had been seeing up until most recently.

I concluded that, for whatever reason, some Aguila brass was prone to high-primers. An unusually high amount of pressure was needed on the press to properly seat them but, once that was done, they would work correctly. Most, but not all of the remaining Aguila brass did not seem to need this extra pressure. Only about 1-2% needed it.

For the non-Aguila brass, this extra pressure was never required.

Obsessed!

In case you are wondering why I seem so obsessed with finding the source of this problem, let me just say it's an occupational hazard. Or, better still, I should say that it's a common characteristic of many successful software engineers, myself included.

To put it as briefly as I can, in my work I love "having debugged."

Software, as you probably know, sometimes has "bugs". Finding them, understanding why they cause the failures they do, and then figuring out how to correct them is my favorite part of the job. And the harder the "bug", the more gratifying the discovery of its solution.

That carries over into my hobbies.

Unfortunately, it doesn't help me shoot. On the contrary, that analytical "I can figure it out" attitude is counter-productive. And that's why I enjoy, why I need Bullseye. And it's probably why, when I shoot a good target, I discover that my mind has enjoyed a nice vacation.

Don't think. Just shoot.

Strike #3

Returning from the range, I then ran all of the fired brass through the Martindale gauge.

None of the non-Aguila brass failed.

Five of the 80 middle group (Aguila loaded but primers not re-seated) failed.

But then a whopping 22 of the 50 re-seated (former high primers Aguila) failed this final Martindale gauge. That's a 44% failure rate.

"You're out!"

While it is certainly possible that only the newest batch of Aguila brass was faulty, the fact remains that as long as I've been adding Aguila into the mix, I've had increasing problems with high primers.

This was the final straw.

"Okay, all you Aguila, out of the pool!"

I'm done with it.

All of the Aguila brass will go into the club's recycling bin.

Of course, I've got to find it first.

I've been through the whole supply once this week already, to clean all the primer pockets. That took considerably more time than just looking at the head and tossing them one way or the other.

Still, it'll take a while to paw through 2400 pieces.

And following from a comment on an earlier item in this thread from Tony Silva which is also in keeping with the practices of other Bullseye shooters, I'm going to start separating my brass by headstamp.

So, this final pass, the "Great Aguila Purge of 2009," will be used to kill two birds with one stone. I'll purge the Aguila and, at the same time, separate the rest by head stamp.

Tonight I'll be sitting on the floor for a couple of hours watching TV and going through the brass, shell by shell. There will be Winchester to the left of me, Aguila to the right of me (in the recycle bin), and Federal, Midway, Starline and TZZ arrayed in front of me.

And I'll keep my trusty -- and chilly -- Stella Artois close at hand.

"Kampai!"

Oh, wait, that's Japanese.

Anyone know what the Belgians say when hoisting their mugs and tossing brass?

Made 300 to Test

2009-06-01T20:33:00.020-07:00

Jim Henderson and the author
(Click for larger image)

I made 300 rounds of wad ammo to test at Nighthawks tomorrow evening. Previously I was seeing a couple of high primers per hundred so if all 300 shoot OK, I'll pronounce the "cure" complete.

Here are the load details. (This is my normal "wad" load.)

Parameter	Setting	Tolerance
Bullet	200 gr LSWC	n.a.
Primer	WLP	n.a.
Brass	Mixed	n.a.
Hodgdons Clays	3.8 gr	±0.1 gr
OAL	1.240"	±0.003"
Crimp	0.469"	±0.002"

Addendum

Late Tuesday, 2 June 2009

Nope, dirty primer pockets were not the cause of the high primers I've been having.

In fact, testing today revealed a huge number of high primer failures. Previously I was seeing one, two, maybe three per hundred but earlier this evening I fired fifteen rounds but more than half of them took multiple strikes to fire!

Fortunately, two other very capable Bullseye shooters were there and, in the finest of traditions, they turned their complete attentions to my problems.

First, we disassembled my 1911 and inspected this, that and the other.

"Nope, the firing pin isn't bent."

"And the firing pin hole looks round and its tunnel isn't jammed up with dirt."

"Here, Ed, shoot some of my wad ammo in your ball gun."

Ten rounds later we pronounced my gun as working normally. We turned our attention to the ammo.

"Hey, these primers look high -- that's a lot if you can see it!"

"And yeah, there's a whole bunch like that in this box alone."

We concluded that the ammo was, indeed, at fault. I said I'd call Dillon tomorrow and talk it over with them to see what they suggest.

Next Day

An hour after talking with Dillon I had checked and tweaked everything they suggested but had not found anything out of whack. The reloading machine was completely in tolerance and working fine.

So I pulled out the ammo and set aside all the visible and feel-able high primers. Out of the 300 rounds I had made, I pulled more than 50 that were instantly suspect.

And that's when I saw it: all the suspect rounds had the same headstamp, Aguila!

Thinking back, for several months now I've been buying that brand of ball ammunition since I hadn't yet worked up my own load. And after firing, I had been adding that brass into the general supply.

Since I travel a lot, shoot a little and reload only once every couple of months, the Aguila brass was originally a very low proportion of my overall mix, maybe 1-2%.

Months later, after shooting a lot of ball a lot of Aguila brass had accumulated at the top of the brass bin -- and that's mostly what I reloaded for this test batch.

I think that explains the sudden increase in high primers.

So with this recognition in mind, I seperated all the Aguila reloads from the rest -- they constituted 50% of the test batch.

Now things were starting to make sense.

The last check was to look at the now empty brass from what I had fired last night. Sure enough, 11 of those 15 were in Aguila brass. I felt sure that explained the "more than 50% failure rate" I experienced.

Test Reloads Before Firing

Above are two of the reloads.

If you look carefully at the picture on the left -- in Aguila brass -- you can see white-space between the steel straight edge and the brass in the "high" primer round. But for the "normal" primer round on the right, there is no gap. (Sorry, I did not record if it was Aguila or not when making this picture.)

I'm satisfied with this explanation.

All the evidence fits.

What remains now is to do some final tests to confirm that it really is the Aguila brass that's causing the problem.

So I've set all of the Aguila reloads aside. More than half have abnormal looking or feeling primers. If fired, I should experience the classic high primer failure of needing multiple strikes to make them go "Bang!"

And of the remainder in non-Aguila brass, they all appear to have normal primer heights. They should fire on the first strike.

My next trip to the range will be Thursday.

If testing confirms that the Aguila brass is the culprit, then I'll go through my entire supply of brass and purge all of it.

Are we having fun yet?

Oh yeah, you bet'cha. I love debugging!

Stay tuned.

High Primers

2009-05-31T10:17:00.036-07:00

Four High Masters (not high primers)
John Zurek, Steve Reiter, Jim Henderson, Daryl Szarenski
Desert Midwinter, Phoenix AZ, February 2009
(Click for larger image)

Note

The cause of the high primers is apparently not dirty primer pockets which is what this article is about. Although they may be a contributing factor, after cleaning the primer pockets and testing the resulting ammunition, things got worse, not better.

Ultimately, the cause proved to be the Aguila brass I've been adding to my brass supply after shooting their ball ammunition. The final installment is in The Great Aguila Purge of 2009.

But having forewarned the reader, there is still some value in the following article so I leave it otherwise "as is."

Around the time of this year's Desert Midwinter competition, I started getting some high primers, perhaps two or three per hundred rounds.

When the hammer falls on a high primer, instead of going "bang," it just pushes the primer further into the shell.

"Click."

If you then manually cock the hammer and pull the trigger again, now that the primer is fully seated, it usually fires.

"Bang!"

There's no problem with this in Slow Fire other than the distraction from your shot plan.

(Well, to be honest, there is the distraction of the smile on the face of the shooter next to you who saw that little tell-tale "jerk" that sometimes sneaks in on a mis-fire.)

In Timed Fire, if you're paying attention and keep your mind focused, the mis-fire can be corrected by quickly cocking the hammer and firing without too much degradation of the shot.

But in Rapid Fire it's an alibi, and only if you haven't already used the alibi for that match. If you have, then it's a missed shot.

