Todays Burden

Alternate title: My contribution to fight climate change.


I have to smell burnt gunpowder today, I also have to turn this loaded ammo into a pile of brass. Unfortunately I have to try and find a load that works in this pistol. I had overall length (OAL) issues for a while, and crimp issues on lead bullets. I backed the OAL down to 1.150 and we shall see how it runs, I also bought a new crimp die for the lead.

800 Miles Later

Actually over a thousand. I drove 120 miles south on Saturday and acquired 200 CCI large rifle benchrest primers, at the outrageous price of 6.95 per hundred. And 800 miles north of home I happen to find one pound of the highly prized powder, IMR 4064.

When I get home, I believe I have plans.

Range Report

I have recently been working on some new loads for my 30/06. A little background, when I was sixteen, I had a decision to make, car or rifle? I chose rifle. The rifle is a thing of beauty, a Sako Model 75 Hunter with the upgraded wood. I worked long and hard for this rifle and it has become a trusted friend. I shot my first .250 group with it when I was about seventeen. I changed bullets and never got that load back. More on that later.

Currently I am working on my own saboted bullet load using 50 grain Barnes Varmint Grenade bullets. Why that bullet? Because they are greener that Barrack Obamas presidency, that's why. No lead, not one bit. Did I mention that they will expand on a grape? They are not the most accurate load around, but they make a cheap way to shoot varmints. My current load has them shooting about 3" low at 100 yards. I am still well within acceptable parameters so I am going to increase the powder until they shoot to the same point of impact as my 150 grain loads.

My 150 grain loads are coming along fairly well, they are shooting about 1/2 inch at 100 yards. I have started Moly coating all my bullets for this rifle and I"m fairly impressed with the results. I'm also very pleases at how clean the rifle stays. The only downfall is getting the rifle to settle down with the moly, this seem to take about twenty rounds.

January Range Report

Post inaugural inspection has shown that the range is still open and functioning.

Sorry for the light blogging but I have been busy with work and trying to develop a accurate and non-smoky lead bullet load for competition.

I have gotten fairly close- here is the starting load. Recoil was stout and accuracy was marginal. However it wasn't smoky. All pictures are at 25 feet. This seems to be the customary gun blogger distance. I was not very impressed with the load. As a little bit if history, I've gone thru three powders up til this point and they have not been acceptable for indoor shooting.


Here is that same load with very, very fast double taps. Sight recovery seemed to take a lot longer than normal. I am just not happy with this load. Back to the drawing board.












So I dropped the powder charge by .3 grains. Accuracy seems to have improved and the sight recovery is alot faster. Recoil is nowhere near as bad. I also shot a 25 yard group, that was around eight inches. I'm not happy with the accuracy, my pistol likes jacketed bullets alot better. However I find it hard to argue with $74 per thousand for lead bullets that I can push at major power factor.