Fun Turns to Tragedy!!!

The Skinny

I am a gun enthusiast trapped in the People's Republic of Maryland. My political affiliation is Independent, as the Ruling parties are both full of crap, and long ago stopped representing the common man. If the Libertarians weren't such freaks I would probably be one. I am a member of the Nation of Riflemen and damn proud of it. I once took an oath that I would support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. As far as I know I never broke that oath, and will continue to follow it. I am not Politically Correct and will NEVER be Politically Correct. If you need to know more, feel free, Ask.

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Well.  The results came in and I was next to DFL.  Now if I knew how to count I would have been in better shape, as going 10 points down because you only shot each target 5 times instead of 6 does kind of suck.  I got two procedurals for the day, one for forgetting to kneel and shoot over the barrel instead of leaning around the barricade, and the other for not finishing my reload all the way before leaving cover.  Typical buzzeritis, but what really hurt was my gun malfunction. 

That malf added seconds to my time.  It was a malf that I had never experienced before.  It looked like this.

Now that looks like your typical failure to feed where the bullet is lodged against the top of the chamber.  But no…
You see what I did not realize as I was on the clock kneeled down in the mud by the barrel, was that I could not move the slide.  I of course cleared the round by dropping the mag and then reseating it.  It was at this point that my befuddled brain realized that I could not wrack the slide.  I pulled it but it was not moving.  So I looked at it more carefully and found that the slide stop was pushed in a bit

And when I looked at the other side of the weapon I could immediately see the issue.

So I pushed the slide stop in and got back to the business at hand, finishing the stage with a huge 20 second time penalty.

Now I realized that I was pushing on the slide stop with my thumb.  I just never thought that I would be able to hit the window of time where it would push the slide stop out as the slide cycled.  But it would happen as I was kneeling in the mud that Murphy looked down and saw that all was right with the world.

So now I need to look at how to modify my Todd Jarret Kung Fu grip to get my thumb off of the new to me action lock button…

Well I should be shooting my second IDPA match tomorrow.  If it does not get rained out. 

I talked to the club and they said that they have not canceled a match in 4 years.  If it is nasty the run plates.

Tomorrow may be some good training as Tam would say…

Update: My N00B was hanging out.  As well as some bad habits left over from IPSC type shooting.  Evidently IDPA frowns upon mag changes while moving between cover, who knew…  Plus I am sloooooowwwww, but that will get better with time. 

At least my accuracy was good.

I also had a pretty unique malf.  Will have to show that one in pictures.

Well, when the socialized countries of Europe start screaming that Obama’s plan is “the road to hell”.

But a lot of us have known that since before January 20th.

BOHICA.  Obama is driving this bus strait off a cliff and smiling the whole while. 

Now on to someone who says it like it is…

This guy is great!!!

“You cannott spend your way out of a recession, or borrow your way out of debt”

There were so many good quotes I just can’t list them all.

Dammed if this man does not hit it on the head.  Not just for England but for America too. 

I just wish we had a statesman on this side of the pond with stones like that.

I encourage all three of my readers to head over to Ride Fast and Shoot Strait to read about his new shooter day.

It is encouraging to see that many people out shooting a firearm for the first time.  Makes you feel there is still hope getting new people interested in shooting.  I wish that we had a range local to me that would let us do something like this.  Alas I only have one crummy indoor range near me and it is always packed.  The owner is a kook and would never do this kind of public outreach at the range.

Glad to see it happen in Kaliforniastan as that place desperately needs more shooters.  Not that the People’s Republic of Maryland is far behind, except for Baltimore, they have more than enough shooters…

Well after I had tuned up the Dillon 650 after using it for over a decade with only periodic lubrication for maintenance.  It was time to load up a bunch of rounds.  Now Dillon claims 500 to 800 rounds an hour for the 650, but it has been a long time since I have done any serious loading so tonight I got cracking.

I loaded 479 rounds with 2 bad primers (one upside down and the other sideways) for a total of 477 good rounds in 50 minutes.  That was with having to stop and empty the tumbler and separate out the tumbling media before loading up the case feeder again.  I would have kept going but I ran out of filled primer tubes and am low on bullets.  This also includes the occasional check of the powder charge, every round that I checked was exactly 5.4 grains (I probably checked 30 of them over the course of the 50 minutes)  I also visually inspect each case for powder twice, once before the powder check station checks it, and a second time before I place a bullet on the case for seating.  So no squibs or double throws for this reloader, I try to be very careful. 