Zero points.

That hurts.

At two or three high primers per hundred rounds, there's a good chance that one will come up during Rapid Fire.

So with the air conditioner now installed and running in the reloading room, it's time to find, and fix, this problem.

There are two likely reasons for a high primer, both happen when reloading. First not pressing home on the handle when seating the primer will do it. Or secondly, dirt in the primer pocket will prevent a primer from seating to the bottom of the primer cup.

In either case, the first hammer fall pushes the cup the rest of the way in and the second hammer fall makes it go bang.

An occasional "short stroke" of my Dillon 650's handle can sneak through but the operator has to be daydreaming for this to happen.

I try to have an environment where this is unlikely. First, no radio or TV are allowed while reloading. Second, there's no clock in the room to distract my thoughts. Third, I have several safety gadgets on the 650 that keep my attention focused on the machine and what I'm doing.

In a nutshell, I do pay attention to what's going on and if I short-stroke the machine, I know it. Short strokes don't get past me. Instead, I immediately stop, survey the consequences and then take the appropriate steps to either complete the cycle, or to remove the partially assembled rounds and set them aside for later disassembly.

A short-stroke is probably not the culprit.

My brass, on the other hand, is of mixed age, mixed brand and mixed history. And I've been reloading it for a couple of years.

It is, therefore, suspect.

The largest category is from commercially manufactured 45 ACP including a lot of Winchester, purchased at WalMart when I was first starting, and more recently a fair amount of Aguila because I don't (yet) make my own ball ammo. The Winchester, in particular, has been cycling through my brass supply for several years and although I don't count reloads, a dozen round trips isn't an unreasonable guess. (When I find a piece of split brass, odds are it will have a Winchester head stamp.)

TZZ Brass

But those are just two of the brands. I also have quite a bit of TZZ that has been scavenged over the years when shooting next to military teams who don't want their used brass -- thank you! And a lot of Federal from when I practiced at the Scottsdale Gun Club (ah, air conditioning!) that was, again, scavenged from other shooters who didn't want it.

Then, there's the new brass I've purchased, much of it Starline -- great stuff -- and which gets extra attention in the process to make my highest quality of reloads with this highest quality brass.

Finally, my supply of ready-to-shoot ammunition is almost zero right now. Between my business travels and the unusually warm April and May, I've fallen behind on making ammunition. As a result, most of my supply of brass is empty shells.

So, it's a good time to clean the primer cups in all my 45 ACP brass.

The needed tool was all of about three bucks and looked simple to use. I planned to put it in the electric drill, fasten that down, set it to a low speed and do each piece one at a time.

"How hard could this be?" I asked, smug in the view that I'd be done in an hour or two.

My first discovery was that I have a fair amount of brass.

No doubt others have several times my 2500 piece count but, nonetheless, when you start processing them one at a time, that's a pretty big number.

My second discovery was that they all had old primers still in them and that, before I could clean the primer cup, I needed to de-prime all of them.

No, problem, I thought. I'll just run them through the 650 and let it do the work.

I put about 200 pieces in the brass hopper and started pulling the handle. The first station removed the primer and I then just let the shells make their way around through the other stations to the final bin. Cranking much faster than when reloading, I could do about one shell per second.

Okay, that's 2500 shells at one per second. Let's see, 60 pieces per minute that should be about 45 minutes, right?

Three hours and about 1900 pieces of deprimed brass later and even with the breaks that were getting longer and longer, my arm was tired. Very tired.

That's a lot of brass.

Broken 650 Ring Indexer

And that's when the ring indexer broke.

This part is beneath the platform and, as the platform comes down on the handle's upstroke, it advances the brass to the next position.

No ring indexer, no advance.

Fortunately, Dillon is just across town and, from time to time, I've walked in their front door, handed them a broken piece from my 650 and walked back out in less than five minutes with a new one, no charge, and been back home in an hour.

Except that it's now after 5:00PM on Saturday. Without checking, I'm sure they're closed.

Well, I can still clean the pockets on those 1900 de-primed pieces.

I put the cleaning tool into the drill's chuck and tightened it down, and then secured the drill in the padded jaws of the vice.

But the drill's lock sould only run the drill at full speed. (Damn. I bought the cheap drill!)

Hmmm, I mumbled, looking around the tool room.

Maybe a C clamp or ... ...

I settled for some stiff wire -- hmmm, this isn't real safe -- wrapped around the handle and holding the drill's trigger at the desired (slow) speed.

I'm starting to have second thoughts about continuing.

But how should I position the work? Dirty pockets to the left or right?

A quick experiment showed dirty to the left was best so I could pick up a dirty piece with my left hand while cleaning one with my right. Once cleaned, I'd pitch the clean piece with my right hand into the clean bucket, transfer the next dirty one, left hand to right hand, and continue the process.

Inspecting the result, I see that some primer cups still have carbon around the outer edge which is where the new primer needs to seat. That buildup is specifically what I'm after so, a few experiments later, I see I need to maneuver the brass around so the primer pocket cleaning tool scours the outer edge. Only then does the cleaning work like I think it should.

And 400 shells later, I see this is taking 4-5 seconds per shell. For the available 1900, that's ... uhm ... maybe two and a half hours with breaks?

Gotta fit in some dinner this evening, too.

Careful!

At last, my better judgement catches up.

I remind myself that I'm now standing very close to a rotating piece of machinery with something hard and sharp on the end.

And I'm tired.

And a little frustrated as well.

"Stop!"

I tell myself, "I can finish cleaning the rest of the deprimed brass tomorrow morning."

I remove the wire holding down the drill's trigger and throw it in the trash.

"I'll find something better -- and safer -- for this tomororow."

"And the rest of the brass will wait until I get the part at Dillon on Monday. Or maybe Tuesday. Or maybe I'll just call and have them mail it across town."

"And then after all that, I can start reloading again and see if cleaning the primer pockets really solves this high primer problem or not."

Phew! Buying finished ammunition at Walmart sure was simpler.

Addendum

Dillon 650 Partially Disassembled
Broken Ring Indexer Removed

Many months ago, the two bolts holding the platform to the main piston had worked themselves loose. Dillon gave me the alignment tool and instructions to use before tightening them up again.

When I put in a new ring indexer, I'll need to repeat that process. So this morning I went searching in the "spare reloader parts" junk box for that tool.

And right next to the alignment tool was a "Spare 650 Parts" baggie, original and unopened from Dillon, and therein was a new ring indexer.

Hooray!

So today after lunch, I will put in the new part, align and then bolt down everything according to Dillon's excellent instructions. That will put the 650 back into operation and, with that, I should be able to deprime the last of the 45 ACP brass and finish cleaning the primer pockets.

I like finishing a job and that "Spare 650 Parts" baggie from Dillon is going to make that happen today.

Thanks, Dillon. You guys think of everything!

A Couple of Hours Later

The Results
(Click to enlarge)

Done.

The 650 has been re-assembled with the new part and everything has been adjusted to specification;
All remaining brass has been de-primed; and
The primer pockets in all my empty brass have been cleaned.

I have 12 quart-size yogurt tubs each with approximately 200 pieces of deprimed and primer pocket-cleaned brass ready to go.

The next step will be to reload that brass and see if the cleaning has solved the high primers problem.

But that's enough for today.

Right now I'm thinkin' Stella Artois.

Probably two.

Note

The cause of the high primers is apparently not dirty primer pockets which is what this article is about. Although they may be a contributing factor, after cleaning the primer pockets and testing the resulting ammunition, things got worse, not better.

At the moment, the chase for the source of this problem is still in progress.

Having warned the reader, there is still some value in the following article so I leave it "as is" but with this note attached.

Ed Skinner, 3 June 2009

Debt

2009-05-25T07:35:00.022-07:00

Crew of Nemo

I am bankrupt.

I can never repay the debt.

What these men -- and women -- sacrificed is beyond my ability to restore to them. Indeed, it is without any doubt beyond my ability to comprehend what they gave up, what they lost, what was taken from them, and what they gave.

