What gun stuff did you do today?

[RHINOWSO]

Been getting ready to start reloading; I have an RCBS setup that I bought last year; I have 15 years of 308/556/357/45/9/38 and other brass, plus 4 jugs of pistol and rifle powder and of course pre-madness primers stacked. And booolets of all varieties. Just never found the time, but maybe this summer.

Also put a Marbles Tang Sight on my Winchester '73 - I think it's going to help my issues with the sights - they were 'good enough' but I think the Tang is going to be sweet. Replaced the dovetail buckhorn with a small flip up / down sight from Marbles so I can shoot it either way.

 

[Rebel_Rider1969]

Technically an Air Rifle thing... But I got my first garden invader of the year this evening. My son left the gate open on the garden this afternoon after we finished watering the new plants. I went out back around dusk to enjoy the sunset and saw a bunny in there. His pronouns are now Was/Were.

Free dinner!

 

[timc]

Went to Element again. Sighted in a LPVO on an AR build. Then ran some pistol drills. Finished with shooting a 50 cal CVA Missouri rifle muzzleloader. 60 grains of Pyrodex worked well with a round ball

 

[Rebel_Rider1969]

Sold a "chair leg" today....

 

[Rebel_Rider1969]

Oh, and my first steel target @50 yards. Going to buy more proper targets later.

 

[Raven]

Oh, and my first steel target @50 yards. Going to buy more proper targets later. View attachment 215491

Paint a face on it. Good training

 

[Jester896]

well it looks like there were 411 of those .44 Rem Mag cases in that box I picked up. Got all 411 sized and got 137 of them trimmed....fingers hurt and I am hangry

 

[RackinRay]

Had this one out of the safe for a cleaning. Love the grip on this old gal. Had an Uberti Schofield for a short time and it felt all wrong compared to this New Model 3's grip!

 

[ABlaster]

I got the AR armorer course done and dry-fired on my lunch breaks from the class Wed-Fri. Recertified for another few years.

 

[IronBeard]

So far this weekend I've looked in the reloading toolbox and discovered I have a .44 mag factory crimp die and a universal expander. I gotta learn to quit workin' and live a bit... Adjusted my Midway wish list for about the 4th-5th time, and will probably do it again...

 

[Daezee]

I've had an on again off again love affair with the 44 Special. This has been going on since the 1970's. Read how great it is, get one, accuracy is never as good as writers like *Skeeter Skelton or Elmer Keith say, sell the pistol, later read more stories, try again, sell cause it never lives up to the hype. So, a few years ago I trade a Glock for a limited production Ruger GP 100 Lipsey's special in 44 Special. Using plated bullets, the accuracy was "ok", but never great. Pistol mainly set aside and not sold.

* = I actually met and spoke with Skeeter.

I then bought a group of bullet molds from an estate seller. Among them was a Lyman 429244 (gas check 245-250gr semi wadcutter, depending upon the alloy). Cast some test bullets with my #2 alloy and size .430" (bores are suppose to be .428-.429" and I like to size bullets a little bigger). Accuracy "ok", but not great, no better than my worked up plated bullet loads, and it leaded the bore. Clean lead out of bore and study up on the problem. Try my 20/1 alloy used for old rolling blocks...maybe a softer alloy would help seal the bullet going down the bore...groups shrink and no leading. Read about using bullets sized to the cylinder throat diameter. Test by dropping sized bullets into cylinder, and my .430" fall right through the cylinder...test fails (thus they are not always being presented into the bore straight on is my understanding). Passing would be bullets stay in the throat and yet can be pushed out of the cylinder throat using a pencil with a little amount of pressure...in other words they better fit the cylinder throat. A friend loans me a .431" bullet sizing die (bullets actually come out .4315"). They now pass the cylinder throat test. Test various charges of Unique with the 429244 bullet...groups shrink further...now we're talking. The load that works the best of the loads tested is Skeeter's carry/general purpose load of 7.5gr Unique, giving 912fps in the GP 100, that had shot like crap in two S&W (models 24 and 624) 44 Specials years ago (possibly too hard of alloy and not sized right diameter, but I didn't know). Friend gives me the .431" sizing die.