So, this breaks down to 6.2 seconds per bullet.  So if I loaded for the full 3600 seconds in an hour I would have loaded 572 rounds.  well within Dillon’s advertised rate per hour. 

So I am now good for a couple of week of shooting (I just counted up the loaded rounds on my bench and they total 872).

I just hope my primers get here soon as I am down to 500 large pistol primers.  They would not even last out an hour on the Dillon…

Well with the overly inflated cost of factory ammunition, as well as the cost of reloading components, I figured I would find out how much I am saving.  I looked around and found that the UMC Mega pack that I used to buy at Bass Pro for 70 bucks is now 94 dollars plus 6 percent sales tax, lets call it an even hundred dollars for 250 rounds.  Which turns into 40 cents a round once you do the math.  Now shooting at .40 cents a round gets pretty darn expensive pretty darn quickly.  Which is why I reload. 

Well I buy all of my bullets in bulk (1000 bullets at a time) and that comes out to 13.2 cents a round.  When you add powder and primers the total cost of a round is 16 cents a round for the Montana Gold bullets I am shooting right now.  It would be cheaper if I was shooting lead.  Hard cast lead bullets turn out to be 7 cents a round. and when you add in the powder and primer it comes to 10 cents a round.

So the current Montana Gold loaded rounds cost me $8.37 per 50 so when you multiply that by 5 to get to 250 rounds it turns out my cost for shooting is $41.85 per 250 rounds which is about 58 dollars more expensive than reloading.

Now that I look at the numbers I am thinking I am going to have to buy some hard cast lead bullets to test as it would only cost me $26.35 for 250 rounds.

So here are the numbers in a row.
Factory Ammo: $100 per 250
Montana Gold reload: $41.85 per 250
Hard Cast Lead reload: $26.35 per 250

So is the Jacketed flat point really worth 15 dollars more than hard cast lead flat point per 250?  Only one way to tell get some and load them up.  It gets really ugly when you look at the 1000 round difference which comes to 62 dollars.  1000 lead bullets are only 70 bucks…

If they shoot as well as the Jacketed with not too much leading I would say the answer is no.  Some will be on order on monday.

For the first time in my life I am embarrassed about being American.  The fact that the government would even think about something like this let alone float a proposal is reprehensible to say the least. 

The Obama administration is considering a plan to charge the private health insurance of veterans for treatment of service-related ailments that currently are paid for by the Department of Veterans Affairs

I am a Veteran, I served at a time when we were not at war (missed panama by a couple of weeks), I knew that if something happened and American went to war that I had signed myself over to the government for the duration of my enlistment.  That means that I knew full and well what it meant to be a combat trooper, and if war came and I was injured or killed that was the price I paid in service to my Country.  I also knew that if I was injured or maimed in the line of duty I would be taken care of by my government for life, the governments side of the deal in exchange for any sacrifices I had to make for my country.

Now Obama wants to charge the private health care that the veteran has to procure once he is no longer employed by our country for any treatment of injuries sustained in service of the United States.

I am only embarrassed because I did not vote for this rube, had I voted for him I would be ashamed of myself. 

There are a lot of people out there who should be ashamed of themselves right now.  But you know they are probably too stupid to realize their mistake. 

I think Doc Russia put it best.

When I was a young Marine I had the distinct displeasure of seeing and living the consequences of policy set by a gutless commander in chief. Indeed, one could argue that our present engagements and the casualties it has caused are a legacy left from the policies put in place during my time. Regardless, I have no faith in the current commander in chief to effectively lead the nation in perilous times. As such, while I am a prior service physician in a critical specialty, I will not consider serving. Let those with faith in the current commander in chief bear the burden this time.

Fortunately for me I served in the time of Reagan, unlike Doc Russia who obviously served in the time of Clinton.

How many young people will want to serve in America’s armed forces with this kind of leadership… 

Well seems that everyone is talking about the squib load that resulted in a blown up XD.  I figured since I witnessed a squib this weekend I would talk about it.