My wife's father is lower-left in this picture. He manned a waist gun in "Nemo", a bomber in the European Theatre during World War II.

Cotton, as he was called for his blond hair and complexion, gave up his young life. It could have been high above Germany. It could have been during a hopeless landing attempt at some English-countryside field. Or it could have been in a shelter during a bomb attack at his airfield.

Perhaps it is ironic that it was actually a diving accident while on leave back in the States.

But, does it matter?

Cotton was there at the lake trying to live in a few small days the joy and freedom he'd lost in so many ways. Temporarily returned for a brief release to the sane world of automobiles, Sunday school, weekends and, in comparison, a carefree life, we can only imagine the reckless, desperate release he felt, and that he tried to live.

Cotton's life was sacrificed for us. It doesn't matter whether it was at 15,000 feet over Germany struck by a piece of shrapnel or because he struck an underwater stump when diving a mere five feet into a lake.

So I try to remember on this Memorial Day those whose lives were lost as a direct consequence of the many wars, "police actions," or simply from manning the lines, and not just from enemy-inflicted physical injuries, but also from "shell shock" or from the escape from what they endured into alcohol, or from the decades of life spent in wheel chairs, veteran's hospitals, or in a back bedroom supported by a family who struggled to fulfill their needs, or whose future days hold little more hope than for a cardboard bed beneath some underpass.

Their lives, not just those of the dead, were sacrificed for us.

They gave up their futures, their chances for lives like those we now live but for which we, by comparison, have practically no basis for appreciating.

In my ancestry and in my wife's ancestry are those who obeyed the call, and who lost their lives in degrees from partial, to devestating, to complete.

Citizens of the United States of America
Adriana, Gosia, presiding Judge

My daughter-in-law recently became a US citizen. Her father and I are the grandfathers of Adriana seen in this picture.

Mietek came to this country, alone, a couple of decades ago from Poland, exiled for standing up to the Communists. And only after many more years had passed -- after the fall of Communism -- were his wife and daughter able to follow, to come to this country.

Here, his daughter met and eventually married my son and, through them, our lives are now joined in this grandchild and in our citizenship. And I am honored to be a part of their family, a family that knows other circumstances but chose this country for their home, this country for their future, and this country for the future of our grandchild.

Mietek and I are amazed whenever we hear our grandaughter effortlessly switch between Polish and English, sometimes in mid-sentence, as her attention shifts between us. Adriana does this because she knows we understand best in two different languages. But it is also true that he and I bear similar unpayable debts to those who fought, sacrificed and died so we can enjoy this day, this family, this life and, most preciously, these freedoms.

Our debt is so profound, so far beyond the words "Thank you," that I can only ...

[Silence.]

Reloading Room

2009-05-24T21:23:00.005-07:00

Reloading Table
(Click to enlarge)

The newest addition is that air conditioner in the upper-left corner. With daily temperatures already over 100 in late May, it's what you may acknowledge as a necessity here in Phoenix Arizona.

Some other features you may notice will include the "L" brackets holding the brass feeder on the top of the Dillon 650 and clamping it to the wall, two walls to be precise. For whatever reason, when I would get cranking at a regular pace, the "tower" would start to wobble and eventually feed a piece of brass upside down. Depriming an upside down shell doesn't work. Indeed, it jams up the works pretty good. But with the head now glued to the wall as you see it, that no longer happens.

Even so, the table is bolted to the rear and side walls. The table top consists of a sheet of 1" particle board with a sheet of 3/4" plywood glued and screwed to its top. Just exactly how that 650 gets to rockin' with all that is beyond me but, well, there it is.

Looking at the 650, you'll see all the bells and whistles from Dillon. I particularly like the powder checker but, in my paranoia, you can also see the side of the red battery tube that is hose clamped to the frame and the black "snake" coming from its end that carries the wires to the white LED that is aimed down so I can look inside each shell before setting the bullet on top. Yeah, I look at how much powder is in every shell, and Dillon "feels" for it too. And so far, no squibs. (Knock on wood.)

The mechanical balance on the table is the backup and double-check for the RCBS digital scale on the shelf. RCBS equipment is green, in case you didn't know, so that should help you spot it. Two tiny boxes just to the right of the digital scale are the check weights. Paranoia again. I turn the scale on 30 minutes before loading to let it reach a stable temperature. I then press its "Zero" button and then drop in the two tiny 2.0 grain weights. The scale should read 4.0 grains. (My wad load is 3.8 grains of Hodgdon's Clays; I check the scale as close to that as the check weights allow.) If the scale disagrees with the check weights, then I would have to stop and figure out what's wrong. That's where the mechanical balance would come into play. But so far, it hasn't been needed.

But with the new air conditioner, the timing of all this will have to change.

The reloading room is part of the garage and it's on the west side of the house where the concrete block construction soaks up the infrared all afternoon. When the sun goes down, all that infrared re-radiating into the garage and reloading room will push the interior temperature 10 degrees above the high at the airport.

The record high in Phoenix is 118. Add 10 and you'll understand why I haven't done much reloading over the past several summers.

And when I did reload, I've noticed that I had to adjust the powder drop with the season to get those same 3.8 grains of Clays. Without doing so, summer loads would have been about 0.2 grains lighter. I presume this is because the size of that cavity in the Dillon powder drop was changing size with the temperature. Whether it is the cavity adjustment screw (of UniqueTek.com's Micrometer Powder Bar Kit) getting longer in the heat or the cavity itself getting smaller as the metal sides adjust to the temperature, I couldn't say. I just know it changed about 0.2 grains with a temperature change of 50 degrees or so.

But now, my new plan is to start the air conditioner an hour ahead and go back inside, possibly for dinner with a recorded NCIS episode. Half way through the show, I'll pause it to run back out and turn on the RCBS digital scale.

With the air conditioner, I'm looking for that to be less of an issue. If it's not, I'll have to do some more sleuthing.

The black box on the tabletop to the left of the mechanical scale is the digital caliper. I keep two spare batteries in the box so I'm never denied its truth-telling. I've thought of getting a purely mechanical caliper as a double-check but, well, I've had no reason to suspect the caliper of any funny business. Not yet, anyway.

The rest of the stuff is typical for home shops and reloading rooms.

Oh yeah, you can see the spare license plate for the car hanging on the wall to the upper left. It's one of those geeky obscure codes and if you know what it means, then you're a significant as well as an "old time" geek yourself.

Under Table Storage

Beneath the table are my three buckets of brass, all 45 ACP. The left-most reads, "Clean 45 ACP (Needs Martindale)", which refers to the Martindale gauge through which I hand-pass each and every piece of brass before I reload it.

Well, there's one exception to that rule. I've been shooting some Aguila in my ball gun and that always comes to the reloader a bit fat. It won't go through the Martindale gauge in that once-fired condition. But after resizing, reloading with the lighter wad loads and firing, it passes. It seems to be reasonably good brass so I make an exception for it. But only for that one brand, and only after the first firing. Anything that fails the Martindale gauge after that is tossed.

The use of the middle bucket should now be obvious from its label, "Once Fired."

The right-most bucket is for dirty brass but I try to keep it empty. That is, the day after a match, I clean brass. It then goes into the "Clean 45 ACP" bucket to await the Martindale gauge. And after passing the gauge, the cleaned and gauged brass is stored in empty 1 qt yogurt containers -- they hold about 200 pieces each and are the right quantity to dump into the shell feeder on the top of the Dillon without jamming it up. Those containers full of ready-to-load brass are stored out in the garage in a cabinet with other supplies.

More recently, I've suffered a spate of high primers, perhaps as many as 1 per 100. I shoot and reload the same brass a lot and someone suggested that after a half dozen firings, the primer pockets may accumulate enough crud to prevent the primers from seating correctly. So today I bought a primer pocket reamer and will spend a couple of hours going through everything. [Boring!]

On top of the middle bucket you can see a plastic jar labelled, "Bucket O' Primers." There's about an inch of water in the jar and damaged primers go in there. In a different posting here on this blog, you can read of my researches into deactivating primers but, in a nut shell and depending on who you ask, water will do it, but only until the material dries out again, or oil will do it, or won't, or it just can't be done. These reports are from the companies that make them! My "final answer" came from a Phoenix Police officer who said he soaks them in water until trash day, puts them in the trash wet and hopes they make it to the city dump before reactivating.