I win a pile of older Handloader magazines in an auction, read them and then give away to shooting friends. Scattered throughout the years are articles on the 44 Special and how "special" it is. Find out Lipsey's had a run of Ruger Blackhawks done in 44 Special at least 9 years ago. They had a steel grip frame rather than aluminum and a flat top with a Micro rear sight instead of Ruger's top with "ears" and the Ruger adjustable rear sight. Hmmm. Look in Gunbroker and sure enough there are a few for auction, but most everyone has starting bids in the $1000 + range cause they are "rare". One gunshop had an as-new in the box 4 5/8" one with starting bid of 699 & buy now of 749. Every day I'd check and no bids. Finally on the last day I bid 699, and with no others bids, I won. Seller shipped it real fast, and I picked it up Saturday. Looked like it'd been fired a few shots and then put up in the original box with paper work.

Today I took it to the range. Not knowing what load it liked, I took my plated bullet and cast bullet loads for a starting point that the GP 100 shot the best with that I already had on hand. Plated bullet load sucked to put it mildly. 1st group with 7.5gr Unique load and .4315" cast bullets shot nice. Next group with same load shot even better as I got used to it (to me, it had more recoil compared to mild factory loads, and the Ruger emblem edge on the grip dug into a callus on my thumb causing a little bleeding...I learned how to keep the callus away from the emblem). Shot more as I adjusted the rear sight. I then shot at cans 35yd away off a sand bag rest. Really wasn't counting, but it seems out of 12 shots, I only missed soda cans twice...for me, with open sights, that is great. As Yoda might say, Happy I am.

In the first pic you can see how the steel grip frame blends in finish-wise with the steel receiver. 2nd pic shows a small flaw in the grip frame above the Ruger emblem...no big deal or I wouldn't have bid on it. See third pic showing the Micro rear sight and flat top. You can see how the Ruger grip emblem sticks out of the grip material a bit which is what caught on the edge of my thumb callus.

Next project: Make up more 20/1 alloy and cast a year or more worth of 44 bullets.

 

[ABlaster]

That’s a great shooting story!

 

[tros6t]

I came, I looked, I left!

 

[ABlaster]

I took my son to Talon this afternoon to shoot a few .22’s.

I didn’t remember my Smith and Wesson MP15-22 rifle jamming so much after just a few mags. Might have to make sure the ammo was high velocity.

We shot the MP15-22, a Marlin Model 60, and a single action Ruger .22.

 

[tros6t]

I came, I looked, I closed two ads that were almost 10 years old that I forgot and I left! I did see a whole lot of bumping!-

 

[bakron1]

Picked up an Sig Sauer P365XL Romeo Zero for a good price, only had one mag, but for $450, I grabbed it. Hopefully I can get to the range later this week to try it out.

 

[steve-]

I have been looking for a nice VP9 Tactical model and finally found one over the weekend at a local estate sale, I paid $450 for the pistol and had the original box, 3 mags, factory night sights and doc's. It's been sitting in the previous owners safe for a while and the thread protector on the barrel won't come off, but not worried, going to take it to a local gunsmith and see if he can get it off or just send it to HK and have them do it. I really will never use the threaded barrel and can still clean the gun, just makes it a little tricky getting the barrel clean, but not a big deal for me. Going to take it to the range today and run some rounds through and see how it shoots. I am happy with my new toy.

View attachment 211489 View attachment 211490

That is a awesome find

 

[tros6t]

I came and looked! More bumping than a rap song-

 

[Jester896]

seems kinda like bumping this one

 

[FLT]

Started cleaning some guns that I bought at a yard sale a couple of months ago. I did better than I thought I had.