First off.  It was not a reload.  It was WWB in 9mm.  This squib did not cycle the weapon.  It blew the primer out of the primer pocket.  It seems that the flash hole was either plugged or not drilled out of the brass.  So when the trigger was pulled the primer did its job and nothing else happened.  Upon inspecting the round we saw no flash hole.  The kid was able to reshoot the stage and keep on going…  No damage, but it sure sounded and looked different than your average squib with smoke and debris coming out of the back of chamber area.

This week will be rough on posting as a really big to do is happening at work.

Pardon me while I do the Home alone screaming face…

“President Obama’s economic advisers expressed outrage and anger Sunday over revelations that bailed-out insurance giant American International Group was going ahead with plans to pay executives tens of millions of dollars in new bonuses.“

Outraged you say? 

What do you expect to happen when you give a company 100 billion dollars with no strings attached.  Yes I know bush gave them the first 50 billion, but giving them more when you don’t have a clue what they did with the first lump o cash is just stupid.

Half of America puts a rube with ZERO executive experience in the Whitehouse and they expect stellar leadership.  The man can’t tie his shoes without instructions being put on a TelePrompTer, and suddenly he can run America.  Yes he can, he can run it strait into the ground. 

Fumbling the Nations Economic football:  Check.
Pissing off our staunch allies in the UK with his ignorance in foreign diplomacy:  Check.
Negotiating with Terrorists:  Not yet but we will check back soon.

Hope is not a plan…

Well today I went to the indoor range and got some shooting time in.  I was shooting to compare the Montana Gold bullets with the Rainier bullets.  The main difference between the two bullets is that the Montana Gold is Jacketed Lead Flat points, and the Rainier is Copper Plated Swaged Lead Flat points.

So I proceeded to load up 4 magazines with 8 rounds each.  Two mags of Montana Gold and two mags of Rainier.  I was able to put the first mag of MG into a single ragged hole about 2 inches in diameter with no flyers.  The first mag of Rainiers went into about three inches with 2 flyers.  The next mag of MG went much like the first mag of MG except I pulled two rounds down and to the right by 2 inches.  Then next mag of Rainiers had no flyers but was about 4 inches. 

And that is how the Rainier shot all morning,  3 - 4 inch groups with the some large flyers.  The MG shot well all morning with groups ranging from 2 - 3 inches with no real flyers but an occasional operator error.

So it looks like I will be using up the rainier bullets in practice matches and range time till they are no more… 

Now all I need to do is get more powder and primers.  which given the Age of Obama, is no mean feat.  I was able to find what I needed at Powder Valley but had to buy federal match primers instead of regular federal large pistol primers.  They said it was all in stock but time will tell.

Well, not me…  I placed 4th in my class of 9 shooters.  Not too bad for my first time.  I need to get my shot speed up as well as my magazine changes, as they were slow.  Most of my slowness probably is because of being unfamiliar with the course of fire and having only put 700 rounds through this pistol (or any pistol for that matter in the last 3 years) during the brake in period.

My accuracy on the other hand was pretty good, especially since I had no Idea how the Montana Gold bullets were going to perform.  On the first two stages my accuracy was second only to the top expert shooter.  The last 3 stages at longer ranges was where I had my issues.  I was a bit better than mid pack of the CPD shooters, and I was shooting a bit low.

My total points down was 36, the next better shooter was 26 points down and he was the overall winner of CDP.

Now I just have to work on getting faster and keeping my accuracy in line as I do it.

This should be fun.

Well this morning I shot in my first IDPA match.  I first had to wait on getting my holster before I could shoot in a match as my Safariland holsters were for IPSC competition and not suited for IDPA.  Once I got my holsters I had to wait till we had a match open up at the local club.  It seems that the local club has way more people than open positions for matches.  Looks like I need to join the club ASAP before membership fills up this year. 

Of course with my luck the first match I get to shoot is a classification match.  Opposed to a regular match a classification match is a very structured event with specific round counts for each stage.  I am used to just filing up the magazines and going.  here we had to have a certain number of rounds in a magazine per stage we were shooting.  I had plenty of help with that so I was able to shoot all my stages with no problems having enough rounds in magazines for each stage.  Now I just have to figure out what is up with the Wilson Combat mags and my Kimber.  I am hoping the failure to feed issues are related to the Rainier bullets more than the magazines. 