Interesting.

The baggie you see to the right contains 38 Special brass. Only my snubbie shoots that caliber and I don't (yet) reload for it. Someday I'll have a nice K-38 for Bullseye and will need that brass but, for now, I'm just collecting.

Work Table

Here's the final part of the area. This is where I clean guns, fix lamps, break small irreplaceable plastic parts and so forth.

On the extreme left you can just barely see the Lyman single-stage press I occasionally use, mostly to shrink that once-fired Aguilla brass. The press is attached to the board you see and the near end is held to the table with that large, rusty "C" clamp. The far end is held down by a screw through the board and into the work table below.

You can see a couple of bottles of Dillon's purplish brass polish on the shelf but most of the other items are standard fare for anyone's home workshop that's been accumulating tools, bolts and odd parts for a couple of decades.

Off to the left is storage with most of the items being put there years ago and forgotten. Worse, of course, is the storage shed in the backyard. We haven't seen the boxes in its deepest parts for more than a decade. And then there are the items stored in the attic above the garage we put in there when the roof was off but can't get to now. We don't have even the faintest of clues about what's up there.

But that's another story.

Keep 'em in the black, ya'll!

NRA Annual Convention, Phoenix

2009-05-16T06:54:00.016-07:00

Good morning!

The wife is still on the fence about going downtown today. Yeah, it's gonna be hot but the light rail is supposed to be punctual so we'll sit in the car until it's almost time for it to pick us up at the park 'n ride lot near Christown Mall. Then, it's $2.50 each for the round trip (day pass same as two rides) to the stop right next to the Convention Center downtown. I have the maps and the schedule right here.

Her admission to the convention will be $10.00 but, for me, as an NRA member I get in free. I remind her to look at it as entertainment. (Update: She gets in free based on my membership!)

"Where else will you be able to see such an intense concentration of Libertarians with a few Republicans thrown in for seasoning?"

And I mention that today's free "Refuse to be a Victim" session is at 1:00PM. I'd like us both to attend that. And the "Methods of Concealed Carry" at 2:00PM just down the hall also looks interesting but probably not for her. (She could use that time to check out the convention floor and find a set of grips for her as yet unknown carry that'll match her mood -- that's how she packs for trips, by the way. "I have to take all this because I don't know what I'm going to feel like wearing each day." Okay, maybe a couple of sets of grips -- to match her mood of the day.)

I'll be stopping by booth #2406, Eagle Grips, to look at their ESS3s for my S&W 36 snubby that I'll have in my pocket -- my AZ Concealed Weapon Permit will be in my wallet just behind my driver's license.

And I'll be watch for Paul Huebl whose http://www.crimefilenews.com/ blog is one of my regular morning reads -- Paul's supposed to be wandering around the convention, perhaps today. It'd be a pleasure to shake his hand.

But time's a wast'in. I need to cut the grass before the temperature hits 90 and then get showered and ready to go to the convention.

Phoenix Light Rail and Star Gate Transfer Station
(click for larger image)

... Later

A lot of firsts today!

First ride on the taxpayer-subsidized light rail.
First NRA Convention I've attended.
First time I knew Phoenix has a Star Gate (see to the right above).
First time the wife went to anything gun related. (Well, that's not 100% accurate -- she did go to the range with me once years ago but she read a book while I took a lesson from Coach Pat, God rest his soul.)
First time we've seen the new Convention Center -- and, Wow, it is nice!
First time my NRA membership card got me anything free -- not that I'm complaining, just observing -- and the wife got in free because she was with me. Not bad.

But it was crowded, very crowded.

The newspaper said they were expecting the largest crowd that's ever attended an event at the Phoenix Convention Center and, judging from the registration line, the hamburger line, and the line at the air rifle range, yeah, they probably did just that.

Yours truly and Paul Huebl

The one booth I wanted to find was that of Eagle Grips. The floor plan had them in #2406, a relatively small space not far from one of the entrances.

But as luck would have it, I was holding the floor plan upside down so we walked half way across the arena before checking a few landmarks and re-orienting the map. We'd walked unseeing almost directly past it.

As we returned, I spotted it from twenty yards when I saw Paul Huebl's toothy grin.

Meeting Paul was one of the reasons I had come to the show and, as if by magic, he was in the only booth on my shopping list. (I should add he'd put me on to these grips in the first place so maybe his familiarity with their product and his being in their booth wasn't quite so miraculous.)

Walking up, I introduced myself and we shook hands. I introduced the wife, talked about blogging, my wife's smile started to sag, we talked about grips for snubbys, my wife started to look around ...

So we quickly drafted her to take pictures of Paul and myself with both his and my cameras. And after two exposures on each, Paul got busy with other readers of his blog and we moved on.

One of the bigger lines was for Ted Nugent.

Well, I thought to myself, with such a great first meeting with Paul, let's go shake hands or something with Ted Nugent.

Ted Nugent

"There, did you see him look up in our direction, dear?"

Waving, "Thanks, Ted!"

Man, what a great pal.

Uhm, what should we do now?

"I'm tired," my wife said. "How about if I sit over there in that chair and you go see the exhibits for a while?"

God doesn't make 'em better than the one that married me.

So I wandered the floor for a while. I bought tickets for a couple of different raffles, listened to salesmen hawk their wares and shove brochures into my hands that later went into the recycle bins, dropped the hammers on a couple of S&W revolvers, asked the young lady in cowboy clothing why the Ruger factory in Prescott AZ doesn't give free samples when someone just stops by to see what they're working on today ... but all I got back was a smile.

Still, it was a nice smile.

NRA Store

On the way back to where my wife had been patiently waiting -- I kept my perambulations to 30 minutes, I'd like you to know -- I took a quick turn through the NRA Store.

They had some new items I hadn't seen a few months earlier when I visited their museum in the Washington DC area but, somewhat expectedly, the prices again seemed just a tad high.

Mind you, I don't mind supporting the NRA. I like what they're doing.

And on my Washington DC visit, I did buy an NRA baseball cap -- Made in China -- and also an NRA emblazoned wind breaker -- Made in Vietnam.

But I normally prefer to be a little more direct in my gift giving and not muddy the waters of "value" by paying more for something than I felt it was worth.

So I looked but bought nothing and headed out to where I'd left my wife sitting in a very comfortable looking chair.

Walking up I asked, "Ready to go?"

We reached home an hour later and we were both drained from the walking and the heat. The weatherman says it was 102 at the airport but downtown at the convention center with those tall mirror-like buildings and big expanses of concrete and asphalt, it surely was another 5-10 degrees hotter.

Dinner was take-out chinese washed down with several glasses of water.

Hours later, sitting in the dark with only the glow of the 52" LCD TV and a taped episode of NCIS, we were starting to feel mostly recovered.

But I'm goin' back tomorrow. There's more to see.

The wife will, undoubtedly, stay home in the cool house but, oh yeah, I'm goin'.

It's huge and really nice, and so very, very different from the junky, dirty gun shows. There's carpet on the floor, good air conditioning, clean rest rooms, new guns and equipment in expensive displays.

Besides, I need some newer catalogs.

I need one from Brownells, Champion's Choice, Midway, Cheaper Than Dirt, IMMR, Hodgdon's, Springfield Armory and, of course, Smith & Wesson. I could also pick up some brochures on black powder long rifles, shot guns and high power rifles, and maybe one or two on smallbore. I saw the Clark booth and, at the other end, the one for Kimber. (I wonder if Dave Salyer or Ed Masaki are here?) And there was that one really interesting display of Kentucky long rifles over on collectors row. I wonder what it feels like to heft one of those into position?

Yeah, I gotta go back.

So many guns, so little time.

First Place!

2009-04-29T17:33:00.011-07:00

Tiramisu

Win some, lose some.

