We were the first shooters there, and I got my Zombie Chuck target hung up and went to work with the .22 Combat Masterpiece and a borrowed Mark II 22/45. I shot the K-frame until the extraction got sticky and the Ruger until the raw spot on my thumb was taking the fun out of mag loading. Also, I was getting to the point where I could see the bottom in my ammo can.
I did some shooting with the Para LTC9 and ran sixty rounds of .45 through the Colt. The reason that I know that it was exactly sixty rounds is because as I was heading out the door, I grabbed the .50 cal ammo can that I thought was my .45 but was actually my roomie's spare magazine can. Oops. So I had to borrow some .45 ACP LRN from Shootin' Buddy, out of the stash he picked up at Knob Creek.
I'm still trying to work on my reloads by loading random numbers of rounds into magazines, anywhere between two and full, and mixing them up before starting a string. Also, I still have a bad tendency to pull stuff low when I start getting rushed or flustered. The A-Zone was chewed out of Zombie Chuck's noggin, but I threw a few into his teeth and neck and, more embarrassingly, gutterballed two right past his right earlobe. Dropping straight low on followups for me is largely a result of my sloppy trigger prep, but I got no excuse for the others.
Meanwhile, Shootin' Buddy noticed that his Ciener .22 conversion wasn't chambering the rounds completely. After a small amount of fiddling, the reason was determined:
Sorry for the blurry pic; cell phone closeups are tricky. Anyway, see the way that the red range rod protruding from the chamber has a gray/silver cylinder on the end of it? Yup, squib. Fortunately it barely made it into the rifling and prevented the round behind it from chambering fully. Federal Spitfire, in case anyone was wondering. Always be alert for bore obstructions, kids!
4 comments:
I had a Squib yesterday in my suppressed .45 upper.
The thud of the projectile hitting the berm is louder than the firing, so when I heard a fairly normal sounding report through my ear plugs (still wear plugs on a crowded range) but did NOT hear the thud on the berm, I started paying attention.
Ran the charging handle back and out pops an empty case. Hmmmmmm. Pop the pins and open it up, and hey, what do ya know, I can't see daylight from the receiver end.
Life really would have sucked if I had bulged my integral upper's barrel.
Oof. Yeah, Tom, that would have sucked hard.
A couple of times at matches, I've gone home hoarse from having screamed "STOP!" upon seeing a squib go pop and the shooter begin a slap-rack-ready drill.
I've caught myself on a couple.
I've noticed that .22 bulk ammo is much lower in quality now. I've picked up a sleeve of CCI, hope that still works as well now as it has before. Latest batch of cheap bulk stuff made an interesting variety of sounds as it was fired - like mixing shorts, longs and long rifle ammo in the same cylinder.
Anonymous,
I've been discovering that myself lately.
Bulk .22 LR out of a .22lr upper can be VERY strange these days. I've had 3 or more feet of vertical stringing shot to shot, one round hits where it should, the other at the base of the berm, the next where it should, the next half way down.
Makes poping skeet free hand at 60 yards an interesting exercise.
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