So on to the shooting…  I thought that I shot fairly well with very few dropped points up until the last stages where you had to shoot from the left and right sides of the barricades at further distances.  I think i dropped a most of my points in the last 3 stages.  Looks like I need to run the targets at the indoor range all the way out to practice more at the longer ranges.  I did manage to have one procedural penalty.  I managed to have my magazine squirt out of my hand and launch down range 6 or so feet.  I figure it would be quicker to just take the procedural then try and retrieve it.  So that added 3 seconds to my total time.

Now I just have to wait to see how the total scoring turned out.

Well as I have written I am having problems with the Rainier bullets and accuracy. 

After I did a whole lot of hunting around and finally found a bullet company that makes Jacketed 200 grain flat points in a cost effective bulk manner.  I have some of Sierra TournamentMasters but they only sell them in 100 packs and then they are 28 bucks, so it would cost me 280 bucks for a thousand.  Most of the other sources out there are for cast or swaged lead.  I am not entirely sure that I want to go with cast lead, and my Kimber hates the swaged lead plated with copper bullets from Rainier. 

So I found Montana Gold Bullets for 137 dollars per thousand which was the cheapest that I could find jacketed bullets.  Zero bullets are a little cheaper per 1000 but they only have 230 and 185 grain bullets and I personally like the 200 grain flat point bullets.

So I ordered them on Monday and pretty much resigned myself to be shooting my first IDPA match with Rainier bullets that I could not group out of my Kimber to save my life.

Well much to my surprise the bullets were waiting for me on Friday when I got home.  I ate dinner and promptly went down to the reloading bench and put two hundred or so together in anticipation of tomorrows match.

Well I Dillon sent me my replacement cam.  Put it in, and got to reloading.  Managed to put out 375 in an hour, 372 when you take away the three that had primer issues.  Now I could have done more than that but I am dealing with a bunch of old military brass, some of them seem to not want to take new primers (I need a swaging tool to fix that).  I have a bunch of already primed cases that I just swap in place of the one that won’t take a primer.  Slows me up a bit but not too bad.  I also have to get some more primer pickup tubes as I only have 4 and that also slows you down when you have to load up more pickup tubes from the flip tray.

I am thinking about shooting Mr Completely’s postal match but right now my reloads are not up to that level of accuracy. 

I am using Rainier plated lead bullets in 200 grain Flat Point 45s.  My accuracy frankly sucks.  I am putting the 200 grain bullet on top of 5.4 grains of HP-38 with a taper crimp to .468”  I don’t have any setback issues any longer (the crimp was less) and they did tighten up a bunch when I tightened the crimp, but I still get flyers that are up to 4 inches away from the main group.  The Kimber has 700 rounds through it and the action is finally very smooth so it should be broken in finally. 

Now if I shoot factory ball I can make one nice ragged hole.  But my reloads are all over the place.  I do frequent quality checks when I reload and I have 1 out of 20 or so that are either a tenth of grain heavy or a tenth of grain light but most are right on the 5.4 mark.  I have to keep the powder charge fairly heavy as I need to keep the round over the 165,000 power factor mark to keep it IDPA legal.  I also need to check and see what velocity I am getting but have not had a place to set up the chrono to check.  the 5.4 should have me somewhere around 850fps (5.6 is 914 according to Hodgdon) or so.  I have to keep it above 825 to keep it IDPA legal.  I think I am Ok right now but need to check.

People have been telling me on 1911forum.com that the problem is the Rainier bullets being swaged vs. cast.  Also that they are very soft (I have dropped a couple and they dent easy).  Anyone getting good results with their Rainier bullets?  Let me know what you are doing.

Well it has been a while since i have added anyone to the top referrers list.  I have two to do but have only gotten the first one finished. 

Now I have been reading RideFast for some time now.  I first found his site because he had linked to me.  No clue how long ago he linked to me but I was looking at my records when I started blogging more frequently, and there he was. 

So I started reading, good blog, bad neighbors, Guns, and Bikes.  What’s not to like…

So welcome Ride Fast and Shoot Straight.

Oh and he gave me one of the best compliments that anyone has done on the web to date.  He copied my link button idea… 

Thanks.