I've done my share of the latter shooting against some of the best in the country. Indeed, in the beginning I would go home after the Tuesday evening match at the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club and "brag" that I came in sixth, but conveniently leave out the fact that there were only six shooters.

But an email arrived today that changed all that.

While it's true that practice makes perfect, it is usually only by a series of very small increments and improvements that can be difficult to see. But, then again, sometimes it all comes together when it counts.

As an example of the ups and downs that make the slope of the line of improvements hard to see, in the Desert Midwinter competition in Phoenix this past February I shot slightly worse than average in the hardball 900 on the first day of the competition. Then in the 22 event that followed on the next day, I shot an above average score. But the next day was below average in CF, and then on the last day I was again above average with the 45.

Back and forth. Some good targets, some not so good.

But, with all that shooting over those four days, I guess it all came together for the EIC leg match because although I didn't win any leg points -- I came in eighth while only the top three were awarded points -- I did shoot very well, exceptionally well I could say. It was decidedly my best ever ball gun score, 252-4.

I was absolutely thrilled and had to re-add the scores several times before I could believe it. (Some really good "white box" ammunition, a gift from John Zurek, played a big part, too. Thank you, John!)

I smiled for days before the thrill faded completely away.

And now, more than two months later, things have returned to normal. I've shot a couple of matches in Phoenix, another outside of Atlanta, and am looking forward to Tuesday night's league in Phoenix and seeing everyone again.

Then today, via email from the CMP, the Civilian Marksmanship Program, the icing for that semi-forgotten cake arrived.

No, they didn't recompute and award me leg points. I didn't shoot that well.

But they did calculate the "Handicap" match which basically ranks shooters on their improvement over past few EIC Leg Matches.

And, of the 30 shooters in that match in Phoenix, I took First Place; that is, I was the single most improved shooter in that competition!

Complete results of the EIC Handicap match for the Desert Midwinter event are available at http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_eventAward.cgi?matchID=4425&eventID=1&awardID=3.

And the results of all EIC matches for Desert Midwinter, handicap or otherwise, are available at http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=4425.

To celebrate, and since I'm on a business trip in Cambridge MA this week, I took the MBTA (as in "Charley and the MTA") to the Haymarket station and walked into the North End, chose a restaurant at random, and treated myself to a fabulous dinner with a glass of a very nice Italian Pino Grigio, shrimp risotto with asparagus, tiramisu and, of course, a cup of wonderfully bitter espresso.

Life is good.

Ciao, baby!

River Bend Redux

2009-04-21T15:26:00.010-07:00

River Bend Gun Club

Lamar Hunt

Art Rozier

John Hughes

Jim Good, Meet Director

Steve Dedier

This was my second visit to the River Bend Gun Club a little bit north of Atlanta.

On my first trip almost a year ago, I had been working in Atlanta and stayed through on the following weekend to shoot the club's 2700. I had a great time at the well run competition and looked forward to renewing my previous acquaintances as well as shooting the 2700.

This time my work had me in Huntsville Alabama for two consecutive weeks with a 2700 at the club on the sandwiched Sunday. Driving time from Huntsville was expected to be three to five hours depending on how much scenery I wanted to take in. I had all day Saturday to get there so I took the scenic and relaxed drive down back roads through the Great Smokey mountains. With all the trees budding their spring growth, it was spectacular.

I spent Saturday night at a Best Western in Canton GA -- and will not stay there again. It was a warm evening and the air conditioner in the room was utterly useless. There is a Hampton Inn under construction next door so, next time, I'll stay there.

First shot was scheduled for 10:00AM on Sunday. I planned to arrive at the range plenty early "just in case" and, boy, was that a good idea!

At 8:15AM, I left the hotel for what I expected to be a 45 minute drive. I punched up "River Bend" in the GPS and, to my delight, the gun club was listed. Wonderful!

Or so I thought.

Forty five minutes later I was at the end of a backwoods country road dead end. The GPS announced, "Arriving at destination," but the gun club was nowhere in sight. I'd been there a year ago but this was decidedly not the right place.

Hmmmm.

I pulled out the map from the club's website and found a nearby intersection and punched that into the GPS: Shiloh Church and Yellow Creek roads near Ophir Georgia.

The GPS said it would be a 30 minute drive.

Ouch!

I'd still be early but only by 10-15 minutes.

But I did say the countryside was pretty, didn't I? At least I got to enjoy more scenery as I followed the GPS back down the same wrong roads I'd just driven.

Arriving at the club, I found a small group at the pistol range. Jim Good was expecting me -- I had emailed him a couple of weeks earlier that I was going to be there -- and as I pulled up to the range, he smiled and waved.

I removed my travel gun box and travel ammo box from the rental car's trunk and headed up to the line.

Counting myself there would be five shooters plus the meet director. The weather was threatening rain and a thunderstorm which probably accounted for the small turnout.

But I was prepared with my plastic baggies for scoring pad and each gun. Indeed, I was looking forward to the rain as a good test of my preparations -- the only way to be sure you've got everything in hand for some contingency is to actually go through it.

The matches went relatively quick but with the 50 and 25 yard walks back and forth, we didn't finish that fast. It was a fairly normal pace. We took a typical break between 22 and Center Fire, a lunch break before 45 and then finished about 2:30PM.

Jim Good, meet director, had the scores entered, ranked and printed after each gun but with such a small group there wasn't a lot of competitiveness. Instead, everyone was just enjoying the day. And it never really rained more than a few drips -- I think we used umbrellas once but then ignored the scant drips the rest of the time. My gun and score pad baggies worked as intended so I passed my personal "rain test".

I left for the drive back to Huntsville about 3:00PM and took the quick route, up to Chattanooga and then back down into Alabama. The GPS said I'd be there in three hours.

But the GPS didn't know about the torrential rains and near tornado conditions I'd encounter on I-24 and US 72.

Fortunately, the traffic was light that Sunday evening and although an hour later than expected, I made it back to Huntsville without incident.

Work resumed the next morning.

Now that's a nice weekend.

Thanks, guys!

Potential

2009-04-07T16:48:00.002-07:00

Tony has a provocative idea. In his Harmonic Functions on Manifolds blog, he suggests pulling out your best scores from the record book -- you all write down your scores, don't you? -- and tally them up to discover your true potential.

Well, although my official outdoor ranking is Sharpshooter, it is worth noting that I typically shoot Expert scores with the 22 and sub-Sharpshooter scores with the 45. So, on average, that results in my current ranking.

Following Tony's exercise over the last dozen matches, here are my "best" scores on those two guns.

	22	45
Best SF Match	177-3	172-5
Best NMC Match	281-8	279-9
Best TF Match	193-8	194-9
Best RF Match	193-5	189-5
Agg. of above	844-24	834-28
Percent of 900	93.7%	92.7%

Well, that's an eye-opener!

If I "fired my potential", I'd be at the mid-point of Expert class on both guns, not just the 22.

Immediately it's clear that my problem with the 45 must be consistency. Although I can (and have, as seen above) shoot Expert class scores with that gun, I have a lot of trouble performing at that level for any period of time.

And I'm going to guess that my problem with that particular firearm is fatigue. The 1911 demands a much stronger grip and the heavier trigger, only 0.5 pounds but, my, what a difference that makes.

Yes, I can shoot Expert-class scores with it but doing so consistently, well, that's the challenge.

But now that I see that I can do it, it becomes a question of re-applying myself to each shot.

One shot at a time.

Thanks, Tony!

Spotting Holes

2009-03-04T16:09:00.003-07:00

22 Slow Fire

I can see two, maybe three camps of thought on what a spotting scope is for but first I'll point out that we all probably agree it's a good tool for getting your sights lined up. But once that's accomplished, the divergence of opinion begins.

Specifically, once your sights are lined up, do you still need a spotting scope?

The three camps of thought I have in mind diverge when you call your shot but it lands elsewhere. The scope is where you'll see that this has happened, and it's this recognition that takes the next step where things begin to diverge.

In other words, once you see that you've messed up, now what?

One camp would say you obviously didn't follow your shot plan. That is, the shooter's shot plan is developed to the point where, if followed, the shot always goes to the right place. Hence, the value of the spotting scope to those in this camp is as a tell-tale. It says that the shooter is not mentally focused and following his/her shot plan. The banner slogan in this camp might be, "All Hail the Mighty Shot Plan!"

Just down the road is the second camp. When the scope reveals that a shot landed somewhere different than the call, occupants of this camp would say that the shooter did something wrong and -- here's the difference -- now's the time to analyze and correct. In this camp, the shot plan isn't yet bullet-proof (sorry, couldn't resist). It is still being developed. In this camp, every shot remains an opportunity for a learning experience and the spotting scope is the tool that tells the shooter, "Oh boy, look at this. There's something to learn here!"

The third camp -- I hosted some beginner-relatives at the range a while back and they come to mind -- is the group where, after each shot they would look in the scope, were generally mystified (and annoyed) at the results but, on rare occasion, they would suddenly shout, "Bullseye!" For them, the spotting scope was a source of entertainment.

They grin at the mysterious bullseye and say, "Hey, I'm gettin' pretty good!"

And then resume blasting away at the berm and the target frame.

As we ascend the Bullseye ladder, we experience all three camps, some longer than others. And over a long competition, I sometimes find that my tent has been moved because although I'd like to say my shot plan is perfect, in reality it's still a work in progress.

I kidded John Zurek one evening about his targets all being so boring with all those Xs and 10s.

"Don't you get bored?" I asked only half in jest.

He just smiled.

Is bored is a good thing?

Day 4 of 4, 45 Caliber and Leg Match

2009-02-15T06:14:00.026-07:00

Before

Little things:

John occasionally brings sweets -- donuts, cupcakes, etc. -- but won't touch them himself until the match is over;
Younger shooters (that's younger than 50 or so) are more passionate in their frustration and can become borderline reckless if their handguns jam more than once -- keep an eye on them;
Renold usually has a tune going in his head as do I and, passing close to each other on the way out to the targets or back, we hum aloud to compare notes, but adopting his tune doesn't help me shoot as well as he does;
Most of the High Masters have a lot of upper-body strength, often from childhood, but there are significant exceptions so it's not a requirement for that level of performance, just a help;
Couldn't see a double on someone's otherwise excellent target one day, scored it as a miss, didn't change my story when the shooter pointed out a slightly elongated hole, he challenged it (for a buck), the jury agreed with him, then I re-scored it but possibly gave him too much thereby apparently compounding my faults -- like a shot in the five ring, "it happens," and all you can do is move on;
The conscious mind can only think one thought at a time but Bullseye requires a skilled coordination of observations and actions -- it can be a long road for those who insist on "figuring it out" because that path forces no more than one step at a time;
I feel an odd tension around Bill -- we're too much alike, perhaps, even though we appear to be quite different;
Bob will move up and out of Sharpshooter land after today -- good, because he's shooting Master-level scores which sure knocked me out of the run for one of those new pistols, the prizes for this competition;
I'll need 90+alibi rounds of wad for the 45 competition today, plus 30+alibi of ball for Service Pistol team and another 30+alibi of ball for the Leg Match;
I lightly cleaned the wad gun last night so it's ready; and
Yes, my shoulder and grip are both tired but no more so than yesterday or the day before -- I'm ready.

Let today's matches begin!

After

I won't have the complete scores for a day or two but, at this point, I know how I did, and it was "extremely well" on this last day.

Here are my scores across all four days of this annual event:

Service Pistol	681-9	75.7%
22 Caliber	823-15	91.4%
Center Fire	773-12	85.8%
45 Caliber	811-17	90.1%
2700 Aggregate	2407-44	89.1%
3600 Aggregate	3088-53	85.7%
22 Team	unk.	unk.
CF Team	264-2	88.0%
45 Team	275-8	91.7%
Service Pistol Team	220-1	73.3%
EIC Leg Match	252-4	84.0%
Everything	4099-68 *	85.4% *

* will increase slightly with 22 Team score

After four days of shooting a 900 plus one or two NMCs in each day, my technique has settled down considerably.

Significantly, in both of those final NMCs, I think my performance was just about the same but for the Leg Match, I had changed to some ammunition given to me many, many months ago by John Zurek. This change seems to show the gift ammunition flying substantially better than what I had used just moments before.

About this gift ammo John Zurek had said, "Save this for a Leg Match. It's really good stuff."

And I've had it sitting in the supply cabinet for, what, maybe a year now? A while back, I tested a scant 10 rounds in the Ransom Rest and they printed within a 1.5" circle at 50 yards. Oh yeah, that's good stuff!

So today, I used another 30 of those rounds for the Leg Match.

As I released each shot, I called it and then looked in the scope. The truth of John's words looked back at me because practically every shot was on call. And while it's true I still messed up a couple of them, when the Leg Match was done I had a very respectable score.

With that, I also learned that the ball ammunition I had been using in the Service Pistol matches, both individual and team competitions, simply did not get along with my ball gun. At least some of the blame for the dismal Service Pistol scores goes to the ammunition / gun mix. They just don't get along.

I have ten rounds of the "good stuff" left and I'll have to figure out what to do with them. Certainly I'll be measuring them with calipers every possible way I can think of. And ultimately, they'll probably get fired from the Ransom Rest again but this time with a chrony in front and then a virgin target way out at 50 yards. Whatever I get from all that will be both my starting point and my goal in developing a ball load.

Yes, there's a lot to be done.

But looking back at the last four days, it's been absolutely wonderful.

I shot some really good targets in a major competition with 60+ shooters.
I renewed acquaintances with shooters from California and Colorado, and made new friends with others from as far away as New York state.
From the preliminary numbers, it would appear I placed very well within the Sharpshooter ranks -- I think I came in second in that (my) classification.
I had quite a few very good trigger releases and have a very good idea what that should feel like, and a very good idea of how to make it happen more often than not. In other words, my "shot plan" has received some careful honing and is working substantially better than before.
I learned that I need to develop, not buy, a ball load that flies well from my ball gun. (The "White Box" ammunition John Zurek gave me as a gift is over twenty years old and is no longer being made. I have only those ten precious rounds left from which to begin my efforts.)
I had a really fantastic time!

Here are today's pictures. (Click for bigger versions.)

John Zurek Visits Don Plante's Tailgate Store

Corps Camraderie

Marines

Fresh Target

Jeannie Verifies Her Score

Jams Didn't Fluster This Marine

On To The Next Target

Meeting of the Minds

Enjoying the Day

Move 'Em In

Renold Schilke
Scores a Target

Parent Spectators

Spouse Spectators

Ron Scores a Target

Quick Repair

View from the Tower

On Break

Day 3 of 4, Center Fire

2009-02-14T04:45:00.014-07:00

Before

Today and tomorrow are the days in which my concentration -- and repetition -- need to be at their best. I will do the same things as yesterday but with a more challenging gun.

Today we shoot the individual Center Fire matches in the morning, and then the team Center Fire and team 45 matches after lunch.

Many shooters use the same gun for Center Fire and 45 for economic reasons. I'm no exception. My wad gun started life as a Springfield Armory Mil-Spec but has then been "matured" with a carefully fitted Kart competition barrel, trigger job, slide to rail adjustments and a red dot sight. The resulting race horse shoots extremely well when fed and handled correctly and, especially for the latter, that's today's challenge.

My ball gun will go along for the ride today for two reasons. First, it's my backup in case the wadder becomes disabled in some way. Secondly, the trigger has to be weighed and, if it passes, the gun tagged before the EIC Leg Match tomorrow. The Marine gunsmith who makes that determination is available today (and tomorrow).

Yesterday in the 22 matches I succeeded in finding the precise finger placement that resulted in neither a left nor right "flick" of the barrel when the hammer was released from the sear. Simultaneously, I had many successes in maintaining a solid but unbiasing and unchanging grip so that, again, as the hammer was released from the sear, my grip was still pressing squarely with no rotating pressure that would have "flicked" the barrel left or right, nor up and down for that matter.

In addition, well after I had assumed my 90 degree stance and brought the pistol up and then settled down into the aiming area and took up the slack on the trigger, I then focused my attention on the dot, started the trigger and then patiently "watched" the wobble and, when it lessened as it always does and the dot was deep in the aiming area, the shot broke and I mentally noted the dot's "o'clock" position on the target but immediately returned the dot to the center of the aiming area and held for several more seconds. I then lowered the gun and verified through the spotting scope the new hole in the target where I had placed the shot. And on the few occasions where it was not where I'd called it, I analyzed what I had done wrong -- finger too deep into the trigger pushing the hole left, rushed the shot to "get it over with" rather than simply observing the process as it developed before my eye, etc. -- and re-rehearsed my shot plan so I'd return to it on the next shot.

Today and tomorrow, I simply have to do that again, and again, and again.

The shorter barrel of the wad gun (5 inch) as compared to my 22 (S&W Model 41 with the 7 inch barrel) means that those "flicks" will be all the more sensitive to my attentions today.

I will, therefore, need to be most diligent in my concentrations.

Today's mantra, since my body follows this shot process almost completely without conscious guidance, will simply be

Ohhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... [Bang!]

After

I was wrong.

The number one lesson in Bullseye is pressuring or moving your trigger finger straight to the rear ... and not changing your grip pressure while doing so.

I broke that rule big time today and paid the price.

My Slow Fire scores were 80-0 (started good, went downhill), then 64-0 (hideous) and 67-0 with that three point rise due to finally, on the last shot, figuring out how to move only my trigger finger to break the shot.

But, well, the good news is that I did eventually figure it out. Every target from there on, the Timed and Rapid Fire targets in the NMC and their own matches, were all in the 90s including a 97-3 in Rapid Fire.

So, by the time the Center Fire segment was over, I was ready to shoot Slow Fire -- Oops, too late!

I finished with 773-12, well shy of the 810 mark that would bump me up into Expert category I've been eyeing on the horizon. And it is unlikely I'll recover enough points tomorrow to bring my average up to that level for the 2700.

And to be honest, with the "oops" that butchered most of this morning's Slow Fire targets, it seems clear this Sharpshooter still has a lot to learn.

But it wasn't too late for some measure of redemption because after lunch we shot team Center Fire and team 45 NMCs. With the trigger issue figured out, I was ready and since my scores could make or break those of the team, the pressure was on.

In the Center Fire team, one round of my ammo wasn't up to snuff; it was the fifth round in the first string and it failed to fire, probably with a high primer -- I've been getting one of those about every 200 rounds. In the alibi, I only partially regained my concentration and ended up trading my initial three tens and an X for four eights. That brought my score down eight points on that target!

But regardless of that, I was pleased because the Slow Fire targets in both team competitions placed me in good stead with my teammates. I had done my part fine.

Toward the team total in Center Fire, I contributed 264-2.

And for the team in 45, I added a couple to those lost eight and ended with 275-8.

As before, here are some pictures from today. (Click them for larger images.)

Squadding Chart

Another Day

Lots of Stuff

Tony "Stat Man" Silva

John Zurek, Jim Henderson, Adam Sokolowski
(Left to Right)

Art Pimentel Watches an Alibi
(I shot with Art at the Sunnyvale Club)

Chock Full O' Marines

Day 2 of 4, 22 Caliber

2009-02-13T06:10:00.014-07:00

Before

The Plan

6:00AM Up: One cup of regular coffee while surfing the net and reading the newspaper (online).
6:30AM Breakfast: oatmeal with a pat of butter, one hard-boiled egg with pepper, a small can of low sodium V-8 juice.
7:00AM Shower and dress for cool weather, lined bluejeans same as yesterday, fresh but similar thick cotton shirt, sweater with jacket on top.
7:20AM Pack gun box with primary (S&W Model 41) and backup (Ruger Mk III) 22 pistols with their respective ammunitions (CCI Standard Velocity in the plastic box and Federal Gold Medal Match 711B) in sufficient quantity for the 900 and the follow-up team competitions plus enough for alibi strings (120 + 30 rounds). Also take a small can of the low sodium V-8 juice.
Switch to Northrop Grumman baseball cap for today. (I wore the Bill O'Reilly "No Spin" cap yesterday.)
7:30AM Drive to range in rush hour traffic.
8:30AM First shot.
Before the NMC: Drink the V-8.
Lunch: Probably a nearby Subway with some of the other shooters.
1:30PM 22 team competition NMC.
Approximately 2:30PM Done. Record scores and head home.

After

Friday the 13th didn't bother very many today. The weather was gorgeous, there was practically no wind, and by midday, most had shed their jackets and sweaters.

Scoring Targets
(Click picture for larger image)

Starting at 8:30AM, two relays totalling almost 60 shooters shot the 22 caliber 900 before lunch. And beginning at 1:15PM, nine (9) teams completely filled the line for the team 22.

I was with one of the home club teams in the afternoon and shot 277-5, one point better than my individual NMC this morning with 276-5 but the morning also included my best ever Slow Fire, 94-2.

Also in the morning but in the second relay where I helped out along the line, one of the groups of military had reliability problems with their armory-issued S&W 41s and I'm quite certain every Timed and Rapid fire target had an alibi, often with three or four shooters from their ranks.

After the NMC but before starting the Timed match, they described their problems which boiled down to not enough "oomph" to reliably extract the spent round, clear it from the gun, pick up the next round cleanly and seat it fully into the chamber.

"Maybe some ammunition with a little more pizzazz would help," someone said.

"Try oiling the top round so it seals better in the chamber and gives a stronger blow back," another suggested.

While the last of the NMC targets was scored, shooters from the first relay offered up ammunition and cans of oil to the afflicted shooters and, although these measures didn't cure 100% of the problems, the alibi strings and number of shooters in each was significantly reduced.

My score?

Why, thank you for asking. I shot an 823-15. Not bad, not bad at all.

Here are some more pictures. Click any image for a larger version.

Targets in the Early AM Shade

Slow Fire

"Where's that 10th hole?"

Right Side

Left Side

Relaxing While the Second Relay Shoots

Cleaning Before 22 Team Matches

Day 1 of 4, Service Pistol 900

2009-02-12T06:01:00.015-07:00

Before

The Desert Midwinter competition for 2009 Conventional Pistol begins today with a 900 for service pistols.

Last night I gave the ball gun a light cleaning but didn't touch the previously fouled barrel. It should, therefore, be ready to go, and repeatedly so, starting with today's very first shot.

My shoulder feels mostly better but a distant ache remains from Tuesday evening when I fired that same pistol and ammunition in an International 600 as warm-up (for me) and fouling (for the pistol) for today. Tuesday was a calculated risk because I needed the refresher on iron sights and that lighter gun as compared to the wadder with its red dot that I've been shooting. And "refresh" it did because today's challenge is going to be in consistently moving the trigger straight back in Timed and Rapid Fire. (Tuesday's Duelling Fire was humbling in this regard.)

The International Center Fire is at 8:30AM this morning but I'm skipping that and focusing my attentions only on the Conventional program.

Service Pistol starts immediately after that, around 10:00 or 10:30. Accordingly, I will leave the house at 9:00AM for the 30-45 minute drive. That means I need to pack the gun box at 8:45AM.

Weather is predicted to be in the low 50s, partly cloudy but no rain, and with a light wind from the south-southwest. The range is shielded from that direction by a mountain so we'll have some air movement but nothing strong enough to push an outstretched hand. I think I'll wear my lined pants and a thick cotton shirt with the lighter jacket, but take a sweater to insert if it feels chillier than expected.

I'll be shooting the Aguila ball ammo I fired on Tuesday night. It chrono'd at an average muzzle velocity of 908.1 ft/sec at almost this same temperature. That's very close to the stated ideal of 920. In my tests a week ago, I measured a minimum velocity of 890.7 and a maximum of 929.6 over 20 rounds; an admirably tight range that is beyond my current ability to make on my own. And the standard deviation from one round to the next comes out at 10.1, again much better than I can make on my own. I'm confident this ammo will fly in a consistent manner from muzzle to target.

But it kicks hard and, with the "Zins grip" I've been using for several months with the heel of the backstrap tucked into the thinnest part of the V notch across the palm of my hand, I'll feel each shot all the way up into the shoulder. If my calculated gamble fails, I'll know it by the end of the National Match Course.

But as is true with the ball gun with its Kart barrel and fitting by Dave Salyer, this ammunition also "shoots" better than I do. What the target says will be what I did. If the shoulder holds up, I'll do well. If it doesn't, well, it's up to me now.

Time for breakfast. I'll have a full serving of Coach's Oats (whole grain oatmeal) with a pat of butter (and no sugar!), a boiled egg with lots of pepper, and a small can of the Low Sodium V-8 juice. And, yes, for those who ask, I have my one cup of coffee in front of me now. I'll also take another small can of Low Sodium V-8 for a last minute dose of nutrients a few minutes before we shoot. After that, a bottle of water from the refrigerator in the pistol office will suffice for the match.

Today's mantra will be, "Front sight, straight back, front sight, straight back," and then, "be quiet and let your body shoot; it knows how."

After

Compared to the wad gun and the 22, both of which have red dots which increase the overall mass, the ball gun is a lightweight. Couple that with the full-strength ball ammunition and the gun becomes a real challenge.

My first two Slow Fire targets were pretty bad with one or two shots completely outside the scoring rings. By the third, I figured out I had my trigger finger in way too deep and was pushing the shots off the target to the left. Although still not very good, at least the final Slow Fire had all ten shots in the scoring rings.

Timed Fire in the National Match Course had some promise. Although not great at 88-1, it was notable for two reasons. First, it had a decent looking "cloud" of 45 caliber holes.

But when I looked through the scope after the second string, there were too many holes. Someone had cross-fired onto my target!

Too Many Holes!

I was shooting 45 caliber ball whereas the cross-fired shots were 9mm and the gentleman scoring my target easily identified four of the five erroneous shots. The fifth, however, was not so easy so he dropped the one worst shot on the target and tallied my score, 88-1.

But looking at the photograph, I now suspect that the 3 o'clock ten might be the fifth 9mm hole which would have reduced my score to 84-1. But at the time, well, neither of us could tell for sure so it was scored as 88-1.

The cross-firing shooter was apologetic but, hey, we've all done it myself included. So we moved on to the next target.

My best target of the day was the first Rapid Fire at 91-4 and, as if I didn't know better, I mentally congratulated myself saying, "You've got it licked, dude!" And that, of course, caused me to relax, lose my concentration, and shoot a dismal 65-1 on the last Rapid Fire.

Rule One in this sport: Never congratulate yourself.

Or is it: Focus on the front sight.

But then again, maybe it is: Pressure the trigger straight back.

(Too many Rule Ones!)

I finished the Service Pistol 900 with a 681-6, not very good but, then again, I learned where to put my finger on the trigger, I had a couple of good targets in Timed and Rapid, and even my Slow Fire scores were headed in the right direction.

This is progress!

Jim "The Kid" Henderson and
"The Old Man" (Me)
(Click picture for larger image)

After packing things away, I cornered the gentleman you see to the right and asked if he'd let me get a picture of the two of us together. I said I wanted something to hang on the wall so I'd know who I had to beat. Steve Reiter was nearby and I asked him to click the shutter. James said, "Don't jerk it, Steve," but even with that, Reiter still had a "failure to fire" (the shutter) and we had to try again.

Tomorrow morning is the 22 match. For today's Service Pistol the line was full (35 shooters) and two had to wait for the second relay. I glanced at the squadding chart for tomorrow to see which relay I'm in and it looks like they're both very close to full. I shoot early in the first relay with first shot at 8:30AM.

And I'll have to remember that dainty little 22 has a much lighter trigger than the service pistol I was shooting today.

But it'll be "straight back" again tomorrow.

10s and Xs!

Hot Stuff!

2009-02-11T07:11:00.014-07:00

In the chronographing of various ammunitions and guns a few days ago I recorded the following five-shot string:

1	830.7
2	917.1
3	932.0
4	954.6
5	905.5

Notice anything interesting?

Well yes, the velocities are relatively low. The ammunition was RWS Subsonic and the gun was a Smith & Wesson Model 41 with the seven (7) inch barrel, but that's not what caught my eye.

Let me add that, before the fifth and final shot, there was a delay of almost a minute. And it was relatively chilly that morning with temperature in the mid-50s, rainy at times, misty when not, and with a gusty wind that quickly drew away body heat.

What you may notice is what I did, that as the string progressed, the velocities went up and up. Then, on the last shot where I delayed before firing, the velocity dropped back down again.

I think these changes are due to the temperature of the ammunition, starting with a cold gun and chamber but with each successive shot warmed in the chamber from the heat left from the previous shot. And when I delayed before the last shot, the gun quickly cooled in the misty, breezy conditions to account for the reduced velocity of the last shot.

When shooting in competition, many have commented that their ammunition seems to be rather temperature sensitive. This comes to my mind when my Smith & Wesson 41 doesn't cycle the next round properly. Be it a failure to extract, a stove pipe or the next round getting stuck halfway into the chamber, it seems that when the ammunition is cold these types of failures seem to be more common.

So on cold days I load the magazines for the next target and tuck them under my jacket and arm while scoring the previous target. That way, when I'm ready to shoot the next target, the ammo and magazine are nice and warm.

And I've often wondered, just how much difference is this making?

And from that, just how sensitive is my 41 to changes in velocity?

Since the above data suggested I was seeing this very effect that day, I devised a small experiment on the spot to try and quantify it.

Here's the plan I created. It consists of two parts.

I would fire two groups of ten shots each, the first with a cold gun, ammunition and magazine for each shot, and the second where each was warm.

For the cold group, I would lay the pistol -- the 41 -- on the table along with the magazine and, spread out nearby, the ten rounds with lots of space inbetween. I would then wait a full minute to let everything cool.

I would then load one round into the magazine, ready the gun and fire, remove the magazine and lay them both back on the table. I would then note the velocity on the chrony's display, look at the clock and finally wait sixty (60) seconds before repeating this "load and fire one shot" process.

Next, I would fire the warm group.

For the warm group, I would prepare and then hold a single magazine with ten (10) rounds along with another magazine with five (5) rounds under my arm for ten minutes (while shooting the cold string). The five round string would, hopefully, warm the gun for the following ten round string where I would record the "warm" velocities.

Following that plan, here are the "cold" and "warm" results I recorded:

	Cold	Warm
1	888.5	900.9
2	898.9	943.3
3	881.7	913.4
4	889.2	951.8
5	931.4	942.9
6	900.9	922.4
7	859.1	927.1
8	884.2	937.8
9	886.6	n.a.
10	n.a.	n.a.
Minimum	859.1	900.9
Average	891.2	930.0
Maximum	931.4	951.8
Spread	72.3	50.9
Std.Dev.	19.3	17.2

(The "n.a." values occurred in the middle of the strings when a particularly dark cloud blocked the sun and the chrony displayed "Err 2" meaning the second sensor had not recorded the passage of the bullet.)

Clearly, this shows that the warm ammunition in a warm magazine that is fired from a warmed chamber is not only faster by about 5%, but that is also is slightly more consistent in velocity (standard deviation of 17.2 versus the cold's 19.3).

I am presuming, of course, that higher velocity means the recoil force will be larger and that, at least in my case, that difference accounts for the more reliable cycling with the warmer ammo.

Also "of course", how this translates into accuracy on the target is a different matter. But in my quest to find ammunition and gun combinations that are both reliable and accurate, the former is a lot easier to determine.

And here we can see that temperature is significant.

Here, we can see a 5% change in muzzle velocity solely due to that one factor.

And in my quest for "reliable and accurate", what this really does is widen, not narrow, my search.

Now that I know that ammunition that doesn't have enough oomph to cycle the slide when cold may, if treated to some body heat, "warm" to the occasion, I also know that more brands of ammunition may work in my 41.

A little warmth and care can work wonders.

Hug a bullet today!